Current Graduate Students

The Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) in the Computer of Engineering (CpE) focuses primarily on a dissertation describing publishable quality research (directed by a faculty advisor) of significant depth. Although a Master degree in CpE is not required, a student is required to meet a set of pre-requisite coursework requirements, defined to include the architecture/design course requirement, Computer Science course requirements, and Electrical & Computer Engineering course requirements.

Program Overview

Please see the Curriculum Distribution Requirements for an outline of the exact course credit requirement. The PhD degree requires at least 24 credit hours of course work. Although a Masters degree in CpE is not required, a student is required to meet a set of “pre-requisite coursework requirements,” defined to include the architecture/design course requirement, Computer Science course requirements, and Electrical & Computer Engineering course requirements (see the Curriculum Distribution Requirements). For the courses meeting these requirements, a Ph.D. student must receive a minimum grade of A-.

If the student has earned an MS degree at another institution, the student is entitled to waive up to 12 hours of course work. The distribution of the 12 hours waived will be determined by the Director with input from the advisor. If the student has earned en route master degree, an additional 9 hours of graduate-level coursework is required. The time limit for completion of the Ph.D. is seven years after admission to the doctoral program. Degree requirements set by the School of Engineering and Applied Science are given in the School of Engineering Graduate Record and are additional to the following CpE Graduate Program requirements.

A student may transfer a maximum of 6 hours of credit, subject to approval from the CpE Graduate Director. Students may only transfer PhD-level courses from other schools of recognized standing in which they earned a grade of B or better. Students should discuss courses acceptable for transfer of credit with their advisor, prior to submitting the request to the Director. After the Director has approved the transfer, the student will work with the CpE Graduate Administrator to submit the appropriate forms and documentation to the School of Engineering Graduate Registrar for approval.

Teaching Requirements

One semester of guided undergraduate teaching experience is strongly encouraged for each student. The student should work to complete this requirement with the approval and supervision of a faculty member. The faculty supervisor may or may not be the student’s advisor. Further guidelines are available from the Graduate Coordinator.

Qualifying Exam Overview

Student desiring a PhD should take the qualifying examination as soon as possible. Students entering with a master's degree should take the exam no later than the beginning of their third semester. Students entering with a bachelor's degree should ideally take the exam by the beginning of their third semester, but no later than the beginning of the fourth semester. (The exam should not be postponed in order to finish a master’s degree first.) The objective of the qualifying examination is to assess the student's potential to begin doctoral-level research. The latter requires the student to demonstrate the following in their primary research area and two secondary research areas:

• an ability to state a problem clearly, provide its motivation, and the requirements for a solution.
• an ability to determine if a solution is correct.
• an ability to assess to what extent a (presumably correct) solution meets the requirements (solves the problem).
• an ability to describe how a problem and its solution fits into the big picture (and to understand the big picture).
• an ability to communicate effectively (both in writing and speaking) and to answer questions relating to the problem and its solution and the broader research context.

The qualifying exams are administered twice a year. Students must pass the qualifying examination before beginning their fourth academic semester after admission to the doctoral program, unless otherwise approved by the CpE Graduate Committee.

We have identified a set of six research areas from which each candidate will be required to select a primary research area and two secondary areas for the examination.

The areas are:

1) Computer Architecture​ (includes High-Performance Computing) 

2) VLSI​ (includes System on Chip; Low Power Design)

3) System Software​ (includes Software Engineering, Distributed Systems; Dependable and Secure Computing)

4) Cyber-Physical Systems​ (includes Embedded, Autonomous, Mobile and Robotic Systems)

5) Machine Learning​ (includes Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing; Vision, Image and Signal Processing)

6) Networks​ (includes Internet of Things; Cloud Computing)

The CpE qualifying committee will announce one paper for each area one month prior to the date set for an examination.  Students will provide the CpE administrative coordinator their selections for the primary and secondary areas.  The paper for the primary area is expected to be studied in depth.  Students will be required to read and understand papers cited by the paper in the primary area as well as follow-on work.  The committee will ask questions to gauge the students’ detailed understanding of the primary paper and related work.  For the secondary areas, students should study the selected papers and be prepared to answer general questions on these papers and related background information.  Our goal for testing the student on these secondary areas is to determine the students’ multi-disciplinary abilities, a key factor that is becoming increasingly important in today’s research environment.

