The Imaging Science Graduate Program Handbook, in combination with the detailed information available concerning the Imaging Science Ph.D. and Imaging Science M.S.
degree program curricula and requirements, is intended to capture and
clarify the policies and procedures governing the Imaging Science
graduate program. Please consult the
Graduate Coordinator, Anthony Vodacek (
), with any
comments, questions, or concerns.
The following table summarizes key events and milestones in
the career of an Imaging Science PhD student at RIT. Click on a link to learn
more about an event or milestone, and to understand who takes the lead to
ensure the requirements are met or action is taken. Underlined italics indicate links that will be added in the future.
WHEN
WHAT
RESPONSIBLE PARTY(IES)
Year 1
Matriculate into program; financial support established
Students are responsible for course registration each quarter.
On-line registration takes place during each preceding quarter (except
Fall quarter registration, which opens during the preceding Spring
quarter). Entering students typically have the opportunity to register
by July or early August of the summer prior to their first year; an email will be sent to entering students with
instructions as to registration procedures and with specific course
requirement reminders, etc. It is the responsibility of
students to make appointments with their faculty advisor (or, for
incoming students, the Academic Coordinator and/or Graduate
Coordinator) at the time of early registration to facilitate course
substitutions, elective requests and possible transfer credit requests.
Credit Limitations
Students may enroll in no more than 18 credit hours per quarter;
overloads require the approval of the Graduate Coordinator.
Students are charged per credit hour for each credit exceeding 18
hours. The Director or the Graduate Coordinator may propose to
limit the total number of credit hours a student may take per quarter
in the event of continued probationary academic standing.
Teaching and research assistants cannot register for more than 16
course credits plus one research credit without prior approval of the
Graduate Coordinator.
Schedule verification and changes
Following early registration, students will receive a Schedule
Verification Form from the Registrar's Office. The schedule
indicated includes all courses for which the student is registered as
of the date of issue.
A student may change their schedule at any
time up to the end of the first six days of class, following the
procedure outlined by the RIT Registrar. Students are
strongly encouraged to consult with the Academic Coordinator and/or
Graduate Coordinator before adding or dropping classes. Changes in a
course schedule through this process are not reflected on a student's
quarterly grade report or permanent record.
Withdrawal
If a student wishes to stop participating in a class following the six-day
add/drop period, the student must officially withdraw from a course and
will receive a grade of W. This grade will be reflected on a
grade report and permanent record. Withdrawal
from a course during the first year which causes a student to
carry less than 12 academic credits (or causes loss of full-time
status) may result in withdrawal of the student's funding.
Course Withdrawal forms are available from the records office. In
addition to the student's signature, the form requires the signature of
the faculty member teaching the course and that of the Graduate
Coordinator. A course withdrawal resulting in a W grade may be
obtained through the end of the eighth week of the quarter only.
Following that date, withdrawal forms must be signed by the Director of
the Center and accompanied by a rationale that indicates circumstances
beyond the student's control.
Schedule of record
Official notification of a student's final course schedule for a
current quarter is issued by the Office of the Registrar approximately
three weeks following the first day of class. Check this
information carefully. Inaccurate information must be reported to
the Academic Coordinator for a correction to be made. It is the
student's responsibility to check the accuracy of this information and
to pursue the necessary corrections. Official registration for a course
that a student does not attend could result in course overload, F
grades, and loss of funding. Lack of registration for a course
will result in a student receiving no credit for the course.
It is the student's responsibility to understand the requirements of
the Imaging Science degree program. Progress toward achievement
of a degree is maintained by the department records office.
Access to that information is available to each student upon request to
either his or her faculty advisor or to the Academic Coordinator.
All degree requirements are published yearly in the RIT catalog.
A copy of the graduate curriculum is included in this publication to be
used as a reference. Alterations in an individual student's
requirements (course substitutions, transfer credit, requirement
waivers, credit by examination) must receive prior approval in writing
as previously outlined. Questions regarding changes made in the
curriculum during a student's program of study with the Center for
Imaging Science should be directed to the Graduate Coordinator.
Time limitations: the "seven year rule"
All candidates for the doctoral degree must maintain continuous
enrollment during the research phase of the program. Such enrollment is
not limited by the maximum number of research credits that apply to the
degree. Normally, full-time students complete the course of study for
the doctorate in approximately three to five years.
For the M.S. degree, successful completion of all course work
and thesis is required within seven years of the time of initial
registration for graduate study. For the doctoral degree, the
initiation of the seven year time period occurs when the student has
the first opportunity to take the comprehensive exam.
