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The Department’s long-standing emphasis on original research is a key element in the Candidate’s educational development.

The thesis defense has two stages: i) a final Thesis Committee Meeting report, and ii) a defense. The final Thesis Committee Meeting involves only the student and the Thesis Committee but it must include all members of the Thesis Committee. In highly unusual circumstances, the Chair of the Graduate Committee may approve faculty absences or substitutions for the preliminary exam. Such approval must be obtained in writing at least one week in advance of the meeting. Approval is only possible with written support from the chair of the Thesis Committee and the faculty member to be replaced or absent.

At least one week prior to the final Thesis Committee Meeting, the student will email PDF copies of the final thesis report document to the thesis committee members. The final thesis report usually will involve a brief presentation summarizing research results and the contents of the thesis document. The Thesis Committee will prepare a set of comments, suggestions, or requirement, as necessary for further experiments, more careful data analysis, more rigorous interpretation, or improved expression. If the Thesis Committee discovers major deficiencies, a second progress report may be required.

The Thesis Defense is open to the public. The defense can only be scheduled after all deficiencies identified in the final Thesis Committee meeting report have been addressed. In no case will the defense occur sooner than two weeks after the final Thesis Committee meeting. At least two weeks prior to the defense, the Candidate will email PDF copies of the final thesis document to the Thesis Committee members. The committee members must decide within these two weeks if the thesis document is acceptable to proceed to defense. The committee members must decide within these two weeks if the thesis document is acceptable to proceed to defense. If the thesis is unacceptable, the defense will be rescheduled following correction of the thesis. It is the student’s responsibility to reserve a classroom for the Thesis Defense. If the student wishes to reserve one of the BE Classrooms (56-614, 16-220), they should contact the BE Academic Office, any other classroom reservation must be reserved through the Registrar’s Office .

The defense begins with a formal presentation of approximately 45 minutes based on the thesis. The floor is then opened to questions from the general audience, which is thereafter excused. The Thesis Committee, and any other MIT faculty that wish to remain, continue the examination of the Candidate in private. The Candidate and any non-Thesis Committee faculty still present are finally excused from the room for the final Committee deliberations and decision. A majority yes vote is required to approve the thesis. It is the responsibility of the Thesis Committee Chair to give the Committee’s decision whether the thesis is satisfactory or unsatisfactory to the Candidate and to the BE Academic Office. In the event of vote not to pass, the Thesis Committee will make recommendations as to needed changes to render the thesis satisfactory. The revised thesis will then be submitted for a second final defense.

Note: Students are advised to keep in mind that the months of May and August tend to be the months where scheduling a presentation may be difficult because of faculty unavailability.

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The doctoral program in DMSE provides an advanced educational experience that is versatile, intellectually challenging, and of enduring value for high-level careers in materials science and engineering. It develops students’ ability, confidence, and originality to grasp and solve challenging problems involving materials.

Required Subjects

The core courses define the basis of materials science and engineering as a discipline—what every PhD materials scientist or materials engineer from MIT ought to know. The first-year student seminars and core subjects provide a rigorous, unified foundation for subsequent advanced-level subjects and thesis research. Here are the required subjects:

• 3.20 (Materials at Equilibrium) (15 units, Year 1, fall)
• 3.22 (Structure and Mechanics of Materials) (12 units, Year 1, fall)
• 3.201 (Introduction to DMSE) (3 units, Year 1, fall)
• 3.21 (Kinetic Processes in Materials) (15 units, Year 1, spring)
• 3.23 (Electrical, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials) (12 units, Year 1, spring)
• 3.202 (Essential Research Skills) (3 units, Year 1, spring)
• 3.995 (First-Year Thesis Research) (18 units, Year 1, spring)

English Evaluation Test

International graduate students may be required to take the MIT English Evaluation Test upon arrival in the fall semester. Results from the test will indicate whether the student will be required to take an English class at MIT. Some students may qualify for a waiver of the English Evaluation Test:

• Students who studied at a US university or an international university whose primary language of instruction is English for at least three years and received a degree from that US/international university.
• Students whose language of instruction was English during primary and secondary school years.

The DMSE Graduate Academic Office informs incoming students by early summer if they qualify for this waiver.

Electives and Concentrations

Doctoral students must take three post-core graduate electives approved by the thesis committee. Refer to the MIT Subjects Listings and Schedule for the subjects offered and their schedules.

Graduate students can use the three electives to create a specialization or concentration in a particular research area of materials science and engineering, or they can choose a broader educational experience by picking subjects in three different areas.

Sample Concentration Areas

Students who choose a concentration area have several options. Below is a list of sample concentrations available.

• Electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials
• High-performance structural materials
• Computational materials science
• Biomaterials
• Polymeric materials
• Materials for energy and the environment
• Nanoscale materials
• Materials processing materials economics and manufacturing, entrepreneurship
• Laboratory/characterization/instrumentation
• Materials design
• Experimental/characterization computational materials application/design

Electives Outside the Department

Students may enroll in one non-DMSE graduate elective that is 9-12 units with the approval of their thesis committee. Students may propose to enroll in two or more non-DMSE graduate electives by submitting a petition to the Departmental Committee on Graduate Studies (DCGS). Submit the petition form in advance of enrolling in the subjects to the DMSE Graduate Academic Office for committee review, including a statement on why you would like to enroll in these subjects, your signature, and your thesis advisor’s signature.

• Download the Graduate Student Petition (pdf) and complete it.
• Send the completed petition to [email protected] .

The minor requirement is designed to encourage the development of intellectual breadth at an advanced level. A program of study must be discussed with and approved by a student’s research supervisor, so it should be proposed early in a student’s doctoral program.

DMSE Doctoral Track Students

There are two minor requirement options for DMSE graduate students on the doctoral track.

Academic Minor

Here are some general guidelines regarding an academic minor.

• The selected subjects may or may not be related to the thesis research area.
• The subjects taken must be at an advanced level. It is recommended that two graduate-level courses be taken (24 units).
• Minor programs composed of one graduate level and one advanced undergraduate-level course (24 units), or three advanced undergraduate courses (33 units) that were not used to obtain a bachelors or master’s degree may also be acceptable. An exception is a minor in a beginning Global Languages sequence in which two 9-unit G subjects would most likely be approved.

Teaching Minor

Only DMSE doctoral track students who have passed their doctoral examinations may submit a teaching minor program proposal. Students generally begin a teaching minor in Year 3 of graduate study. Here are some general guidelines:

• Students must serve as a teaching intern for two semesters. They are designated teaching interns during the semesters in which they are earning academic credit toward the teaching minor requirement.
• Students must earn 24 units of academic credit for 3.691-3.699 (Teaching Materials Science and Engineering).
• Students must take 3.69 (Teaching Fellows Seminar) while serving as a teaching intern. The subject is offered each fall semester and provides instruction on how to teach lectures and recitations; how to prepare a syllabus, writing assignments and examinations; grading; and how to resolve complaints.

Students must submit a form outlining the proposed minor program to the DCGS Chair for approval.

• Attach copies of the catalog descriptions of all subjects included in the program proposal form.
• List the subjects to be taken to fulfill the minor requirement.
• Preview the Minor Program Proposal (pdf) and prepare your responses. Then click the button below, add the responses, and submit the proposal via DocuSign.

DMSE Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM) Doctoral Track Students

To complete the minor requirement, PPSM students must do the following:

• Take 3.20 (Materials at Equilibrium) and 3.21 (Kinetic Processes in Materials).
• Take one other graduate subject of at least 9 units that is not related to polymeric materials for academic credit.
• List the subjects to be taken to fulfill the minor requirement and submit the proposal. The written request will need to have the catalogue description of the third subject.
• Preview the Minor Program Proposal (pdf) and prepare your responses. Then click the button below, add your responses, and send the proposal via DocuSign.

Qualifying Exams

MIT requires that all doctoral students successfully complete written and oral evaluations to qualify as a candidate for the doctoral degree. The DMSE qualifying exams consist of two-step procedure.

Core Curriculum Assessment and First-Year Research Progress

In the first two semesters of the graduate program, doctoral track students enroll in the four core subjects:

• 3.20 (Materials at Equilibrium)
• 3.21 (Kinetic Processes in Materials)
• 3.22 (Structure and Mechanical Properties of Materials)
• 3.23 (Electrical, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials)
• 3.201 (Introduction to DMSE)
• 3.202 (Essential Research Skills)

Students must also demonstrate satisfactory performance in research, including the selection of a research group in the fall term and receive a “J” grade in 3.995 (First-Year Thesis Research) in spring term.

First-Year Performance Evaluation

DCGS evaluates first-year performance on a Pass/No Pass basis:

The student has successfully completed the first-year requirements and is eligible to register for step two of the qualifying procedure, the Thesis Area Examination.

The student has not fully completed the first-year requirements and is not eligible to register for the Thesis Area Examination without DCGS approval. In situations in which students complete only some of the requirements, DCGS will consult with the student’s advisor and the instructors of the core classes to develop a remediation plan (for example, retaking a course). If a student’s overall GPA is below 3.5 or the student earns more than one grade of C or lower in the core classes, the student will receive an official academic progress warning letter from the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education, in addition to a DCGS remediation plan.