Qualifying Exam Process

• The student will submit a written report on the paper in the primary area. This report should demonstrate the five abilities listed at the start of this section.
• The student should also prepare a 20-minute (max) presentation on the primary paper, and a 10-minute (max) presentation on each secondary paper summarizing their salient points, for delivery at the oral examination.
• The oral examination will be in two parts:
  • Part I: Primary area test is a 1-hour examination, which will start with the student’s 20-minute presentation on the paper selected by the student in the primary research area.  The committee will then ask in-depth questions on the presentation, the assigned paper, related papers, and other topics in the selected primary area.
  • Part II: Secondary area test is a 1-hour examination, each half of which starts with the student’s 10-minute presentation on the two secondary papers selected by the student.  The committee will then ask broad questions on the presentation, the assigned papers and other topics in the selected secondary areas.
• Students will be evaluated on the combined written submission and oral examination.  The result will be a clear-cut pass or fail for the entire exam; no remedial work will be allowed to alter the outcome.  A student who does not pass the qualifying exam on the first try must retake it at the next offering.  A student who fails the examination twice will lose financial support and must leave the program at the end of that semester.
• The program specific assessment form and the PhD Examination Report form that records the result of the examination will be prepared and submitted as part of the Qualifying Exam process by the Graduate Administrator.

Dissertation Proposal

After a student has successfully passed the qualifying examination, the student should put together a Doctoral Advisory Commitee that includes a minimum of three School of Engineering faculty, one additional UVA faculty member from outside the student’s home department (defined as 0% appointment in the student’s home department for students matriculating Fall 2018 or later; courtesy appointments do not count toward this 0% restriction), and a minimum of four total members. In addition, one member must be from CS and one member must be from ECE.  The Committee Chair must hold a faculty appointment in the School of Engineering and cannot be the student’s Advisor. One additional research professional from outside UVA or a faculty member from outside the School of Engineering may be a fifth voting committee member, provided his/her qualifications are commensurate with that of a research faculty or equivalent rank. Emeritus faculty are considered outside UVA for the purpose of Advisory Committees.

The student should prepare an acceptable dissertation proposal done under the guidance of the student's advisor. This proposal should be presented before any extensive research is undertaken, in order to receive early faculty approval of the suitability of the proposed research.   The written proposal document should be prepared according to the following guidelines: The proposal must be limited to 20 single-spaced pages including figures exclusive of bibliography. The document should succinctly describe the problem, relationship to other work in the field, the research plan including specific research activities, and the expected contributions. An example of an organization that meets these four requirements is:

• What is the problem?
• Why is it important?
• What is the "shape" of a solution?
• What is the research agenda?
• Why will the agenda work (produce a solution)?

A comprehensive literature review (not subject to page limitations) may be included as an appendix. Any departure from these guidelines must be approved in advance by the student's proposal examining committee.

The student should prepare a public oral presentation of the proposal, which should be made within two semesters after successfully completing the Ph.D. qualifying examination. The student should provide the proposal examining committee the written proposal document at least two weeks prior to the oral presentation. 

The student should work with the Graduate Coordinator to provide the chair of the committee with partially completed DISSERTATION PROPOSAL and ENGINEERING DISSERTATION PROPOSAL ASSESSMENT forms at least one day prior to the Proposal. These forms will be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator by the Chair of the Committee following the exam.

The presentation should be limited to 30 minutes and will be followed by questions from the audience and the proposal examining committee.

The student must complete at least one full semester as a candidate before the degree is awarded. ;In the event that a suitable proposal is not presented but the faculty believes the student has sufficient research potential, another research presentation will be scheduled within 6 months. If a suitable proposal is still not presented, the student is subject to dismissal from the program.

Publication Requirements

Each Ph.D. candidate must submit an advisor approved article related to their research to a refereed journal or conference, prior to completing their dissertation defense. If the student’s advisor is not a co-author of the paper, the advisor must provide the CpE graduate committee with a note indicating the advisor’s approval of the paper.

The Dissertation Defense

The culmination of the PhD program is the defense of the dissertation. It is expected that the work be of sufficient quality to warrant journal publication.

The dissertation defense is an oral defense before the student's Ph.D. final examining committee as well as any other interested faculty, students or other persons.  The examining committee must be approved by submitting the FINAL EXAMINATION COMMITTEE form to the Graduate Administrator.  This Committee must include the student’s Advisory Committee. The Ph.D. Final Dissertation Examining Committee must include a minimum of three School of Engineering faculty, a minimum of four UVA faculty, and a minimum of 5 total members. One of the UVA faculty members must have 0% appointment in the student’s home department. Courtesy appointments do not count toward this 0% restriction. at least two members must be from the ECE department and at least two members must be from the CS department. For CPE students, the outside member with 0% appointment in the student’s home department, the home department is considered to be that of the advisor’s home department.  The Committee Chair must hold a faculty appointment in the School of Engineering and cannot be the student’s Advisor. All Committee members must hold qualifications commensurate with that of a research faculty or equivalent rank. To avoid conflicts of interest, no committee member can be employed by or receive compensation from another committee member to avoid conflicts of interest.

