Congratulations!
If you are moving toward this PhD milestone, it means that you have already chosen your research area and have successfully recruited a Data Science faculty in your research area to act as your PhD research advisor.

The research qualifying exam is a bridge that transforms a PhD student into a PhD candidate.

PhD90 students: You should also have passed your MS thesis defense with your PhD research advisor and written your first research paper, the ms thesis.
Now it's time for you and your research advisor to work on your second research paper/project and use the resulting paper for your PhD research qualifying exam.
PhD60 students: Now it's time to work on your first research paper/project with your PhD research advisor, and use the resulting paper for your PhD research qualifying exam.

Goal:

The purpose of a PhD qualifying exam is to evaluate whether the student has adequate knowledge of the discipline and whether the student is capable of conducting original research.
The goal of the PhD research qualifying exam is to test whether you possess the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary for research in Data Science at the PhD level. If you can finish a research project and write a research paper that reaches publication quality in your discipline, you will be able to pass this exam.
Publication quality means that your paper will eventually be published in a good conference/journal in your research area. The research conferences/journals are usually peer-reviewed by experts outside WPI and from around the world. Having a paper published in these conferences/journals demonstrates your knowledge and your research skills. However, the review process of these conferences and journals can be very slow, and it may take months or even years to finally get your paper published. It would not be practical for you to wait for a paper to be accepted in order to prove your research skills/quality. This is why we have the PhD research qualifying exam, where three faculty members in the Data Science Program, including your PhD research advisor, guide you through the research project and evaluate the quality of your paper during the PhD research qualifying exam.

Timing:

Ideally, start your research paper (exam) at the beginning of a semester when you will need to register for a Directed Research Course (DS597).

PhD90 students: within 3 years of completing the Core Breadth and Depth Course Requirements
PhD60 students: within 1 year of completing the Core Breadth and Depth Course Requirements

How long will the exam last overall?
Overall, 1 semester. You need to register DS597 at the beginning of the semester and finish your exam by the end of the semester.

How long does my oral presentation take? Usually 30-45 minutes for your oral presentation. The overall presentation event may last 1 hour, allowing Q/As (5-10 minutes) and discussions among the advisors (5-10 minutes).

Steps:

Step 1: Discuss with your PhD research advisor on the research topic

Time: Before a semester starts

You need to discuss with your PhD advisor on what research topic should you work on for your PhD qualifier exam. The goal of this exam is to write a research paper with high quality, so your PhD advisor will be able to give you advice on which research topic/project you could work on for your PhD qualifier exam.

Step 2: Register for Directed Research Course (DS 597)

Time: At the beginning of the semester

At the beginning of the semester, register three credits of Directed Research (DS 597) with your PhD Advisor.

Here we assume that your PhD advisor is a Core faculty. Here is the list of DS core faculty members (under the "Faculty" section of the webpage).

If your PhD advisor is not a DS core faculty but a WPI tenure-track faculty affiliated with the Data Science (under the "Affiliated Faculty" section of the webpage), you need to be approved by the Data Science Steering Committee. How? See the Note [1] at the end of this page.

How to register DS 597 (Directed Research Course)?

Please use the Graduate Project Registration Form to register a "Directed Research" project.

1. In the field "Project Type", select "Directed Research".

2. In the department field, choose "Data Science Program".

3. In the credits field, fill 3 credits.

4. In the advisor field, add your primary advisor's name.

No need to add the co-advisor's name in the form. For more information about graduate project registration, please read this article.

Step 3: Request Two Faculty Members as your co-advisors

Time: At the beginning of the semester (Ideally Fall or Spring semester)

Now you need to submit a request to DS steering committee for two DS faculty members to serve as co-advisors. The Data Science Steering Committee will appoint (1) one Co-advisor who will work with you and your PhD advisor throughout the semester; (2) a second Co-advisor, who will only evaluate your work at the end of the semester. Your PhD advisor and two appointed Co-advisors will evaluate your work at the end of the semester to determine whether or not you have shown sufficient research potential to become a Ph.D. Candidate.

Write a short document about your research project for the Qualifier Exam:

In order to find co-advisors with matching background and research interests, please prepare a short description (1-2 pages) of your project. We will use this document to find which DS faculty members would be interested in your work and serve as your co-advisors. In this document, you could include: Title, abstract, advisor's name, a paragraph or two on the research motivation and problem statement, a paragraph on potential methods, related works, and your plan.