Thesis Area Examination

After completing the core curriculum and review of first-year research progress, students select a research project for their PhD thesis. Selection of this topic is a decision made in agreement with their advisor. The TAE tests the student’s preparedness to conduct PhD research and provides feedback on the chosen PhD thesis project.

• The TAE consists of a written proposal and an oral presentation of the proposed research to the student’s TAE Committee. The written proposal is due in mid-January before the oral examination.
• TAE oral examinations are administered during the first two weeks in the spring term of Year 2. The DMSE Graduate Academic Office schedules the TAE oral examination after confirmation of the TAE Committee with DCGS.

Preparation for the TAE requires that a student work through aspects of a successful research proposal, including motivation, context, hypothesis, work plans, methods, expected results, and impact. A working understanding of relevant concepts from materials science and engineering core knowledge should be demonstrated throughout.

TAE Committee

The Thesis Area Examination is administered by a TAE Chair and two committee members.

• The chair of the committee is appointed by DCGS: a DMSE faculty member whose principal area of research and intellectual pursuits differ from that of the student’s thesis advisor(s).
• The identities of the other committee members should be discussed between the student and thesis advisor(s). The student is responsible for contacting these potential committee members and requesting their participating as part of the student’s TAE committee. At least one of the other two faculty examiners must also be DMSE faculty. The third member of the committee may be an MIT DMSE senior research associate, lecturer, or senior lecturer. If the student wants a Thesis Committee member from outside of the department, that member can be on the thesis committee but will not be part of the TAE Committee.
• The thesis advisor(s) is not formally a member of the TAE Committee but is a non-voting attendee at the TAE who may make comments to the committee and provide information regarding the student and their research and progress following the examination after the student is excused from the examination room.

TAE Committee assignments are finalized by the end of October in the semester after the completion of the first-year requirements.

TAE Performance Evaluation

The TAE Committee evaluates performance on a Pass/Conditional Pass/No Pass basis:

The student has met all requirements to register in the program as a doctoral candidate starting the following term.

Conditional Pass

The student needs to address areas that require further mastery in the written proposal or oral presentation. The TAE Committee will outline an individualized remedial plan. After completing this requirement, the student will be eligible to register as a doctoral candidate.

The student is required to retake the TAE by scheduling another oral presentation and preparing another written proposal, if recommended, by the TAE Committee.

Doctoral Thesis

Doctoral candidates (who have passed the qualifying examinations) must complete a doctoral thesis that satisfies MIT and departmental requirements to receive the doctoral degree. General Institute Requirements are described in the MIT Bulletin and  MIT Graduate Policies and Procedures .

PhD Thesis Committee

The doctoral thesis committee advises the student on all aspects of the thesis experience, all the way up through the preparation and defense of the final thesis document. The student and thesis advisor will hold progress reviews with the thesis committee at least once a year. Written feedback to the student is required and also must be submitted to DCGS. The thesis advisor holds responsibility for assembling this written feedback and sharing it with the DMSE Graduate Academic Office and the student. After the TAE is completed, the final doctoral thesis committee is constituted of the members of the two (non-chair) Thesis Area Examination (TAE) committee members and the student’s advisor.

• The chair of the oral thesis area examination committee steps down.
• The final PhD Thesis Committee will have at least two members who are not advisors or co-advisors.
• At least half the members of the thesis committee must be DMSE faculty.

Petitions for thesis committee changes, including the addition of new committee members or committee members from outside of DMSE must be submitted the DCGS Chair.

• Download the  Graduate Student Petition (pdf) and complete it.
• Send the completed petition to  [email protected] .

Year 3 Update Meeting

After successful completion of the TAE, this meeting is held in the fall term or spring term of the student’s third year. The purpose of this meeting is to update the thesis committee of the student’s plans and progress and to seek guidance from the thesis committee on advancing toward the doctoral degree. Students must register for 3.998 (Doctoral Thesis Update Meeting). Starting with the thesis proposal as a point of departure, the student presents the revised vision of the path forward including challenges and obstacles. All members of the thesis committee are expected to be physically present at this meeting. This meeting is exclusive to the student and the thesis committee. The 3.998 Doctoral Thesis Update Meeting DocuSign Form must be sent to the DMSE Graduate Academic Office.

• Preview the  3.998 Doctoral Thesis Update Meeting Form (pdf) and prepare your responses. Then click the button below, add the responses, and send the form via DocuSign.

Plan-to-Finish Meeting

Approximately one year before the expected graduation, but no later than six months before the planned PhD defense, the student will schedule a Plan-to-Finish meeting with the thesis committee. The purpose of the meeting is for the committee to determine whether the student will likely be ready for graduation within a year. The student will present the projected outline of the thesis, important data that will become part of the thesis, and what still needs to be done.   The student will prepare a written document for the committee that will include the following:

• Research results
• Graduation timeline
• List of papers published or in preparation
• List of classes the student has taken to satisfy the PhD course requirements

The document must delivered to the committee one week before the presentation. This presentation is exclusive to the student and the thesis committee. At the end of the meeting the committee decides whether the student is likely to proceed toward the PhD defense, or whether another Plan-to-Finish meeting is necessary. The committee will then prepare brief written feedback to the student.

