Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Program Requirements

To obtain a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree in Mechanical Engineering (ME) or Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from the Joint Institute, students must fulfill the following requirements.

  1. Complete specific coursework sequence, which differs for students starting their Doctoral program with a Bachelor’s Degree or with a Master’s Degree.
  2. Present at least 1 academic paper(s)/abstract(s)/poster(s) at high level international conference. (Note: this new Regulation is applicable to the doctoral students entering the PhD program starting from the year of 2020 and on.)
  3. Preparation, propose, and defend a Doctoral Thesis.

While the typical duration of the doctoral program is of five years for students starting their Doctoral program with a Bachelor’s degree and of four years for students starting their Doctoral program with a Master’s degree, students are eligible to receive a doctoral degree when the above requirements are fulfilled. Requirements for ME and ECE degrees are identical; the term “major” refers to the ME and ECE programs.

1. Coursework (Students entering with Bachelor’s degree only)

1.1 Students matriculate in the year of 2023 and after, please follow the below requirements.

Students matriculated in the year of 2017 and before, please follow the original requirements. Students matriculated in the year of 2018 and after, please follow the below requirements.

To complete their coursework requirement, Doctoral students entering the doctoral program with a Bachelor’s degree must take a number of courses, while maintaining a minimum GPA. Specifically, students must take the following course.

  1. At least thirty three approved credit hours of engineering, math, and science at the 4xx level or higher,
  2. A total of three credit hours of technical communication, VG50X – Technical Communication. Each graduated student must complete all three courses (VG501,VG502,VG503) with a composite GPA of 3.0 or above in order to meet the graduation requirement.
  3. A total of three credit hours of politics for domestic students, or a total of six credit hours of Chinese Language and Chinese Culture for international students.
  4. The Grade Point Average corresponding to the Training Plan must be at least 3.0.

The thirty-three approved credit hours of engineering, math, and science are subjected to the following restrictions.

  1. At least six credit hours of mathematics must be taken at the 5xx level or higher.
  2. At least fifteen credit hours within the student’s major must be selected at the 5xx level or higher.
  3. A maximum of twelve credit hours may be selected from classes offered outside of the JI. These credit hours must be approved by the faculty adviser and the graduate committee. The Petition to Take a Non-JI Course form can be downloaded from the Graduate Student Forms.
  4. The total number of 4xx level courses cannot exceed nine credit hours.
  5. Students must take at least six credit hours outside their discipline group to ensure the breadth of their study program.
  6. The combined total of 4xx level credit hours and credit hours taken outside of the JI cannot exceed fifteen. If the Graduate Committee approves a non-JI math class to satisfy the math requirement, those non-JI math credits do not count toward this total of fifteen credit hours.

1.2 Students matriculate in the year of 2022 and before, please follow the below requirements. Clik to download files. 

2. Coursework (Students entering with Master’s degree)

2.1 Students matriculate in the year of 2023 and after, please follow the below requirements.

To complete their coursework requirement, Doctoral students entering the doctoral program with a Master’s degree must take a number of courses, while maintaining a minimum GPA. Specifically, students must take the following course.

  1. At least fifteen approved credit hours of engineering, math, and science at the 4xx level or higher, and
  2. A total of three credit hours of technical communication, VG50X – Technical Communication. Each graduated student must complete all three courses (VG501, VG502, and VG503) with a composite GPA of 3.0 or above in order to meet the graduation requirement.
  3. A total of two credit hours of politics for domestic students, or a total of four credit hours of Chinese Language and Chinese Culture for international students.
  4. The Grade Point Average corresponding to the Training Plan must be at least 3.0.

The fifteen approved credit hours of engineering, math, and science are subjected to the following restrictions.

  1. At least nine credit hours within the student’s major must be selected at the 5xx level or higher.
  2. A maximum of six credit hours may be selected from classes offered outside of the JI. These credit hours must be approved by the faculty adviser and the graduate committee. The Petition to Take a Non-JI Course form can be downloaded from the Graduate Student Forms.
  3. Students must take at least three credit hours outside their disciple group to ensure the breadth of their study program.
  4. If the Graduate Committee approves a non-JI math class to satisfy the math requirement, those non-JI math credits do not count toward this total of six credit hours.