Once you finished writing this document, you need your PhD advisor's approval before sending it to the DS office. This is very important, because your advisor may be able to help you find/contact relevant faculty members who can volunteer to serve as the co-advisors.

Send an email to DS Office:

Please send an email to DS office. Here is an example of the email:

Email Title: Request 2 co-advisors for DS PhD Qualifier Exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

CC: [Your PhD Advisor]

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student planning to start my PhD qualifier exam at the beginning of this semester.

I have registered a DS597 (Directed Research Course) with my PhD advisor, Prof. [YOUR ADVISOR's NAME] in this semester.

I would need to request two co-advisors from the DS steering committee for my PhD qualifier exam.

Here are the information required for my application:

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

PhD Advisor's name: [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], [Affiliation]

Topic of the PhD Qualifier exam: [A Brief description of the topics of your exam]

Attached please find a short document of my PhD qualifier exam. Could you please add this application as an item for discussion in the agenda of the next DS steering committee meeting? I would also appreciate it if you could send me the names of the two co-advisor, once they are appointed by DS steering committee.

Thanks a lot!

You will soon receive the names of the two co-advisors through email.

Roles of the 3 Advisors:

PhD advisor: Your PhD advisor will be the chair of the committee for your PhD Qualifier Exam. He/She will discuss with you regularly from the very beginning of the research project until you finish the project.

Co-advisor #1: Your 1st co-advisor will be able to discuss with you on your project throughout the entire research project. You could either schedule individual regular meeting with your co-advisor #1 or combine the meeting with your PhD advisor's.

Co-advisor #2: Your 2nd co-advisor will not join your research project until the very end of your exam. He/She will read your paper written in this project and attend your oral presentation.

Role	PhD Advisor	Co-Advisor #1	Co-Advisor #2
Discuss with you to pick the topic of the exam	Yes
Register Directed Research Course with	Yes
Discuss/meet with you regularly on the project (from the beginning of the project)	Yes	Yes
Read your paper written in the project	Yes	Yes	Yes
Attend your oral presentation of your PhD Qualifier Exam	Yes	Yes	Yes
Evaluate and vote on the result of your PhD Qualifier exam	Yes	Yes	Yes

Step 4: write the research paper with PhD advisor and #1 co-advisor

Time: during the semester

Now you need to work with your PhD advisor and co-advisor#1 on the research paper throughout the semester. The co-advisor #2 will only join the research team for the final iteration of the research paper.

You may schedule regular meetings with your PhD advisor to report your research progress and get feedbacks/suggestions. It can be very hard to finish a research project and write a high-quality research paper, if this is your first research paper ever written.

Examples:

Here is an example paper for the PhD Qualifier Exam:

Year	Name	Files
2022	Yao Su (DS)	Paper

Once you finish writing the paper, send the paper to your PhD advisor and the two co-advisors through email.

Step 5: Schedule a time for an oral presentation of your paper with advisors

Time: a month before the end of the semester

Now you have written or are wrapping up the paper, it's time to schedule a time with your PhD advisor and 2 co-advisors for your oral presentation of your paper.

Write a polite email to all the three advisors, here is an example:

Email Title: Scheduling a Time Slot for my PhD qualifier exam presentation

To: your PhD advisor, Co-advisor#1, Co-advisor#2

Dear Profs [Name 1, Name 2, Name 3],

Thank you for agreeing to serve in the committee of my PhD qualifier exam.

I have now finished my research project and written the paper. I would like to schedule a one-hour time slot with you for an oral presentation of my PhD qualifier exam. The exam will last approximately 1 hour: 30-40 minutes for presentation, 10 minutes for Q/A, 10 minutes for committee discussion.

Here is my target time frame of the exam: the first week of this October (Oct.1- Oct.7) .

Here is a when2meet link that I created for my PhD qualifier exam. Could you please fill in your available time slots?

[YOU COULD CREATE A LINK in when2meet.com]

Thanks a lot!

(using when2meet to schedule a shared time slot for committee members)

Once all the co-advisors filled in their available time, you could choose a shared time slot for your exam. If there is no shared hour available, you could send another email to the co-advisors to request for more available hours or change to a different week to find a shared hour.

