(Approved by SoCS Council online poll that ended August 30, 2016)

Download PHD.CSCI Regulation on Seminars

Each PhD student must give two publicly announced research seminars on their PhD thesis research. For each seminar, a request form must be completed by the student and submitted to the Graduate Program Assistant (GPA). The seminar will be scheduled by the GPA and will take place no less than two weeks after the seminar request form is submitted.

The Seminar Committee is composed of the SoCS advisor, who will act as Chair, the Application Discipline (AD) advisor, and one other Graduate Faculty member. It is recommended that the entire Advisory Committee attend.

Each seminar room will be booked by GPA for 90 minutes. The presentation should be 30 to 40 minutes long and followed by questions from the Seminar Committee. The seminar is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Each member of the Seminar Committee gets one vote. An abstention is regarded as a fail vote. The student is deemed to have passed the seminar if there is at most one fail vote. They must attempt the seminar again if they receive two or more fail votes. The Chair of the Seminar Committee must obtain a seminar grading form from the GPA before the seminar, and must return the completed form to the GPA after the seminar.

The first seminar is intended to be an exploratory look at the student’s research area. It may include a literature review and a survey of the research area. This seminar should be presented in Semester 2, and must be successfully completed before the Qualifying Exam (QE).

The second seminar is intended for students to present their preliminary research results to get feedback on both their presentation and their progress towards the thesis defence. This seminar must be presented after the QE, prior to the thesis defence, and should normally be presented before the end of Semester 7