Computer Engineering Qualifying Exam Information

Exam Dates: January 12-14, 2010
Exact Time and Location to be Announced

Computer Engineering Qualifying Exam Committee Members

FAQ for Computer Engineering Qualifying Exam

Past Qualifying Exams in Computer Engineering

Important Dates for January Qualifying Exam

Dec. 11, 2009 -- Declare intent to take the Qualifying Exam and state your selections of primary and secondary areas. (Please submit by email to Natalie Edwards.)

Dec. 11, 2009 -- Submit G-105 to the Computer Engineering Office.

Dec. 28, 2009 -- Student will submit a 3-page written report on the Type-1 paper to Prof. Dugan by email.

Day of the Exam -- Provide the Director of CpE with a partially completed G-107 (Qualifying Exam Report) at the time of the exam. The form will be completed by the committee and submitted to the CpE office after the exam.

The areas identified in Computer Engineering Graduate Handbook for the qualifiers are as follows:

1. Computer Architecture
2. VLSI, Switching Theory
3. Operating Systems, Real-Time and Embedded Systems
4. Compilers, Software Systems and Software Engineering
5. Fault-tolerant Computing and REliability Engineering
6. Networks, Distributed Systems and Security

NOTE: Please read the handbook carefully and note the committee’s expectations. The committee will both “assess the student’s potential to begin doctoral-level research,” as well as examine fundamental understanding by asking questions on “related topics.” Therefore, students should not only understand the problem and solution presented in the paper (and demonstrate the “abilities” listed in the handbook), but also, be responsible for background material (which is *not* limited to references in the paper) for the question-answer session.

 

Official List of papers for the Computer Engineering Qualifiers

Computer Architecture

Leverich, J., Arakida, H., Solomantnikov, A., Firoozshahian, A., Horowitz, M., and Kozyrakis, C., "Comparative evaluation of memory models for chip multiprocessors," ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO), Vol. 5, No. 3, Article No. 12, November 2008.

VLSI, Switching Theory

Bol, D.   Ambroise, R.   Flandre, D.   and Legat, J.-D, "Interests and Limitations of Technology Scaling for Subthreshold Logic," Microelectron. Lab., Univ. catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium; Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, IEEE Transactions, Vol 17, No. 10, Oct. 2009, pg. 1508-1519.

Operating Systems, Real-Time and Embedded Systems

Aguilera, M. K., Merchant, A., Shah, M., Veitch, A., and Karamanolis, C., "Sinfonia, A New Paradigm for Building Scalable Distributed Systems," SOSP’07, Stevenson, Washington, USA, .October 14–17, 2007, pg. 1-16.

Compilers, Software Systems and Software Engineering

Anda, B.C.D., Sjoberg, D.I.K., and Mockus, A., "Variabliity and Reproducibility in Software Engineering: A Study of Four Companies that Developed the Same System," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol 35, No. 3, May/June 2009, pg. 407-429.

Fault-tolerant Computing and Reliability Engineering

Hamill, M., and Goseva-Popstojanova, K., "Common trends in Software Fault and Failure Data," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol 35, No. 4, July/August 2009, pg. 484-796.

Networks, Distributed Systems & Security

Kim, J., Kim, S., Choi, S., and Qiao, D., "CARA: Collision-Aware Rate Adaptation for IEEE 802.11 WLANs," INFOCOM 2006. 25th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications. Proceedings, April 2006, pg.1 - 11.

The Computer Engineering Committee Members

Joanne Bechta Dugan, Chair
Marty Humphrey
Mircea Stan
Kamin Whitehouse

Past Qualifying Exams in Computer Engineering

August 2009 Qualifying Exam Information

January 2009 Qualifying Exam Information

August 2008 Qualifying Exam Information

January 2008 Qualifying Exam Information

August 2007 Qualifying Exams Information

January 2007 Qualifying Exams Information

August 2006 Qualifying Exams Information

January 2006 Qualifying Exams Information

August 2005 Qualifying Exams Information