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School of Engineering Science | Faculty of Applied Sciences
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Calendar 2013 Spring

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Requirements

For admission to the doctor of philosophy (PhD) program, a student must have a master’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, computer science or a related field, have submitted evidence of capability to undertake substantial original research, and have identified a faculty member as senior supervisor.

See graduate general regulation 1.3 for other PhD program admission requirements.

Residence Requirement

Students will conform to the residence requirement as stipulated in graduate general regulation 1.7.

Transfer from the Master’s Program to the PhD Program

Proceeding to a PhD program without completing a master’s degree is discouraged. However, a student may be admitted after at least 12 months in the master of applied science (MASc) program if all non-thesis course requirements have been completed with a 3.67 or better cumulative grade point average (CGPA), outstanding potential for research has been shown, and approval of the student’s supervisory committee, graduate program committee and senate graduate studies committee has been given.

Course Requirements

The minimum requirement is 18 units beyond that of the MASc degree. Six of these units will be for prescribed courses in the specialization in which the student is enrolled. Alternatives can be substituted with the approval of the student’s supervisory committee. At most, six units may be senior undergraduate courses. At most, six units may be directed studies. At least six units must be within engineering science, although ENSC 820-3 may not be used towards these six units. Additional courses may be required to correct deficiencies in the student’s background.

Previous Credit

If the subject matter of a listed course has been previously completed with graduate credit, the course may not be completed again for credit.

Qualifying Examination

To qualify the student will submit a brief written research proposal and defend it orally to his/her supervisory committee within the first 24 months of admission. The proposal’s defence will be judged according to the feasibility and scientific merits of the proposed research, and demonstration of a sophisticated understanding of general material in the student’s major area of research. This level of understanding is associated with senior undergraduate and first year graduate course material.

The possible outcomes of the qualifying examination are ‘pass,’ ‘marginal’ and ‘fail.’ A student with ‘marginal’ will be required to re-submit the research proposal and defend it for the second and final time within six months and/or to complete more courses. A ‘failing’ grade requires withdrawal.

Thesis

Students define and undertake original research, the results of which are reported in a thesis. An examining committee is formed as defined in graduate general regulation 1.9.3. Students conform to residence requirements (see graduate general regulation 1.7.3). The senior supervisor will be an engineering science faculty approved by the graduate program committee.

The student’s progress will be reviewed every 12 months by a supervisory committee of three or more faculty members. At each annual review, the student presents a summary of his/her work to date, with the first review being the research proposal defence described in the section for Qualifying Examination (see above). Students not making satisfactory progress in their research topics, or failing to demonstrate satisfactory knowledge and understanding of recent publications in their general area of research, or failing to have their revised research proposal approved by the supervisory committee within 20 months of admission, may be required to withdraw as per section 1.8.2 Review of Unsatisfactory Progress of the graduate general regulations.

Academic Requirements within the Graduate General Regulations

All graduate students must satisfy the academic requirements that are specified in the Graduate General Regulations (residence, course work, academic progress, supervision, research competence requirement, completion time, and degree completion), as well as the specific requirements for the program in which they are enrolled, as shown above.

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