2.2 Students matriculate in the year of 2022 and before, please follow the below requirements. Clik to download file.

3. Qualifying Grade Point Average

Doctoral students must write and defend of a formal doctoral thesis. For each semester they are involved in graduate research, ME or ECE students must register for doctoral thesis research, VM695 - Doctoral Thesis or VE695 - Doctoral Thesis Doctoral Thesis, respectively. This course will provide feedback on their progress toward the completion of their doctoral thesis.

For the first step of their doctoral program, students must become qualified doctoral students. This status is achieved through coursework only. For students entering with a Bachelor’s degree, the GPA for their first five courses at the 5xx level or above must be at least 3.2. For students entering with a Master’s degree,  the GPA for their first three courses at the 5xx level or above must be at least 3.2. These classes must be completed within the first two years of the student’s doctoral program of studies. Upon completion of these five courses, students submit a Petition to become a qualified doctoral student to the graduate office.

If a student fails to achieve the qualifying GPA, the graduate committee will review their record. The graduate committee will take either of the following two actions: (1) dismiss the student from the Doctoral program, or, (2) specify additional coursework and target grades needed to continue in the Doctoral program.

4. The Candidacy Exam

Policy: New Candidacy Exam Format for Doctoral Students Starting in the Spring Semester 2020

To: JI Faculty and Graduate Students

From: Yongxing Shen, Associate Dean for Graduate Education

Revised Date: May 16, 2023

As the second step of their doctoral program, students must pass the PhD candidacy examination (also known as the PhD qualifying examination). The candidacy examination is a comprehensive assessment of doctoral students. It is an important part of the doctoral education. In general, it should be taken after doctoral students have successfully completed key graduate level courses related to their major research areas while before officially starting their doctoral dissertation research work.

The candidacy examination mainly evaluates the students from the following three aspects:

  1. Main content of the courses as stipulated in the training plan
  2. Research progress and professional skills
  3. Academic integrity

Students entering with a Bachelor’s degree should schedule their candidacy examination after completing a minimum of eighteen approved credit hours of graduate or relevant (approved) courses. They will generally complete the candidacy examination before the end of the third semester (typically Summer semester) of the second academic year after the enrollment.

Students entering with a Master’s degree should schedule their candidacy examination after completing a minimum of twelve approved credit hours of graduate or relevant (approved) courses. They will generally complete the candidacy examination during the first semester (typically Fall semester) of the second academic year after the enrollment.

The candidacy examination committee and Graduate Education Office shall inform the PhD students of the arrangement for the examination at least one month prior to the examination.

Candidacy examination consists of two parts: 1) a 90-minute written exam, and 2) a 30- minute oral exam. Doctoral students must first inform the Graduate Office the declaration of his/her major discipline (See Attachment 1). To be able to take the candidacy exam, doctoral students must have taken the selected courses listed on Attachment 1 with a grade B or above before they are eligible to select the courses as part of their exam subjects.

For the 90-minute written exam, students shall select the subject areas based on two graduate-level (5XX or above) subject courses in the area related to their major discipline and one graduate-level (5XX or above) subject course in other discipline closely related to his/her research area. In general, only the courses listed in Attachment 1 can be selected for the candidacy exam. Exception Policy: Exception to the above rules or to the course selected other than those listed in Attachment 1 must be approved by both the student’s supervisor and the Associate Dean for Graduate Education.