In rare cases,
extensions of the seven-year rule may be granted. Petition for an
extension is made to the Dean of Graduate Studies, and is initiated
via written request to the Graduate Coordinator.
Advancement to Ph.D. candidacy proceeds through the following steps.
Advisor selection
Submission and approval of preliminary study plan
Passing a written comprehensive exam
Study plan revision based on outcome of comprehensive exam and adviser recommendation
Appointment of Research Committee
Passing a candidacy exam based on thesis proposal
Having achieved Ph.D. candidacy, a student is expected to proceed
toward completion of their thesis research in timely fashion, under the
supervision of their advisor and Research Committee. This novel
research work culminates in a successful doctoral dissertation and oral
Ph.D. thesis defense.
If the faculty decision, following the comprehensive exam, is not to
permit the candidate to continue in the doctoral track, the advisor and
graduate coordinator will counsel the student about options, including
pursuit of an MS degree. If the faculty decision is to permit the
candidate to continue in the doctoral track then the program continues
with study plan revision, research committee appointment,
candidacy/proposal exam, and, finally, dissertation defense.
A summary of the Center's Ph.D.
comprehensive exam policy can be found here; examples of recent exam
questions can be found here.
Research proposal: Ph.D.
The student and the research adviser select a research topic for
the dissertation. The proposed research must be original and
publishable. Although the topic may deal with any aspect of imaging,
the research is usually concentrated in an area of current interest
within the Center.
The research proposal must be in written form and must also be
presented to the research committee in oral form, during the candidacy
exam. In constructing the dissertation
proposal document, the student is strongly advised to follow as
many guidelines as possible (concerning document formatting,
citation style, figure preparation, etc.) governing the final doctoral
disseration itself (see examples in Appendix).
The Research Advisor, on behalf of the student and the student's
Research Committee must notify the Graduate Coordinator
of the scheduling of the final examination of the
dissertation by forwarding to the Graduate Coordinator the title and abstract
of the dissertation and the scheduled date, time, and location of the examination.
The final examination of
the dissertation may not be scheduled within six months of the date on
which the student passed the candidacy exam (at which the thesis
proposal was presented and approved).
Barring exceptional
circumstances (requiring permission from the Graduate Coordinator), the
examination may not be scheduled sooner than four weeks after formal
announcement (i.e. Center-wide hallway postings and email broadcast)
has been made concerning the dissertation title and abstract and the
defense date, time, and location.
The final examination of the dissertation is open to the public and is
primarily a defense of the dissertation research. The examination
consists of an oral presentation by the student, followed by questions
from the audience. The Research Committee may also elect to privately
question the candidate following the presentation. The Research
Committee will immediately notify the candidate and the Graduate Coordinator of the examination result.
Residency
All students in the program must spend at least three consecutive
quarters (summer quarter excluded) as resident full-time students to be
eligible to receive the doctoral degree. A full-time academic workload
is defined as a minimum of nine academic credits per quarter or an
equivalent amount of research, as certified by the graduate
coordinator.
Exceptions to residency requirement and time limitations
If circumstances warrant, the residency requirement may be waived
via petition to the graduate coordinator, who will decide on the
student's petition in consultation with the adviser and graduate
faculty. The request must be submitted at least nine months prior to
the thesis defense. The time limitation may only be waived via petition
to the Dean of Graduate Studies, following notification of the
Graduate Coordinator of the intent to petition for such an extension.
Miscellaneous requirements for certification of degrees Certification of any graduate degree requires that the student has
achieved a minimum program cumulative grade point average of 3.00 (a B
average).
Full payment or satisfactory adjustment of all financial obligations is required.
The term "Graduate Faculty" as used in this document
includes: faculty members with direct appointments to the Center for
Imaging Science within the RIT College of Science; extended faculty of
the Center; and the Center's research faculty. All Ph.D. and M.S.
research committees must include at least one faculty member with
a direct appointment to the Center.
Graduate Faculty advisors are assigned to all Imaging Science
students. Typically, the student selects a Graduate Faculty research advisor who
then also acts as an academic advisor. Advisors are prepared to
assist students with issues regarding curriculum requirements, elective
choices, transfer options, RIT support facilities, and concerns of a
more personal nature (such as managing your time effectively, making
the adjustment to college life or coping with the unexpected). We
strongly urge you to establish a firm relationship with a faculty
advisor soon after you begin your program of study in Imaging Science.
Once the student has passed the Ph.D. comprehensive
exam and is well along in the process of formulating a dissertation
research proposal (i.e., typically during the second or perhaps third
year of study), the
student, in consultation with his/her Graduate Faculty advisor, must present a request
to
the Graduate Coordinator for the appointment of a Research Committee.
