Degree Requirements

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering

Students entering the program with a B.S. will follow the coursework requirements for the B.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan while those entering with an M.S. will follow the M.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan. The remaining requirements are identical for both programs.

1. Coursework for the The B.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan
   
   • All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students who are doing research must also enroll each semester in the Graduate Seminar class (ECE 6011 or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards.
   • At least 72 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the BS, with at least 33 hours in structured course work, and at least 27 hours of research (ECE 6x98 and ECE 8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE 8399/8699). ECE 6x98 should be taken during the first 30 hours of the PhD program, and after this ECE 8x98 should be taken. Additionally,
     
     • All of the structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher.
     • At least 21 of the 33 hours of structured course work must be in ECE courses.
     • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
     • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
     • A maximum of two non-ECE courses are allowed to be from the Division of Technology, chosen from an approved list (please see the list below).
2. Coursework for the The M.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan
   
   • All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students who are doing research must also enroll each semester in the Graduate Seminar class (ECE 6011 or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards.
   • At least 54 semester hours of graduate credit, of which at least 15 hours should be in structured course work and at least 27 hours in research (ECE 8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE 8399/8699). Additionally,
     
     • All of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher.
     • At least 9 of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be in ECE courses.
     • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
     • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
     • One non-ECE course is allowed to be from the Division of Technology, chosen from an approved list (please see the list below).
     • No credit will be given for any course that is equivalent to a course taken in the student’s undergraduate degree program.
3. Fulfillment of the Breadth Coursework requirement (only for the BS --> PhD program).
4. Completion of the Qualifying Exam.
5. Preparation of a written dissertation and an oral defense thereof.
6. Completion of all work above in accordance with the procedures described in the Procedures, Requirements, and Standards Section

The number of required courses in the M.S. to Ph.D. program can be reduced to two for some Ph.D. students, who meet the following criteria:

• They have an MSEE Non-Thesis degree.
• They have at least 2 years of relevant industrial experience past the Masters.
• Their MSEE specialization area was in the same as their PhD research.

If students decide to change their area of specialty, they must now take the full set of five courses, as other M.S. to Ph.D. students do. (If they change areas and their new advisor feels that they don't need five courses, they can always petition on a case-by-case basis.) The advisor will be in charge of ensuring that the work experience that the students have is relevant and in a related area to the PhD research topic.

Ph.D. in Computer Engineering

Students entering the program with a B.S. will follow the coursework requirements for the B.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan while those entering with an M.S. will follow the M.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan. The remaining requirements are identical for both programs.

1. Coursework for the The B.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan
   
   • All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students must also enroll each semester in the research seminar class (ECE 6011or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards.
   • At least 72 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the BS, with at least 33 hours in structured course work, and at least 27 hours of research (ECE 8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE 8399/8699). Additionally,
     
     • All of the structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher.
     • At least 9 of the 33 hours in structured course work must be in Computer Engineering core courses.
     • At least 12 of the 33 hours in structured course work must be in Computer Engineering prescribed elective courses.
     • Up to 12 hours of the 33 hours in structured course work can be other ECE courses or non-ECE courses.
     • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
     • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
     • Non-ECE courses from the Division of Technology are not allowed in this program.
2. Coursework for the The M.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan
   
   • All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students who are doing research must also enroll each semester in the Graduate Seminar class (ECE 6011 or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards.
   • At least 54 semester hours of graduate credit, of which at least 15 hours should be in structured course work and at least 27 hours in research (ECE 8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE 8399/8699). Additionally,
     
     • All of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher.
     • At least 6 hours of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be in Computer Engineering core courses (see exemption below).
     • At least 6 hours of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be in Computer Engineering prescribed elective courses (see exemption below).
     • Up to 3 hours of the 15 hours in structured course work can be other ECE courses or non-ECE courses.
     • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
     • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
     • Non-ECE courses from the Division of Technology are not allowed in this program.
     • No credit will be given for any course that is equivalent to a course taken in the student’s undergraduate degree program.
3. Fulfillment of the Breadth Coursework requirement (only for the BS --> PhD program).
4. Completion of the Qualifying Exam.
5. Preparation of a written dissertation and an oral defense thereof.
6. Completion of all work above in accordance with the procedures described in the Procedures, Requirements, and Standards.

The number of required courses in the M.S. to Ph.D. program can be reduced to two (selected from the core and prescribed electives) for some Ph.D. students, who meet the following criteria:

• They have an MSEE Non-Thesis degree.
• They have at least 2 years of relevant industrial experience past the Masters.
• Their MSEE specialization area was in the same as their PhD research.

If students decide to change their area of specialty, they must now take the full set of five courses, as other M.S. to Ph.D. students do. (If they change areas and their new advisor feels that they don't need five courses, they can always petition on a case-by-case basis.) The advisor will be in charge of ensuring that the work experience that the students have is relevant and in a related area to the PhD research topic.

¹Texas Education Code 61.059 (l) limits funding for doctoral students to 99 SCH. Programs may be allowed to require additional SCH, if there is a compelling academic reason.

