Policies and Forms
PhD Program Checklist
The Doctoral Program Completion Checklist PDF is a short summary and checklist of requirements for degree completion.
Research and Specialized Qualifiers
You may submit your Research and Specialized Qualifiers via the first six (6) items below.
Thesis Proposal & Defense Procedures
Important step-by-step procedures are inside of the last three (3) items below.
Research Qualifier Committee
- Research Qualifier - Committee [ Webform ]
Research Skills
Speaking
The ability to communicate in oral presentation. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to present technical material to a technical audience clearly and succinctly. The presentation must be made in-person at a venue open to the public. Ideally, the Research Qualifying Committee will be in attendance, but committee members may designate proxies, subject to approval by the Ph.D. Program Chair, to evaluate the presentation.
Timeline
2 Weeks Before
- The Ph.D. Program Manager will reserve an appropriate room. The room scheduled must be available to the public.
- Your research qualifier committee (RQC) should attend in-person and be available for a minimum of 60 minutes.
- Speaking qualifiers should not be scheduled after the last day of finals in the fall semester and not before the start of the spring semester. This is generally from mid-December to mid-January. They should not be scheduled on University holidays. Check the academic calendar for specific dates.
At Least 5 Days Before
- Email the details of your talk including the date, time, room location, Zoom link (if applicable), title, abstract, and committee members, to ri-people@andrew.cmu.edu
- The Ph.D. Program Manager will post your qualifier announcement on the RI Events Calendar.
- If presenting over Zoom, complete the Authorization Form to Publicly Live Stream your talk and email the form to the Ph.D. Program Manager prior to your talk. Authorization Form. You may list your advisor as the delegate and the Ph.D. Program Manager as the Department Contact.
After Your Talk
- Your Research Qualifier Committee will be responsible for completing forms for your speaking, writing, and research skills qualifiers by going to gsaudit, gsaudit.cs.cmu.edu.
Writing
Teaching
- Research Qualifier - Teaching Assistantship [ Webform ]
Specialized Qualifier
- Specialized Qualifier - [ Webform ]
SPECIALIZED QUALIFIER GUIDELINES: Graduate level (600 - 800-level) courses only
- No more than 12 units of non-doctoral (600-level) graduate courses
- No more than 12 units of project-only courses
- No more than 12 units of independent study (Independent study courses must include syllabus, schedule, assignments, and evaluation criteria. Syllabus submitted with the SQ form.)
- Core courses can be used in the Specialized Qualifier sequence, but only in addition to 48-units of Core Qualifier courses
- Teaching Assistantships cannot be included as Specialized Qualifier courses
- Seminar Courses cannot be included as Specialized Qualifier courses
- Perception: 16-720 Computer Vision, 16-820 Advanced Computer Vision, 16-722 Sensing and Sensors, 16-822 Geometry-based Methods in Vision, 16-823 Physics-based Methods in Vision
- Cognition: 15-780 Graduate Artificial Intelligence, 10-701 Machine Learning, 10-715 Advanced Machine Learning, and 16-831 Introduction to Robot Learning
- Action: 16-741 Mechanics of Manipulation, 16-711 Kinematics, Dynamic Systems, and Control, and 16-761 Mobile Robots
- Math Foundations: 16-811 Math Fundamentals for Robotics
Course Waiver
If a student possesses all of the knowledge conferred and evaluated in a particular course, they may apply for a waiver to be released from the requirement of enrolling and completing the course. The waiver process involves documentation of prior coursework and experience and thorough evaluation of material learned.
The Chair of the Ph.D. Program will then assign a suitable faculty member to evaluate the request, typically the relevant course instructor or an expert on the topic. The faculty member will then conduct an evaluation which may include oral examination, proctoring of course quizzes or exams including final exams, assigning course exercises, assignments or projects, or any combination of these. They will assess the extent and quality of knowledge and its sufficiency relative to the course objectives and requirements.
