Degree Requirements

Important Note: For applicants, all application materials and inquiries should be e-mailed to ece-dgs@engr.uky.edu. For current graduate students, all forms and inquiries are to be sent the DGS’s personal e-mail address listed on the ECE faculty webpage. Please follow this strictly, otherwise, your materials may get lost.

Please study the policy and regulations about graduate studies in ECE.

Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering

MS Mission Statement

The mission of the MS program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky is to provide students with an advanced education in electrical and computer engineering, with the ability to contribute to scholarly research and to new technologies, and to prepare them for successful careers.

Expected MS Outcomes:

As a part of our mission, students completing a MS in Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will have obtained the following outcomes:

  1. A mastery of fundamental concepts in electrical and computer engineering;
  2. The ability to perform creative research;
  3. The ability to communicate difficult technical concepts both orally and in writing;
  4. An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.

The master’s degree requires 24 credit hours of course work and a thesis (Plan A). A non-thesis option (Plan B) consisting of 30 credit hours is available. Enrollment in the non-thesis option requires approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and must be requested within the student’s first 9 credit hours of graduate course work. All MS students must also complete 3 of the 5 core 600-level graduate courses in electrical engineering and obtain a GPA of 3.0 or higher in the three core courses.

MS Thesis/Project Final Exam Procedure

Please follow the Graduate School’s Check Sheet (http://www.research.uky.edu/gs/forms.html). The following procedure is required by ECE Department. Please download the MS Student Final Exam Checklist using the Adobe Acrobat Professional software fill in the information on Page 1 and Page 2, the project title on Page 3, and save it. E-mail the filled Checklist and the ECE-Department Rubrics for MS Final Examinations to his/her advisor before the final exam. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that his/her adviser has the Rubrics, Checklist, and the Final exam card before the MS Final Exam.

After the Final Exam, the advisor needs to e-mail or send both the Checklist and the Final exam card to DGS. The DGS won’t sign off the Final exam card until he receives the Checklist. It is the student’s responsibility to check with the DGS if his/her Final exam card is signed or not after one week of the Final exam! If not, the student needs to urge his/her advisor to send the checklist to DGS as soon as possible. After DGS signing off the Final exam card, the card will be sent to the Graduate School and the Final Exam is concluded.

Note: A PhD student who enters with only a BS degree also has an option to obtain a MS degree on the way toward his/her PhD studies. This can be done by using his/her partial research results for his/her MS thesis and following the same procedure as described above.

PhD in Electrical Engineering

PhD Mission Statement

The mission of the PhD program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky is to provide students with an advanced education in electrical and computer engineering, with the ability to identify and develop creative solutions to novel and existing problems, with the expertise to independently contribute to scholarly research and to new technologies, and to prepare them for successful careers.

Expected PhD Outcomes:

As a part of our mission, students completing a PhD in Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will have obtained the following outcomes:

  1. A mastery of fundamental concepts in electrical and computer engineering;
  2. The ability to perform independent research;
  3. The ability to identify, investigate, formulate, and solve new problems of interest through scholarly research in order to contribute new ideas and engineering concepts;
  4. The ability to communicate difficult technical concepts both orally and in writing;
  5. An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.

The Ph.D. degree is a research degree granted on the basis of broad knowledge of electrical or computer engineering and in-depth study in a specific area leading to a dissertation reflecting original work by the doctoral candidate. To obtain a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering, in addition to meeting the general Graduate School requirements, a student must:

