Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science

The Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) offers programs leading to the PhD and MS degrees. Computer Science is a vigorous and exciting field of research and study that continues to grow in importance. Computer Science programs are broad in scope and deal with software and hardware technology, the theory of computation, scientific computing, and their applications. Departmental research strengths include artificial intelligence (machine learning, multiagent systems, planning and problem solving), bioinformatics, computational theory (computational learning theory, design and analysis of algorithms, computability theory), compiler optimization and compilation for parallel machines, natural-language processing, (discourse and dialogue, generation, information extraction, summarization), systems (parallel and distributed computing, grid and volunteer computing, algorithm and architecture design for massive parallelism), networks, (distributed computing, transport layer protocols, mobile and wireless networks, algorithm and architecture design for massive parallelism, networks management, security performance modeling, simulation), graphics and computer vision, rehabilitation engineering (augmentative communication, speech recognition and enhancement), software engineering (program analysis and testing), and symbolic mathematical computation (algebraic algorithms, parallelization), and robotics.





The CIS graduate program provides a solid foundation in the fundamental areas of computer science and, in addition, provides numerous advanced courses and seminars to acquaint the student with current computer science research. The main difference in objectives between the MS and PhD programs is that the PhD is designed to prepare students to conduct advanced research.

A bachelor’s degree at a recognized four-year college or university. A minimum grade average of 3.2 in the major field of study and an overall cumulative index of 3.0 is required.

A master’s degree is not required for admission to the PhD program. Strong applicants with a Bachelor’s degree are encouraged to apply directly for admission to the PhD program.