Academics
Ph.D. Program Requirements
Course Requirements and Electives
A minimum of ten courses is required: five core courses
in HRI and five electives from a
list of courses
approved by the HRI Steering Committee. Courses can be
counted both towards the HRI Ph.D. and the home
department. In addition, students must provide evidence
of competence in four research methods.
For Ph.D. students, at least three of the five electives
must be from a department outside of the student's home
department.
Advising Requirement
Each student in the HRI program will choose an advisory
committee of at least three faculty within the second
year (at least two members have to be faculty associated
with the HRI program). The advisory committee will be
responsible for conducting and grading the written and
oral exams. One committee member will be designated by
the student as "main advisor" and as such be responsible
for supervising the student's dissertation. The main
advisor must be associated with the HRI program.
Core Research Methods
All HRI Ph.D. students have to demonstrate competency before attempting
the oral qualification exam in four main research methods in HRI:
(1) statistics and mathematical foundations
(2) robot programming
(3) robot design
(4) experimental design
For (1), students have to demonstrate competence in the
statistical and mathematical foundations relevant to
HRI. For (2), students have to demonstrate experience
with programming at least two different robots. For (3),
students have to demonstrate experience in designing
robots or parts of robots relevant to HRI. And for (4),
students have to demonstrate that they have designed and
carried out an HRI experiment. The details for all
competency requirements will be determined by the HRI
Steering Committee.
For (1), transcripts of previously taken relevant
courses (at Tufts or elsewhere) or papers authored by
the student that demonstrate the mastery of the
techniques. For (2)-(4) students may point to published
peer-reviewed papers authored by them that employ any of
the required methods or get a letter from their advisor
that describes how they satisfied the requirements. The
program director then writes an evaluation of the
materials which is forwarded to Steering Committee for
approval. In the case that the demonstration is found
insufficient and is thus not approved, the program
director will work with the student to suggest ways to
obtain sufficient documentation (e.g., by taking
courses, writing research papers that demonstrate
sufficient preparation, participating in research
projects, etc.).
Examinations
Each Ph.D. student in the HRI Ph.D. program must take written and oral
qualifying exams in HRI, in addition to the examination requirements of
the student's department.
- Written Qualifying Exam
The written qualifying exam in HRI consists of two research papers in two
separate areas of HRI, which must be completed by the fourth semester and
sixth semester, respectively, at the latest, submitted for publication to
one of the HRI conference (e.g., the IEEE/ACM International Conference on
Human-Robot Interaction). The papers need to be submitted to the Steering
Committee for evaluation.
- Oral Qualifying Exam/Candidacy Exam
All HRI Ph.D. students are required to pass a candidacy examination during
which they propose their dissertation. Since the oral exam in HRI is at the
same time the candidacy exam, students will defend their dissertation
proposal and then be examined in the area of the dissertation (i.e., in only
one joint exam with their home department). This requirement must be met by
the end of the fourth year.
Foreign Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement in HRI.
Duration
Because the HRI Ph.D. will require more preparatory course work of students than
other disciplinary Ph.D. degrees, the typical duration of the program will
likely be five years.
Financial Aid
Students in the HRI Ph.D. program are guaranteed the same funding as is
customary in their respective home departments. At least one year of funding
will be in the form of a mandatory teaching assistant position.
The remaining time will be a combination of teaching assistant and research
assistant positions (the latter likely funded by one of the student's advisors).
It is expected that all funded graduate students will receive at least support
for nine months per calendar year in addition to full tuition remission. Note
that the particular funding conditions of the teaching and research assistant
position, however, will depend on what is customary in the home department of
the student.
Teaching Requirement
All students enrolled in the HRI Ph.D. program are required to teach for one
semester as "Teaching Assistants" in their home departments or a department
associated with the HRI program. The teaching requirement is intended to
recognize the important role of teaching experience both for future academic
positions as well as for learning how to present complex materials well to a
possibly inexperienced audience (the process of preparing presentations often
has the added advantage that it generates improved understanding on the teacher
side). The academic advisors of students in the HRI program will work with the
Tufts Center for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), and the Graduate
Institute for Teaching (GIFT) to provide structured mentorship.
Colloquium Series
All HRI students are required to attend a novel HRI colloquium series to be
organized by the HRI Steering Committee at least for four semesters. The
colloquium series will feature speakers from Tufts as well as the local HRI
community in the Boston area as well as occasional outside speakers, exposing
students to cutting edge research in HRI. At the same time, the colloquium
series also has an important community-building function by bringing together
faculty and students (both graduate and undergraduate) interested in HRI,
providing an informal setting where students can interact with faculty and ask
questions. Ultimately, the goal is for it to become a forum for discussion and
exchanges of ideas that can lead to future research collaborations on campus.
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