SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING PH.D. DISSERTATION PROPOSAL

PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES
(Last Revised: July 2021)
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INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE……………………………………………………………………………….3
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSAL PROCESS…………………………………………………………………3
Advisor Selection ………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Dissertation Topic ……………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Coursework Completion……………………………………………………………………………………..4
Timing of the Proposal Examination …………………………………………………………………….5
Writing the Proposal Document……………………………………………………………………………5
Proposal Committee …………………………………………………………………………………………..6
Submission of the Proposal Materials……………………………………………………………………6
Submission of the Proposal Document to the Committee………………………………………….6
Oral Presentation Scheduling and Posting………………………………………………………………6
Proposal outcomes……………………………………………………………………………………………..7
Reporting Results………………………………………………………………………………………………8
PREPARING THE PROPOSAL…………………………………………………………………………………….9
Proposal Format ………………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Other considerations…………………………………………………………………………………………10
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS…………………………………………………………………………11
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INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
This guide supplements the PhD proposal information in the ECE Graduate Handbook. Students
and faculty should refer to the information contained here during the process of completing the
proposal portion of the PhD degree requirements. For additional information, clarification or
questions, please contact the ECE Graduate Affairs Office.
The Georgia Tech policies regarding graduate student research and the appointment of thesis
advisory committees can be found at http://www.policylibrary.gatech.edu/student-affairs/policyadvisement-and-appointment-thesis-advisory-committees.
As described in the ECE Graduate Handbook, the Dissertation Proposal Exam in the School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering serves two functions:
1. The second part of the ECE Comprehensive Exam (the Coursework Qualifier being the
first part.)
• Test whether the student has sufficient background to enter the Ph.D. Program
• Allow the committee to judge the student’s ability to execute a research task and
to communicate the results.
2. Evaluation of the Ph.D. Dissertation topic by the Dissertation Reading Committee.
• Evaluate the proposed topic to ensure that, if completed as posed, it constitutes an
original contribution to knowledge.
• Evaluate the proposed research plan to ensure that it is well-conceived and
feasible to complete with the resources available within a reasonable time frame.
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSAL PROCESS
The steps involved in the proposal process are summarized in the diagram below:
These steps are outlined in more detail in the following sections. Faculty and PhD students
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should be familiar with these steps. Details of the procedures involved are described in the
remaining pages of the guidebook.

Advisor Selection
• This is a mutually agreed upon relationship in which the student selects the advisor and
the advisor agrees to invest the needed time for research and thesis supervision.
• A student who selects an advisor outside of ECE must select a co-advisor who is an ECE
faculty member. Adjunct faculty can only serve as advisor/co-advisor upon approval
from the Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs.
• The selection of the advisor is reported to the ECE Graduate Affairs Office by submitting
the online advisor selection form, available at https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/.
• The Advisor Selection form should be submitted at the earliest date possible, and no later
than the end of the second year following matriculation into the ECE PhD program.
Dissertation Topic
• The PhD dissertation topic is developed by the research advisor and the student.
• In addition to guiding the student in research efforts, the advisor may recommend or
require coursework in addition to ECE’s requirements, review of articles in professional
journals, or additional tasks/activities to be completed prior to completing the proposal
process.
Coursework Completion
• ECE does not require that the coursework is completed before the Proposal Examination,
but strongly encourages the completion of as many classes as possible before the
proposal exam.
• The electronic coursework plan (https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/) must be
submitted and approved by the Graduate Affairs Office at the time of the Proposal
Examination, showing completed coursework and a clear plan for the remaining course
completion.
• The proposal examination cannot be held if the student has not completed the
professional communication seminar, ECE 8022, and did not meet the institute PhD
residency requirement (full time enrollment for at least two semesters while classified as
graduate student).
• If the coursework was not completed before the proposal examination, the final
completed coursework plan must be certified no later than the end of the semester
prior to graduation. At the time of the final submission, the form has to show
completion of 43 hours of classes to be used toward the PhD coursework requirements.
The term and year in which each class was completed as well as the hours completed and
the grade earned for each class must also be indicated on the form. The student is
responsible to ensure in a timely manner that they will meet the coursework
requirements.
• Students planning to use Special Problems (ECE 8901, 8902 or 8903) toward their PhD
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coursework requirement must have the special problem work certified by the faculty
sponsor before the hours can be used. A form for use in certifying special problem hours
is available on the ECE website https://www.ece.gatech.edu/currentstudents/graduate/forms.
Timing of the Proposal Examination
• The Proposal Examination consists of two parts: evaluation of a proposal document
prepared by the student, and an oral examination including an oral presentation of the
proposal by the student.
