Research education in USA and Canada

Lars Bruce

Christina Wallin

Research education in the USA

 

• 249 colleges and universities

• Colleges’ usually only offers undergraduate education while universities also offers graduate education

• There are both private and public schools

Research education in the USA

There’s no central government supervision

Independent organizations accredit the universities

Institutional accreditation – the university as a hole is accredited. This can either be a regional or national accreditation.

Professional/specialized accreditation – this is an evaluation of a specific educational program

Ranking lists. U.S.News lists can be found at; http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college

Admission

• Review of the applicant's previous academic record

• Letters of recommendation

• TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language)

• Graduate Record Examination, GRE

- a standardized tests geared toward graduate school

- measures the scholastic ability

- subject-specific tests can be tacked onto the general test

Studies

To be eligible for a doctoral degree, a student normally must fulfill the following requirements: 

• Complete an approved program of course and research work, of which at least some must be taken in the Graduate School of Arts and Science

• Pass three comprehensive exams approved by the Director of Graduate Studies (Ph.D.)

• Complete an acceptable survey research paper, and pass the Oral Preliminary Exam. This is comparable to the swedish licentiat degree

• Write an acceptable Ph.D. thesis proposal, and present it to a faculty committee

• Write and defend a doctoral dissertation 

Studies

• Candidacy for the doctorate is determined by an Oral Preliminary Exam, usually taken before 2 1/2 years of full-time graduate study

• Within six months of passing the Oral Preliminary Exam every Ph.D. student is required to present a thesis proposal containing the outline of the proposed research, and some of the anticipated results

• The proposal presentation is held in front of a committee of three faculty members  

• Students who have progressed rapidly in their research can take the oral preliminary examination and present the thesis proposal at the same time

Degrees

• Bachelor’s degree – four years of undergraduate study

• Master’s degree – 1-2 years of graduate study

• Doctoral degree (Ph.D.) – 3-4 years of studies after a Bachelor’s degree or at least 2 years after a Master’s degree

• Professional degree – in subjects like medicin and law

Snapshot; Princeton

• #1 All Categories, #8 Computer Science.• Web site: http://www.princeton.edu• Private. Founded: 1746. Undergraduate student

body: 4,663.• Application fee: $60

Tuition and fees: $26,160 Room/board: $7,583

• 290 research projects supported by over 90 sponsors.

Princeton,research areas in C.S.

• Digital system testing

• Synthesis for testability

• High-level synthesis

• Low-power design

• Hardware-software co-synthesis

• Embedded systems

• Verification

• Fault-tolerant computing

• Systolic/wave-front architectures

• Parallel processing

• Performance evaluation

• Video signal processing architectures

• Computer security

• Neural computing

Snapshot; California-Berkeley

• #20 All Categories, #1 Public Universities, #3 Computer Science.

• Web site: http://www.berkeley.edu • Public. Founded: 1868. Undergraduate student

body: 22,677.• Application fee: $40

Tuition and fees: $3,633 for in-state, $14,337 for out-of-state Room/board: $10,047

California-Berkeley,research areas in C.S.

• Artificial Intelligence• Computer Architecture and Engineering• Database Management Systems• Multimedia, Human Computer Interaction and

Computer Graphics• Operating Systems• Programming Systems • Scientific Computing and Numerical Methods• Theory

California-Berkeley,research areas at the International

Computer Science Institute

• Networking– ACIRI (AT&T Center for Internet Research at

ICSI)– NSA (Network Services and Applications)

• AI

• Speech (formerly Realization)

• Algorithms (formerly Theory)

Snapshot; Carnegie Mellon

• #23 All Categories, #3 Computer Science.

• Web site: http://www.cmu.edu

• Private. Founded: 1900. Undergraduate student body: 5,106.

• Application fee: $55 Tuition and fees: $24,022 Room/board: $7,264

Carnegie Mellon,research areas in C.S.

• Artificial Intelligence – Computer Music

Data MiningMachine LearningVision Speech

• Theory– Algorithms

Complexity TheorySemantics

• Interdisciplinary Research– Computational Biology

Computational Neuroscience

• Systems & Languages – Computer Architecture

Databases GraphicsOperating SystemsNetworkingParallel and Distributed ComputingProgramming Languages Formal Methods Software Engineering

Carnegie Mellon,research at the Software

Engineering Institute• Dynamic Systems

• COTS-Based Systems (CBS)

• Dependable Systems Upgrade (DSU)

• Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE)

• Open Systems

• Rate Monotonic Analysis (RMA)

• Simplex Architecture

• Standards

• Product Line Systems• Architecture Tradeoff

Analysis

• Domain Engineering

• Product Line Practice

• Reengineering Center

• Software Architecture

research at the Software Engineering Institute cont.

