The Doctoral Thesis Proposal consists of a written document i) defining the specific problem addressed, ii) relating it to the state-of-the-art literature, iii) reporting on the hypothesis, goals, and any initial results, and iv) outlining the proposed research methodology and validation procedure(s). In other words, the proposal summarizes what has been done so far, and what is expected to be completed in the final dissertation. The Thesis Proposal must clearly identify what are the expected contributions of the final dissertation and how these contributions will be validated.
Doctoral Thesis Proposal Committee: The Thesis Supervisor should establish a Ph.D. Doctoral Thesis Proposal Committee comprising of three to five faculty members before the end of the 5th term of the initial registration. This committee must include:
- Thesis Supervisor(s)
- One OCICS member from SCS
- One OCICS member from uOttawa
- An external to SCS (Carleton)
- Chair of defence
The committee is responsible for the Doctoral Thesis Proposal Examination and grading. This committee must be approved by the Graduate Director.
Registration in COMP 6908: Upon satisfactory completion of COMP 6907, the student can register in COMP 6908. Once registered in COMP 6908, the student must maintain continuous registration in this course until completed.
Scheduling of the Oral Examination: The Thesis Supervisor, in consultation with the committee members, fixes a date and time for the Oral Examination. This information is conveyed to the Graduate Administrator by completing the Scheduling a Doctoral Proposal form. This form should be completed at least 4 weeks prior to the proposed date of the Oral Exam. In addition to the Committee members, the Oral Exam will require a Chair, who is a faculty member at SCS and familiar with the rules and regulations of SCS and the FGPA. It is the responsibility of the Thesis Supervisor to find a Chair for the examination. The Graduate Administrator will then prepare a formal notice of the Oral Examination.
Submission of the Written Thesis Proposal: The student must submit a Written Thesis Proposal to the committee at least 4 weeks before the Oral Examination. Student will submit an electronic version (and possibly hard copies as desired by the committee members) to the Graduate Administrator. The Graduate Administrator is responsible for circulating the Thesis Proposal and the formal Notice of the Oral Examination to all the committee members, including the Chair. Students and Thesis Supervisor(s) are requested not to submit the electronic copy of the thesis proposal directly to any of the committee members and let the Graduate Administrator handle this. This avoids having multiple versions of the proposals and the possibility of committee members having multiple versions of the proposal. This has led to some chaos during the Oral Exam in the past, and it is best to avoid this.
Format of the Oral Examination: The student is invited by the Chair to make a succinct presentation (15-20 minutes) to the committee members. After the presentation, committee members ask, in turn, questions to the student pertaining to all aspects of the Thesis Proposal. Questions are asked in a set of two rounds, where the first round is one-on-one questioning and the second round has no set format. It is the job of the student to convince all the committee members that what is being proposed is worthy of a doctoral thesis. The Oral Examination typically runs for 60-90 minutes.
Grading of COMP 6908: After the Oral Examination, the committee members deliberate on the acceptability of the Doctoral Thesis Proposal. The Chair of the Oral Examination Committee documents the results using the official grading sheets provided by the Graduate Administrator. Once approved, the Doctoral Thesis Proposal is considered a contract and must be placed in the student’s file with the Graduate Administrator. If the Thesis Proposal is unacceptable, the Doctoral Thesis Proposal Committee will recommend appropriate actions on the grading form.
Note that all the requirements for COMP 6908 should be completed by the end of the 6th term of the initial registration.