Advisors

Each graduate student must have a faculty advisor whose responsibility is to help form an academic program, monitor progress through the agreed-upon program, implement necessary procedures that require signatures at various steps along the way, and guide the thesis (if any) or dissertation research that forms part of the student’s course of study.

Faculty members within ECE and outside of ECE can hold graduate faculty status within ECE.  These graduate faculty members are either Category M or Category P. Category P faculty members can advise Ph.D. and M.S. students and serve on all student committees within the department. Category M faculty members can advise M.S. students and serve on M.S. exam committees.  In addition, M status faculty members can serve on the committee for Ph.D. candidacy and final exams with the approval of the Graduate Studies Chair.

Currently, all tenure-track faculty members within ECE hold Category P. There are also a few emeritus faculty members within ECE and faculty members from other departments with P status in our department. There are a number of non-ECE faculty with M status as well.

If a new graduate student has accepted a GRA offer, the advisor is the faculty member who  offered the GRA. A self-funded new graduate student is usually assigned a temporary advisor for the first semester. If this relationship is satisfactory to both the student and the advisor, the relationship becomes permanent. However another faculty member may be a more appropriate advisor. In that case, after discussing the change with both the current and new advisors, the student should use the Change of Advisor form, have both advisors sign it, and submit the form to the Graduate Program Coordinator, who will record the change.

For BS/MS students, the students should fill out a change of advisor form to switch from their undergraduate advisor to a faculty advisor once they have finished the BS degree.