Initial instructions for qualifying exam procedures. I will update as information presents itself AMC 2010. Updated 2011 HPN. Updated 2018 ESW

Forming your committee

Send an email to area adviser (currently Tutuc for SSE (as of 2017) and Hallock for PQE) informing him/her of potential committee so the GSC members have a chance to object. Prof. Tutuc suggests doing this prior to contacting the committee members. must be done at least 2 weeks before qualifier date
Note: since this step should be done before contacting the committee, the date will be tentative.
Note: if any of the committee members is from outside of UT, then their CV must be attached to the email to the area adviser
Example email:

 Subject: Qualifying Examination Committee for Scott Maddox

 Hello Prof. Tutuc,

 I would like to propose the following committee for my qualifying exam:

 Prof. Seth Bank (supervisor)
 Prof. Ed Yu (committee chair)
 Prof. Julian Cheng
 Prof. Emanuel Tutuc
 Prof. Adela Ben-Yakar (out of department)

 Both Prof. Bank and Prof. Yu have consented to this selection. I'm currently in the process of scheduling the exam, but it looks like it will most likely be on Monday, July 29th. The title is "Low Noise, High Gain, Mid-Infrared InAs Avalanche Photodiodes grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy", and I am in the SSE track.

 Please let me know if I am missing any information, or if there are any concerns.

 Thank you,
 Scott Maddox

Make initial contact with potential committee members by email. Something like:

Dear Potential Committee Member,

I am a 4th year graduate student working on molecular beam epitaxy of GaSb based lasers for professor Seth Bank. I am interested in meeting with you to discuss the topic of my research proposal and the possibility of having you as a member of my PhD committee. A very brief description of the research proposal is attached. I would be happy to discuss the details in person if there is a time that would be convenient for you. I would like to schedule the qualifying examination for sometime in the early part of the Fall semester 2010. Thanks for your time.

-Adam Crook

or

Subject: PhD Qualifier/Proposal committee member?

Dear Prof. Ben-Yakar,

My advisor, Prof. Seth Bank, suggested that you might be interested in joining my PhD committee as the out-of-department member. I am a 4th year graduate student in the Electrical and Engineering Department working on molecular beam epitaxy of InAs-based avalanche photodiodes and dilute-bismuthide alloys for mid-infrared detectors. The development of these highly sensitive detectors could have important biomedical applications due to the strong mid-infrared absorption bands exhibited by many organic molecules. A brief summary of my proposal is in the post-script below. I am hoping to schedule my proposal and oral qualifier for mid-to-late July, before Prof. Bank leaves for his sabbatical in the fall. I would be happy to discuss the details in person, if there is a time that would be convenient for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your time,

Scott Maddox

Proposal Summary:
We propose to develop low-noise InAs avalanche photodiodes (APD) for near- and mid-infrared sensing applications. Tremendous progress has been made in the past decade, during which InAs has been shown to possess near ideal impact ionization characteristics resulting in APDs with extremely low excess noise factors and bandwidth independent of gain. Through careful optimization of device design, growth, and fabrication we are able to reduce dark currents and increase multiplication gains, thereby improving detectivity. We believe that further optimization will yield high-gain, background-radiation-limited devices operating at 77K. In addition, we are concurrently pursuing advanced approaches for extending the cut-off wavelength and further improving device performance. Our approaches include the incorporation of dilute-bismuthide absorption regions, AlAsSb electron blocking layers, and InAs/AlAsSb staircase multiplication regions.

Note: if potential committee members are not able to serve on your committee, contact area advisor with updated committee list and info.

After you have your committee formed

Send out a doodle with potential exam dates and try to get a date scheduled
Once you have finalized a date reserve the conference room through James Hitzfelder.
Get a member to agree to be committee chair
must be a member of your GSC area and not your adviser
Send copy of program of work and college transcripts if requested (professor Yu did) so committee chair can evaluate your academic credentials

2 Weeks before qualifying exam

Send a copy of your Research proposal to committee members. Include a list of classes you have taken and also a project timeline. Examples:
Adam Crook
Hari Nair
Kumar Appaiah
Erica Krivoy
Rodolfo Salas
Scott Maddox
Scott Maddox (latex files)
Emily Walker
Scott Sifferman
Scott Sifferman (latex files)
Send a copy your CV too.
- Take this opportunity to remind them of the date, time and location of the exam
- A list of your publications can be generated from the LASE website. See LASE_Website_Info#Generating_publication_lists_for_individual_members for details.

On the day of the qualifying exam

Bring this form with you for your committee members to sign PhD committee form. You do not have to fill anything in this form.
Bring your PhD. program of work PhD program of work and give it to your committee chair.
Your presentation should be 40-45 minutes (excluding questions), so 30-35 content slides.
Examples:
- Adam Crook
- Hari Nair
- Erica Krivoy
- Rodolfo Salas
- Scott Maddox
- Emily Walker
- Scott Sifferman