The 30-minute oral exam consists of a 15-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A. The topic of the presentation can come from either one of the two major discipline courses selected for the written exam from Attachment 1 (or follow the exceptions policy as listed above for the written exam) that the student has taken or from the research topic which the student has been conducting. The guideline for grading an oral exam is as follows:

  1. Clarity (25%): the student’s ability to explain a topic comprehensible for experienced researchers in related fields (i.e., faculty members). No obvious conceptual or technical mistakes should be made.
  2. Contextualization (25%): the student’s ability to put a topic in a relevant scientific, technological and/or socio-economic context. The student needs to answer why the topic is worth studying.
  3. Problem statement (25%) (for topics selected from research): the student’s understanding of the specific problem(s) which his/her research will address.
  4. Q/A ability (25%): the student’s ability to hold a meaningful and constructive discussion with experienced researchers.

The oral examination committee shall be comprised of 3 faculty members from the major and related disciplines. A chair of the committee shall be appointed (by the Associate Dean of Graduate Education/Discipline head) to preside over the work related to the examination. Student’s supervisor cannot be included as a member of the candidacy oral examination committee.

Two examination sessions are scheduled during each academic year, one during the fall semester (typically in the middle of October), and the other one during the summer semester (typically in the middle of June). Students must take the written exam and oral exam at the same time for the first candidacy exam.

The Candidacy Examination Committee shall mark the exam result with “pass” or “fail”, and give comprehensive comments based on their academic performance and scientific research accomplishments while maintaining good moral ethics.

For the written exam, the passing score for each subject exam is 60 out of 100. The student must achieve at least the passing score on EACH of three subject exams taken in order to PASS the overall written exam. If the student scores below the passing score on only ONE subject exam, he/she is considered as having failed the written exam, and he/she will have to retake the same subject exam again. If he/she scores below the passing score in TWO OR MORE subject exams, he/she is considered as having failed the written exam, and he/she will have to retake the same THREE subject exams again.

For the oral exam, the passing score is 60 out of 100. The student must achieve at least the passing score in order to PASS the oral exam. If the student fails the oral exam, he/she will have to retake the oral exam again using the same format as how it has been taken before (i.e., either by subject exam or by research topic).

The student who fails the candidacy examination for the first time must retake the examination at the next available session. If he/she fails the re-examination again, he/she is considered not suitable for further training as a doctoral student. However, those who meet the requirements for a master program can, after filing an application approved by the supervisor, Associate Dean for Graduate Education, and the Graduate School, transfer to a corresponding master program. After transferring to the master program, the student must complete the master curriculum and thesis defense within two years. If he or she successfully meets the requirements as set out in the “SJTU Regulations on the Training of Master Degree Students” and passes the thesis defense, the student will be awarded a master’s degree and diploma. Otherwise, the student shall be advised to exit the graduate program based on the academic assessment. Exception cases must be evaluated and approved by the Graduate Committee and the Associate Dean for Graduate Education.

This revised new candidacy exam format will take effect starting in the summer semester of 2022.

 

Attachment 1 (Updated Summer 2023)

Discipline Group

 

Course Code

 

SJTU Code

 

