The Progress Review is an oral examination performed before your PhD Dissertation Committee as a whole. You are ready for your committee to conduct a rigorous review, and to evaluate and sign off on your research and plan. The result will be a de-facto contract between you and your committee to ensure the PhD-worthiness of your topic, projects, research, and dissertation if completed as planned.
At this juncture in your doctoral studies, your committee has been announced to the ECE GSC and been approved, you have completed the Candidacy Evaluation process in a prior semester, you have advanced to doctoral candidacy officially (your application has the approval of the Dean in Graduate School), and you have registered or have been registering for the Dissertation course. You are ready for your committee to conduct a rigorous review, and to evaluate and sign off on your research and plan. The result will be a de-facto contract between you and your committee to ensure the PhD-worthiness of your topic, projects, research, and dissertation if completed as planned.
A PhD student is expected to give a Progress Review prior to the 9th long semester, at the latest, after attempting and/or completing 33 hours of coursework within the Graduate Program, excluding approved leaves of absence. The Progress Review should be done at around the half-way point of the PhD, and at least one year before the PhD defense. It is in your own interest to get input from the committee as early as possible in order to make timely corrections, to undertake further research or take another course if instructed to do so by your committee, and to avoid any surprises during the defense.
Note that certain ECE requirements may be relaxed under rare circumstances generally beyond the student’s control (such as an advanced doctoral student following his or her supervisor’s move to the UT-Austin ECE department) and with prior approval of the ECE GSC or its representatives.
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