All doctoral work, including the dissertation, must be completed within ten years of matriculation as a graduate student at Penn.

To be in good standing the student is required to maintain satisfactory progress and to achieve the CIS PhD benchmarks in a timely manner.

The student is required to maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0.

Doctoral students have a worksheet which they can use to monitor enrollment and completion of milestones. On the worksheet, Qualifications Evaluation records completion of the Breadth requirement; Candidacy Examination is completion of the thesis proposal; Dissertation Defense is the successful completions of the dissertation defense. (The worksheet is does not currently show completion of the Research Qualifier.) Students can access the worksheet through PATH.

For the first two years of their doctoral career, Ph.D. students enroll in four courses (including independent studies) in the Fall and Spring semesters; billing is at the full-time rate.

After the second year of study, in order to meet University and fiscal constraints, full-time enrollment in the Fall and Spring is three courses, Thesis Research, etc.; billing is at the full-time rate.

Once a student has been in the doctoral program for five years, they are billed at a reduced rate.
Once a doctoral student has made the dissertation proposal, they should register for CIS 9950/Dissertation.

Breadth Courses

The first milestone is intended to expose students to multiple subject areas within computer science.

Overview

Most of the existing graduate-level (5000- or higher) CIS courses are categorized into five buckets:

• Mathematical Foundations
• System Design and Implementation
• Learning and Modeling
• Human-Centered Computing
• Technical Communication

Students are required to take and receive a grade of B or above in two courses spanning two of the five buckets.  Both of these buckets should be different from the student’s “home bucket” (i.e., the bucket into which their own PhD work is most likely to fall).

The breadth requirement is waived for PhD students who enter the program with a Master’s degree in computer science (or a related field, subject to review by the advisor and graduate chair).

There is no mechanism for “testing out” of breadth (or depth) courses, or for “transferring credit” from other degree programs based on prior coursework, except for a completed masters degree.

Faculty advisors will approve students’ breadth course selections to ensure the set of courses is well-rounded and appropriate for the student.

Philosophy

The motivating principle behind the breadth milestone is for students to gain meaningful exposure at the graduate level to multiple subfields of Computer and Information Science, such that they can be informed colleagues and peers. Below, we provide more detail on these key highlighted terms, and explain how they impact the courses on this breadth list and students’ selection of them.

“Gain meaningful exposure”: The goal of the breadth courses is graduate-level exposure to areas outside of a student’s chosen sub-discipline. While we do expect mastery (i.e. excellence, ability above that of most other students), within the student’s chosen area, the aim of Breadth is to enable students to have a more holistic understanding of Computer and Information Science. Therefore students are considered to satisfy the requirement by receiving a grade of B or above in the course. We only consider courses with a meaningful evaluation component (e.g., graded exam, project, homeworks).

“Graduate level”: Outside their target research area, we expect incoming PhD students to have an equivalent level of preparatory coursework as the broader graduate student body, for example first-year Master’s students. Therefore, courses included under Breadth are those that are appropriate for graduate students and offered at a 5000 level or above.

“Multiple subfields”: We partition computer science into five large buckets and require that students take two courses spanning two of the five buckets. Therefore, most students will be gaining graduate-level coursework exposure to at least two subfields outside their own. We feel this is appropriate, as the majority of students already have undergraduate (or Master’s) exposure to a wider range of subfields (including those traditionally considered “core”: Theory and Systems). For students without such background (i.e., those without a CS undergraduate or Master’s degree), it will be especially important to ensure that they are well-rounded by this coursework. Therefore, faculty advisors will be tasked with approving the student’s final Breadth course list, ensuring that it meets these requirements — and, in the case of students without a traditional CS background, that the student is well-rounded, including in traditional core CS areas outside of their research focus.

“Computer and Information Science”: While the vast majority of courses on this list are CIS courses, a select few may be offered in other departments when appropriate, in particular when the content of the external course is pertinent to Computer and Information Science and the CIS department does not offer an equivalent course.

Depth Courses

The second set of course requirements is intended to help students achieve mastery of their chosen research subfield.

Each student must choose, in consultation with their advisor, a set of four additional courses that together constitute a solid foundation for advanced work in their area.  They should receive a grade of B or above in these courses.

Timing: At least three breadth and/or depth courses must be completed by the end of the student’s second year, four by the end of the third year, five by the end of the fourth year, and all six by the end of the fifth year.  Students coming in with masters degrees will be finished taking courses by the end of the third year.

