Ph.D. Qualifying Exam

Overview

All students enrolled in the doctoral program in Electrical Engineering are required to pass a written qualifying examination. The purpose of this qualifying examination is to assess the student's broad background in ECE and ensure their capabilities for conducting doctoral work. This exam covers undergraduate ECE course work.

Students who are classified as doctoral students must pass the qualifying examination within the first two years of full-time doctoral enrollment. Students enrolled in the doctoral program part-time have two years to pass the qualifying examination after completing 9 credit hours of course work.

The qualifying examination is given twice a year, each fall and spring semester, usually the first Saturday in October and the first Saturday in March, or as scheduled by the department. Students planning to take the qualifying examination must submit to the graduate program director a Qualifying Exam Form by September 15 for the fall semester and by February 15 for the spring semester.

In addition to students enrolled in the doctoral program, the following students may also take the qualifying examination:

students enrolled in the M.S. program within the department
senior undergraduate students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher enrolled in the department

EE Qualifying Exam

The EE qualifying exam consists of a total of 20 problems, 10 problems form core courses in ECE and 10 problems from discipline specific areas. Each student must select a total of 8 problems (a minimum of two problems from discipline specific areas) to work within a 4-hour duration for grading. Pass/fail results will be reported.

Sample Exam

EE Qualifying Exam - Sample Exam

Course Coverage

Core Courses:

ECE 3714 - Digital Devices
ECE 3724 - Microprocessor
ECE 3313 - Electromagnetics I
ECE 3323 - Electromagnetics
ECE 3413 - Intro to Electronic Circuits
ECE 3424 - Intermediate Electronic Circuits
ECE 3434 - Advanced Electronics Circuits
ECE 3443 - Signal and Systems
ECE 3414 - Energy Systems
MA 4533 - Probability and Random Processes

Discipline Specific:
Digital Computing (2 Problems)

ECE 4713 - Computer Architecture
ECE 4743 - Digital System Design

Signal Processing (2 Problems)

ECE 4413 - Into to DSP

Microelectronics (2 Problems)

ECE 4243 - Physical Electronics
ECE 4263 - Intro VLSI Design

Power and Controls (2 Problems)

ECE 4613 - Power Transmission Systems
ECE 4913 - Feedback Control Systems I

Electromagnetics and Telecommunications (2 problems)

ECE 4813 - Communications Theory
ECE 4313 - Antennas

CPE Qualifying Exam

The CPE qualifying exam consists of a total of 17 problems, 10 problems form core courses and 7 problems from upper-level courses. Each student must select a total of 8 problems (a minimum of two problems from upper-level courses, with at least one problem selected from Digital Computing and at least one problem from Computer Science and Engineering) to work within a 4-hour duration for grading. Pass/fail results will be reported.

Sample Exam

CPE Qualifying Exam - Sample Exam

Course Coverage

Core Courses:

ECE 3714 - Digital Devices
ECE 3724 - Microprocessor
ECE 3413 - Intro to Electronic Circuits
ECE 3424 - Intermediate Electronic Circuits
ECE 3434 - Advanced Electronics Circuits
ECE 3443 - Signal and Systems
CSE 2813 - Discrete Structure
CSE 2383 - Data Structure and Analysis of Algorithms
CSE 3324 - Dist. Client/Server Programming
MA 4533 - Probability and Random Processes

Upper-level Courses:

Digital Computing (4 Problems)

ECE 4713 - Computer Architecture
ECE 4723 - Embedded Systems
ECE 4743 - Digital System Design
ECE 4263 - Intro VLSI Design

Computer Science and Engineering (3 Problems)

CSE 4153 - Data Communications and Computer Networks
CSE 4733 - Operating Systems
CSE 4833 - Algorithms