• Students must successfully complete the entire Proposal Examination within 7 terms of
their matriculation into graduate studies in ECE at Georgia Tech, not including summers.
If this deadline is not met, the student will be required to leave the graduate program.
Students may petition the ECE Graduate Committee for an extension. The petition must
include information about the research progress that the student has made, and must be
supported by the student’s advisor.
• The student is expected to demonstrate background knowledge of their dissertation topic,
as well as broader understanding of the discipline. The Proposal must contain a detailed
plan for the completion of PhD-level research on the dissertation topic, and preferably
some results. However, it is understood that any results will be early and possibly
inconclusive; and the dissertation topic, methods, and results may evolve considerably inbetween the Proposal and the PhD defense. Students are advised to seek the input of the
committee on the research direction, and inform their committee members of significant
changes.
• There must be a minimum of six months between passing the proposal oral exam and
scheduling of the dissertation defense.
Writing the Proposal Document
• Once the research advisor determines that the student has a thorough understanding of
the background knowledge necessary for the agreed-upon research topic and has a wellconsidered research plan, the student writes a proposal of no more than 35 pages
including references and appendices. The proposal should be as concise as possible.
• The proposal must be written in the thesis format. The LaTeX and Word templates can
be found online at http://www.grad.gatech.edu/theses-dissertations-templates.
• The proposal must contain a chapter or sub-chapter entitled “Literature Survey”,
appearing anywhere in the document that the student finds appropriate. The “Literature
Survey” section is a minimum of five pages and must be written by the student with no
outside help. A disclaimer statement, signed by both the student and the advisor, is
included in the first section of the proposal to document compliance with this
requirement.
• The rest of the proposal document must contain, at minimum: a concise statement of the
PhD dissertation topic, a summary of the research completed, an outline of the research
to be completed, and a clear summary of the contributions of the research. The student
can get help in preparing the rest of the proposal document.
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Proposal Committee
• The research advisor and the student select two academic faculty members who will
serve on the proposal reading committee and, subject to Institute approval, on the PhD
Dissertation Reading Committee.
• At least one of the two reading committee members must be ECE faculty.
• ECE adjunct faculty or faculty from another GT academic unit may serve as reading
committee members.
• Additional members can be added to the proposal committee with the approval of the
ECE Graduate Affairs Office, obtained at the time of the proposal submission.
• The committee form can be found online at https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/.
Submission of the Proposal Materials
• Prior to submission all students need to visit the ECE Graduate Affairs Office for
coursework verification and advising on the preparation of the submission materials.
• The submission is now all electronic.
o Online:
§ Electronic committee form submission at
https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/.
o To the Academic Office:
§ Email the electronic (pdf) copy of the proposal document with the
DocuSigned disclaimer form inserted before the Table of Contents page .
The DocuSign template of the Disclaimer Statement can be found on the
ECE website https://www.ece.gatech.edu/current-students/graduate/forms.
§ The body of the email must contain a copy of the proposal abstract. The
abstract must begin with “The objective of the proposed research is…”.
Submission of the Proposal Document to the Committee
• The research advisor cannot serve as chair of the review committee. The proposal chair is
designated by the ECE Graduate Affairs Office.
• Immediately after the submission, the proposal document is electronically distributed to
committee members and to the student by the ECE Graduate Affairs Office.
• After the documents reach the committee members, the proposal committee chair
assumes responsibility for the remaining proposal-related activities. There is a minimum
of two weeks required to allow the committee to peruse the materials between
submission and scheduling the oral presentation.
Oral Presentation Scheduling and Posting
• It is the proposal committee’s responsibility to evaluate the written proposal and hold an
open (public) oral presentation of the proposal followed by a closed question and answer
session.
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• The proposal committee chair finds a date, time and place when the committee can
meet for the oral presentation. The committee chair then submits a request to schedule
the proposal oral exam, including in the message the student’s name, the day, date and
time of the exam, and the room and building in which the exam will be held. The
submission must be done on the contact page of the ECE Website:
https://www.ece.gatech.edu/contact-graduate-office-current-students.
• Once the announcement is received, the Academic Office posts the exam on
the ECE and Graduate Studies websites. The student is responsible to check if the exam
was posted correctly, and contact the Academic Office if the posting is missing or has
any errors in it.
Evaluation of the Proposal
Each member of the proposal committee with evaluate the written proposal and the oral
examination based on the criteria described below:
Student’s Preparation
• the Student has acquired the necessary background knowledge in their field to be
successful in PhD level research, and demonstrates a command of the specific topic of
their research.
