PhD Dissertation Research

Catalog description

The Ph.D. dissertation highlights the research activities and outcomes, innovations, and key contributions to the field of Materials Science and Engineering from a doctoral student. Completing a Ph.D. dissertation requires the student to identify unsolved problems, formulate hypotheses for potential solutions, design experiments, implement theoretical, modeling, and experimental methods, collect and analyze results, and draw conclusions. This is a long-term process that requires significant dedication in time and effort from the student. PhD Dissertation Research is a research course designed to provide necessary time and guidance for the student to work on cutting edge research towards the Ph.D. degree while retaining full-time status as a graduate student. All Ph.D. students are expected to take appropriate number of credits of this course for their doctoral research. Taking these research credits will guide students in preparation, execution, and defense of their Ph.D. dissertations. Each section of this course will be associated with a faculty member. Each Ph.D. student will take the particular section from his/her Ph.D. advisor, who will be guiding the student’s doctoral research.