https://exploredegrees.stanford.edu/schoolofengineering/instituteforcomputationalandmathematicalengineering/#doctoraltext
The University’s basic requirements for the Ph.D. degree are outlined in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.
Applications to the Ph.D. program and all required supporting documents must be received by December 1, 2020. See Graduate Admissions for information and application materials. See the institute's admissions site for additional details. Applicants should take the Graduate Record Examination by October of the academic year in which the application is submitted.
ICME offers direct admission to the Ph.D. program. Admission does not imply that the student is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree. Advancement to candidacy requires superior academic achievement, satisfactory performance on the qualifying exam, and sponsorship by a faculty member.
The requirements seek to balance research activities and coursework.
Requirements
- Filing for candidacy (before the end of the second year):
- Complete 18 units of the ICME core classes (CME 302, CME 303, CME 305, CME 306, CME 307, CME 308) for letter grade and pass the ICME qualifying exam before the beginning of the second year.
- Complete three units of the programming class (CME 212); programming proficiency at the level of CME 211 is a hard prerequisite. Students can place out of CME 211. These classes should be taken for letter grade.
- Maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher.
- Complete a minimum of six units of research rotations in years one and two (can be with same faculty adviser). CME 400 can be taken for three units at a time for credit/no credit.
- Complete three units of seminars: one unit must come from CME 300.
- Submit the Ph.D. candidacy form: University policy requires that all doctoral students declare candidacy by the end of the sixth quarter in residence, excluding summers. However, after completing the integrated first year coursework, passing qualifying exam, and aligning with a permanent adviser, a student is eligible to file for candidacy prior to the sixth quarter. The candidacy form serves as a "contract" between the department and the student. Candidacy expires five years from the date of submission of the candidacy form, rounded to the end of the quarter. In special cases, the department may extend a student's candidacy, but is under no obligation to do so.
- Progress toward the degree:
- Complete nine units of specialized depth electives – to be agreed on with the graduate research adviser. These are intended to provide foundational knowledge of the selected research field and exposure to relevant applications. The specialized depth component of the ICME program is meant to be broad and inclusive of relevant courses of comparable rigor to ICME core courses.
- Complete three units of advanced programming classes (CME 213, CME 323, CS 315B, etc.).
- Complete nine units of computational breadth electives – advanced graduate level courses with computational content.
- Complete at least 60 units of thesis research (CME 400).
- File the dissertation Reading Committee Form and a succinct research proposal (approved by your adviser) by the end of the third year in the program
- Organize a “Green Light” meeting with the committee members no less than six months prior to the expected defense. This meeting should be completed in the autumn quarter of the fifth year in the program or six months before scheduling oral exams if program is expected to be completed earlier. In this meeting, a final dissertation proposal will be reviewed and discussed, and the student will present a "draft Ph.D. thesis outline" indicating status of prior work and plans for additional work. The presentation should not be a "practice thesis defense presentation", but rather should be a chapter-by-chapter review of the status of completion of each part of the expected Ph.D. thesis. A month-by-month schedule for the time remaining until the Ph.D. Defense should be presented at this meeting. The purpose of this Green Light meeting is to make sure that the entire reading committee is familiar with the plans for the completed Ph.D. thesis, and is comfortable with the proposed content and the schedule.
- Degree Completion:
a. Complete a minimum of 135 units of residency at Stanford.
b. The student must pass a University oral examination in the form of a defense of the dissertation. This is typically held after all or a substantial portion of the dissertation research has been completed.
c. The student is expected to demonstrate the ability to present scholarly material orally in the dissertation defense.
Some Additional details:
- ICME Qualifying Exam: exams involving material covered in the core courses are held in June and September. Students need to pass all six exams and each exam can be attempted twice prior to the beginning of the second year in the program.
- ICME Research Rotations: research rotations must be arranged by each student on a topic of their interest; the objective is to secure commitment from a faculty member to become the Ph.D. research adviser. ICME will gather information on potential research topics and faculty with open positions by the beginning of the academic year. The CME 300 seminars will be organized to introduce research opportunities, faculty members and current ICME Ph.D. students. Furthermore, contact information of prior ICME students and faculty advisers will be made available.
- ICME Research Presentations: a one-day research forum will be organized in the fall quarter for the students to present the research outcomes of the rotations to faculty and students. Presentation at the forum is a requirement to file for candidacy.
- Mentoring and Monitoring: incoming Ph.D. students are assigned an academic adviser from among the ICME affiliated faculty who can provide help and advice and act as a point of contact for general inquires. The ICME Director and the student services office are also available for consultation. Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program are considered to be in good standing if they have submitted the candidacy form before the end of the second year at Stanford. After that, academic progress towards the degree is routinely overseen by the research adviser. Every year, over the summer, the ICME Director reviews all students' progress with regard to units, course work and research progress. All research advisers are solicited for their evaluation. Each student receives a program progress report based on these sources of information.
- Master's in ICME: This program does not automatically satisfy the requirement for the Master's degree in ICME. However, ICME Ph.D. students may choose to obtain a Master's degree in addition to their Ph.D. by fulfilling the Master's course requirements as described in the Bulletin.
Specialized Elective List
See requirement 2a above.
| Units | ||
|---|---|---|
| CEE 362G | Imaging with Incomplete Information | 3-4 |
| CME 279 | Computational Biology: Structure and Organization of Biomolecules and Cells | 3 |
| CME 364B | Convex Optimization II | 3 |
| CME 371 | Computational Biology in Four Dimensions | 3 |
| CS 348A | Computer Graphics: Geometric Modeling & Processing | 3-4 |
| EE 368 | Digital Image Processing | 3 |
| MATH 205A | Real Analysis | 3 |
| MATH 215A | Algebraic Topology | 3 |
| MATH 221A | Mathematical Methods of Imaging | 3 |
| MATH 221B | Mathematical Methods of Imaging | 3 |
| MATH 227 | Partial Differential Equations and Diffusion Processes | 3 |
| MATH 236 | Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations | 3 |
| MATH 238 | Mathematical Finance | 3 |
| ME 335A/335B/335C | Finite Element Analysis | 3 |
| ME 346B | Introduction to Molecular Simulations | 3 |
| ME 351A/351B | Fluid Mechanics | 3 |
| ME 361 | Turbulence | 3 |
| ME 408 | Spectral Methods in Computational Physics | 3 |
| ME 469 | Computational Methods in Fluid Mechanics | 3 |
| MS&E 319 | Approximation Algorithms | 3 |
| STATS 305A | Applied Statistics I | 3 |
| STATS 305B | Applied Statistics II: Generalized Linear Models, Survival Analysis, and Exponential Families | 3 |
| STATS 305C | Applied Statistics III | 3 |
| STATS 318 | Modern Markov Chains | 3 |
| STATS 366 | Modern Statistics for Modern Biology | 3 |
Ph.D. Minor in Computational and Mathematical Engineering
For a minor in Computational and Mathematical Engineering (CME), a doctoral candidate must complete 21 units of approved graduate level courses. These should include three ICME core courses and three ICME graduate electives at the 300 level or above and a programming course at the level of CME 212 or higher. All courses must be taken for a letter grade and passed with a grade of ‘B’ or better. Elective courses cannot be cross listed with the student's primary department. Minor programs should be developed in close discussion between the student and the student's primary Ph.D. adviser.