Course Title-English Course Title-Chinese
Design and Manufacturing
设计制造与系统
VM541 ME6402J Mechanical Vibrations 机械振动
VM552 ME6601J Mechatronic Systems Design 机电一体化
VM553 ME6602J Microelectromechanical Systems 微机电系统
VM555 ME6503J / ME6101G Engineering Optimization 工程优化
VM564 ECE6602J Linear Systems 线性系统
VM583 ME6801J Manufacturing Processes and Systems 制造过程与系统
Solid Mechanics
固体力学
VM505 ME6104J Finite Element Methods 计算力学基础
VM513 ME6101J Continuum Mechanics 连续介质力学
VM518 ME6102J Advanced Mechanics of Composite Materials 复合材料高级力学
VM645 ME6109J Wave Propagation in Elastic Solids 弹性波在固体中的传播
Thermal Fluids
能源动力工程和流体力学
VM520 ME6201J Advanced Fluid Mechanics 高等流体力学
VM523 ME6202J Computational Fluid Dynamics 计算流体力学
VM524 ME6203J Turbulence 湍流
VM530 ME6301J Advanced Heat Transfer 高等传热学
Materials Science and Engineering 材料科学与工程 VM508 MSE6601J Introduction to Soft Matter Physics 软物质物理导论
VM515 MSE6201J Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Properties of Materials 材料的电学、光学和磁学性能
VK554 MSE6502J Computational Approaches in MSE 材料科学与工程中的计算方法
VM565 MSE6202J Structural, Physical and Chemical Characterization of Materials 材料结构、物理与化学表征
VM571 MSE6501J Machine Learning in Molecular and Materials Sciences 机器学习在分子和材料科学中的应用
Circuits and Devices
电路与半导体器件
VE504 ECE6202J Solid State Physics 固体物理学
VE509 ECE6201J Semiconductor Physics 半导体物理
VE510 ECE6209J Principles of Semiconductor Devices 半导体器件原理
VM515 MSE6201J Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Properties of Materials 材料的电学、光学和磁学性能
VE527 ECE6703J Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits 集成电路的计算机辅助设计
Electromagnetics, Optics, and Photonics
电磁学、光学和光电子
VE508 ECE6301J Nonlinear and Ultrafast Optics 非线性光学与超快光学
VE509 ECE6201J Semiconductor Physics 半导体物理
VE530 ECE6302J Electromagnetic Theory I 电磁理论(1
VE534 ECE6303J Optics and Photonics 光学与光子学
VE538 ECE6305J Optical Waves in Crystals 晶体中的光波
VE539 ECE6306J Lasers 激光原理
VE552 ECE6307J Fiber Optics and Biomedical Optics 光纤光学与生医光学
Communications, Signal Processing, and Control
通信网络,信号处理与控制
VE501 ECE6601J Probability and Random Processes 随机过程
VE550 ECE6603J Information Theory 信息论
VE556 ECE6605J Image Processing 图像处理
VM564 ECE6602J Linear Systems 线性系统
VE655 ECE8601J Wireless Communication Theory 无线通信理论
VE689 ECE7601J Wireless Network 无线网络
Computer Science and Engineering
计算机科学与工程
VE501 ECE6601J Probability and Random Processes 随机过程
VE527 ECE6703J Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits 集成电路的计算机辅助设计
VM555 ME6503J / ME6101G Engineering Optimization 工程优化
VE586 ECE6704J Advanced Computer Networks 高级计算机网络
VE593 ECE6702J Problem Solving with AI Technique 人工智能理论与应用
VE693 ECE6705J Deep reinforcement learning 深度强化学习

Notes:

5. The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal

The completion of the doctoral dissertation involves the following steps: (1) form the Doctoral Dissertation Committee, (2) call for one or more Doctoral Research Meetings (Optional), (3) develop a Dissertation Proposal, and (4) defend the Doctoral Dissertation.

5.1. The doctoral dissertation committee

After successful completion of their candidacy exam and in consultation with their research adviser, students invite a minimum of five faculty members to serve on their Doctoral Dissertation Committee. This committee will guide, monitor, and assess the student’s progress thereafter. The membership of the dissertation committee is subjected to the following requirements. (1) The head of the dissertation committee is the student’s thesis adviser, (2) the second member of the committee is a member of JI’s faculty within the student’s discipline, (3) the third member is a member of JI’s faculty outside the student’s discipline, (4) at least one full professor, and (5) at least one member from outside of JI. Besides, all the committee members must hold a doctoral degree.
The membership of the dissertation committee must be approved by JI’s degree committee. Students should submit Dissertation Committee Members Application through http://bpm.umji.sjtu.edu.cn/, for approval by the degree committee.