Proposal Content
• the Topic of the proposal is clearly formulated, of appropriate scope, and relevant to
modern engineering research and practice. If successfully completed, it would represent
an original contribution to knowledge.
• the Survey of existing work provides sufficient background and context for the proposed
research, including an extensive review of the published literature.
• the Plan of proposed work is clearly articulated, is realistic in implementation and scope,
utilizes best research techniques and practices, and is reasonably likely to yield sufficient
information relevant to the topic.
Communication Skills
• the English usage adheres to the rules of standard English, and is understandable to the
reader.
• the Document is well organized, is thoroughly referenced, and provides useful and clear
tables and graphs to support the text.
• the Presentation is well organized, of appropriate length, coherent, and convincing.
Proposal outcomes
• Pass: The committee may pass the student but give recommendations for the student’s
research direction. Students should generally follow this advice, in consultation with
their advisors. The proposal committee members will form the Dissertation Reading
Committee.
• Conditional Pass: If the committee has reservations about the student’s performance or
the proposed material, they may vote for a conditional pass. A “Conditional Pass” is a
pass but certain conditions set forth by the committee must be met. A sample of common
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conditions include:
o completion of additional courses that the committee feels are important for proper
preparation
o specific steps to take to improve oral presentation skills and/or written
communication skills
o adding an addendum to the proposal
o redoing the oral presentation (unless the arrangements for a conditional pass
specifically require that the oral presentation be repeated, it generally does not
need to be done again)
o additional concerns determined by the committee may also apply and should be
communicated to the student and advisor in writing.
• Fail: The committee may also consider the student’s proposal and/or presentation to be
of insufficient quality to warrant a pass or conditional pass. If this occurs, the committee
specifies to the student (advisor and ECE Graduate Affairs) why the “Fail” decision was
reached and may make recommendations on what the student should do; for example, the
committee may require further preliminary research until a better definition of a
proposed topic is forthcoming.
o In accordance with Institute requirements, a student may only attempt the
proposal exam twice.
o A student who fails the proposal examination on the first attempt will be expected
to consult with the Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs for guidance as to how to
proceed. If a student chooses to attempt the proposal exam again, then they
would resubmit a proposal document. The committee may or may not be the
same.
• Hung committee: If the committee is not in agreement at the time of the examination,
the Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs will follow up with the committee and negotiate
a solution. If the agreement is not reached after mediation, the student will restart the
proposal process. The student has two more attempts, and has the option to form a new
proposal committee.
Reporting Results
After the proposal exam is completed, each member of the proposal committee DocuSigns the
Admission to PhD Candidacy and completes individual evaluations based on the criteria outlined
above. The committee chair prepares an additional report following the committee’s
deliberations. The committee chair report indicates the proposal outcome, and whether the
proposal is nominated for a Best PhD Proposal (Cleaver) award.
The following forms have to be filled out and signed the day of the oral exam:
o Admission to PhD Candidacy DocuSign form (student’s responsibility). The form
needs to be submitted the day before the oral exam. The form is DocuSigned by
the committee members, the student, the school chair, and the graduate
coordinator. Use the name of a Graduate Coordinator (Daniela Staiculescu or the
person designated in her absence) for the “School Chair” and “Graduate
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Coordinator” fields.
o PhD Proposal Committee Chair Report (committee chair’s responsibility)
o PhD Proposal Individual Evaluation Form (all committee members’
responsibility).
• There must be a minimum of six months between the successful completion of the
proposal examination and the oral defense of the PhD dissertation.
• The proposal process is not completed until all the forms have been submitted. However,
the six months count starts at the time when the student met all the requirements and was
declared passed by the committee.
PREPARING THE PROPOSAL
The ECE department offers a technical writing class for international Ph.D. students
who need to improve their writing skills. The Scientific Writing for International
Students class is offered once a semester during the spring and the fall terms. It is a
non-credit course and cannot be found on OSCAR. The Graduate Affairs Office
advertises the class every semester and participants are selected on a first-come, firstserved basis. For more information, please contact the Graduate Affairs Office.
Proposal Format
The proposal must be written in the Institute Thesis format. Templates can be found at
http://www.grad.gatech.edu/theses-dissertations-templates.
As described above, the proposal should contain a section entitled “Literature Survey”, that the
student writes with no outside help. This section has to be at least 5 pages long. This is the only
required section in the proposal; however, the following sections are recommended:
Introduction
This brief paragraph states the objective and/or goals of the PhD research. The information
provided in this area gives the reader a quick overview of what is included in the proposal. The
Introduction may even be drawn from the brief description of the “Request for Admission to
Ph.D. Candidacy” form.
The preliminary research
A written summary of some or all of the research performed is presented in a coherent manner.