• Networked Systems Survivability

• CERT® Coordination Center

• Survivable Network Management

• Survivable Network Technology

• Software Engineering Process Management

• Accelerating Software Technology Adoption

• Acquisition Risk Management • Capability Maturity Model®

Integration • Capability Maturity Modeling® • The IDEALSM Model • ISO/IEC 15504• Personal Software Process • Software Engineering Measurement &

Analysis • Software Acquisition Improvement • Team Software Process

Snapshot; Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• #5 All Categories, #1 Computer Science.

• Web site: http://web.mit.edu

• Private. Founded: 1861. Undergraduate student body: 4,258

• Application fee: $60 Tuition and fees: $26,960 Room/board: $7,500

MIT, Research areas in C.S.

• Hardware and Software Tools• Cryptography, optimization, security, validation ...

• Interfaces and Applications• Human-Computer interaction, computer graphics ...

• Science and Information Technology• Biological computing, hart failure assistance, virus

shell ...

• Transport• Networks, routers, WWW, wireless devices ...

Sort by: Rank

1.Princeton University (NJ)

100.0

4.9 1 99% 92% 97% +5 4 71% 11% 6/1 92% 4 1350- 1540 92% 12% 13 1 66%

2.Harvard University (MA)

99.0

4.9 2 96% 91% 97% +6 7 69% 13% 8/1 91% 1 1410- 1580 90% 11% 8 6 46%

 Yale University (CT)

99.0

4.9 3 98% 93% 95% +2 10 75% 8% 7/1 90% 2 1380- 1550 95% 16% 2 5 46%

4.California Institute of Technology

96.0

4.7 25 94% 95% 82% -13 2 76% 5% 3/1 96% 5 1450- 1580 98% 13% 1 13 39%

5.Massachusetts Inst. of Technology

95.0

4.9 10 98% 93% 91% -2 19 58% 16% 7/1 89% 3 1410- 1560 97% 16% 3 9 41%

 Stanford University (CA)

95.0

4.9 7 98% 91% 93% +2 15 69% 14% 7/1 99% 6 1360- 1560 89% 13% 9 11 40%

 University of Pennsylvania

95.0

4.5 15 97% 87% 91% +4 1 70% 8% 7/1 89% 8 1310- 1490 92% 23% 6 10 41%

1. University of California–Berkeley

2. University of Virginia

3. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

4. Univ. of California–Los Angeles

5. U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill

6. College of William and Mary (VA)

7. Univ. of California–San Diego

8. Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison

9. U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

10. Georgia Institute of Technology

   University of California–Davis

   University of California–Irvine

Top Public National Universities

Rank/School

Averagereputation score(5 = highest)

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5.0

   Stanford University (CA) 5.0

3. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 4.9

   University of California-Berkeley 4.9

5. Cornell University (NY) 4.5

   University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign 4.5

7. University of Washington 4.3

8. Princeton University (NJ) 4.2

9. University of Texas-Austin 4.1

   University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.1

Best Graduate Schools – Computer Science

Research education in Canada

 

• Resembles that of the USA 

• The universities, or institutes as they are also called, are independent and decide themself over the education and there is no central regelation

• Canada consist of autonomous provinces which each has at least one university

• Some universities are bilingual, while others just give courses in either French or English

 

Admission

 

• Good grades in the previous degrees

• Letters of reference

• Language test are standard, usually TOEFL for English universities

• Forign students must apply for a visa, or Student Authorization if the periods shorter than six moths, except for the povince of Québec where a student can apply for a Certificate of Acceptance instead

Studies

 

• Not much differs from the way higher education studies are conducted in the USA

• Candidates for a Doctor of Philosophy degree pursue a program of study and research

• The candidate present a thesis embodying the results of original investigation

• The thesis may consist of a collection of several papers where some, but not all, may be previously unpublished

Degrees

• General/Pass Bachelor degree – 3-4 years of undergraduate study

• Honours Bachelor degree – the student specialize in one or two subjects after the first year or studie for an additional year after a General/Pass Bachelor degree

• Master’s degree – 1-2 years of graduate studies

• Master of Philosophy – more research oriented

• Doctor of Philosophy – 3 years of graduate studies, it’s usually necessary to have a Honours Bachelor degree