In some cases, the faculty may determine that a student has demonstrated significant knowledge of the research area, but not sufficient to waive the course requirement entirely. In such cases, the faculty may grant a conditional waiver, contingent upon additional work, such as successfully acting as teaching assistant in the course or completing some designated project. If a student disagrees with the outcome of the waiver application, they may petition the Robotics Program Committee to review the case.
Waiver applications must be submitted during the first year in the Ph.D. program.
Waiver ApplicationStudent Procedures for Thesis Proposal
Thesis Committee Members
The committee will consist of at least four members: a minimum of three from Carnegie Mellon, at least two of whom must be faculty members in the Robotics Institute, and one faculty member with a primary appointment in Robotics, and at least one qualified researcher who is external to Carnegie Mellon. The student’s advisor is the chairperson of the Thesis Committee. The entire composition of the committee must be approved by the Chair of the Program before the Thesis Proposal is presented.
Prior to presenting the Thesis Proposal, the four core courses of the Course Qualifier and the research, speaking and writing skills portions of the Research Qualifier must be complete.
Timeline
At Least One Month Before
- Get approval of your thesis committee members from the Ph.D. Program Chair, David Wettergreen, dsw@ri.cmu.edu. Copy Suzanne Muth (lyonsmuth@cmu.edu) on that email.
- Be sure to check with Suzanne Muth before finalizing the date, to make sure there are no other orals scheduled at the chosen time. Thesis proposals will not be scheduled to overlap.
- Suzanne Muth will reserve an appropriate room. The room scheduled must be available to the public. Smaller rooms, such as conference-style rooms, are strongly discouraged.
- Your committee members should be available for a minimum of 90 minutes, preferably two hours.
- It is strongly preferred that you present your proposal and defense to a live audience with the full committee present in person. If necessary your external member is permitted to be remote for the proposal or defense but not both. Please plan and schedule well in advance to permit attendance. Students requesting to present remote-only will need special permission from the Ph.D. Program Chair, David Wettergreen, dsw@ri.cmu.edu. Copy Suzanne Muth (lyonsmuth@cmu.edu) on that email.
- Thesis proposals should not be scheduled after the last day of finals in the fall semester and not before the start of the spring semester. This is generally from mid-December to mid-January. They should not be scheduled on University holidays. Check the academic calendar for specific dates.
10 Days Before
- Send email to Suzanne Muth with the date, time, room location, Zoom link (if applicable), title, abstract, URL link to thesis, and thesis committee members, including external member affiliation.
- Suzanne will post your thesis proposal announcement electronically and on the RI Events website.
BE PROMPT! - Provide thesis committee with final draft of thesis proposal document.
- If presenting over Zoom, complete the Authorization Form to Publicly Live Stream your talk and email the form to Suzanne prior to your talk. You may list your advisor as the delegate and Suzanne Muth as the Department Contact.
- If creating a Zoom meeting link, make sure you assign your advisor as the co-host. Record your talk to Cloud. At the conclusion of your talk, provide the link to your thesis recording to the RI Web Team, Brian Staszel and Alex Krause
After the Proposal
- Have your advisor send email to Suzanne (lyonsmuth@cmu.edu) indicating whether or not you have successfully passed your thesis proposal.
- If successfully passed, complete and have your advisor sign the All But Dissertation Status Agreement Form. Where it asks for Doctoral Student Status Will Lapse, this date needs to be ten years from your matriculation date.
Example:
First Semester Admitted into Doctoral Program: Fall 2024
Doctoral Student Status Will Lapse: Summer 2034
Student Procedures for Thesis Defense
All Qualifiers must be completed before scheduling the Thesis Defense.
The Dissertation itself is normally preceded by a year or more of research and writing after the proposal. The Dissertation is a scholarly document describing the problem, related work, the student’s approach, the results and insights achieved, and the significance of the work. The written dissertation must be presented to the Thesis Committee for approval. When the committee gives preliminary approval, the Oral Defense can take place. At the Oral Defense, the committee and the entire community will have the opportunity to question the work critically. Finally, the Thesis Committee must decide whether to approve the thesis.