The committee must include a minimum of four people including the
advisor, one other member of the Graduate Faculty, a
person competent in the field of research (this committee member may
also be a member of the Graduate Faculty), and the
Provost's Representative ("external chair"). The
external chair must be a tenured member of the RIT faculty who holds a
Ph.D. and is not a
faculty member or extended faculty member of the Center. The
external chair is appointed by the Provost, via a request initiated by
the Graduate Coordinator through the Dean of Graduate Studies. The
research committee will supervise the student's research,
including review of the research proposal (typically as part of the PhD
candidacy exam), meeting with the student
during the course of the research, and conducting the dissertation
defense.
The M.S. thesis Research Committee is composed of a minimum of three
people: the student's Graduate Faculty research adviser and two additional members who hold at
least an MS in a field relevant to the student's research. At least two
of these three committee members must be from the Graduate Faculty of the Center.
All RIT policies and regulations as they appear in RIT
publications apply in full to the Center for Imaging Science.
There are, however, a few additional policies and practices that apply
only to Imaging Science. For your guidance, this publication
contains an outline of this information.
Student records
Student records are housed in the Academic Student
Services Office, College of Science and in the Chester F. Carlson
Center for Imaging Science. Administrative support is available
to students through these offices in areas of registration, course
selection, scheduling, records, and program advisement. Answers
to questions are often available on a walk-in basis. Students who
wish a consultation should make an appointment with the Academic
Coordinator, or the Coordinators of the relevant graduate program.
In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act of 1974 (commonly known as the Buckley Amendment), RIT
students have the right to inspect, review and challenge the accuracy
of official educational records. RIT policy ensures that only proper
use is made of such records. With the exception of copies made
for internal use (provided by the registrar for advising purposes),
copies of a student's permanent record (transcript) or non-public
information from student records will not be released without the
student's written consent. Official written requests from
students must be made for transcript release.
Directory information may be released at any time to persons or agencies indicating a legitimate interest. Directory Information
includes the following: a student's name, mailing address and telephone
number, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation
records in official RIT activities and sports, weight and height if a
member of an athletic team, dates of attendance at RIT, degrees and
awards received.
Course Work Policies
A. Repeating Courses
Graduate courses cannot be repeated to improve a grade. B. Credit by Examination
With the approval of the Graduate Coordinator, students with
undergraduate degrees in Imaging Science (or related fields) from RIT
can request credit by examination for certain graduate courses offered
by the Center, provided there is substantial curriculum overlap with
the corresponding undergraduate course. Credit for graduate
courses also may occasionally be granted by examination in the event
that the student petitions an instructor to administer the exam.
A Credit by Examination form must be completed and filed with the
bursar (with $50 per credit hour fee) prior to taking the exam.
The exam is pass/fail. The notation on a student's permanent
record is (examination) credit only and does not affect the RIT grade
point average.
C. Course Exemption
An instructor may recommend approval of a course requirement exemption
based upon previous experience or course work. However, this
exemption does not alter the total credit requirement for the degree
program. Requests for course exemption must be initiated by
the student, in writing, to the Graduate Coordinator. Approval of
the request is subject to graduate faculty consensus. D. Course Substitution and Non-Imaging Science Electives
To substitute alternative courses for required (core) curriculum
courses, or to count electives courses from other departments (e.g.,
Business, Liberal Arts) that appear to fall outside the field of
imaging science, permission must be granted by the Graduate Coordinator
(possibly subject to the consensus of the Center's Graduate
Faculty). To initiate a request of this nature, the student must
provide his or her faculty advisor with a description of the desired
course. A written rationale which describes the importance of a
desired non-imaging science elective in terms of career goals and
curriculum specializations may be necessary. This
justification is expected to take place in the context of the student's
full study plan (indicating all courses to be taken to satisfy the
degree requirements). Approvals for substitutions for required
courses are normally subject to graduate faculty consensus. Note
that, for the M.S. program, a maximum of 8 credits may be taken outside
the Center. E. Class Attendance
No record of attendance is kept by the Chester F. Carlson Center for
Imaging Science administrative offices. Reports of absences are
not required. However, a record of absences may be kept by
any faculty member and may be used by that faculty member to determine
a grade. Non-attendance does not constitute withdrawing from a
class.
F. Expulsion of Students from Class
A faculty member may, with good cause, expel a student from class for
not more than one class session. If the faculty member wishes to
exclude the student for a longer period, a recommendation must be made
in writing, with documentation, to the Director of CIS. The
student may appeal this decision to the Academic Grievance Committee of
the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science. Final appeals
are made to the Institute Hearing and Appeals Board.