Step 6: Find a location for your oral presentation

Time: a month before the end of the semester

Now you have the time schedule of your oral presentation, you need to find the location (meeting room) for your oral presentation. You could write an email to DS administrators to request a room for your PhD qualifier exam. Here is an example email:

Email Title: Request to reserve a room for my PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to work on my PhD qualifier exam.

I would like to reserve a room for my oral presentation of PhD qualifier exam. Here are the

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

Advisors: [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], [NAME of YOUR CO-ADVISOR#1], [NAME of YOUR CO-ADVISOR#2]

Time: [Time slot of your exam]

Could you please help scheduling a meeting room for my PhD qualifier exam?

If you have any questions, please just let me know.

Thanks a lot!

Step 7: Inform your advisors about the location

Time: 1-2 week before the end of the semester

Once you have the location (meeting room), you need to inform your advisor and co-advisors about the time and location of your qualifier exam, so that they can add the time and location to their calendar.

Ideally, you may want to create a calendar invitation (with the time and location information) and send to your advisor and co-advisors, so that they can simply click "accept" button to add the event to their calendars.

Step 8: Inform DS administrators for public announcement of the event (1 week before presentation)

Time: 1-2 week before the end of the semester

Now you need to write an email the DS administrators for public announcement of your PhD qualifier exam.

Here is an example of the email:

Email Title: Announcement of my PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to announce my PhD qualifier exam event.

Could you please help announce my qualifier presentation event in DS program, so that audience can attend my presentation? Thanks a lot!

Here are the information required for my application:

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

Committee:

[NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], PhD Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF ADVISOR]

[NAME of YOUR #1 CO-ADVISOR], Co-Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF CO-ADVISOR]

[NAME of YOUR #2 CO-ADVISOR], Co-Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF CO-ADVISOR]

Title of the PhD qualifier exam: [TITLE of YOUR TALK]

Time: [TIME of THE EXAM]

Location: [LOCATION of THE EXAM]

Abstract: [ABSTRACT OF YOUR PAPER]

Step 9: Present your paper in front of the advisors and audience

Time: at the end of the semester

Before your presentation, send your paper to your advisor and co-advisors, if you have not sent it before.

The Exam will include 4 stages within one hour:

Stage 1: your presentation. You should present the research paper you did for your qualifier exam. Your talk should be about 30 minutes - 40 minutes long, excluding QA time.

Stage 2: Questions from audience. After your presentation, questions from advisors and audience can be asked after or during your talk, and you should briefly answer each of the questions.

Stage 3: Questions from committee. Now the audience will leave the room. Committee members (advisor and co-advisors) will ask you additional questions on your paper.

Stage 4: Committee discussion. Now you will need to leave the room, allowing the committee members to evaluate your work and vote on the result of your exam. Don't walk far away, just wait outside the door of the room. Once the discussion is done, the committee will ask you to come back to the room and tell you the results and feedbacks.

The committee can vote to pass your exam, or fail your exam, or request for additional work.

If your committee passed your exam, congratulations! Now you are a PhD candidate of data science program. (Before pass this exam, you were a "PhD student" instead of a "PhD candidate".)

Step 10: Submit a petition in DS graduate system

Time: after you passed the exam

Now you have passed your PhD qualifier exam. You need to put this milestone on record.

Visit the DS graduate system and submit a petition of “Ph.D. Research Qualifier Milestone”.

Fill in the information of the committee members.

Once you submit the petition, the system will send an email to your advisor and co-advisors for signature. Once all your advisors signed in the system, you are officially on record for pass your PhD qualifier exam.

You are all set! Congratulations!

What's Next?

Good job! After passing the PhD qualifier exam, now you are officially a PhD Candidate (instead of a PhD student) for data science at WPI.

Now you may want to start on your next research project/paper working with your PhD advisor. You will need this paper before passing your next PhD milestone: Within one year from now, you will need to finish forming your PhD dissertation committee.

You can do it!

Note [1]: Question: My advisor is not a DS core faculty, but he/she is an affiliated faculty to data science program. How should I get the approval from DS steering committee so that I can register the Director Research course (DS597) with my advisor?

Answer: Please send an email to DS administrators (datascience@wpi.edu) . Here is an example of the email:

Email Title: Request for Approval of DS affiliated Faculty Advisor for PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to register the directed research course (DS597) for my PhD qualifier exam.

