ELEC 599 serves two roles:

• First, it allows students to begin research early in the Ph.D. program. Projects selected often serve as catalysts for publications and thesis work.

• Second, it serves as the ECE Ph.D. qualifier. You must pass with a grade of A to remain in the Ph.D. program.

ELEC 599 is your chance to demonstrate your ability to perform independent research and present results to a faculty committee in both oral and written formats. After jointly formulating a research topic and objective with your 599 advisor, all aspects of the project are your responsibility, including regular meetings with your advisor to ensure that your progress is on track.

ELEC 599 milestones:

• Nov. 30 - ECE Faculty will have projects posted for selection on the ECE website.

• Dec. 4 - Students must submit (to Heather Dodge) a first, second, and third choices of projects/faculty advisors by 5pm.

• Dec. 11 - Students will be notified of project/student matches.

• Jan. 11 - Students must submit (to Heather Dodge) project abstracts and timelines by 5pm. (Sample - pdf)

• Feb. 27 - Students select and confirm two project committee members in addition to project advisor and complete an informal mid-term project progress evaluation with advisor. (Committee members may be assistant, associate, full, emeritus professors and working adjunct lecturers selected from ECE as well as other Rice departments. At least 1 of the 3 members of the committee must be from ECE.) Submit committee members to Heather Dodge by email.
  

• April - Students will begin scheduling oral presentations with their project committees. The presentation is limited to 25 minutes and a maximum of 25 slides. Project committee has up to 25 minutes to ask questions. Immediately following the exam, committee will meet for written evaluations, which are then submitted to the ECE Graduate Committee for final evaluation and grade. Student should reserve a room for one hour. Room reservation, scheduling and all logistics are student's responsibility.

• April 23 - Students submit written project report to each member of committee and Heather Dodge. Reports must not exceed 10 pages, should be formatted in 11 pt. font and according to the Latex or MS Word templates given for the IEEE transaction style.

• May 7 - Last day for oral presentations, most of which are made in the two weeks prior to commencement.

• May 10 - Graduate Committee meets to determine final ELEC 599 grades, after which individual evaluation letters will be sent to students. At this meeting the Committee will also determine whether or not previous Master's degrees will be accepted and you will be informed in evaluation letter.

Comments and questions to: hdodge@rice.edu