One additional research professional from outside UVA or a faculty member from outside the School of Engineering may be a fifth voting committee member, provided his/her qualifications are commensurate with that of a research faculty or equivalent rank. Emeritus faculty are considered outside UVA for the purpose of Final Dissertation Examining Committees. A CV or biography will be required, and should include the highest degree attained, the year and institution, and any relevant experience or research which would enable that member to provide expertise to the student and committee.

When the student and advisor have determined that the student is ready to defend their dissertation, the student should work with the committee to schedule a 2-hour block of time for the defense.  The student will then send the Graduate Coordinator the time and date of the defense, the committee list, the Title of the Dissertation and the adbstract.

The dissertation defense should be announced publicly at least one week prior to the scheduled date. The student should work with the Graduate Coordinator at least two weeks prior to the defense to prepare the announcement.    After the defense, the REPORT OF FINAL ASSESSMENT and the THESIS AND DISSERTATION ASSESSMENT forms must be completed.

At the defense, the student will present their research to the committee and other members of the audience followed by a question and answer session.  The student presentation portion should not exceed 45 minutes. Follow the School of Engineering rules with regards to the format of the dissertation and the number of copies required for distribution. Also required is a list of publications. 

Graduation procedures, including submitting the dissertation, are outlined in detail on the School of Engineering GRADUATE Record .  Outcome assessment for the PhD degree occurs at three different points in the program: the qualifying exam, the proposal and the dissertation defense.

The Master of Science (MS) degree in Computer Engineering (CpE) requires at least 24 regular course credits plus up to 6 credits of 8999 (Master’s Thesis Research) for a total of 30 credits. The student is also expected to work with an advisor to prepare a Master's Thesis.

Program Overview

Please see the Curriculum Distribution Requirements for an outline of the exact course credit requirement. No more than nine credits of 5000-level courses can be applied to a graduate degree of which no more than 6 credits may be from any one department (within SEAS delineation plus Data Science). Also, no more than 3 graded credits of Independent Study or Supervised Project Research may be applied towards an MS degree. The time limit for degree completion after entering the Masters of Science program is five years although the average time for completion is two years. Degree requirements set by the School of Engineering and Applied Science are given in the School of Engineering Graduate Record and are additional to the following CpE graduate program requirements. Transfer Credit is subject to approval from the CpE Graduate Director. MS candidates may transfer a maximum of six credits of approved graduate courses into the program. Students may only transfer courses in which they earned a grade of B or better. After the Director has approved the transfer, the student will work with the CpE Graduate Administrator to submit the appropriate forms and documentation to the School of Engineering Graduate Registrar for approval.

Master Thesis and Final Defense

1. Each M.S.. student must produce a thesis describing research of publishable quality. In this spirit, at least one paper submission to a refereed conference/journal is expected of all MS candidates. The research and development of the thesis will be directed by the student’s advisor or advisory committee. Once the thesis has been written and approved by the advisor, a public oral defense is required.
2. Student and advisor select a committee for the examination. The examination committee for the MS oral defense consists of a minimum of three faculty members. The chair of the committee cannot be the advisor and must be from either the CS or ECE Department. This examining committee is selected by the student and the advisor.  The student then works with the Graduate Coordinator to complete Appointment of Final Examination Committee form which is then approved by the CpE Graduate Committee Chair and the Graduate Dean’s office. 
3. Apply to Graduate in the semester the student intends to defend. The Graduate Dean’s office will send an email at the beginning of each semester with the deadline for applying to graduate. The other deadlines for completing the defense and submitting paperwork and Thesis will also be included in this email.
4. Schedule the date and time for the final defense. The completed thesis must be delivered to each member of the examining committee at least 7 days prior to the defense.
5. An announcement the oral examination of the thesis must be sent to the SEAS community at least one week prior to the defense.  Send a list of the committee, the title of the Thesis and the Abstract to the Graduate Coordinator at least 10 days prior to the defense.  The Graduate coordinator will send the announcement to the SEAS community.
6. The Forms needed for the Defense are REPORT ON FINAL EXAMINATION and THESIS AND DISSERTATION ASSESSMENT and will be prepared with the help of the Graduate Coordinator. The student emails both forms to the chair of the examining committee the day before the defense.
7. The format of the oral defense is a presentation by the student which should be approximately 30 minutes. A question-and-answer session will follow.  If the defense is not successful, the student will be allowed to defend again, after being given sufficient time to make needed modifications. This defense is open to the public.
8. The student will ask the Chair of the committee to submit the completed Report on Final Examination and the Thesis and Dissertation Assessment form to the Graduate Coordinator who will then coordinator the signature process for the rest of the committee and the director.
9. After a successful defense, the degree candidate must submit the approved final thesis along with the Thesis/Dissertation Cover and Approval Pages Form to Libra, the online archive of UVA by the date specified in the academic calendar. For detailed instructions on the process, see The Graduate Record. Additional information can be found at the School of Engineering Graduate website.

