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A PhD in Robotics from the University of Colorado Boulder will elevate you to the highest levels of your chosen field, to make lasting and significant impacts to fundamental knowledge, technology, and society through research. As a PhD student, you will be become a domain expert and complete research that can withstand the rigorous test of external peer review. Graduates from the PhD program go on to careers in industry, academia, and the public sector, and will be leaders in their respective fields.

The PhD program in Robotics is available to students who are entering graduate studies for the first time (i.e., with only a BS or BA degree), as well as to those who already have a master’s (MS) degree. Many incoming PhD students will have prior degrees in some type of engineering or computer science, although students from other fields, such as physics, mathematics, biology, and chemistry, are also routinely admitted and can acquire any missing background material during the course of their PhD studies at ��������Ƶ Boulder.

Timeline

A PhD student entering without prior graduate coursework will typically take five years to complete the PhD degree. However, it is not uncommon for students to finish both earlier and later than this five-year average. A student entering the PhD program with prior graduate coursework from another university may be eligible to transfer up to 21 credit hours to ��������Ƶ and can typically finish in 3-4 years.

Program Requirements

Pre-comprehensive exam student status

 Post-comprehensive exam student status

Course Requirements

You must complete a minimum of 30 graduate-level credits at the 5000 level or higher. All PhD students are required to fulfill the requirements of the Master of Science - Non-Thesis program.

Some research advisors require their students complete more than 30 course credits. The graduate program recommends that, in addition to your graduate advisor, you consult with your research advisor regarding any coursework recommendations or requirements.

In order to receive credit towards the PhD, you must receive a grade of at least B- in each course taken. Courses in which a grade below B- is achieved cannot be counted towards the PhD course requirement. Courses taken on a P/F basis cannot count towards the PhD course requirement.

You must have a cumulative 3.0 GPA in order to be eligible for graduation. However, a 3.25 GPA is required to be eligible for Teaching or Research Assistantships.

Transfer Credit

Although you do not need an MS degree to be admitted to the PhD program, students who already have an MS degree, or have completed eligible graduate level coursework, may transfer up to 21 hours of credits towards the PhD course requirements.

More information is available on the second page of the Request for Transfer of Credit Form from the ��������Ƶ Graduate School. To transfer credits, you must fill out and submit this form to your graduate advisor at with official transcripts included.

Note that requests for transfer credit can only be made after completing 6 credits of graduate level coursework at ��������Ƶ Boulder. These requests should be submitted as soon after completion of this 6 credit requirement as possible.

Oral Preliminary Exam

All PhD students must pass the oral preliminary exam, the goal of which is to assess fundamental and practical preparation for a research-intensive program. As such, the exam combines a “research” component with a “fundamentals” component to provide a holistic picture of your preparation.

The research component consists of a short research-focused presentation on a research topic you could initiate, followed by questions from the exam committee. This part of the exam requires you to demonstrate your ability to synthesize primary sources, identify and communicate technical gaps in the relevant literature, and articulate a sound research plan.

The fundamentals component consists of up to four questions pertaining to two student-selected subject area core courses. This part assesses your knowledge consolidation, internalization, and retention in relation to core course material, which should provide a foundation for future learning and research. Both components also allow the exam committee to assess a your on-the-spot technical communication skills early in your career. 

Based on your performance, the preliminary exam committee will provide an evaluation of pass, conditional pass, or fail. If the result is a conditional pass, the committee may require you to retake a portion of the exam or to complete another condition that displays fundamental proficiency. If you fail a preliminary exam, you will either be asked to retake the exam in full at the next opportunity, or may be asked to leave the PhD program. Students who fail a preliminary exam twice will be asked to leave the PhD program.

While not recommended, students are allowed to “retake” the exam on different topics, but they would only have a single opportunity to pass.

Comprehensive Examination

You must complete a comprehensive exam at least 6 months prior to defending your PhD dissertation. At the time of the comprehensive exam, the dissertation committee will be formed and given preliminary approval by the Department and Graduate School.

A robotics PhD degree requires depth of knowledge in the dissertation/research area, as well as breadth of knowledge across the robotics curriculum. Consequently, the comprehensive exam is designed to test your knowledge of your proposed research area, and any general knowledge in the field. It is also intended to evaluate whether your proposed research project is original and creative work, whether it will make a significant impact in the field, and whether it will qualify for publication in quality peer-reviewed journals. The exam is also an opportunity to demonstrate an ability to present scientific concepts orally. In short, the comprehensive exam serves as the gateway to the next phase of the doctoral program: completion of a dissertation.