This section would include the approach taken and some preliminary results.
The proposed research
Based on the background information and results presented in the Preliminary Research section,
the Proposed Research section should begin with a clear, concise statement of the topic and the
proposed method of attack. This statement will usually begin with “The object of the proposed
research is….” This one simple English sentence should state exactly that – the objective of the
research. This statement is followed by a few sentences of explanation or amplification, and a
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description of the method of attack. This information should be in a form suitable for use in the
“Request for Admission to Ph.D. Candidacy” form, which is submitted to the Graduate Studies –
VPR office after the proposal has been approved by the School.
Work remaining to be done
This is an estimate and an outline of the work needed to complete the project, and the time
required for completion.
Facilities needed
This section should list the major items of equipment and facilities needed, including those
already in use. It should be brief, but specific. It is not sufficient to say “The facilities, etc., are
available”. If supplies, equipment or facilities are needed and not already available in the
School, the means for obtaining them should be indicated. Unusual or special items require
advanced planning and these are the most important. Computing time requirements should also
be given if applicable.
The entire proposal, including figures, tables, references and appendices should not exceed 35
pages.
Figures, Tables and References
It is important that figures, tables, and references in the proposal are presented in a manner
consistent with professional publication standards.
When placing a figure or table and its identifying description in the proposal, it is important to
consider ease of access for the document reader. In most cases the text that introduces a figure
or table will precede the placement of the figure or table in the proposal. However, the
describing text should be in close proximity to the figure or table so that the reader is not forced
to refer back and forth between pages in order to understand the information provided. It may
be necessary to place a figure or table before the describing text so that both appear on the same
page.
References should be presented in a consistent manner throughout the proposal. It is
recommended that references be presented in either consecutive number order or alphabetical by
first author of the publication. When using the alphabetical listing, the references in the body of
the proposal should give the author’s last name and the year of the publication. When there are
two authors, both should be listed with the publication year. When there are more than two
authors, just the first author’s name, the notation “et al” referring to the other (unlisted) authors,
and the year would be listed. When using consecutive numbers, the list of references is prepared
in numerical order following the first appearance of each reference in the text.
Other considerations
If the thesis research is part of a larger project, its relationship to the larger project should be
pointed out. This can be done under “Literature Survey”. The particular aspect of the
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problem that represents an original contribution by the student should be made clear.
This will usually be done under the heading “The Proposed Research”.
The proposal will not be approved if it is not written in acceptable English. A student who has
unusual difficulty in presenting ideas in writing may use the proposal as an exercise in
preparation for the dissertation write-up.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Will you walk me through the proposal process from start to finish?
1. Student updates coursework plan at https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/, showing
all grades earned for the classes already completed and the planned remaining classes.
The coursework plan needs to be approved by the ECE Graduate Affairs Office prior to
distributing the proposal to the committee.
2. Student visits the Academic Office to express the intent of submitting the proposal, and
to get all their questions answered.
3. Submit the following to the ECE Graduate Affairs Office:
a. Online:
i. Proposal committee form submission at
https://secure.ece.gatech.edu/gradforms/.
b. To the Academic Office (email daniela@ece.gatech.edu):
i. Electronic (pdf) copy of the proposal document with the scanned
disclaimer form inserted before the Table of Contents page. The body of
the email must contain a short abstract, that has to start with “The objective
of the proposed research is….”.
4. The Academic Office distributes the proposal materials to the committee members.
5. The committee chair coordinates proposal committee activities and seeks input on the
proposal.
6. When the committee determines that the proposal is ready for examination, the chair
schedules the exam through the ECE Graduate Affairs Office. The date, time and
location of the proposal exam must be announced a minimum of five working days in
advance.
7. The process could take as short as 3 weeks but it can take up to 8 weeks or longer
especially at busy times of the term or at times when faculty are traveling away from
campus.
What if I have an additional committee member outside Georgia Tech?
Only GT faculty can be selected in the online proposal committee form. Additional members
will be approved by the Academic Office and added manually. Please inform the Academic
Office of the intention to add an external member.
How long should the oral presentation be?
Typical lengths are 30-45 minutes.
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Who do I contact to reserve a room?
This should be handled by the committee chair who may delegate the task to their administrative
aide.
May I have my advisor/group members review the oral presentation?
You may practice your oral presentation portion with anyone you choose, including faculty
members and your advisor.
To whom do I submit the proposal?
The entire proposal package is submitted to the ECE Graduate Affairs Office. Students must
visit the Academic Office prior to the submission to make sure they meet all the requirements.
How do I know when the proposal has been released to the committee?
You will receive an email from the ECE Graduate Affairs Office with a copy of your proposal
memo.