Master of Science (MSEE, with Thesis) Program

1. To receive the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, a student is required to complete, on a part-time or full-time basis, a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of graduate studies, to include at least 18 hours of coursework, and 12 hours of thesis and research. Specifically,
   
   • All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students who are doing research must also enroll each semester in the Graduate Seminar class (ECE 6011 or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
   • At least 15 hours of structured coursework in ECE, at or higher than the 6000 level. Out of these, at least 6 hours should be in the area of specialization of the student.
   • Out of the minimum of 18 hours of coursework, 3 hours should satisfy a breadth requirement, meaning that these hours should represent graduate level coursework outside of your area of specialization. These breadth hours can be chosen from the College of Engineering, or from approved courses in the College of Business Administration or the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The breadth course is allowed to be from the Division of Technology, chosen from an approved list (please see below). Breadth courses in ECE can be chosen from the list of MSEE Non-Thesis specialization courses shown below, if they are outside the student’s area of research. They can also be chosen from the recommended list of breadth courses provided for the Ph.D. students, if desired. For breadth courses outside of ECE, please see the list below called "Approved List of Non-ECE courses".
   • Six hours of thesis (ECE 6399 and ECE 7399) and at least 6 hours of research (ECE 6x98).
2. Preparation of a written thesis and an oral defense thereof.
3. Completion of all work above in accordance with the procedures described in the Procedures, Requirements, and Standards Section

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE, Non-thesis) Program

(**Students who began their current MSEE, Non-thesis graduate program prior to the Fall 2018 term may follow the previous requirements for the MSEE, Non-thesis program.)

To receive the degree, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, non-thesis, a student must complete, on a part-time or full-time basis, a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of approved graduate courses. There is no thesis requirement. A maximum of two courses (i.e., a maximum of 6 hours of coursework) in the categories of specialization elective or elective/breadth can be replaced by an approved project course (ECE 6393/7393) to be completed under the supervision of a faculty member from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Approval must be obtained by the supervising faculty member and the Director of Graduate Studies via a General Petition. In all cases, no credit will be given for courses that are equivalent to courses used in the student’s undergraduate degree. All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester.

MSEE Non-Thesis Specialization Areas and Course Requirements

Students must choose one of the ten specializations listed below and complete all required courses for that specialization to fulfill the requirements of the MSEE, Non-Thesis program.

Specialization requirements: Students must complete all Mandatory Core courses specified for their chosen area of specialization. They must also take Specialized Elective courses, chosen from among the elective courses that are designated for their area of specialization. A total of six courses (*18 credit hours) are required from within the area of specialization. Any deviation from the approved specialization options will require approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Elective and breadth requirements: An additional four courses (12 credit hours) must be completed by taking general Elective and Breadth courses. There must be a minimum of two and a maximum of three breadth courses (i.e., courses from outside the specialization area). Breadth courses (giving technical breadth) must be from the College of Engineering or the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Elective courses must be from the colleges of Engineering, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, or Business Administration. Additional restrictions apply (please see the section below called "List of Approved Non-ECE Courses"). Elective courses are allowed to be from the Division of Tehcnology, chosen from an approved list of Technology courses (please see below). Breadth courses are not allowed to be from the Division of Technology.

*The Microelectronics Circuits and Systems specialization will require 19 credit hours of specialization courses and a total of 31 credit hours to complete the program.

Other MSEE Non-Thesis Specialization Areas and Course Requirements

Approved List of Non-ECE Courses

• College of Engineering
  
  • All graduate level courses (6000 level or higher) that are not from the Division of Technology. Courses that are not graduate courses must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
• College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
  
  • All graduate level courses, with the exception of the following:
    • COSC 6301, 6302, 6303, 6304, 6305, 6306, 6308, 6309, 6310
    • GEOL 6321, 6322
    • MATH 5310
    • PHYS 5311, 5312, 5397
• College of Business Administration
  
  • All graduate level courses, with the exception of any courses in General Business Administration (GENB).
  • Reminder: course(s) that do not receive a letter grade, but are graded S, U, or W will not be counted towards the degree plan.
• College of Engineering / Division of Technology
  
  • ELET 6302 - Advanced Wireless Networks
  • ELET 6303 - Applied Neural Networks
  • ELET 6308 - Mobile Computing
  • ELET 6312 - Network Management
  • ELET 6316 - Network Routing Algorithms and Protocols
  • ELET 6317 - Optical Networks
  • ELET 6318 - Analysis of Data Networks
  • ELET 6319 - The Principle & Application of Fuel Cell Technology
  • ELET 6331 - Fundamentals of Medical Imaging
  • ELET 6350 - Overview of Computational Health Informatics
  • ELET 6351 - Biomedical Data Mining
  • ELET 6353 - Applied Statistics for Technology
  • ELET 6354 - Biomedical Image Analysis
  • ELET 6356 - Health Analytics and Visualization
  • ELET 6358 - Optical Brain Imaging
  • CIS 6321 - Principles of Cybersecurity
  • CIS 6323 - Applied Cryptography
  • CIS 6325 - Network Security
  • CIS 6371 - Design of Data Analytics Solutions
  • CIS 6374 - Text Mining
  • CIS 6377 - Information Visualization
  • CIS 6378 - Data Science for Cybersecurity

Master of Science in Computer & Systems Engineering (MSCSE) Program

To receive the degree of Master of Science, the student is required to complete (on a part-time or full-time basis), with a grade point average of at least 3.0, a minimum of 30 semester credit hours for the non-thesis option or a minimum of 30 semester hours for the thesis option. Upon admission to the program, the student will meet with the Director of the CSE Program to develop a plan that involves any required prerequisite courses as well as the appropriate courses for the degree plan. If the student follows the thesis option he/she will be advised to find an advisor who will supervise and direct his/her research. The thesis advisor will subsequently advise the student about his/her degree plan.

