The requirements of the Computer Engineering Doctorate Program consist of completing the official course load, succeeding the doctoral qualifying exam, defending a doctoral thesis proposal and successfully defending the doctoral thesis. The official course load for students entering a doctoral program with a master's degree is 21 credit hours, and for students entering a doctoral program with a bachelor's degree, 42 credit hours are required. All doctoral candidates must complete at least 12 credit hours of coursework with computer engineering graduate courses. The remaining course load can be completed from other graduate programs with the approval of the graduate advisor.