Discipline Groups (2023-2024 Academic Year)

Design, Manufacturing, and Systems

Head: Lei Shao

Members: Youyi Bi | Peisen Huang

Solid Mechanics

Head: Jaehyung Ju

Members: Shane Johnson | Jaehyung Ju | Yanfeng Shen | Xiaodong Wei | Yongxing Shen

Thermal and Fluids

Head: Lipo Wang

Members: Chien-Pin Chen | David Hung | Zijie Qu | Kwee-Yan Teh | Zhaoguang Wang | Dezhi Zhou

Circuits and Devices

Head: Yaping Dan

Members: Yuljae Cho | Xuyang Lu | Rui Yang

Electromagnetics, Optics, and Photonics

Head: Sung-Liang Chen

Members: Wenjie Wan | Jigang Wu | Xuyang Lu

Communications and Signal Processing

Head: Chong Han

Members: Xudong Wang | Li Jin | Yong Long | Yibo Pi | Heng Qiao | Aimin Tang | Yifei Zhu | Mo-Yuen Chow

Control

Head: Chengbin Ma

Members: Jun Zhang | Hanyang Zhuang | Yutong Ban, | (Richard Ren)

Materials Science and Engineering

Head: Yunlong Guo

Members: Qianli Chen | Yulian He | Wendong Wang | Yanming Wang | Hong Zhu | Milias Liu

Computer Science and Engineering

Head: Paul Weng

Members: Weikang Qian | Paul Weng | Manuel Charlemagne | Xinfei Guo | Xuyang Lu | Yibo Pi | Gang Zheng | An Zou | Yifei Zhu

5.2. The doctoral research meeting (Optional)

Doctoral candidates will call a research meeting with their dissertation committee. The purpose of this research meeting is to promote early planning of the doctoral thesis. The goals of the meeting are as follows: (1) give guidance concerning the proposed research plan in terms of scope, feasibility, and suitability for a doctoral thesis, (2) provide constructive feedback to the student, (3) assess the student’s familiarity with the literature in the field, and (4) delineate the expected technical contributions of the thesis.
If the dissertation committee deems it necessary, follow-up research meetings will be recommended. The dissertation committee can, after two or more unsatisfactory research meetings, dismiss the doctoral candidate from the doctoral program if they believe he/she is not capable of completing an acceptable doctoral dissertation.

The outcome of the doctoral research meeting is recorded in the Research Meeting Minutes Form. If follow up research meetings were held, this form documents the conclusions of all research meetings.

5.3. The doctoral dissertation proposal

The candidate then writes his/her doctoral thesis proposal. This document provides the following information: (1) the proposed content of the research work, (2) a comprehensive literature review of the state-of-the-art in the field, (3) a description of the research tasks that have been completed, (4) a discussion of preliminary results, (5) the original contribution of the proposed research, and (6) the tasks that will be completed before the thesis defense.

Next, the student presents his/her doctoral thesis proposal to the dissertation committee. This presentation must be open to the public. A minimum of one month should elapse between the research meeting and the thesis proposal. The environment is one of open discussion among the student, adviser, and dissertation committee members. The dissertation committee must approve the dissertation proposal unanimously. If a unanimous vote cannot be reached, an additional thesis proposals must be scheduled after the student’s response to the concerns raised by all members of the dissertation committee. If unsuccessful at the second try, the student will be downgrade to master program or dismissed from the doctoral program, the program duration of student will be extended.

A minimum of six months must elapse between the dissertation proposal and the dissertation defense.

5.4. The dissertation defense

Once the dissertation is completed, the candidate sends draft copies to the members of the dissertation committee with at least two weeks for their review. The committee will suggest corrections and modifications of the dissertation. The head of the dissertation committee then decides whether the draft dissertation is ready for defense. If not, the student will modify the draft of the doctoral thesis in accordance with committee’s recommendations. Resubmission of the dissertation to the committee is then required for final approval.

Upon approval of the draft doctoral dissertation by the head of the dissertation committee, the candidate is allowed to schedule his/her doctoral dissertation defense. A minimum of six months must elapse between the dissertation proposal and the dissertation defense.

The candidate then schedules a public oral defense of his/her dissertation. The dissertation committee must approve the dissertation defense unanimously. If a unanimous vote cannot be reached, the student must respond to the concerns raised by all members of the committee and an additional public defense must be scheduled in consultation with the dissertation committee.

The outcome of the doctoral dissertation defense is recorded in the Dissertation Defense Minutes Form.

DISSERTATION MAJOR STEPS AND TIMELINE