PhD Curriculum

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General Information

 The goal of the PhD Program in Computer Engineering at Marmara University is to enrich and expand the  technical information of students in new and advanced areas via high-level courses and research/development facilities, to encourage the students to do research and  gain analysis, synthesis and interpretation capabilities by working on various scientific problems in different specialization areas. Since the PhD program is exclusively in English, prospective students are expected to have fluency in English. The scientific admittance examination is also conducted in English.

The application requirements and student quotas for the PhD program are determined and announced each semester by the Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences in compliance with the Marmara University Graduate Education and Examination Regulations. The applicants are assessed based on their “admission score”, which considers the ALES score, the cumulative GPA, English score, the scientific admission exam score, and an oral exam score. In addition to the application criteria of the Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences, the department determines the minimum scores required from ALES and the cumulative GPA for application.

The PhD program is designed for graduates of a two year Masters’ program in Computer Engineering. Graduates of similar engineering programs are required to attend the Scientific Preparation Program for a year to take a set of prerequisite courses, which generally consists of eight courses determined by the department, considering the programs the students have graduated. The PhD students are expected to complete the Scientific Preparation Program within a year. Depending on the transcripts of the students, they may be required to take  up to three extra courses.

 

Courses and the Qualifier Exam

 The PhD program is designed for eight semesters and required to be completed within twelve semesters, excluding the scientific preparation year. The program consists of eight courses, the qualifier exam, thesis proposal and thesis work. Seven of the eight courses are selected from the pool of department’s graduate courses and one course is selected from the pool of courses formed by the Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences. The registered students are expected to take at least two courses each semester. The students who have given their thesis proposals are required to register to the thesis work each semester. According to the Regulations of the Higher Education Council (dated April 20th, 2016), the maximum duration to complete the credit courses is four semesters. The students who have completed the credit courses but have a CGPA below 3,00 are required to repeat the courses to satisfy the required GPA.

The qualifer exam measures the depth and breadth of the knowledge of the students about basic topics and concepts in their research areas. Students can take the qualifier exam at most twice a year and must have entered the qualifier exam until the end of the fifth semester. The qualifier exam consists of a written and an oral exam. Students who fail the qualifier exam take it again in the following semester. The students who fail the second time are required to leave the PhD program. Other details about the qualifier exam are given in the related regulations.

After completion of the courses, the qualifier exam and the publication requirements given below, the students graduate from the PhD program by successfully defending their thesis, which is prepared according to the regulations of the Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences and the students earn the PhD degree in Computer Engineering.

 

Research Areas

 The research areas focused on at PhD level in the Department of Computer Engineering at Marmara University include parallel and distributed computing, multi-core computing, microprocessor design and embedded systems, artificial intelligence, data mining, image and video processing, computer vision, nature-inspired computing, machine learning, pattern recognition, natural language processing, bioinformatics, computer and wireless networks, vehicular networks, optimization and game theory. The theses can also be conducted under research projects lead by faculty members of the department and supported by various agencies such as TUBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Council of Turkey) and EU (European Union). As a result of the research and development activities conducted by PhD students and their supervisors, technical journal and conference papers and patents are expected. Detailed information about possible research areas is available on the web pages of the faculty members.

 

Publication Requirements for Graduation

 In order to graduate from the PhD program, the student must have published from their thesis work:

*At least one journal paper (with a DOI number in one of the SCI-E indexed journals ) and

*At least one international conference paper.

 

For more information about the application requirements and application dates to the Ph.D. Program please click here.