Offered through the Department of Computer Science, the Ph.D. program in Computer Science is designed to equip students with excellent skills at the forefront of computing. Through research and teaching, the Department contributes to computing breakthroughs that are fueling advances in medicine, communications, transportation, security, and other areas vital to society and the world.

The doctoral degree is based on coursework as well as research that leads to a dissertation. It is recommended that students interested in the doctoral degree contact the faculty whose interests best fit his/her interest. Areas of research focus center around these topics: computer security and information assurance, software engineering and systems, bioinformatics and biomedical computing, networking and mobile computing, pervasive computing and embedded systems, machine intelligence, robotics, and algorithms and theory.... [-]

The PhD INF program prepares graduate students to work in the transformative "fourth paradigm" of science and engineering, an interdisciplinary field relying on Big Data and advanced software, hardware, and statistics skills. After a streamlined five-year plan of study, graduates will be ready to be leaders in industry and government research labs, faculty and research scientists in academia, and entrepreneurs in cutting-edge informatics application areas. Graduates will make contributions to exciting projects that address critical areas of national need in bioinformatics, population health, environmental sustainability, ecology, software engineering, wearable computing, cyber-physical systems, and cybersecurity.... [-]

The doctoral program in computing and information sciences is designed to produce independent scholars, well-prepared educators, and cutting-edge researchers poised to excel in their work in computing and interdisciplinary academic or industrial environments. The degree highlights two of the most unique characteristics of the Golisano College: its breadth of program offerings and its scholarly focus on discovering solutions to real-world problems by balancing theory and practice.The program focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of cyberinfrastructure as applied to specific problems across multiple domains. It is a blend of intra-disciplinary computing knowledge areas and inter-disciplinary domain areas.... [-]

Kennesaw State University's Ph.D. in Analytics and Data Science is an advanced degree which has been developed to meet the market demand for Data Scientists.

This degree will train individuals to translate large, structured and unstructured, complex data sets into information to improve decision making. This curriculum includes a heavy emphasis on programming, data mining, statistical modeling, and the mathematical foundations to support these concepts. Importantly, the program also emphasizes communication skills - both oral and written - as well as application and tying results to business and research problems.

Because this degree is a Ph.D., it creates flexibility. Graduates can either pursue a position in the private or public sector as a "practicing" Data Scientist - where continued demand is expected to greatly outpace the supply - or pursue a position within academia, where they would be uniquely qualified to teach these skills to the next generation.... [-]

The Department of Computer Science offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science. The program is designed to increase the student’s fundamental knowledge and to give the student guidance and experience in research. A graduate student pursues these objectives by taking advanced courses, participating in seminars, and carrying out and reporting on research projects. The department provides the advantage of close personal association between graduate students and faculty, giving special attention to individual needs and interests.

The Ph.D. degree in Computer Science may be completed in a minimum of three years and a maximum of seven years of post-undergraduate study.... [-]

For students interested in the Ph.D. program, it requires a master’s degree or successful completion of a minimum of one academic year of graduate study, from an institution of recognized standing in an area related to the proposed doctoral study. All applicants must submit Graduate Record Examination scores for the general test. Students will take a written qualifying examination soon after gaining admission to the program.

Additional examinations, as described in the general Graduate School requirements, are given throughout the program, culminating with the defense of the dissertation. There is no language requirement for the Ph.D. The program typically includes at least one academic year of coursework and one year of research beyond the master’s level. The Ph.D. program requires a minimum of 66 semester credit hours of coursework beyond the bachelor’s level, including 18 hours of research and dissertation.... [-]

The Ph.D. in Computer Science program is administered by the Graduate College. The Department of Computer Science has set up the policies and requirements for its Ph.D. program on the basis of the policies and requirements of all Ph.D. programs administered by the Graduate College. This document should answer most of the common questions about the Ph.D. in Computer Science Program. However, all readers are encouraged to consult with the Graduate Committee of the Computer Science Department as well as the Graduate College for further information.

Doctoral programs are fundamentally different from Bachelor's or Master's degree programs. Like other programs, doctoral students gain a base level of knowledge through coursework. The difference, however, comes with research. Whereas a Bachelor's or Master's student may undertake a research project, it merely provides a complement to the coursework and is clearly guided by a faculty advisor. Doctoral research is the focus of a doctoral student's studies. Doctoral research is much more self-guided and exploratory than research done in the other programs. Future employers typically select doctoral students on the quality and originality of their thesis research, not their grades in coursework. Reflecting this focus, the bulk of time and effort during a student's doctoral studies is spent on thesis research.... [-]