1. Non-thesis Option:

• A student that follows the non-thesis option should complete a minimum of 30 semester credit hours of coursework (10 courses).
• Four of these courses should be from the List of Required ECE Courses while the remaining can be from the List of Suggested Elective ECE courses.
• A minimum of six courses should be from the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
• A maximum of four courses can be from outside the ECE department. These courses must be from the Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering, or College of Business Administration.
• A maximum of two courses are allowed from the Division of Technology (please see the list of approved Technology courses above).

Before graduation the student's degree plan will have to be approved by the ECE Academic Advisor and the Director of the Computer and Systems Engineering Program.

2. Thesis Option:

• A student who follows the thesis option should complete a minimum of 30 semester hours (10 courses).
• A minimum of 21 semester credit hours of coursework (7 courses)
• Four of these courses should be from the List of Required ECE Courses
• One course is allowed from the Division of Technology (please see the list of approved Technology courses above).
• Six hours of thesis (ECE 6399 and ECE 7399) and
• Three hours of research (ECE 6398)

Before graduation the student's degree plan will have to be approved by the thesis advisor, the ECE Academic Advisor, and the Director of the Computer and Systems Engineering Program.

List of Required ECE Courses

Choose 4 courses from the following required course list:

• ECE 6370 Advanced Digital Design
• ECE 6346 VLSI Design
• ECE 6373 Advanced Computer Architecture
• ECE 7373 Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture
• ECE 6372 Advanced Hardware Design
• ECE 6328 CMOS Analog Integrate Circuits
• ECE 6321 Principles of Internetworking
• ECE 6397 Hardware Verification

To satisfy the coursework requirements and form a meaningful coherent program of study, a student may choose the remaining ECE courses from the following list of Approved ECE Elective Courses.

List of Approved ECE Elective Courses

• ECE 6313 Neural Networks
• ECE 6315 Neural Computation
• ECE 6316 Computational and Biological Vision
• ECE 6321 Principles of Internetworking
• ECE 6322 Introduction to Spread Spectrum Communications
• ECE 6323 Optical Fiber Communications
• ECE 6324 Digital Telephony
• ECE 6328 CMOS analog ICs
• ECE 6325 State Space Control systems
• ECE 6330 Mobile Radio Communication Systems
• ECE 6331 Advanced Telecommunications Engineering
• ECE 6332 Wireless Telecommunication Systems
• ECE 6335 Digital Control Systems
• ECE 6336 Advanced Microprocessor Systems
• ECE 6337 Introduction to Stochastic Processes and Random Variables
• ECE 6342 Digital Signal Processing
• ECE 6347 Advanced Topics in MOS Devices
• ECE 6353 RF and Microwave Electronics
• ECE 6354 Digital Video in Telecommunications
• ECE 6364 Digital Image Processing
• ECE 6372 Advanced Hardware Design
• ECE 6376 Digital Pattern Recognition
• ECE 6390 Linear Multivariable Control Systems
• ECE 6397 Robotics in Healthcare
• ECE 6397 Introduction to Cybersecurity
• ECE 6466 Integrated Circuit Engineering
• ECE 7342 Advanced Topics in Signal Processing
• ECE 7349 Advanced Topics in Microelectronics
• ECE 7366 Advanced Process Integration for VLSI

*The above list is subject to change, and other graduate ECE courses can be taken with the approval of the Director of the CSE Program.

*In all cases no credit will be given for courses that are equivalent to courses used in the student’s undergraduate degree.

Restrictions for Courses Outside the ECE Department:

• All COSC courses should be at the graduate level.
• COSC 6301, 6302, 6303, 6304, 6305, 6306, 6308, 6309, and 6310 cannot be used on the degree plan.
• All courses from the College of Business Administration should be at the 6000 level or higher.
• Courses from the General Business Administration (GENB) cannot be used on the degree plan.
• All the courses of the College of Engineering should be at the 6000 level or higher.
• Courses that do not receive a letter grade but are graded S, U or W will not be counted towards the degree plan.
• Non-ECE courses with similar content as ECE courses: In case a graduate level (6000 or above) course is offered in another department with similar content to a regularly offered ECE graduate course; graduate ECE students must take the ECE version. If the course in question is not offered regularly, or in the graduating semester, then the students may be allowed to take the non-ECE version by submitting a general petition. Under no circumstances will graduate credit be awarded for both the ECE and the non-ECE on of the course.

**IMPORTANT NOTE
Students must refer to ECE department policies and procedures for any information not covered in this document, including those found at here.