  1. Earn 42 graduate credit hours taken at the University of Kentucky while in graduate standing. This would include a MS degree earned at the University of Kentucky plus an additional 18 graduate credit hours. Alternatively, this would include a MS degree earned at another accredited institution plus an additional 24 graduate credit hours. All PhD students must also complete 3 of the 5 core 600-level graduate courses in electrical engineering with a score of “B” or higher in each core course.
  2. Pass the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. The Qualifying exam consists of two parts. The first part of the exam is the Departmental Written Qualifying Exam administered by the department (DGS). The exam will test the student’s foundational knowledge in electrical or computer engineering as well as the student’s graduate knowledge in areas related to his/her research. The second part of this exam is the Oral Qualifying Exam administered by the Graduate School and the student’s doctoral advisory committee. This exam will test the soundness of the student’s proposed doctoral dissertation research. At least two weeks prior to the oral exam, the student must prepare and submit a written prospectus to his/her doctoral advisory committee outlining his/her research plan. On the oral qualifying exam date scheduled through the Graduate School, the student will then give an oral presentation of his/her proposed research, with sufficient evidence demonstrating knowledge of the topic, the novelty of the topic, and a research plan to complete the dissertation research. Full details of the PhD qualifying requirements can be found here. Students who enrolled in the PhD program prior to the Spring 2010 semester are governed by the old qualifying exam model. Details of this model are provided here .
  3. Annual Reviews. Every PhD student must go through an annual review with his/her PhD advisory committee. Before Written Qualifying Exam, the student’s annual review is conducted by DGS. The student should organize his/her PhD advisory committee as early as possible after Written Qualifying Exam. The student’s oral qualifying exam and his/her PhD final defense are also considered as annual reviews. The student will receive written feedback from his/her committee regarding the annual review. More details on the annual review are provided below.
  4. PhD Proposal/Oral Qualifying Exam. After passing his/her Written Qualifying Exam and completing his course requirements, the student should be focused on a research topic. The student must complete a formal proposal for his/her PhD research. A written proposal must be submitted to the student’s advisory committee. The student must schedule an Oral Qualifying Exam through the Graduate School to present his/her PhD proposal with his/her advisory committee, which will either approve or dissaprove the proposal.
  5. Ph.D. Final Defense. Upon completion of the research, the PhD student will give an oral presentation before his/her doctoral advisory committee in defense of his/her dissertation research. The dissertation research will undergo the scrutiny of the doctoral advisory committee, who will be responsible to determine the novelty, completeness and success of the candidate’s research program. The PhD candidate should submit a completed copy of his/her dissertation no later than 2 weeks prior to the scheduled defense date.
  6. Submission of the PhD Dissertation. Upon passing the PhD defense, the student will submit the final version of their PhD Dissertation, upon approval of their PhD Advisory committee, PhD advisor, and the Director of Graduate Studies, to the Graduate School. The PhD Dissertation must meet all formatting requirements of the graduate school.

PhD Student Annual Review:

As required by the Graduate School Bulletin (refer to page 43), the progress of a PhD student must be assessed annually. This assessment will be done by the student’s advisory committee, and must be completed at least once per year in the format of a “PhD Annual Review”. The annual review will have two components:

  1. A formal written research summary detailing the students research activity
  2. A formal presentation before the student’s committee (open to the public) summarizing the PhD student’s research activities.

The PhD annual review must be scheduled by the student with his/her PhD advisory committee. For a student’s first annual review, he/she must download the PhD Student Checklist, and then fill in the first page using Adobe Acrobat Professional software. He/she needs to e-mail the filled checklist together with the  rubrics to his/her advisor before the annual review.  The committee needs the checklist and rubrics to conduct the annual review. For a student who is not doing the annual review for the first time, he/she does not need to send the form to his/her advisor because the checklist is reusable until graduation. He/she needs to remind his/her advisor to bring the checklist and rubrics to the committee for annual review.

The PhD student should submit a written research summary to his/her advisory committee no later than 1 week prior to the annual review. The student should prepare a presentation (power-point, or similar) on the order of 30 minutes that summarizes their research. The student should also be prepared to field questions from the committee about their research. The student’s written report and presentation will be assessed quantitatively by the advisory committee. The categories to be assessed can be found on the PhD student checklist. The quantitative assessment will be on a scale of 1-4. Each committee member will independently assess the PhD student following a pre-defined set of rubrics . The student should familiarize themselves with the criterion to be adequately prepared. After annual review, his/her advisor needs to send the checklist back to DGS for record.

Side notes: Pre-written-qualifying PhD students, who have no advisors, must also complete an annual review. The DGS will conduct the annual review by interviewing with students. The students need to fill in the PhD Student Checklist and e-mail it to DGS, and schedule an appointment. For qualifying year students (typically, the second or third year), the oral qualifying exam serves as the student’s annual review. For students who plan to do their PhD Final exams in that year, no annual review is needed.

