Intelligent Systems, PhD

General Intelligent Systems Track Curriculum:

Biomedical Informatics Track Curriculum (ISP/MI)

This assumes that a student already has training in a health care field; if this is not so, then the faculty will select a set of courses that teach the student basic medical knowledge, and the student may take these courses as electives.

MS Project and PhD Preliminary Evaluation

For this requirement, the student must complete a research project, approved by the student’s preliminary evaluation committee, involving (1) significant research, design, or development work, (2) a written report, and (3) an oral presentation. Students must form a MS project committee (MS) or a preliminary evaluation committee (PhD) consisting of three faculty members, two of whom must be ISP faculty. The student’s adviser chairs the committee, and must be an ISP faculty member.

Preferably, the research project is completed by the end of the summer term of the second year. Students who have not defended their research project by end of the fall term of their third year in the program will be placed on provisional status in the program, unless extenuating circumstances warrant an extension, as judged by the student’s preliminary evaluation committee.

Although not a requirement, it is strongly suggested that the student submit the project report for publication in a refereed journal or conference. Thus, the scope of the research project is intended to be at the level of a paper that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed AI journal or conference.

The steps to completing the project are as follows:

• Submit a project proposal to your committee for its approval.
• Perform the work, and write a project report.
• Submit your project report to your committee at least two weeks in advance of your oral presentation of the work.
• Present your work in a talk given to your committee. As a guideline, you should give about a 30-minute talk and leave about 30 minutes for questions and discussion. The ISP faculty should be invited to the oral presentation. General questions relating to the field of AI are appropriate at this examination. The oral presentation may take place in an open forum, such as the ISP AI Forum, followed by a closed session with just your committee and any other ISP faculty members who wish to be present.

The committee will evaluate the project and presentation. The following criteria should be considered: The project and presentation should represent independent research, design, or development work; they should be technically sound; and they should be relevant to the ISP. Also, the student should display breadth of knowledge, understanding of the significance and motivation of the work, and understanding of the relationship of the work with prior work; and, the presentation should be clear. The committee will combine that evaluation with an evaluation of the student’s progress in coursework to arrive at an overall evaluation of one of the following:

PhD

• Pass at the PhD level.
• Provisional pass at the PhD level: Must complete additional requirements specified by the committee in order to obtain a pass.
• Pass at the MS level: Student obtains a terminal MS degree, once all course requirements for the MS are completed.
• Fail.

Students who pass will need a card signed by their committee to obtain credit for passing. Contact the ISP program secretary at least two weeks before the oral portion of the preliminary evaluation, so the card can be available at the meeting to be signed.

PhD Comprehensive Examination

For the PhD comprehensive examination, students should follow these steps:

Form a comprehensive examination committee consisting of at least three faculty members, two of whom must be ISP faculty. The student’s PhD adviser chairs the committee and must be an ISP faculty member. The faculty on a given student’s comprehensive examination committee are often the same as the faculty on that student’s preliminary evaluation committee, but they need not be.

Choose three major subareas of AI.  One of these areas is flexible; the other two should be chosen from the ISP list of sub-areas below.  The flexible area must be unanimously approved by the students’ committee (but does not need to be approved by the director).  Biomedical Informatics students should choose “Biomedical Informatics” as one of the subareas.

• AI and Business/Accounting
• AI and Law
• AI and Medicine
• AI and MIS
• Bioinformatics
• Case-based Reasoning
• Cognitive Architectures (or Subsymbolic Approaches)
• Connectionist Approaches
• Statistics and Evaluation Methods
• Expert Systems
• Intelligent Interfaces
• Intelligent Tutoring Systems
• Knowledge Representation
• Machine Learning
• Biomedical Informatics
• Natural-language Processing
• Planning
• Reasoning About Uncertainty
• Robotics
• Vision

Work with the committee to finalize the reading for the three chosen subareas. Have the committee approve the list.

Work with your committee members (or their designated administrative assistants) to set the following dates for the examination:

• The date and time the written examination is distributed to you.
• The date and time you return the examination, which by default is nine days after receiving it. Your committee can designate an examination period of fewer or more than nine days, and through your adviser you may request that they do so.
• The date and time you orally defend your examination answers before your committee. You should schedule two hours for your oral exam defense, although typically less time will be needed.

Your committee will provide a list of written questions. Unless an exception is made by your committee, you will have nine days to provide the written answers to these questions. At the end of those nine days, you should distribute your answers to each of your committee members. Be sure to check that each has received your answers.

An oral examination will take place after the comprehensive committee has read your answers; the committee should be given a minimum of three days to read your answers before the oral examination. The ISP faculty (only) will be invited. You will be asked questions by your committee about your answers on the written examination, and more broadly, about your knowledge of the material in the three areas of concentration you have chosen.

At the end of your oral examination, your committee will evaluate your performance as one of the following:

• Pass.
• Provisional pass: Must complete additional requirements specified by the committee in order to obtain a pass.
• Fail.