The comprehensive exam consists of the following core requirements:

• Complete the online at least three weeks prior to your exam date.
• Email the exam committee information to robo@colorado.edu at least 3 weeks prior to your exam date. The committee must be approved by the Graduate School and the graduate advisor will initiate the doctoral exam report form on your behalf. The following details should be included in the email:
  • Student ID Number
  • Exam date
  • Committee member name
  • Committee member email address
  • Committee member department affiliation
• By email, send the comprehensive exam proposal to (i) the examining committee and (ii) the graduate advisors at robo@colorado.edu at least two weeks prior to the examination. The proposal should describe the work that has been completed to date and proposed work that will be completed for the dissertation.
• Included in the proposal should be a comprehensive literature review of the field of concentration, the subject of the dissertation, as well as a detailed timeline of work to be completed prior to the dissertation defense. In most cases, the proposal should be written in the style and format of the final dissertation document.
• You must prepare a professional oral presentation that covers what is written in the proposal. This presentation should be 45-50 minutes in length and must be delivered at the comprehensive examination to the examination committee. The oral presentation portion of the examination is open to all students and faculty, and questions are entertained at the end of the presentation.
• The final part of the examination is restricted to only the student and the examination committee. During this portion, questions are entertained that cover the field of concentration and related fields.
• Successful candidates must receive affirmative votes from a majority of the members of their examina-tion committee.

Students who fail the examination may attempt it once more after a period of time determined by the examination committee. Additional administrative requirements of the comprehensive examination are as follows:

• All program coursework must be completed before taking the comprehensive exam.
• Students must be registered as regular degree-seeking students when they take the comprehensive exam (thus requiring a minimum enrollment of 1 dissertation credit hour).
• Each comprehensive exam committee is comprised of five members. The program requires that three of the members be robotics program faculty.
• Each committee member must have a regular or special faculty appointment on file with the Graduate School prior to submission of the Doctoral Exam Report. Please contact the graduate advisors at robo@colorado.edu as soon as you form your committee, and no later than 6 weeks prior to your comprehensive examination, to verify that the necessary appointments are in place. It takes 2-4 weeks to process a faculty appointment. Students should submit a recent CV for any committee member who does not have a faculty appointment to the graduate advisors as soon as possible.

Dissertation Hour Requirement

In addition to coursework, PhD students are required to complete 30 PhD dissertation hours. Students are not able to register for dissertation credits on their own and should submit a request for dissertation hours through the

The following Graduate School rules apply to enrollment in dissertation hours and should be considered when determining how many dissertation hours to register for each semester:

• PhD students must be registered as full time, regular degree-seeking students at ��������Ƶ Boulder for a minimum of 5 dissertation hours during the semester in which they defend the dissertation.
• A student may not register for more than 10 dissertation credit hours in any one semester, including summer.
• A PhD student is required to register continuously as a full-time student for a minimum of five disser-tation hours in the Fall and Spring semesters of each year, beginning with the semester following the passing of the comprehensive examination and extending through the semester in which the dissertation is successfully defended.
• Prior to passing the comprehensive exam, PhD students are considered by the Graduate School to be full-time if they are registered for at least 1 dissertation credit per semester.

There is little advantage to registering for more than 30 dissertation hours during the course of your PhD, and so students should attempt to complete this requirement in the semester in which they defend. Please contact the graduate advisors at robo@colorado.edu for assistance with planning dissertation hour enrollment.

Written Dissertation

The written dissertation must comply with Graduate School rules and procedures in terms of format and submission. Full details on formatting requirements are available on the Graduate School website, and deadlines and resources to assist in finalizing your dissertation are available on the Doctoral Graduation Page. You can also find both Word and LaTeX templates for written dissertations online.

The dissertation title appears on official university transcripts and must be submitted to the Graduate School in addition to the physical signature page from the dissertation. You are also required to submit the full written dissertation electronically at the The timeline for these requirements is as follows:

• Final dissertation title submission is due about two months into the final semester.
• The oral dissertation defense must be passed shortly after this date.
• One week after the defense deadline, students must submit:
  • The written dissertation; and
  • The Thesis Approval Form, signed by the faculty advisor and one additional committee member.