PhD Final Exam Procedure

Please follow the Graduate School’s Check Sheet (http://www.research.uky.edu/gs/forms.html) and the procedure outlined by the Graduate School. The following procedure is required by ECE Department. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that his/her adviser has the rubrics, PhD Student Checklist (reusable) saved in the advisor’s computer, and the Final exam card before the PhD Final Exam. After the Final Exam, the advisor needs to e-mail the Checklist in electronic format at the DGS’s personal e-mail address and deliver the Final exam card to DGS’s mailbox at the department office. The DGS won’t sign off the Final exam card until he receives the Checklist. It is the student’s responsibility to check with the DGS if his/her Final exam card is signed or not after one week of the Final exam! If not, the student needs to urge his/her advisor to send the checklist to DGS as soon as possible. After DGS signing off the Final exam card, the card will be sent to the Graduate School and the Final Exam is concluded.

 

Special Course Enrollment

Important Note: For applicants, all application materials and inquiries should be e-mailed to ece-dgs@engr.uky.edu. For current graduate students, all forms and inquiries are to be sent the DGS’s personal e-mail address listed on the ECE faculty webpage. Please follow this strictly, otherwise, your materials may get lost.

  • EE 748 If you need to request an enrollment in the zero hour course EE 748 Master’s Thesis Research, you must complete the Enrollment Request Form for EE 748 and email the form to DGS and cc: your advisor and Danielle Green-Hinkle (dgreen@engr.uky.edu) prior to the end of the registration period. The form must be signed by your adviser. Note that the maximum length of enrollment in EE 748 for full-time students is 3 semesters. Students who enroll for EE 748 for more than 3 semesters must petition the DGS by submitting a completed enrollment Request Form

 

  • EE 767 PhD students should enroll in this course only AFTER they have completed and passed their Oral Qualifying Exam requirements. PhD students must enroll in EE 767 (2 credit hours) every semester thereafter until they complete their PhD in order to remain in good standing or full time of studies. A student may register for EE 767 the semester they expect to complete their Oral Qualifying Exam. If the student fails to complete their Oral Qualifying Exam requirements that semester, they must drop EE 767.

 

For the first-time enrollment in EE 767, students must submit the EE 767 registriation form  electronically to Danielle (dgreen@engr.uky.edu) and cc to DGS (personal e-mail address). Please at least include your name, UK ID, EE767 Section# (in UK online class schedule), your advisor, and your oral QE date. Fill out more information in the form is more welcome. Make sure your professor has sent your checklist to Danielle. Without your checklist, your EE767 can not be registered.

 

For re-enrollment of EE767, in every semester students must submit the EE 767 registriation form electronically to Danielle (dgreen@engr.uky.edu). Do not send it to DGS!!! Please at least include your name, UK ID, EE767 Section# (in UK online class schedule), your advisor, and your oral QE date. Make sure your professor have sent your checklist to Danielle. Without your checklist, your EE767 can not be registered.

 

  • EE780 (2 hours) Curriculum training internship in industries and national labs. Apply advanced training in electrical/computer engineering to solve complex practical problems subject to approval of DGS. This course may be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours. MS and PhD students in electrical engineering who complete 18 hours of graduate courses can enroll. For enrollment, the student must submit a 2-page mini proposal with a faculty or industrial sponsor for a project. The proposal will include objective, proposed task and anticipated results. A report will be submitted to document the performed work and achieved results at the end.

 

  • EE 783 Registration for Special Problems in Electrical Engineering is done directly by the student. However, students must complete the departmental form for this course if they are to receive a grade for it. MS students can take one 3 hour EE 783 course towards their degree. PhD students can take up to two EE 783 courses towards their qualifying course credit hours.

 

  • EE 784(3 hours) must be taken by students who are completing the MS with the project option (Plan B). The MS student can enroll in EE 784 only after completing their 30 hours of course work, including the 3 core graduate level courses. The MS project should be a 1 semester project completed by the student under the advise of their academic advisor. The student must form a MS committee of 3 faculty members, and defend their project during the semester they have enrolled in EE 784. They must also complete their project according the Graduate Bulletin guidelines. To enroll in EE 784, submit the EE 784 registration form to the DGS.

 

  • EE790 (1-9 hours) After completing course work prior to oral qualifying exam, the student can take 2 hours of EE790 per semester.  Registering 2 hours of EE790, along with the DGS approved course load reduction, is considered as full-time studies. Registration for this class can be done by contacting the DGS with the course load-reduction form. At the end of the semester, the student must also prepare and turn in to the DGS the current draft of his/her PhD qualifying exam proposal.  Note that the proposal does not have to be completed, however, the student should show progress in the proposal during the course of the semester.  The submitted proposal draft must be signed and dated by the student and the student’s PhD advisor.

Graduate Students