My PhD research advisor is [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], who is an affiliated faculty at DS program. In order for me to register DS597 with my advisor for my PhD qualifier exam, I need the approval from the DS steering committee. Here is the information required for my application:

Goal:

Timing:

Step 1: Discuss with your PhD research advisor on the research topic

Step 2: Register for Directed Research Course (DS 597)

Step 3: Request Two Faculty Members as your co-advisors

Email Title: Request 2 co-advisors for DS PhD Qualifier Exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student planning to start my PhD qualifier exam at the beginning of this semester.

I have registered a DS597 (Directed Research Course) with my PhD advisor, Prof. [YOUR ADVISOR's NAME] in this semester.

I would need to request two co-advisors from the DS steering committee for my PhD qualifier exam.

Here are the information required for my application:

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

PhD Advisor's name: [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], [Affiliation]

Topic of the PhD Qualifier exam: [A Brief description of the topics of your exam]

Thanks a lot!

Roles of the 3 Advisors:

Step 4: write the research paper with PhD advisor and #1 co-advisor

Examples:

Step 5: Schedule a time for an oral presentation of your paper with advisors

Email Title: Scheduling a Time Slot for my PhD qualifier exam presentation

To: your PhD advisor, Co-advisor#1, Co-advisor#2

Dear Profs [Name 1, Name 2, Name 3],

Thank you for agreeing to serve in the committee of my PhD qualifier exam.

I have now finished my research project and written the paper. I would like to schedule a one-hour time slot with you for an oral presentation of my PhD qualifier exam. The exam will last approximately 1 hour: 30-40 minutes for presentation, 10 minutes for Q/A, 10 minutes for committee discussion.

Here is my target time frame of the exam: the first week of this October (Oct.1- Oct.7) .

Here is a when2meet link that I created for my PhD qualifier exam. Could you please fill in your available time slots?

[YOU COULD CREATE A LINK in when2meet.com]

Thanks a lot!

Step 6: Find a location for your oral presentation

Email Title: Request to reserve a room for my PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to work on my PhD qualifier exam.

I would like to reserve a room for my oral presentation of PhD qualifier exam. Here are the

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

Advisors: [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], [NAME of YOUR CO-ADVISOR#1], [NAME of YOUR CO-ADVISOR#2]

Time: [Time slot of your exam]

Could you please help scheduling a meeting room for my PhD qualifier exam?

If you have any questions, please just let me know.

Thanks a lot!

Step 7: Inform your advisors about the location

Once you have the location (meeting room), you need to inform your advisor and co-advisors about the time and location of your qualifier exam, so that they can add the time and location to their calendar.

Step 8: Inform DS administrators for public announcement of the event (1 week before presentation)

Email Title: Announcement of my PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to announce my PhD qualifier exam event.

Could you please help announce my qualifier presentation event in DS program, so that audience can attend my presentation? Thanks a lot!

Here are the information required for my application:

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

Committee:

[NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], PhD Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF ADVISOR]

[NAME of YOUR #1 CO-ADVISOR], Co-Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF CO-ADVISOR]

[NAME of YOUR #2 CO-ADVISOR], Co-Advisor, [AFFILIATION OF CO-ADVISOR]

Title of the PhD qualifier exam: [TITLE of YOUR TALK]

Time: [TIME of THE EXAM]

Location: [LOCATION of THE EXAM]

Abstract: [ABSTRACT OF YOUR PAPER]

Step 9: Present your paper in front of the advisors and audience

Step 10: Submit a petition in DS graduate system

What's Next?

Email Title: Request for Approval of DS affiliated Faculty Advisor for PhD qualifier exam

To: datascience@wpi.edu

Dear DS Administrators,

My name is [YOUR NAME], a DS PhD student trying to register the directed research course (DS597) for my PhD qualifier exam.

My PhD research advisor is [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR], who is an affiliated faculty at DS program. In order for me to register DS597 with my advisor for my PhD qualifier exam, I need the approval from the DS steering committee. Here is the information required for my application:

Student Name: [YOUR NAME]

PhD Advisor's name: [NAME of YOUR ADVISOR],

Topic of the PhD qualifier exam: [A Brief description of the topic of your PhD qualifier exam]

Could you please add this application as an item for discussion in the agenda of the next DS steering committee meeting?

Thanks a lot!