Dissertation Defense

Before completion of the PhD degree, you must have their dissertation accepted for defense by the review committee. The dissertation defense may occur before or after the final electronic submission of the written dissertation to the Graduate School, but must take place prior to the end of the final semester of enrollment.

You must then pass a dissertation defense, which is a final examination on the dissertation and related topics. In the defense, you are expected to explain their research clearly and concisely, and to discuss how it relates to other research in the field. This is an opportunity for recognition of completed doctoral work. It is also an opportunity for discussion and formal evaluation of the dissertation.

All required forms should be submitted on time according to the following deadlines:

• To the Program:
  • Email the exam committee information to robo@colorado.edu at least 3 weeks prior to your exam date. The committee must be approved by the Graduate School, even if there are no changes from the comprehensive exam committee. The graduate advisor will initiate the doctoral exam report form on your behalf. The following details should be included in the email:
    • Student ID number
    • Exam date
    • Committee member name
    • Committee member email address
    • Committee member department affiliation
• To the Committee: The written dissertation should be sent as a single pdf file by email to all members of the defense committee, as well as to the graduate advisors at robo@colorado.edu, at least 2 weeks before the defense. This deadline is intended to allow the defense committee sufficient time to review the dissertation and to formulate questions and feedback. Prior to the defense, you should contact all members of the committee to assess their areas of interest and concerns. This will help you anticipate any questions that will be asked.

You must be registered as full time, regular degree-seeking students at ��������Ƶ Boulder for a minimum of 5 dissertation hours during the semester in which you pass the examination. The examination is conducted by a committee appointed by the chair of the Robotics Program and approved by the Dean of the Graduate School, and consists of at least five people with the following requirements:

• One committee member must be outside the Robotics Program;
• Three of the members must be Robotics Program faculty.

The chair of the committee must have tenure-track or tenured Graduate Faculty appointments. The other committee members must have either regular or special Graduate Faculty appointments. More than one dissenting vote disqualifies the candidate in the final examination.

You should coordinate scheduling the examination with the committee, and should schedule the examination for two hours. The examination is wholly oral and open to the public for the first portion of the examination.

You must prepare and present a professional oral presentation that summarizes the dissertation. This presentation should be 45-50 minutes in length and delivered to the examination committee. The oral presentation portion of the examination is open to all students and faculty. Questions are entertained at the end of the presentation.

The final part of the examination is closed to only the student and the examination committee. During this portion, questions are entertained that cover the field of concentration and related fields. More than one dissenting vote among the committee constitutes an unsatisfactory exam. A student who fails the exam may attempt it once more after a period of time determined by the committee.

PhD Student Status

As the requirements towards the PhD degree are completed, PhD students will advance from pre-preliminary exam, to post-preliminary exam, to post-comprehensive exam, status. Milestones required to achieve each status are the following:

• Pre-comprehensive exam status (Pre-comps): Students enter the PhD program with pre-comps status and will typically remain at this status until successful completion of the comprehensive exam in year 4. Students should complete the required course (ROBO 5000: Intro to Robotics) and oral preliminary exam during this time.

Application for Graduation

To graduate with the PhD degree, you must complete all course and dissertation hour requirements, as well as write and defend your dissertation. Additional details on each of these requirements are provided above.

To graduate with the PhD degree, you must apply online through Directions to complete this process can be found on the Registrar’s website.

The application for graduation is due a few weeks after the start of the desired graduation semester. Full details on requirements and deadlines can be accessed on the Graduate School PhD graduation webpage. If you did not submit the Candidacy Application for Advanced Degree when completing the comprehensive examination, it must be submitted electronically prior to applying for graduation online.

PhD students must be registered as a full time, regular degree-seeking student, for a minimum of 5 dissertation hours during the semester in which they pass the final exam. If you are unable to meet the Graduate School’s posted defense deadline for that semester, you should consult with your graduate advisor about graduation options.

Detailed graduation information will be communicated to all students through the graduate student listserv at the beginning of each semester.

Master’s Degree as a PhD Candidate

Although a Master’s degree is not required for a PhD, you can earn one while working toward the PhD. This is accomplished by applying for an MS degree when 30 graduate course hours have been completed. All Master of Science requirements must be completed in order to receive the MS degree. PhD students must notify their graduate advisor within the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to graduate with the MS degree.