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PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTSThe goal of the Preliminary Exam is to evaluate students’ readiness for creative, rigorous and independent researchat the PhD level. The exam tests the general technical background of the students in civil engineering,environmental sciences and engineering, as well as their critical thinking, synthesis, and communication skills (oraland written). This exam will be in the form of writing and presenting a research proposal. The preliminary examcommittee comprised by the student’s primary advisor and a committee formed as follows.First-year CEE Ph.D. students will each be invited to write a short proposal that demonstrates creativity and criticalthinking skills, on a topic within the student’s research domain but not directly related to their ongoing research oranticipated Ph.D. dissertation. This topic will be selected by the examination committee in consultation with thestudent’s advisor. The student will have two weeks to prepare this proposal and aim to present it during the weekprior to commencements. A 20-min presentation will be followed by questions from the examination committee,consisting of three faculty members including their advisor. The questions may extend beyond the proposal themeto ensure core competency skills and advise students of potential areas that require strengthening (e.g., throughfuture course work). The exam will be documenting using the PhD prelim evaluation sheet CIVI or ENVI.Brevity is appreciated (e.g., 10-page limit including figures but not references, 11-point font, 1-inch margins, 1.5spacing). The proposals should consider the following evaluation criteria:1. Intellectual merit and originality of overall proposal.2. Evidence of broad understanding of topic or problem they aim to solve (i.e., the Need for proposedresearch), and critical knowledge gaps and barriers.3. Approach (including hypothesis and scientific basis)4. Feasibility and expected Benefits (including broader impacts).5. Consideration of Competition and alternatives, with proposed benchmarking as appropriate (see NABC todefine a value proposition, next page).The following proposal format is suggested:A. Introduction (Include problem statement and motivation).B. Objective, Hypothesis and Significance.C. Literature Review (Should be a brief but critical review that shows you can discern critical gaps directlyrelevant to your proposal).D. Approach and Technical Research Plan, including expected results (Should be credible and feasible. You mayinclude original graphics and tables of experimental design with controls as appropriate).E .Expected Benefits and Deliverables.F. References.7

NABC -- the four fundamentals that define a project's value proposition: Need: What are our stakeholders or societal needs? A need should relate to an important and specificsocietal challenge or opportunity that could be addressed by science and technology. With the DefenseAdvanced research Projects Agency (DARPA), for example, we are required to state a critical Departmentof Defense (DoD) need. The need should be significant enough to merit the necessary investment anddevelopment time.Approach: What is our compelling solution (or hypothesis) to address the specific need? Draw it, simulateit or make a mockup to help convey your vision. As the approach develops through iterations, it becomes afull proposal, which can include deliverables and a timetable. DARPA usually demands paradigm-shiftingapproaches that address a specific DoD need (e.g., a 10-times improvement).Benefits: What are the client (or stakeholder) benefits of your approach? What are the broader impacts?Each approach to a client need results in unique benefits, such as low cost, high performance or quickresponse. At DARPA, the benefit might be an airplane that turns faster, goes higher, costs less or is safer.Success requires that the benefits be qualitatively and substantially better - not just different. Why must wewin?Competition/alternatives: Why are your benefits significantly better than the competition? Everyone hasalternatives. We must be able to tell our client or partner why our solution represents the best value. To dothis, we must clearly understand our competition and our client alternatives, and sometimes do directcomparisons with appropriate metrics (i.e., “benchmarking”). For a commercial customer, access toimportant IP is often a persuasive reason to work with us. At DARPA, our competition is usually otherresearch laboratories and universities across the United States. But, whether to a commercial orgovernment client, you must be able to clearly state why your approach is substantially better than that ofthe competition. Your answer should be short and memorable.Students will receive the topic from their advisor at least 2 weeks before the scheduled exam (students shouldfollow-up with their advisor if it was not received 2 weeks before the scheduled exam); in addition, students arerequired to submit a copy of any written documents to the committee and Andrea Torres 48 hours before theexam.The exam can last anywhere between 60-90 minutes, unless the committee decides to exceed this time to help withits deliberation. The committee will provide immediate feedback to the student at the end of his/her exam period.Students are requested to submit a copy of their critical review and any prepared slides to the Graduate StudiesProgram Administrator for record keeping.Students who fail the preliminary exam either fully or partially can petition for retaking the exam. Petitions will beconsidered on a case-by-case basis by the graduate committee and the department chair. All pass/fail decisions willbe approved by the preliminary exam committee, the graduate committee and department chair. Students who failthe preliminary exam twice will not be allowed to continue in the Ph.D. program.A student who passes the written and oral part of the preliminary exam becomes eligible for taking the qualifyingexam.Evaluation criteria for CIVI or ENVI.8

