PhD in Telecommunications

The PhD in telecommunications is a three year program for full-time students taking classes in the Spring, Summer and Fall semesters. However, students may go above three years in the program but are not allowed to stay in the program after five years. This program allows students to engage in independent, first-class research and teaching. Our research agenda covers broadly the state-of-the art Internet technologies and security from various angles. It offers research-oriented graduate study and professional specialization in Data Communication and networking. The program emphasizes both scholarly and applied research. The PhD program consists of at least 54 credits hours. The student may also receive credits for research work, if this work is of high scientific quality (i.e. in principle publishable) and is not related to the thesis work of the student.

This program is based on the Dissertation Option. It requires 24 credit hours of core courses and at least 12 hours of research courses outside of the core courses. At least 12 credits out of the 24 credit hours must be at the 800 level. 600 level courses are not counted in the coursework requirement except for courses related to student’s Qualifying Examination. Students are also required to take 15 hours of research seminar courses.

Below is a breakdown of the Doctoral program in Data Communication and networking requirements:

This program includes theories and application related communication systems, signal processing, image processing, pattern recognition and computer vision; employing various techniques, such as signal detection, speech recognition, 3-D image modeling.

Topics include routing and flow-control techniques suitable for high-speed digital networks switching architectures and protocols for heterogeneous networks of various sizes. Such networks include ATM networks, as well as modeling and analysis of an integrated mixture of different traffic types and sources suitable for the Integrated Service Digital Network.