Requirements

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Degree requirements for a Research Doctorate in Philosophy in Computer Science[1].

  • To Do:
    • Add requirements for software programs
    • Start Academic Articles article
    • Create a Credit Bonus system for published articles.

Advising

No Paper.
Figure 1

No Fossils.
Figure 2
  • This is the 21st Century. Not the 19th.[2] Not the 13th.[3] Adjust your mind accordingly.
  • No Paper. The Transcript Requirement demands that all material must be displayed on a publicly accessible web site. Thus, the No Paper Rule.
    • If material must be produced on paper, scan it or copy it into a digital format.
  • No Fossils.[4] Ideas or organizations that are out-of-date, calcified, conservative, exhausted, obsolete. Professors[5] are not burned at the stake for Heresy[6], but they still get tenure[7].

The goal is to fulfill the degree requirements in minimum time and with minimum wasted effort. Writing an article that applies to two or more requirements is the best way to do this. For example, a detailed and deep Dissertation Topic Declaration article can be published. That article counts toward the publication requirement.

The student can submit many articles to a publications. Sometimes breaking up a large article into smaller ones increases both understanding, simplifies it, and increases publication chances.

Requirements

This program is designed to teach a student how to produce and publish Computer Science research at the highest level. While there are no prerequisites, the intended student is an experienced software engineer with a Bachelor's in Science in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mathematics. The doctorate programs breaks down into four broad areas

  • Conducting research
  • Producing academic articles suitable for publication
  • Publishing articles
  • Learning the academic culture

Credit Requirements

The doctorate requires that 90 graduate-level credits be completed while maintaining a 3.0 or "B" grade average. Credits can be earned in four areas:

  • Lecture Courses - Traditional courses offered by an accredited graduate school.
  • Lecture Courses (Proposal) - The student may submit a proposal for a new course and, if approved, complete it for credit.
  • Research Courses - The student produces a research article suitable for publication.
  • Professional Experience Credits - Extra ordinary experiences applicable to graduate study.
  • Self-Study Courses - The student studies on his own and submits finished work.

Guidance

  • Each course taken can fulfill one and only one requirement.
  • A course can be taken online
  • A course can be taken in person
  • A course can be self-study
    • The student will assemble a syllabus, materials, and exams into a coherent course.
    • These materials may come from different courses, but they must all be at the graduate level.

Required Courses

Computer Systems: Select two courses from the following four topics

  • Computer Architecture
  • Computer Networks
  • Distributed Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages

6 Credits Theory: Select two courses from the following four topics

  • Algorithms
  • Advanced Data Structures
  • Formal Languages and Computation Theory

6 Credits Graduate Lecture Courses

  • 24 Credits

Research for Doctoral Dissertation

  • 3 Credits

Total: 39 Credits

Seminars

The student will attend three graduate level seminars, in person or virtually, for one credit each.

  • 3 Credits

Total: 42 Credits.

Required Research

The student will complete research projects in computer science for between one and fifteen credits each. Publishing a research project in a computer science journal counts toward requirement.
Some research areas are:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Computer Architecture & Engineering (ARC)
  • Biosystems & Computational Biology (BIO)
  • Cyber-Physical Systems and Design Automation (CPSDA)
  • Database Management Systems (DBMS)
  • Education (EDUC)
  • Embedded Systems (ES)
  • Graphics (GR)
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Operating Systems & Networking (OSNT)
  • Programming Systems (PS)
  • Scientific Computing (SCI)
  • Security (SEC)
  • Theory (THY)

Guidance
Graduate level research from other disciplines, biology, economics, or mathematics, can be done if the student can demonstrate relevance. Granting credit for research a project is proportional to the credits granted from a graduate level course. For example, a research project worth one credit would produce enough information for one third of a graduate level course.

Non-Credit Requirements

Academic Conference[8]

The student will attend an academic conference, in person, where articles are presented and submit an article describing it. This can be any academic conference, not just one about computer science. The conference will be non-profit.

Guidance

The for-profit conferences are thinly disguised scams so avoid those. Conferences are where the most ideas are exchanged, created, partnerships formed, and projects started. Knowing the mechanics and navigating them successfully are key to successful research. Focus on what worked. What worked well. What can be improved.