The Masters of Engineering (ME) degree in the Computer Engineering Program (CpE) requires 30 graded course credits. Please see the Curriculum Distribution Requirements for an outline of the exact course credit requirement. No more than 9 credits of 5000-level courses can be applied to a graduate degree of which no more than 6 credits may be from any one department (within SEAS delineation plus Data Science). No more than 3 graded credits of Independent Study course and no more than 6 graded credits of supervised project research may be applied towards an ME degree.

Degree requirements set by the School of Engineering and Applied Science are given in the School of Engineering Graduate Record and are additional to the following CpE Graduate Program requirements. The time limit for degree completion after entering the Masters of Engineering program is seven years although the average time for completion is 1.5 years. Graduation procedures are outlined in detail on the School of Engineering Graduate website.

Transfer Credit is subject to approval from the CpE Graduate Director.  ME candidates may transfer a maximum of 12 credits of approved graduate courses into the program. Students may only transfer courses in which they earned a grade of B or better. After the Director has approved the transfer, the student will work with the CpE Graduate Administrator to submit the appropriate forms and documentation to the School of Engineering Graduate Registrar for approval.

Research Opportunities in Computer Science are available for ME students. A list can be found here.  Please be sure to select the Masters Tab.

Assessment Forms are required for the ME degree. The student will request a current or past instructor to complete the forms. Do not send to your advisor if you did not take a class with them. The DocuSign link contains all three forms. Enter the name and email for each faculty who will fill out that form. DO NOT start three separate forms.

Every graduate student in the Computer Engineering Graduate Program must successfully complete 24 credits of graded course work for the MS and PhD, or 30 credits of graded coursework for the ME. Of the 24/30 credits of graded coursework, at least 21 must be CS/CPE/ECE courses. The requirements include:

• Computer Architecture Course selected from one of the following:
  • CS 6354 Computer Architecture.
  • ECE 6435 Computer Architecture and Design.
• At least 9 graded course credits from CS (may include CS 6354).
• At least 9 graded course credits from ECE (may include ECE 6435).

The following restrictions apply:

• No more than 3 graded credits of independent study, no more than 3 graded credits of “supervised project research.”
• No more than 9 credits at the 5000-level of which no more than 6 credits may be from any one department (within SEAS delineation plus Data Science).

Fall 2023 - TBD

How to Read a Paper
Some thoughts on reading and understanding a technical paper
Computer engineering program faculty
March 2007

When reading a technical paper, try to answer these questions. Read the paper through quickly to get the big picture and then read it again (as many times as is needed) to understand more levels of detail. Notice how words are used as they may have some technical meaning beyond the scope of the paper (of which you may be unaware).

When you see equations, try to use words to describe what is being calculated. What is the purpose of each equation? Make up simple examples to see if you understand the general idea as well as the details of the calculation.

Also be careful of exaggerated claims. Attempt to answer these questions in your own words, not in the author’s words, since the author’s words may be biased.

1. What is the motivation for the work? What problem are they trying to solve?
2. What is the hypothesis that the authors are investigating? What is the idea that is being considered?
3. What is the methodology used to perform the investigation of their hypothesis? What “experiment” is defined? What particular problem is being solved?
4. Is this a valid experiment? Is there reason to believe that results from this experiment would shed light on the problem? (this question is separate from the actual results of the experiment. It relates to the design of the experimental vehicle itself.)
5. How will the work be evaluated? What are the success criteria? How will the author know whether the approach is a good idea? (This is also separate from the results. It relates to understanding the setup of the experiment.)
6. What is the novelty of the work described? What’s new? How does it relate to earlier work?
7. What assumptions (stated and unstated) are being made? How would one test the validity of these assumptions? Do the authors justify the assumptions?
8. What are the limitations of the work? What questions remain unanswered? What new questions arise?
9. Do the intro and conclusions adequately convey your impression of the work, its motivation, its contribution?

Finally, a more personal perspective.

