Ph.D. Minor

General Requirements

To obtain a Ph.D. minor, a non-CISE student pursuing a Ph.D. degree from another department must:

  • Take four graduate courses in the CISE department with a grade of B or better in each.
  • Have a CISE graduate faculty member serve as a minor representative on the Ph.D. committee of the major department.

All students seeking a Ph.D. minor must submit a Qualifying Examination as administered by the CISE Minor Representative. Students must complete the Ph.D. Minor Qualifying Exam form as indicated below—please refer to the following URL:

**Qualifying Exam Supervisory Committee Form**

  1. Student needs to complete: Last Name, First Name, M.I., UFID and Term of First Enrollment
  2. Student enters the faculty information; Chair, Co-Chair, Members, etc.

** For Term of First Enrollment, if you are unsure review your profile in GIMS or contact Adrienne L. Cook**

Process Details:

  1. The student must get the approval of the CISE faculty advisor to take the exam. Once that is done, the student must inform Adrienne L. Cook of the intent to take the qualifiers exam no later than one month before the actual proposed survey submission date.
  2. The student will be assigned a list of papers and topics for the area survey paper under the direction of the student’s advisor. The advisor may construct the list or may require the student to propose the list. The list must be approved (in writing or via email). The list cannot include papers by the student (such papers can be included as supporting documents along with the student’s CV).The number of papers can vary depending on the student’s research area. The vast majority (if not all) of the papers must be peer-reviewed reputable publications (e.g., IEEE or ACM conferences or journals, or similar quality). The suggested number of papers is between 15 – 50.
  3. The student will write an original area survey paper under the direction of their advisor.
    1. The advisor cannot add text. The advisor can only recommend modifications/edits.
    2. The survey should be prepared in IEEE Journal format.
    3. The suggested length of the paper, not including references, is 7 to 10 pages. The decision as to appropriate length is left up to the advisor.
    4. Unless direct quotations of cited sources are used and properly attributed, the entire paper must be in the student’s own words. Plagiarism will be grounds for dismissal from the Ph.D. Minor program.
  4. Submission of materials: The following materials must be submitted to the CISE Faculty Advisor for review/evaluation, during (and no later than) the time window agreed upon earlier (as explained above in the first step):
    1. Area survey paper
    2. Student’s CV. Optionally, additional supporting documents can be provided, such as published or submitted papers by the student.
    3. Student’s Academic Transcripts
  5. Evaluation Process
    1. The student’s Ph.D. Minor advisor will also serve as the student’s qualifying examiner.
    2. From the submission date (in step 3 above), the CISE faculty advisor has 2 weeks to evaluate the survey. The advisor will then decide to: I. compile a list of questions, II. ask for a ‘major revision’ (which may also be accompanied by a set of questions), or III. fail. The advisor will send any questions back to the student via email at or before the end of this 2 week period. In case of I (questions): The student has 1 week to respond to these questions. The advisor then has 1 week to review the submitted answers and reach a pass/fail decision. The advisor may request minor revisions to the answers or another round of questions if needed. Only two total rounds of questions/answers are permitted. If the advisor does not feel that the student’s survey paper and answers are passing after two rounds of questions then the student must submit a substantially revised paper (and updated materials) in a subsequent semester.In case of II (major revision): The student has 2 weeks to address the advisor’s questions and resubmit the revised survey paper. The advisor then has two weeks to review the revised paper and reach a pass/fail decision. Only one round of major revision is permitted. If the advisor does not feel that the student’s survey paper is passing after one round of revisions then the student must submit a substantially revised paper (and updated materials) in a subsequent semester.

      The student should set up a meeting with the advisor. The advisor should use such meeting(s) to validate the originality of the work and clarify any issues, before making the decision.

      The advisor will make decisions to of pass, fail, or major revision, using the submitted material (i.e., area survey, CV, and transcripts), the answers to the advisor’s questions, and revised survey (if requested).

    3. The grades and comments (if any) given by the advisor shall be kept anonymous. The student can see the overall grade and comments.

Note: The student has 2 attempts to pass the qualifying exam:

  1. After 2 failures, the student will be dismissed from the Ph.D. Minor program.
  2. The student can appeal dismissal in the event of a second failure through the Graduate Affairs Committee.

Please review your plan of study and expected graduation date with Adrienne L. Cook at least the semester prior to your graduation.