Academic Seminar

The student will attend a public lecture given by a scientist and submit an article on it. Also called a lecture or colloquium.

Guidance

Professors give a public speech on some topic and answer questions. Examine how the lecture was organized, publicized, recorded, etc.

Academic Statements

The student will submit two, or more, statements that describe their doctoral career.

  • Purpose Statement - Why does the student need a doctorate?
  • Research Statement - What does the student want to research?

Guidance

These are statements. Not essays. Not articles. Not books. Not videos. String together two to five sentences into a single paragraph that describes your idea in vivid detail. Do not describe your dissertation topic in elaborate detail, that is for the Dissertation Topic Declaration.

Publication Requirement

The student will publish four articles in academic publications devoted to computer science.

Degree Award

The Degree is awarded after the credit requirement is satisfied and the dissertation is published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Doctoral Dissertation

  1. Dissertation Topic Declaration - The student will submit an article describing their chosen dissertation topic. This is the first assignment must be completed first.
  2. Research for Doctoral Dissertation. The student will enroll in, and complete, this course.
  3. To substitute for a degree committee, the dissertation must be published in a peer reviewed academic journal.

Guidance

If the student changes their dissertation topic, the original dissertation topic maybe published as an article. That article counts toward the publication requirement.

Dissertation Defense

The student will attend a Dissertation Defense and submit an article on it.

Guidance

The dissertation defense simulates a real-world peer review board. Also called a murder board because the review committee can reject or cancel the proposal or project under review. The academic peer-review differs enough that observing one is worth while.

Dissertation Topic

The student will submit for approval a topic for their doctoral dissertation formatted as an academic article.

Publication Requirement

Main Article: Publication Requirement
Main Article: Writing Articles
Main Article: Publishing Scholarly Articles
Study at the doctorate level is all about producing and publishing academic articles. The student is required to publish four articles. Publishing the dissertation counts towards the requirement.

Transcript

1. All work related to this effort will be on public display through a website the student will maintain.
2. All software and data related to this effort will be deposited with a third-party source code control website for public access.
3. All software related to this effort will be on display and downloadable with supporting data from the from website that satisfies the Transcript 1 requirement.

Guidance

This means all the student's work, including notes, source code, data sets, and articles, must be in some digital format suitable for display on a website. Find an ISP[9] that offers Virtual Private Servers[10] and keep your work there. This strategy is much more reliable than constantly transferring material between computers. Be sure, as always, to backup everything yourself. Requirement two can be satisfied by using a service like GitHub[11] or Sourceforge[12].

University Catalog

Course Catalog

  1. Independent Graduate Research. Credits 1-15. The class title will be the same as the article it produces. Credits awarded per class are based on a [size x aggravation x publication = credits] formula. Topics range from an article to a thesis. This course can be repeated endlessly.
  2. Historical Research. Credits 1-15. The student will produce an historical article on the research topic presented in his Statement of Research essay.
  3. Research for Doctoral Dissertation. Non-Credit. The student will produce a scientific article and publish it in a peer-refereed journal[13].
  4. Professional Experience Credit. Extraordinary professional experience applicable to graduate-level work worth 1-15 credits. The class title will be the same as the article it produces. Credit awarded per class are based on a size x aggravation x experience formula. This course can be repeated endlessly. For argument's sake. If an undergraduate education prepares the student for a complex job. Then working at that job can be credited to the bachelor's degree. For example, working as a software engineer can be credited to a B.S. in Software Engineering. Crediting practical experience to graduate degree must meet a higher, more rigorous, standard. Writing the architecture for an enterprise software application would not meet the test. Writing the software architecture for NASA's Constellation Ground Support program does meet the test.

Course Creation Requirements

Main Article: Course Manual
Requirements for creating a lecture or self-study course for credit.

Grading

Main Article: Academic Grading
Main Article: Exam Policy
While course grades are meaningless in the USA because there is no national standard and because grades are often given in an arbitrary or malicious manner, the student is expected to master the material to a grade B or better. Exams will be repeated until a B or better grade is earned. No class has a prerequisite requirement. The student is expected to repeat the material until it is mastered. This stack method is more time efficient than slogging through two or three prerequisite courses.

Internal Links

Parent Article: Computer Science Doctoral Education