Progress Review

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. 

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 or more hours of coursework of any kind 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. 

The Progress Review consists of two major components: a written Progress Report and an Oral Examination.

Written Progress Report

You, the student, must provide a written Progress Report / PhD Proposal to the Dissertation Committee at least one week before the Oral Exam. The report should highlight your research accomplishments to date, ongoing research, and planned research toward completion of your Dissertation.

The body of the report should be brief, with a maximum length of 25 single-column pages. To avoid exceeding the page limit, it is strongly suggested that the Progress Report does not include a verbatim copy of existing publications. Students should rather provide a concise summary of existing work for the committee with citations of existing publications in the references.

The report should contain a proposed timeline for completion of the research, and an overview of the Program of Work (PhD course work) including grades. At the time of the Progress Review, the Dissertation Committee may require or suggest additional courses for the Program of Work.

Oral Exam

The Oral Exam will be performed before the PhD Dissertation Committee as a whole. It is the student's responsibility to schedule the exam with the committee members, e.g. using services such as Doodle or When 2 Meet and the UT Room Reservation System to reserve a space. The Oral Exam should be public and performed following the same attendance policies as the PhD defense. Ideally, all committee members and in particular the supervisor should be present for the exam in person.

The exam should address the students research progress to date and planned research towards completion of their written PhD Dissertation. During the exam, the committee will evaluate the research progress and plan as well as the PhD coursework, including in both an open (public) and closed Q&A session. During the Q&A and discussions of the research, the exam can also address any deficiencies in the student's foundational knowledge. The Oral Exam should be scheduled for 1 1/2 to 2 hours with the following suggested format that mirrors a final defense:

The Progress Review is overseen by a Chair of the Progress Review. The Chair must be a member of your PhD dissertation committee who is NOT your PhD supervisor or co-supervisor. The Chair must be a tenure or tenure-track faculty member in ECE.

Outcomes

The outcome of the Progress Review is determined by a simple majority vote of the Dissertation Committee. The PhD supervisor(s) attend(s) the review, but do not vote.

The three possible outcomes of a Progress Review are as follows:

• Pass without conditions
• Pass with conditions
• Fail

Conditions could include, for example, requiring you to address additional information in your Dissertation, or to perform additional research for your Dissertation and/or for your Defense.  You may be asked to report back to one or more members of your Dissertation Committee regarding your progress on meeting the conditions.

A student who fails the Progress Review once will be given at least one additional opportunity prior to the 11th long semester after attempting and/or completing 33 hours of coursework to retake the Progress Review. A second failure of a Progress Review will typically result in the student being recommended for dismissal from the PhD program to the Graduate School.

Completion of the ECE PhD Progress Review and Program of Work Form

The outcome of the Progress Review including approval of the Program of Work will be recorded by the Chair of the Progress Review after the exam on the form HERE.