Responsible Conduct for Research in Engineering

During the first year students are required to take EAS 9000.  This course consists of:

1. Eight hours of in person training conducted through workshops. These sessions will be held virtually and will be split up into four two-hour blocks. Attendance is mandatory.
   -The fourth session is department specific; this information will be sent from CIS.
2. Two courses in Knowledge Link.
   -CITI Responsible Conduct of Research
   -Confronting Bias: Thriving Across Our Differences (you will be asked to create a LinkedIn Learning account. If you have a LinkedIn account, you may choose to link the course to your existing account. It is not required to do so).

These EAS 900 workshops are mandatory for first-year students and held every Fall at the SEAS level.  Emails regarding the schedule will come directly from the Graduate Academic Dean’s office, graddean@seas.upenn.edu.

Initial Breadth Course List

1. Mathematical Foundations: Courses in this bucket emphasize mathematics and formal reasoning as it applies to foundational questions about computation.

• CIS 5000 Software Foundations
• CIS 5020 Analysis of Algo
• CIS 5110 Theory of Computation
• CIS 5180 Topics in Logic
• CIS 5200 ML
• CIS 5560 Cryptography
• CIS 6100 Advanced Geometric Methods
• CIS 6250 Theory of Machine Learning
• CIS 6700 Advanced Topics in Programming Languages
• CIS 6730 Computer-Aided Verification
• CIS 6770 Advanced Topics in Algorithms and Complexity
• CIS 6820 Friendly Logics

2. System Design and Implementation: Courses in this bucket explore the construction of computing artifacts that meet complex design constraints or requirements. They emphasize not only what we build, but how we build it and the challenges involved in doing so. Courses in this area often include considerations of performance (speed, memory, energy), scalability, complexity, and software quality.

• CIS 5500 Database & Information Systems
• CIS 5550 Internet/WebSys
• CIS 5710 Comp Org & Design
• CIS 5010 Architecture
• CIS 5050 Software Systems
• CIS 5400 Principles of Embedded Computation
• CIS 5410 Embedded Software for Life-Critical Applications
• CIS 5420 Embedded Systems Programming
• CIS 5470 Software Analysis
• CIS 5480 Operating Systems
• CIS 5490 Wireless Communications / IoT
• CIS 5510 Computer and Network Security
• CIS 5520 Advanced Programming
• CIS 5530 Networked Systems
• CIS 5540 Programming Paradigms
• CIS 5570 Programming for the Web
• CIS 5650 GPU Programming
• CIS 6010 Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture
• CIS 6400 Advance Topics in Software Systems
• CIS 6500 Advanced Topics in Databases

3. Learning and Modeling: Courses in this bucket seek to build models of observed phenomena. They emphasize building these models from data, with the goal of predicting, classifying or otherwise structuring observations.

• CIS 5190 Applied ML
• CIS 5210 AI
• CIS 5360 Comp Bio
• CIS 5670 Sci Comp
• CIS 5200 ML
• CIS 5220 Deep Learning for Data Sci
• CIS 5260 Machine Translation
• CIS 5300 NLP
• CIS 5370 Biomedical Image Analysis
• CIS 5800 Machine Perception
• CIS 5810 Computer Vision
• CIS 6200 Advanced Topics in Machine Learning
• CIS 6300 Advanced Topics in NLP
• CIS 6800 Advanced Topics in Machine Perception

4. Human-Centered Computing: Courses in this bucket examine how computing and technology affect and interact with society and human behavior and perception, seeking to place artifacts in the context in which they are used. In particular this area includes courses that deal with the societal impact of computation as well as courses in HCI.

• CIS 5120 HCI
• CIS 5230 The Ethical Algorithm
• CIS 5640 Game Design and Development
• CIS 7980 Explaining Explanation
• CIS 5600 Interactive Computer Graphics
• CIS 5610 Advanced Rendering
• CIS 5620 Animation
• CIS 5630 Physically Based Animation
• CIS 5660 Procedural Computer Graphics
• CIS 6600 Advanced Topics in Computer Graphics and Animation

5. Technical communication: Courses in this bucket emphasize verbal and written communication of science and research.

• CIS 8100 Writing and Speaking with Style

Each instance of CIS 7000, Special Topics, with a given instructor and title is treated as a new course and approved using the same process as other breadth courses.

One of the most important activities for students during the early years of their PhDs is beginning the process of becoming independent researchers.  Although this activity may not produce publishable results at this stage, engaging with the process is critical.  The goal of the research qualifier is to check that students are making satisfactory progress on research during their early years in the program.