THESIS COMMITTEEAfter successful passing of the preliminary exam students should then form a doctoral committee. A thesiscommittee is composed of at least three members. Two, including the committee chair, must be members of theCEE faculty; in doctoral thesis committees one member must have his or her primary appointment in anotherdepartment within the university. At least three members of the committee must meet one of the followingrequirements: Tenured or tenure-track members of the Rice faculty Research faculty holding the rank of faculty fellow, senior faculty fellow, or distinguished faculty fellow Faculty who have been certified as thesis committee members by the dean of graduate and postdoctoralstudiesThe committee chair need not be the thesis director. The chair, however, must be either a tenured or a tenured-trackmember of the CEE department. Additional members of the committee, who may or may not meet the abovecriteria, may be selected with the approval of the department chair, these would be in addition to the three requiredmembers.In cases where the student and the major advisor disagree on the selection of thesis committee members, thestudent may file a petition to the department’s Graduate Academic Affairs committee. Based on its independentevaluation, the Graduate Academic Affairs committee will approve the thesis committee before the candidacy formmay be submitted to the Office of Graduate and Postdoc Studies.Regular Thesis Committee Meetings should be held each semester thereafter forming a thesis committee, studentsshould consult with the chair and members of their thesis committee about the nature and progress of research asthe work evolves.9

PH.D. QUALIFYING EXAMINATION (Thesis Proposal)The qualifying exam must be completed before petitioning for approval of candidacy. PhD students must beapproved for candidacy before the beginning of the ninth semester of their residency at Rice. The qualifyingexamination will be administered by the doctoral thesis committee. The committee will evaluate the student’spreparation for the proposed research and identifies any areas requiring additional course work or study. Studentswho fail the qualifying examination will not be granted Ph.D. candidacy. Petition to re-take the exam will beconsidered on a case-by-case basis by the department chair, who will consider the advice of both the ThesisCommittee and the Graduate Studies committee.To complete the qualifying exam, students must: Form a thesis committee. PHD students are required to form a doctoral thesis committee as soon as thepreliminary exam is passed. Prepare a thesis proposal. The thesis proposal should contain reasonably detailed preliminary work andproposed research approach Defend thesis proposal during a meeting with the thesis committee. The qualifying exam/ thesis proposaldefense must be scheduled at least six months before the final defense.The thesis proposal defense will be documented using the Evaluation of PhD Proposal form. This will be used todetermine the student’s ability to demonstrate the acquired advanced knowledge of the principles of civil andenvironmental engineering and apply them to advanced technical problems, ability to conduct independentresearch, and ability to demonstrate professional written and oral communication skills. Evaluation forms shouldbe requested by emailing atorres@rice.edu, when requesting the form you should send a copy of the proposal forinclusion in your student record. After the proposal defense, the completed evaluation of PhD proposal rubricsform should be submitted to the graduate program coordinator Andrea Torres.Content and length of the Ph.D. thesis proposal must be finalized in agreement with the advisor. Students activelywriting a thesis proposal/thesis are strongly encouraged to register for ENGI 600 Written and Oral CommunicationSeminar for Engineering Graduate Students (offered spring and fall). This highly interactive seminar emphasizeson how to explain work clearly to a wide range of audiences, both technical and those outside the area of expertise;all writing and speaking assignments are based on students own research and will receive extensive feedback.10

APPROVAL OF CANDIDACYImmediately following successful completion of the thesis proposal, students must submit a petition for Approvalof Candidacy for a Doctoral Degree through the graduate program coordinator. In thesis programs, the attainmentof candidacy marks the completion of all requirements for the degree other than those related to research leading tothe writing, submission, and defense of the thesis. Requirements include (a) completed required course work, (b)pass preliminary exam, which demonstrates your solid foundation in civil and environmental engineering at thegraduate level (c) pass qualifying exam, which demonstrates the ability for effective oral and writtencommunication, and shown the ability to carry on scholarly work in his/her subject area. Ph.D. students must be approved for candidacy before the beginning of the ninth semester of theirresidency at Rice. Each student’s individualized time boundaries are available in Esther. Students who are approaching orwho have passed their deadline to candidacy, and who have not met all requirements for candidacy mustsubmit an extension of candidacy request. Extensions are approved on a case-by-case basis by the Officeof Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies will impose a 125 reinstatement fee on students who areallowed to continue but have exceeded their time boundaries without prior approval.All PhD students must submit a petition for approval of candidacy. Candidacy forms can be found on the Graduateand Postdoctoral website: http://graduate.rice.edu/forms. Petitions should be submitted to atorres@rice.edu. Oncecandidacy has been approved by the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the student can then schedule, incoordination with his or her research advisor, a public thesis defense.Request for extension of time to candidacy.Each student’s individualized time boundaries are available in Esther. Students who are approaching or who havepassed their deadline to candidacy, and who have not met all requirements for candidacy must submit a Petition toExtend Time Boundary for Approval of Candidacy request. Extensions are approved on a case-by-case basis by theOffice of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Request for extension of time to candidacy can be found on theGraduate and Postdoctoral website http://graduate.rice.edu/forms. Petitions should be filled out in consultationwith your advisor and submitted to atorres@rice.edu for processing.11

