9/8/06 The Computer Science Department moves the following changes to its Ph.D. requirements. These will replace the current written qualifying exam. Ph.D. students are required to achieve at least B-level performance in courses in six distinct bins, including all three essential bins (see definitions of bins and essential bins below). Students must achieve an A grade in at least four of the six bins, including an A grade in at least one essential bin. The breadth requirement must be satisfied by the time the student achieves the following number of graduate credits: Ph.D.-90: 54 credits; Ph.D.-60: 36 credits. Essential bins are Theory, Algorithms, and either Systems or Networks. Other bins are Design, Compilers/Languages, Graphics/Imaging, AI, and Databases. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Some bins include preparatory courses designed specifically for students with insufficient background knowledge or skills. While graduate credit may be earned for these courses, they cannot be used by Ph.D. students to satisfy a bin requirement. 1. The following list shows the set of courses in each bin. Courses with a 5000 number (those to the left of the ||'s) are preparatory courses. Courses listed in multiple bins may only be used to satisfy the requirements of one bin. Theory: 5003 (Intro. Theory) || 503 (Found.), 521 (Logic), 559 (Adv. Th.) Algorithms: 5084 (Intro. Algorithms) || 504 (Analysis), 584 (Algs) Systems: 502 (OS), 533 (Perf. Eval.), 535 (Adv. OS) Networks: 513 (Intro LAN/WAN), 529 (Multi. Net.), 530 (HP Net.), 577 (Adv.Net.) Design: 509 (SE), 546 (HCI), 562 (Adv. SE) Compilers/Languages: 536 (Langs.), 544 (Compilers) Graphics/Imaging: 543 (Graph.), 545 (Im. Proc.), 549 [Vision], 563 (Adv. Gr.) AI: 534 (AI), 538 (Ex. Sys.), 539 (Learning), 540 (AI Design), 549 [Vision] Databases: 542 (DB), 561 (Adv. DB) 2. For each bin, there will be a bin committee consisting of full-time CS faculty, responsible for the administration of requirements related to that bin. These responsibilities include recommending courses to be added or removed from their bin, determining which independent studies and special topics courses should be included in their bin, and approving student petitions to waive their bin. The membership of the bin committees will be annually reviewed by the Department Head. 3. Independent study and special topics (CS525) courses can be counted as belonging to a particular bin with the approval of the bin committee. Approval should be sought by the instructor prior to the start of the course. 4. Students who have completed previous graduate work elsewhere may petition the appropriate bin committee to waive the requirement of taking a course from that bin. If the waiver petition is approved by the bin committee, the grade the student received for the activity will be used in determining whether the breadth requirement is satisfied. 5. Students who do not achieve B level performance in a course within a bin, or the designated number of A grades within the bins, can either retake the course, take a different course within the bin, or, if it is in a non-essential bin, take courses in other bins to satisfy the breadth requirements. 6. BS/MS students who received BS/MS credit for an undergraduate course may have that undergraduate course satisfy the appropriate bin requirement. 7. These new rules, once approved by CGSR and, if needed, the WPI faculty, would take effect immediately. Students currently enrolled may choose to graduate either under these rules or any rules that have been active since their matriculation. Thus, for example, students who took the old written qualifier exam once and failed or conditionally passed may now switch to the new rules. Some leniency in the time limits may be granted for students transitioning to the new rules. 8. These new rules do not affect the requirement that Ph.D. students must successfully complete one graduate level mathematics course. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rationale: There have been numerous problems with the written qualifying exam in recent years, mostly characterized by students who get strong grades in core area courses who then fail the corresponding qualifying exam questions. It was felt that students should not have to be tested twice on the same material. In addition, there is a desire among the faculty to strengthen the requirement for breadth of CS knowledge for Ph.D. students. The motion above satisfies both issues by expanding the number of areas/bins required to 6 and establish a minimum quality level requirement in terms of course grades.