Concretely, it offers an opportunity for the student, their advisor, and two additional faculty in their area to evaluate and discuss their research efforts so far.  It is also a chance to polish written and oral communication skills.   

The research qualifier has two parts: a written report and an oral presentation.

Review committee

The research qualifier is evaluated by a committee consisting of three members. The chair must be a member of the CIS Graduate Group other than the student’s advisor.  The other committee members may be the student’s advisor(s), university faculty outside CIS, or from outside the university (such as an industry researcher).

Written report

The written report should describe the background, related work, goals, preliminary results, and future plans of the student’s current research efforts. It has the same general form as a dissertation proposal, but much shorter and—crucially—with no expectation of a clear path to dissertation-worthy or even publishable results (or even any positive results at all: well-executed but unsuccessful attempts are also fine.) 

The report should comprise approximately 5,000 to 10,000 words. No specific format is required, but for reference this corresponds to around 7 to 15 pages of single-spaced 10-point text.

The report should be aimed at a reasonably broad audience – e.g., first-year PhD students in the same research area.

The words in the report should be written solely by the student.  Students may, if they wish, ask others for comments on drafts, as long as they make any corrections themselves.

If the work it describes is collaborative (which is fine), the report should clearly describe who did what, and it should focus on the student’s individual contribution.

The written report should be sent to the committee at least two weeks before the oral presentation.

Oral presentation

The oral presentation is a seminar-style treatment of the material in the written report, again aimed at first-year PhD students in the same broad research area.  The presentation should take around 45 minutes, followed by an additional around 45 minutes for questions and discussion.  

The scheduling of the public oral presentation of the Research Qualifier is the responsibility of the student; it is a good idea to begin scheduling as early as possible. Please schedule a 2-hour block to leave plenty of time for discussion.

The oral presentation announcement — to faculty, fellow doctoral students, and postdocs, with abstract, committee members, room, time, etc. — should be sent by the student to all CIS doctoral students, postdocs, and faculty (by emailing cis-doctoral@cis.upenn.edu) at least two weeks prior to the presentation, with a reminder the day before. Click here for emailing guidelines.

The SEAS space reservation website has information about availability, technology, and procedures for reserving conference rooms; use this site to reserve the room for your presentation. You can also reserve rooms in 3401 Walnut by contacting Lily Hoot (lhoot@seas.upenn.edu).

Evaluation criteria

Following the oral presentation, the review committee will meet and decide on one of three possible outcomes: pass, revise and resubmit either or both of the written report and the oral presentation within six months, or fail.  

The primary purpose of the research qualifier is to demonstrate that the student is developing the research skills that will enable them to write a successful dissertation in due course.  In particular, the report and presentation should demonstrate

1. general background knowledge of the student’s chosen area within computer science,
2. detailed command of a particular sub-area related to the student’s research, and
3. ability to carry out a research project in this subarea and to present the results in a scholarly way.

The research qualifier is also intended to help ensure that the student has the writing and oral communication skills necessary to successfully complete the PhD. Thus, both the report and the presentation will be evaluated in part on the effectiveness of their communication.

Feedback from the 3-member evaluation committee will be provided both on the spot after the oral presentation and on the form recording the outcome of the process.

Timing

The research qualifier must be completed no earlier than the beginning of the fourth and no later than the end of the fifth semester.

Once the student has passed, their advisor should email Britton and the Graduate Chair, so their progress can properly be recorded in BP Logix using the Candidacy Examination form.

Information re: applying for graduation, thesis formatting, etc. can be accessed here.

Students must make an appointment to officially submit the thesis by contacting gas-degree@sas.upenn.edu.

The following signed documents are needed for the thesis submission:

• University Acceptance of Dissertation form 152 from dissertation defense
• SEAS PhD Degree Certification; click here to access form
• University Microfilming Certification of Dissertation form 153; click here to access form

You can download the documents and complete them yourself. You can access your transcript and Ph.D. worksheet through PennInTouch.

Be sure all grades, etc. are posted correctly; due Penn administrative constraints, the only appropriate grades for CIS 999 THESIS/DISS RESEARCH are S(atisfactory) or U(nsatisfactory).

Prior to submitting the thesis send email to brittonc@seas.upenn.edu; your transcript/worksheet needs to be approved for graduation. When submitting your final signed department forms, you will also need to submit your signed Title page.  All are needed to obtain the signature of the SEAS Associate Dean on the SEAS PhD Degree Certification. Please note these are OFFICIAL documents that are included with the submission of your thesis and they should be completed thoroughly, neatly and efficiently.