PH.D DEFENSECandidates who pass the qualifying exam are required to write a detailed Ph.D. thesis and schedule the Ph.D.defense under the guidance of their advisor and doctoral committee. Content and length of the Ph.D. thesisdissertation must be finalized in agreement with the advisor. The Ph.D. thesis must be submitted to the doctoralcommittee and the department at least two weeks prior to the defense.The Ph.D. defense must be scheduled according to the Rice University graduate school requirements (at leastfourteen days prior to the date of the defense). Defense announcements should be submitted to the Office ofGraduate and Postdoctoral Studies by filling out an online form at http://events.rice.edu/rgs/. Please refer to theOffice of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website http://graduate.rice.edu/thesis/ for specific information.The candidate will make an oral presentation for approximately an hour; the presentation will be open to thepublic. Followed by a question and answer session by the general audience and a closed door question and answersession by the doctoral committee. The candidates who successfully defend their Ph.D. will be awarded the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy.The thesis defense should be documented using the “Evaluation of PhD Defense form”. This will be used todetermine the student’s ability to demonstrate the acquired advanced knowledge of the principles of civil andenvironmental engineering and apply them to advanced technical problems, ability to conduct independentresearch, and ability to demonstrate professional written and oral communication skills. Forms should be requestedby emailing atorres@rice.edu, when requesting the form send a copy of your thesis for inclusion in your studentrecord. After the defense, the completed evaluation of PhD defense rubrics form should be submitted to thegraduate program coordinator Andrea Torres.Acceptance of Thesis.The completed thesis must be submitted in either final or advanced draft form to the members of the thesiscommittee at least two weeks before the oral examination. A copy of the completed thesis must also be submittedto the department at least two weeks before the oral examination. This copy should be submitted electronically.In the course of the examination, the thesis committee members may recommend revisions or additions, whichmust be incorporated in the final thesis. The final thesis must be signed by all committee members.No later than six months from the date of the examination, candidates who successfully passed the oralexamination in defense of their thesis must submit their thesis to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.(Refer to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website http://graduate.rice.edu/thesis/ for specific instructions onhow to submit the thesis.)If the thesis is not ready for final signatures by the end of the six-month period, the “pass” may be revoked and anadditional oral defense will need to be scheduled. Application for an extension without reexamination must bemade by the candidate with the unanimous support of the thesis committee, endorsed by the school dean, andapproved by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Extensions of this six-month period for completionwithout reexamination will be granted only in rare circumstances.12

Graduation.All degree candidates are required to apply for their degree with the Office of the Registrar during the semester inwhich they wish to graduate. Consult the semester specific academic calendar for degree application deadlines.Students should follow the guidelines below to file an application for degree: Login to ESTHER Go to Student Services and Account Information Graduation Click on “Application for Degree – Graduate Students Print and fill out the Application for Degree form Review and make any necessary corrections on the form Sign, date, and return the form to the Office of the RegistrarDegrees are conferred three times a year (August, December, and May). August and December degree candidatesare invited to participate in May commencement activities.Suggested Time Lines for Ph.D. Students (those admitted after B.S. may follow the M.S. student's guidelinesinitially and then switch to the following after completion of the M.S.): First year: Course work, begin research under direction of advisor as deemed appropriate End of first year: Take the preliminary exam First semester, second year: Form committee and consult with committee Each semester thereafter (at a minimum) consult with committee; meet if necessary (at the discretion of thecommittee chair) Ensure that you submit the fall/spring semester progress reports to the department graduate committee withthe approval of your advisor Third or fourth year: Write and defend proposal in Ph.D. qualifying examination (this should be at least sixmonths before the final defense) followed by petitioning for candidacy Final semester: Defense and submit the dissertation13

Semi Annual Performance ReviewAn annual performance review will be conducted on all graduate students by the Graduate Studies Committee. Thepurpose of the review is to ensure that students make adequate academic progress and that the faculty providestimely feedback to the students’ academic development.The review will be a comprehensive evaluation of the student’s academic performance including course work,research, professional development, and other relevant activities. It will be conducted at the end of every fall andspring semester. Additional reviews may be done upon request of the faculty. Students will be reviewed based onthe following: Course work grades. Transcripts including the spring semester grades will be reviewed. For students whoare not doing research (e.g., MCEE students), this will be the only document that will be reviewed. An annual report submitted by the graduate student to the advisor by May 15. The report will include 1) asummary of academic activities. This includes but is not limited to manuscripts published, submitted or inpreparation, conference presentations, awards, professional organization membership, and other researchrelated activities; 2) a one page description of research progress and plans for the coming year. It is veryimportant for the students to set clear and realistic research objectives for the coming year based onconsultation with the research advisor and thesis committee. These objectives will be used to judge thestudent’s research progress in the next review. An evaluation letter from the research advisor. The l

and Environmental Engineering, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy. This handbook summarizes the Civil and Environmental Engineering policies and procedures and is updated annually. In addition to being in agreement with the regulations stated in this departmental handbook, students must also be in agreement with the . General Announcements