What will I study as a doctoral student in computer science?
Western's Ph.D. is designed to develop computer scientists with research and teaching expertise in computer science. It is excellent preparation for academia, research and development positions.
Your doctoral work will be specific to you, especially as your work on research. You must complete the general requirements listed below and should consult the course requirements catalog or the advisor for further details.
- At least 30 credit hours of graduate course work beyond the master's level and 12-24 hours of dissertation credits
- Demonstrate mastery of two of the following three research skills:
- A foreign language other than English, with competency equivalent to a 4000-level course at WMU.
- Statistics or probability at the level of MATH 3620 or MATH 3640.
- Computer document preparation and library tools.
- Comprehensive examination after completion of all course work
- Oral defense of the dissertation
- Enrollment on campus in four consecutive semesters or sessions
Information you need
Explore computer science research at WMU
Research spotlight
Research expertise
Funding
A limited number of graduate assistantships are awarded through a selective and highly competitive process.
Faculty Research Topics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Cloud Computing
- Cybersecurity
- Data Integrity
- Data Mining
- Dynamic Program Analysis
- Internet of Things
- Machine Learning
- Mobile Computing
- Parallel Computation
- Program Analysis and Optimization
- Scientific Computing
- Sentiment Analysis
- Secure Data Science
- Software Engineering
- Software Security
- Statistical Pattern Recognition
- Trustworthy Systems
- Visual Data Exploration
- Wireless Sensor Networks
- Wireless Networks
Graduate support at WMU
Admissions and application information
- Admission decisions will be made by the department doctoral committee.
- All students must meet the general requirements for a doctoral degree specified in the Graduate College Catalog.
International student information
We get it. Applying and filling requirements for a degree in another country is daunting. WMU is here to help and seeks to make the transition as easy as possible for you. Let us know what you need.
