ENCS 8011 Ph.D. Seminar (2 credits)

 

The Ph.D. Seminar is designed to train students to communicate the results of their research projects to the community and participate in research discussions. This is done when the students have sufficiently progressed into their research, normally after 6 (12 for part-time students) months of being admitted to candidacy, which is normally after 24 (48 for part-time students) months of residency, and must be completed before the submission of the thesis. The student's evaluation, reflected by either a pass or fail grade, is based upon attendance in all seminars, a report on the student's thesis research under the direction of the thesis supervisor(s), and a presentation.

 

Prerequisite:

ENCS 8511 Doctoral Research Proposal.

Note:

Students who have completed ENCS 8011 prior to September 2005 may not take this Seminar for credit.

 

 

Guidelines:

 

1) The student should prepare a written report with the following main objectives,

 

-         Introducing the research problem and if there has been any deviations from the research goals stated in the proposal, they should be justified (1-3 pages).

      The introduction should also include a brief but more recent literature survey (1-3 pages).

 

-         Presenting the progress made on the research problem since the proposal. 

      The report should contain  results as well as the methodology leading to them (maximum 10 pages).

 

-         Briefly discuss the remaining work and give an estimate of the time needed for the completion of the work (1-3 pages).

 

-         Conclusions (1 page)

 

-         The presentation of research results is very important for dissemination of information. Therefore the written report should have clarity and be unambiguous.

 

The format of the report,

 

·        A student may use an appropriate style manual as specified by the supervisor.

·        The report should be typed using a 12-point “times new roman” font with 1.5 line spacing.

·        The main body of the Report (all chapters and appendices) should be at most 20 pages including figures, tables ….

·          The written report format may follow the following suggested outline:

Cover Page

Abstract

Table of Contents

List of Symbols

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Introduction (Try to use layout non specialized technical language)

     Problem Statement

     Motivation/Applications (important for the non-specialists)
     Objectives/Problems
     Basic Assumption/Limitations

     Recent Literature Review

Chapter 2 Background

    Different sections as appropriate to building the theoretical background for the
    topic emphasizing the most recent activities relevant to the subject.  

Chapter 3 Recent Research Activities

    Numerical/Measured Results and discussions

Chapter 4 Future Work and Conclusions

    A detailed revised research plan of action and expected milestones.
    Potential Implications to knowledge/theory/practice

References

Appendices

 

2) The Presentation

 

A presentation will consist of three parts,

 

-         A student will have up to 30 minutes for his/her presentation

-         Then the examination of the committee will take place.

-         Finally, the students will have a maximum of 20 minutes for questions

 

The answer to the questions should be concise.

 

3) Presentation Schedules

 

The Ph.D. seminars will be scheduled at most one per week and presentations will take place on Wednesday  afternoon at 2:45 pm. A student in consultation with his/her supervisor will choose the week of the presentation. The PhD Supervisory Committee of the student will be present during the seminar. The student will ensure that his/her supervisor confirms the availability of the supervisory committee members on the chosen date. A binded copy of the report will be delivered individually by the student to each committee member and to the Coordinator at least a week in advance. The student will also send an electronic copy of the report in the PDF format to the Coordinator. The Coordinator will forward the report to all of the students taking the seminar course.

 

4) Evaluation

 

The Ph.D. seminar course will be graded as Pass or Fail. Following the presentation of a seminar, the Ph.D. Supervisory Committee will make a Pass or Fail decision based on the amount of progress and the quality of the research. The decision will also take into consideration the quality of written, oral presentations and the student’s responses to the questions. If the committee gives a fail decision then the student will be given a second chance after an appropriate period of time.

 

An important objective of the course is to enable students to learn from each other. Therefore each student has to attend at least 80% of all the seminars in the course. They have to read the reports and ask questions during the seminar. The Coordinator will keep a record of the attendance and participation of the students in the question period. A student will also have to satisfy this requirement also in order to receive a Pass grade in the course.