The Ph.D. candidate must pass a qualifying examination and a comprehensive examination. The electrical and computer engineering department occupies approximately 9,000 square feet of research space in the Engineering Research Complex in addition to numerous research laboratories in the Engineering Building and other campus sites. There are excellent laboratories and facilities for experimental research in backscattering, plasma science, microfabrication, robotics, manufacturing science, computer design, embedded system design, thin films, signal and speech processing, neural networks, and electric machines. The College of Engineering computer facilities, administered by the Division of Engineering Computer Services, include numerous student workrooms that contain a large number of personal computers and workstations. Access to outside computing facilities, including supercomputers, is provided through connections to all major academic and research networks.
All graduate students have a permanent computer account and an e-mail address.
Students can keep in contact with colleagues, research groups, databases, and agencies throughout the world. The College's engineering library contains 58,000 volumes and 630 journal subscriptions. The University library system has more than 3 million volumes and more than 21,000 journal subscriptions. Financial Aid Research and teaching assistantships and fellowships are available to qualified students. Up to 6 credits of tuition per semester are waived for students with assistantships, and nonresident graduate assistants pay the resident tuition rate on all additional credits.