Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

The Computer Science PhD program prepares students in the highest level of theory and practice of Computer Science, aiding with the development of research and instruction skills for positions in academia, industry and government sectors.

The Computer Science PhD program produces professionals trained at the highest possible academic level in the theory and practice of Computer Science in order to meet current and projected market demands for Computer Science experts. Students graduate with proven abilities in research and instruction and have expertise suitable for positions in industry, academia and government.

Students in the program receive a broad background in the areas of programming systems and languages, computer architecture and computer science theory while specializing in a research area. Research interests of the computer science faculty include affective computing, applied perception, bioinformatics, computational biology, computational geometry, computer and network security, computer architecture, computer forensics, computer graphics, computer networks, computer vision, cryptography, data compression, database management systems, data mining, design and analysis of algorithms, evolutionary computation, genetic algorithms, graph theory, hardware/software co-design, image processing, machine learning, mixed and virtual reality, mobile computing, modeling and simulation, multimedia systems, natural language processing, neural networks, parallel and distributed processing, performance evaluation, programming languages, quantum computing, semantic web, software agents, software engineering and VLSI systems.

Official, competitive GRE score taken within the last five years.
R'sum.
Statement of educational, research, and professional career objectives.
Three letters of recommendation.

Please note that an external credential evaluation is not required for admission to this program, however if you intend on requesting international transfer credit, a course-by-course evaluation from Josef Silny and Associates, Inc. or World Education Services (WES) must be submitted. If offered admission, you should begin the credential evaluation process immediately so that transfer credits can be appropriately evaluated for your graduate plan of study. Outstanding students with a bachelor's degree are encouraged to apply directly to the doctoral program. Admission to the PhD program is formalized by the university upon the recommendation of the Computer Science Graduate Coordinator.

An undergraduate degree in Computer Science is desirable but not required. Applicants without a strong undergraduate background in Computer Science must demonstrate an understanding of the material covered in upper-division undergraduate courses listed under the Articulation Section of the Curriculum Information. Applicants may choose to demonstrate their knowledge of these courses by taking these courses as non-degree seeking and scoring B or better in all of them.

Minimum UCF Requirement for TOEFL/IELTS
TOEFL iBT score of 80
IELTS band score of 6.5