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Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering Division of Engineering and Applied Science
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Exam Guidelines

Qualifying Exam

Pass an oral qualifying examination, arranged by the option, on three major subjects before the beginning of the second academic year. Any delay in taking the exam must be preapproved by the option representative. Each student should consult their adviser and/or the option representative to choose the three major subjects. The three subjects of the exam should include (1) Engineering math, Note: Students getting a B- or better for all 27 math units will be waived for "math subject" exam. (2) The major research topical area, and (3) Another related topical area. Students should take at least 27 units of advanced courses on each of the three exam subjects. Transferred credits can be counted toward the 27 units. If the student has a subject minor, examination on the minor subject may be included at the request of the discipline offering the minor and with the approval of the student's adviser. Note that the program is designed for the students to have a multidisciplinary background. Each exam is 30 minutes in length.

Candidacy Exam

The Ph.D. oral candidacy exam shall be taken before the end of the third academic year of residence at the Institute. The intent of this oral exam is to determine whether the student has prepared a thesis topic and planned the research that will be necessary to graduate with a Ph.D. on the subject of the Ph.D. research.

The candidacy exam is conducted by a committee of a minimum of four members that is set up by the student and approved by the option representative. Three members must be Caltech professorial faculty affiliated with Medical Engineering. The fourth member may be a Caltech faculty member or an outside professional of similar standing. The committee must include the adviser, but another member of the committee must be selected as chair. The committee chair must be a Caltech professorial faculty member. This examination will be a test of the candidate's preparation and knowledge to conduct research in their specialized doctoral research area.

Once a committee has been selected the student will go into Regis and complete the Candidacy Exam Data and submit for approval. 

The candidacy exam itself is divided into two parts. In the first part the student will provide a brief account of the research and progress made. The presentation should be about 20 minutes in length, with a maximum of 12 slides including title, outline of the presentation and conclusions/future work. There will be no interruptions other than questions of clarification during this time.

In the second part of the candidacy exam, the committee members will present questions for the student to consider.  These questions should be related to the student's presentation, the written document and/or the thesis topic.

To pass the candidacy exam as a whole, the student's performance in both parts of the exam must be satisfactory.

On successful completion of the candidacy exam and the candidacy requirements listed in the catalog, the student will be admitted to Ph.D. candidacy.

If the student is unsuccessful, the committee will select one of the following options:

  1. No pass. Recommendation of a second candidacy exam within a time period to be specified by the committee.
  2. Fail. The student will not proceed further towards the Ph.D. and should consult the Institute Catalog and with the advisor concerning the possible completion of an Engineers' Degree

Guidelines for Preparing the Candidacy Research Outline

Prior to the candidacy exam, Candidates for a MedE Ph.D. must submit, to the Candidacy Examination Committee, no later than one week before the exam, a written summary describing their thesis. This document must be prepared in 12-point font and should not exceed five pages including all graphics, citations and other material. The questions listed below may be used as a checklist in preparing the document:

  1. What are the goals/objectives of the research and why is it important?
  2. How will the research be done? What methods will be used?
  3. What will be learned from the work? What new understanding is expected to emerge from it?
  4. What aspects of the research are innovative? How will it advance the state-of-the-art?
  5. Are there practical/logistical barriers to the work? What contributions from others will be required to complete the work? Is the timeline realistic?

PhD Defense

The MedE Ph.D. final thesis defense exam is conducted by a committee of a minimum of four members that is set up by the student and approved by the option representative. Three members must be Caltech professorial faculty affiliated with Medical Engineering. The fourth member may be a Caltech faculty member or an outside professional of similar standing. The committee must include the adviser, but another member of the committee must be selected as chair. The committee chair must be a Caltech professorial faculty member. This final examination will be given no less than two weeks after the doctoral thesis has been presented in final form, and before its approval. This examination must be taken at least four weeks before the commencement at which the degree is to be granted. This thesis examination will be a defense of the doctoral thesis and a test of the candidate's knowledge in their specialized doctoral research area. Please see the Graduate Studies Office Degree Tracking and Degree Completion instructions for further information.