• How does the topic in the paper relate to your interests and research?
• Could you have written this paper? If no, why not? Any missing knowledge? Any critical ideas? If yes, why didn't you write it?
• Do you have any ideas for follow-up work that you may pursue in order to write your own paper on the topic? Do you plan to pursue any of these ideas?

The objective of the qualifying examination is to assess the student’s potential to begin doctoral-level research. Specifically, the student is expected to demonstrate for one primary and two secondary research areas: an ability to state a problem clearly, provide its motivation, and the requirements for a solution.

1. an ability to understand and explain a solution to the problem.
2. an understanding of the broader research context in which this work appears.
3. an ability to summarize and present the major points of the work.
4. an ability to recognize the limitations and implications of the work.
5. working knowledge of the field.
6. an ability to communicate effectively, both in writing and in speaking and to answer questions relating to the problem, its solution and the field.

Students desiring a PhD should take the qualifying examination as soon as possible. Students entering with a master's degree should take the exam no later than the end of their first year of study. Students entering with a bachelor's degree should ideally take the exam by the end of their first year, but no later than the middle of their second year.

Students must pass the qualifying exam before beginning their fourth academic semester after admission to the graduate program, unless approved by the CpE graduate committee.

The exam is a 2-hour oral exam, in three parts. There is also a written component due 2 weeks before the exam.

Part I: Primary area test

This is a 1-hour examination, which will start with the student's 20-minute presentation on the paper selected by the student in their primary research area. The committee will then ask in-depth questions on the presentation, the assigned paper, related papers and other topics in the selected primary area.

Part II: Secondary areas test

This is a 1-hour examination, in two parts. Each part starts with the student's 10-minute presentation on one of two secondary papers selected by the student. The committee will then ask broad questions on the presentation, the assigned papers and other topics in the selected secondary areas.

Two weeks before the oral exam date, the student will submit a written report (max 3 pages in IEEE standard format *) on the paper in the primary area to the head of the CpE qualifiers committee (electronically, in pdf). This report should demonstrate the abilities listed under the “objectives” section of this FAQ. The report is expected to cover relevant work: both too little and too much will be considered negatively. The paper should include the student’s analysis of the work, not simply a summary.

2 months before the exam

The CpE qualifiers committee announces the 6 selected papers, one paper for each area.

One month before the exam

Students provide the CpE administrative coordinator their selections for the primary and secondary areas. Please note if your adviser is on the committee so that a substitution for can be made.

2 weeks before the exam

Students submit a written report (max 3 pages in IEEE standard format *) on the paper in the primary area to the head of the CpE qualifiers committee (electronically, as a pdf file).

Yes. Students will be evaluated on the combined written submission and oral examination. The result will be a clear-cut pass or fail for the entire exam; no remedial work will be allowed to alter the outcome.

A student who fails the qualifying exam on the first try must retake it at the next offering. A student who fails the examination twice may lose support and leave the program at the end of that semester.

Each student will meet with the CpE Program Director within a few days of the exam. At this meeting, the student will be told the outcome, will receive a copy of the completed assessment form, and will be provided with feedback from the committee. The CpE Program Director will also communicate the results and feedback to the student’s research adviser and the Graduate Dean’s Office. The results are made available only after all students have taken the exam and are not made available to the student by email.

Research advisors are invited to observe the examination in order to witness their student’s performance and provide moral support. Advisors do not otherwise participate in the examination or evaluation of the student. If a student’s adviser is on the qualifying exam committee, a substitute examiner will administer the appropriate part of the exam and participate in the evaluation.

Yes, students are allowed to study together. Clearly there should be no collaboration while writing the report.

No sources are barred but significant sources must be cited. An annotated list of citations will help the committee gauge the student’s ability to perform research. Each student should prepare an annotated list of up to 20 relevant published works that were consulted as well as a list of all non published sources (people, internet sources, etc) that were consulted.

Examinees are expected to demonstrate a solid understanding of the foundational topics in the areas, and the ability to understand and evaluate the content and context of a chosen publication. Students are expected to demonstrate understanding of the material covered in these courses, regardless if whether, when, and where they took the course. Further, since a course in architecture is required by the program, it is expected that examinees would have taken this course before taking the qualifying exam. This is required even for secondary areas, but on a "lighter" scale than for the primary area.
 

Students may practice their presentations with their research groups for feedback.  Reviews of technical material in the written report is not allowed.  Student are allowed to seek assistance from the writing center.

No Recording devices are allowed!
 

Students may use their own laptops.  Please be sure to test your equipment in the conference room where the exam is to be held prior to the day of the exam.  Also please post a copy of your presentation slides on the COLLAB site.