PhD Program

Students must complete a minimum of 108 semester hours beyond the baccalaureate degree in order to complete the PhD program in electrical and computer engineering.

Program Overview Heading link

graduate students at work in a lab

For students admitted with a prior master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, the PhD degree requirements include 28 credit hours of traditional coursework, 48 credit hours of doctoral-level research, and at least two semesters of the zero-credit ECE 595 Departmental Seminar, which builds students’ current knowledge of the field by exposing them to presentations from UIC scholars and external researchers.

For students who are directly admitted after a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field, the PhD degree requirements include 52 hours of traditional coursework, 56 credits of doctoral-level research, and at least two semesters of the zero-credit ECE 595 Departmental Seminar.

Please expand the sections below to learn about the requirements in more detail.

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PhD degree requirements Heading link

28 credit hours of coursework

  • 16 of those credit hours must be in ECE courses at the 500 level, excluding ECE 596, ECE 598, and ECE 599. PhD students in computer engineering may replace up to 4 hours of this 500-level ECE coursework with 400-level ECE coursework as long as they complete the same number of hours of 500-level coursework in the computer science department, excluding CS 595, CS 596, CS 597, CS 598, and CS 599.
  • 12 of those credit hours must be in courses at the 400 level or 500 level. Coursework outside of the ECE department may be allowed with prior approval from ECE’s director of graduate studies.

48 credit hours of research

  • Students must complete 48 hours of ECE 599 PhD Thesis Research.

Additional notes

  • Students must enroll in and complete at least two semesters of the zero-credit ECE 595 Departmental Seminar.
  • Any UIC ECE course that is nearly equivalent to one taken in your prior master’s degree program will not earn PhD credit.
  • Credit earned in ECE 596 may not be applied to the PhD degree.
  • No credit toward the degree will be given for courses taken as credit/no-credit.

52 credit hours of coursework

  • 24 of those credit hours must be in ECE courses at the 500 level, excluding ECE 596, ECE 598, and ECE 599. Direct-admission PhD students in computer engineering may replace up to 8 hours of this 500-level ECE coursework with 400-level ECE coursework as long as they complete the same number of hours of 500-level coursework in the computer science department, excluding CS 595, CS 596, CS 597, CS 598, and CS 599.
  • 28 of those credit hours must be in courses at the 400 level or 500 level. Of these courses, 12 hours must come from ECE courses. Up to 16 hours of coursework outside the ECE department may be allowed with prior approval from ECE’s director of graduate studies.

56 credit hours of research

  • Students must complete 56 hours of ECE 599 PhD Thesis Research.

Additional notes

  • Students must enroll in and complete at least two semesters of the zero-credit ECE 595 Departmental Seminar.
  • Any UIC ECE course that is nearly equivalent to one taken in your prior master’s degree program will not earn PhD credit.
  • Credit earned in ECE 596 may not be applied to the PhD degree.
  • No credit toward the degree will be given for courses taken as credit/no-credit.

Qualifying Examination Heading link

PhD students must pass a qualifying examination before they begin the final phase of their doctoral study in ECE. Visit the Qualifying Examination page for full details.

Dissertation Research Heading link

Upon completion of all degree requirements and the dissertation, students must orally defend their work before their committee.

Additional Resources for PhD Students in ECE Heading link

If you have further questions about the program that aren’t answered here, please see our Graduate FAQ page.