A student will be certified for graduation and allowed to attend commencement ceremonies when the thesis is unanimously approved by his or her Thesis Committee and has been delivered to the Program Coordinator in final form, at which time the student will be awarded the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in the field of Robotics.
Timeline
At Least One Month Before
- Be sure to check with Suzanne Muth (lyonsmuth@cmu.edu) before finalizing the date, to make sure there are no other orals scheduled at the chosen time. Thesis presentations will not be scheduled to overlap. Inform Suzanne once you have settled on a date and time.
- Your committee members should be available for a minimum of 90 minutes, preferably two hours.
- It is expected you and your internal committee members will be in-person. Students requesting to present remote-only will need permission from the Ph.D. Program Chair, David Wettergreen, dsw@ri.cmu.edu. Copy Suzanne Muth (lyonsmuth@cmu.edu) on that email.
- Inform Suzanne once you have settled on a date and time. She will reserve an appropriate room. The room scheduled must be available to the public. Smaller rooms, such as conference-style rooms, are strongly discouraged.
- Thesis defenses should not be scheduled after the last day of finals in the fall semester and not before the start of the spring semester. This is generally from mid- December to mid-January. They should not be scheduled on University holidays. Check the academic calendar for specific dates.
10 Days Before
- Send email to Suzanne Muth with the date, time, room location, Zoom link (if applicable), title, abstract, and thesis committee members, including external member affiliation. URL link to thesis is optional.
- Suzanne will post your thesis defense announcement electronically. BE PROMPT!
- Provide thesis committee with final draft of thesis defense document.
- If presenting over Zoom, complete the Authorization Form to Publicly Live Stream your talk and email the form to Suzanne prior to your talk. https://www.cmu.edu/es/docs/livestream-consent.pdf. You may list your advisor as the delegate and Suzanne Muth as the Department Contact.
- If creating a Zoom meeting link, make sure you assign your advisor as the co-host. Record your talk to Cloud. At the conclusion of your talk, provide the link to your thesis recording to the RI Web Team, Brian Staszel
and Alex Krause
After the Thesis Defense
Final Thesis Documents needed in order to be certified
The following must be turned in order to participate in the commencement ceremonies held in May, and to be considered “certified” to receive a degree.
Thesis Committee
Please plan to have each of your committee members send Suzanne Muth an email stating you passed your thesis defense.
Final Thesis Document and Submission Checklist
Provide Suzanne Muth with a link to the final thesis document in the form of a pdf file and the
Dissertation and Thesis Repository Submission Checklist.
Confirmation Email From Your Advisor
Your advisor must send email to Suzanne confirming that your thesis is accepted in its final form.
Submit your Thesis to the RI Website
Submit your thesis to the Robotics Institute repository.
Update Commencement Information
In SIO, under Academic Info -> Graduation and Diploma, update the following:
- Name on Diploma
- Degree Information including Thesis Title and Advisor Name
- Commencement Ceremony Attendance
- Diploma Delivery(address required)
Optional: Survey of Earned Doctorates
https://sedsurvey.org/DoctoralGraduates/CurrentQuestionnaire
Other Important Check-off Items
- Provide Suzanne with your new contact information: employer, address, phone, email, job title, LinkedIn, etc.
- Provide Suzanne with a non-CMU email to be added to the robotics-alumni email list.
- Sign up to get your CMU alumni email.
- Carnegie Mellon offers Certified Electronic Diplomas (CeDiploma).
- Make sure your student account balance is at $0, or will be $0 by the end of the semester if you are receiving financial support. Check your student information on line (SIO).
- Turn in office and building keys to SCS Building Facilities by emailing them: building@cs.cmu.edu
- If you would like to cancel your health insurance, contact the Student Health Office
Space is very limited
We are typically unable to provide student office space once a student's tuition and/or stipend support ends.
Office Checklist
- Recycle all papers.
- Throw away or remove all personal items.
- Throw away or remove old food and beverage containers and other trash.
- Empty items stored in lockable cabinets or bookshelves.
- Work with advisor and reassign or retire/remove SCS-owned equipment and accessories (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.)