Admission

To qualify for admission to the Ph.D. program a student must have a Master's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, computer science or a related field, have submitted evidence that he or she is capable of undertaking substantial original research in Engineering Science, and have identified a faculty member willing to act as Senior Supervisor. See the Graduate General Regulations for admission requirements for entry to the Ph.D. program.

See the Graduate General Regulations in the SFU Calendar or at http://www.reg.sfu.ca/ for admission requirements for entry to the Ph.D. program.

Residence Requirement

Students will conform to the residence requirement as outlined in section 1.7.3 of the Graduate General Regulations in the SFU Calendar or at http://www.reg.sfu.ca/.

Transfer from the Master's Program

The school does not encourage students to proceed to a Ph.D. without first completing a Master's degree. However, a student may be admitted after at least 12 months in the M.A.Sc. program if the student has completed all the Master's course work requirements at a GPA of 3.67 or better, has shown outstanding potential for research, and has the approval of the student's Supervisory Committee, the Graduate Program Committee and the Senate Graduate Studies Committee.

Degree Requirements

Course Work

The minimum course requirement is 18 semester hours of credit beyond those taken for the Masters degree. Six of these hours will be for prescribed courses in the option in which the student is enrolled; alternatives can be substituted with the approval of the student's supervisory committee. At most six credit hours can be for senior-level undergraduate courses. At most six credit hours can be for directed studies. At least six of the credit hours must be taken within Engineering Science.

Qualifying Examination

The student will take an oral qualifying examination at a time determined by his/her Supervisory Committee, normally between the 6th and the 12th month from admission to the PhD program. The student must demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of material in his/her major area of research, at a level normally associated with undergraduate and first year graduate studies. The possible outcomes of the qualifying examination are pass; marginal (student may be required to take more courses, and is permitted a second and final opportunity to take the full qualifying exam within 12 months); fail (the student withdraws from the PhD program).

Thesis

Students are to define and undertake a program of original research, the results of which are reported in a thesis. The examining committee will be formed as defined in section 1.9.3 of the Graduate General Regulations. Students will conform to residence requirements as outlined in section 1.7.3 of the Graduate General Regulations. The senior supervisor shall be an Engineering Science faculty member approved by the departmental graduate program committee. The student's progress will be reviewed each 12 months by Supervisory Committee of not fewer than three faculty members. At each annual review, the student presents the summary of his/her work to date. At the first such review, which takes place within 14 months of admission, the student will present a thesis proposal defining the intended research topic. Students not making satisfactory progress on their research topic, or failing to demonstrate satisfactory knowledge and understanding of recent publications in their general area of research, or failing to have their revised thesis proposal approved by the supervisory committee within 18 months of admission, may be asked to withdraw, as per section 1.8.2 of the Graduate General Regulations.

Research Seminar

A graduate student in the Ph.D. program is required to present at least one research seminar per year as a part of regularly organized departmental seminars, including some based on completed or nearly completed thesis work. Students are expected to attend all the research seminars of the school.

Application Procedures:

Application forms are avaliable either via the Registrar's Office or online in both postscript and pdf format.