PhD in Computer Science

This doctoral program has spent roughly four decades building a research reputation, and it places students beside interdisciplinary investigators working at the leading edge of the discipline. Laboratories and current software and hardware are open to students from the start. Active research areas span robotics, security, artificial intelligence and software engineering, as well as databases, data mining, human interaction, visualization and image science. The emphasis falls on practical problems, such as making computer systems more resilient to attacks or mining data to improve medical diagnosis and treatment. Students are encouraged to range widely at first. Early coursework covers theory, algorithms, and either systems or networks. After that foundation, each person steers the remaining curriculum toward personal research goals in fields like graphics and imaging, artificial intelligence or databases. Mobile health sensing is one example of ongoing faculty work, looking at how smartphones and health apps can capture useful biomarkers. A graduate student support team is also available to assist doctoral candidates.