ELEC 599 serves two roles. First, it allows students to begin research early in the Ph.D. program. Many 599 projects have served as a catalyst for publications and thesis work. Second, ELEC 599 serves as the Ph.D. qualifier for ECE. In other words, you must pass ELEC 599 in order to remain in the Ph.D. program. ELEC 599 is your chance to demonstrate your capability for independent research. After jointly formulating a research topic and objective with your advisor, all aspects of the project are your responsibility, including regular meetings with your advisor to ensure that your progress is on track. Important dates and milestones are below.

• ECE Faculty will provide titles/abstracts for projects by the third Friday in November.

• Students must turn in choices for a project/faculty member by 5pm on the last day of classes in December.

• Student abstracts and project time-line due by the second Monday of classes (January).

• Mid-term project progress evaluation with advisor. This must occur before spring break and should be coordinated with the project advisor.

• Select and confirm two project committee members in addition to the project advisor.

• Schedule oral presentations with Project Committee.
  Presentations must be completed prior to the Thursday before Commencement.
  With travel schedules and other exams, expect these exams to occur over the two weeks prior to the deadline.

• By the last day of classes, provide each member of Project Committee and Heather Dodge a copy of written report. Unless the project committee members agree to an alternate format, all reports must be no longer than 10 pages in length and be formatted in 11pt font and according to the Latex or MS word templates given for the IEEE transaction style.

• The oral exam is limited to 25 minutes. It is part of your task to organize and conceptualize your work in order to meet this timeline. No more than 25 slides are allowed. The committee will ask questions for 15-20 minutes. Immediately following the exam, your exam committee will meet for up to 15 minutes to fill out evaluation forms and discuss your case so that you will need to reserve a room for 1 hour all together. Room reservation, scheduling, and all logistics are your responsibility.

Comments and questions to: www-ece@ece.rice.edu

Last modified: November 19, 2007