Students can email the ECE Student Affairs Manager, Val de Veyra - val@ece.ucsb.edu.
The Student Affairs Manager can answer most questions related to graduate degrees or refer the student to the proper contact.
Yes, the Academic Senate has limited funds for student travel to conferences. This grant is only available once during the doctoral student's course of enrollment at UCSB after advancement to Ph.D. candidacy and only if the student has been invited to present at the conference. Allowable expenses are the actual cost of the airline ticket or equivalent ground transportation to and from the conference or meeting. For application and further information, go to the UCSB Academic Senate Travel Grants page.
Rules for taking the exam are as follows.
For students:
If a student fails the first attempt at the examination, s/he must repeat the examination the next time that it is offered. A student is allowed a maximum of two attempts at the Ph.D. Screening Examination.
No, students can use the screening exam in lieu of the M.S. comprehensive exam.
A Ph.D. committee shall consist of no fewer than four members, which should be faculty in the same or different departments at UCSB or at another university. In rare cases, a highly qualified individual from industry can be a committee member; but in such cases a detailed technical biography or CV of the outside member must be submitted for review by the ECE Department Chair and Vice Chair. However, no fewer than three committee members shall be ECE ladder faculty with part- or full-time or affiliated appointments in ECE. The Chair and at least one other member of the ECE faculty shall be from the student's area of research as defined by the Screening Exam: CE, CCSP, or EP; whereas at least one committee member may be from outside this area. For example, if a student does his or her major and minor exams during the Screening Exam all in CE, then all his committee members could be CE faculty. If a student does his major in Controls and then does his minor in Signal Processing, then the committee should have Controls faculty and Signal Processing faculty.
A qualified individual from outside UCSB will always count as outside the major area. Exceptions to these rules regarding committee composition require the approval of the ECE Graduate Advisor.
Emeriti (retired) faculty may serve as members of Ph.D. committees but will not serve as chairs of Ph.D. committees except under particularly compelling circumstances. The appointment of an emeritus faculty member as chair requires not only departmental approval but also approval by the Graduate Council. Emeriti faculty will be counted the same as they were counted before becoming emeriti.
Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment (PSOE), Lecturer with Security of Employment (SOE) or Senior Lecturer (SOE) are allowed to serve as co-chairs or member of a doctoral committee without Graduate Council exception. They are not allowed to be sole committee chair.
Students are required to have taken the qualifying exam no later than the end of the fourth year of enrollment as a graduate student in ECE. If a student does not pass the qualifying exam by the end of their fourth year in the program, s/he may be placed under academic probation.
Reserve a room as soon as possible can but no later than two weeks before the exam. Refer to the Room Reservation box on the Ph.D. Milestones and Procedures page.
Yes, the raise is effective the month following the date of the qualifying exam. Notify your PI (the faculty member who pays you) and also the appropriate personnel staff member who can then verify the exam date with the ECE Graduate Student Office.
Students who have passed the Qualifying Examination are eligible for faculty privileges in the Library. A faculty card is issued once the student takes the Graduate Division's $50 advancement-to-candidacy cash register receipt to the Library . Should the receipt be lost, a copy of it may be obtained from the Graduate Division.
Inform the ECE Graduate Student Office via e-mail of the date, the time, and the place of your exam. Also, provide all the names of the committee members with the chair identified. The defense exam form (Ph.D. Form III) will be given to your committee chair.
Inform the ECE Graduate Student Office via e-mail as soon as you have the information. Separate paperwork has to be submitted to the Graduate Division. The ECE Graduate Student Office will process paperwork.