An evaluation by the comprehensive examination committee of “fail” will be considered by the ISP faculty at large, who will make a determination about the status of the student in the ISP, including whether the student is allowed to re-take the examination or whether he or she is terminated from the program.

Students who pass the comprehensive examination will need a card signed by their committee to obtain credit for passing. Contact the ISP program secretary at least two weeks before the oral portion of the comprehensive examination, so the card can be available at the meeting to be signed.

A selection of successful comprehensive examinations with reading lists, questions, and answers can be found here.

Note: According to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences graduate school guidelines, the comprehensive examination should be passed AND admission to candidacy for the PhD degree granted AT LEAST EIGHT MONTHS BEFORE SCHEDULING OF THE FINAL ORAL DISSERTATION DEFENSE. Please review the University of Pittsburgh Graduate and Professional Bulletin in the areas covering Comprehensive Examination, Doctoral Committee, and Admission to Candidacy for the PhD Degree. In addition, please review the guidelines regarding Statute of Limitations and Leaves of Absence. PhD degree must be completed within a period of 10 years from initial registration, or eight years if the student received a master’s degree.

PhD Dissertation

In pursuing the PhD dissertation, students should follow these steps:

1. Find a dissertation adviser and form a dissertation committee. Doctoral dissertation committees are composed of four members, all of whom must be current members of the Graduate Faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. There must be three Graduate Faculty members from the candidate’s department (“internal members”) and at least one Graduate Faculty member external to the candidate’s department (“external member”). A list of Graduate Faculty for the university can be viewed at the following website: http://www.ir.pitt.edu/gradfac/homepg.htm. Membership on the Graduate Faculty is not automatic and must be formally requested by the faculty member’s department or school and approved by the Associate Dean before the faculty member can serve on a doctoral dissertation committee. External committee members must be approved by the Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies before the thesis proposal/prospectus meeting or defense. Prior approval also must be obtained for any prospective committee member from the University of Pittsburgh or elsewhere who does not have Graduate Faculty status but is requested as an additional committee member beyond the four required members with Graduate Faculty status. Any changes to the committee after the thesis proposal/prospectus/overview meeting also must be approved by the Assistant Dean before the defense. Forms for admission to candidacy and committee changes can be obtained in 5141 Sennott Square. If a graduate faculty member has a primary appointment in one department and a secondary or joint appointment in another department, s/he may serve as either an internal or external committee member. S/he may also serve as a chair or co-chair of the committee. All committee members are required to be physically present at both the thesis proposal/prospectus/overview meeting and the defense. In special circumstances, a committee member may request to participate via videoconferencing at either the overview or defense, but cannot participate remotely in both. Only the Assistant Dean can approve a remote participation from one of the two required meetings (overview or defense). A graduate faculty member from another University may serve as the external member of a doctoral committee with the approval of the Assistant Dean. A department must submit the C.V. of the external member along with a memo justifying their participation on the committee (i.e., special expertise in a particular field). Requests for external members must be approved by the Assistant Dean in advance of the requested member’s participation on the doctoral committee. The Assistant Dean will review the material and either approve or reject the proposed external member. It must be understood by the external member that they are required tobe present in person at both the thesis proposal/prospectus/overview meeting and the defense of the dissertation at their own expense. Any exceptions to this attendance rule must be approved by the Assistant Dean in advance. A graduate faculty member from another school or University, who has been approved by the Assistant Dean, may serve as a cochair of a dissertation committee. Committee members who leave the university after a graduate student has been admitted to candidacy may stay on the committee in their original capacity, be it as an internal/external member, as long as they are willing and able to physically attend the defense, and providing that the defense is scheduled within 12 months of the faculty member’s departure. The only exception to this rule is if the departed committee member is the chair, in which case a co-chair from the department must be designated. If a committee member retires, they may remain on the committee as long as they are still willing to serve, and are still activeprofessionally in the academic community.
2. Write a dissertation proposal. Present the proposal to your committee. Your committee must approve your proposal. You will need a form signed by your committee and the ISP director to complete this process. Contact the program administrator at least two weeks before meeting so the form can be available for signature at the meeting.
3. Carry out the research. Write the dissertation.

Announcement of your dissertation defense must appear in University Times and Pitt Chronicle. Send information to the ISP administrator at least five weeks before your oral defense date. This information will be sent to the University Times and Pitt Chronicle. The announcement includes the student name, the title of the dissertation, and the time and place of the defense.

Have an oral defense which is open to the University at large. You will need a card signed by your committee to obtain credit for passing the dissertation requirement. Contact the program secretary two weeks before your defense, so the card can be available for signature at the meeting.

Credit for doctoral research is ordinarily obtained through the course ISSP 3000 - RESEARCH AND DISSERTATION PHD . Students who have completed all course requirements, passed the PhD comprehensive examination, completed 72 credits of graduate student, and are working fulltime on their dissertations are encouraged to register for FTDB 3999 - FULL-TIME DISSERTATION STUDY .