Doctoral Thesis and Oral Defense

DMSE’s long-standing emphasis on original research is a key element in the candidate’s educational development.

• Scheduling of the final PhD defense can take place no earlier than six months after a successful Plan-to-Finish meeting.
• The PhD thesis will be delivered to the committee members one month before the defense. 
• The committee members will respond in two weeks with comments on the written document, giving the student two weeks to modify the thesis.
• At least one week before the defense the candidate will provide copies of the final thesis document to Thesis Committee members and to the DMSE Graduate Academic Office along with the confirmed date, time, and room for the defense.

Defense Process

The DMSE Graduate Academic Office will publicize the defense.

• The defense begins with a formal presentation of the thesis of approximately 45 minutes.
• The floor is then opened to questions from the general audience, which is then excused.
• The Thesis Committee continues the examination of the candidate in private.
• The candidate is finally excused from the room and the committee votes.
• A majority yes vote is required to approve the thesis.

Doctoral Thesis Examination Report Form

Before the thesis defense, the student must prepare the Doctoral Thesis Examination Report Form, filling out the top portion of the form—term, name and email address, dates of Plan-to-Finish Meeting, Thesis Defense, and Thesis Examination Committee Member names. Preview the  Doctoral Thesis Examination Report Form (pdf) and prepare your responses. Then click the button below, add the responses, and send the form via DocuSign.

Scheduling a presentation in May and August may be difficult because of faculty unavailability and availability of presentation rooms. Faculty are not on academic appointments in the summer and are often on travel. This may lead to the need to reschedule your defense, in some cases into the next term. 

Thesis Format

The usual thesis format, a cohesive document, is traditional. Occasionally, the thesis may separate naturally into two or more sections, which are more directly publishable individually.

• The thesis should include a general introduction, abstract, and conclusions.
• The sections should be arranged so that the document reads as a whole.
• Put detailed descriptions of procedures and tables of data in appendices so that the thesis sections may be comparable in length and scope to journal articles

Use of this alternate format does not imply a change in the requirement for original research, in the student/thesis advisor relationship, or in their respective roles in producing the thesis document, all of which still apply.

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Doctor of philosophy (phd), general information.

The term in which you plan to defend, submit your dissertation, and graduate, you must be registered for Thesis (4.THG - 36 units). Your dissertation defense takes place in the presence of your full Dissertation Committee consisting of at least three members including your dissertation supervisor.

Upon satisfactory defense and submission of the dissertation, the supervisor will assign a grade. ("SA" is the final satisfactory grade for PhD.) The grade will not be submitted to the Registrar until the final approved dissertation document is submitted to the department portal by the thesis deadline provided on the departmental thesis deadlines calendar. For help with formatting of your full document, see the Formatting, Specifications & Thesis Submission page for more information.

You are responsible for working directly with your dissertation committee and area administrators to schedule your defense. The defense must not be scheduled for any later than two weeks prior to the thesis submission deadline. Each area may handle the logistics differently, so it is important to touch base with your group early in the defense planning process. For example, many faculty are not available during winter holidays or summer session, and may wish to schedule the defense early in December for a February degree.

Registration Deadline:

• Register for 36 units of   4.THG
• Degree list: Put yourself on the upcoming degree list by applying for a degree .
• Be mindful of the Institute deadline to change your thesis title in WebSIS
• Register your final thesis title: You must return to the online site of your application and add or make a change to your thesis title by this deadline. The title on your final thesis must be an exact match of the one you submit on your Application for Degree. If you add your title after this date, you will be charged a late fee.

One Week Prior to Institute Thesis Deadline:

• Be sure to provide your exact spelling of your name (either legal name or preferred name — whichever you have provided to your degree administrator) when submitting your thesis book to the portal. Using a different name will result in a submission error.
• Max file size: 10MB or less. If file is too large, a submission error will result.

Institute Thesis Deadline:

• All final edits and adjustments to the final dissertation book must be submitted to the department on or before this deadline. Final grade submission by your advisor also must be submitted on or before this deadline. 

One Week After Institute Thesis Deadline:

• Last day to come off the degree list (contact Tessa Haynes )
• Degree conferral date (see Academic Calendar or Department Thesis Deadlines)

Specific Deadlines & Procedure

February 2022 theses deadlines, friday, september 10, 2021.

• Registration Deadline: Fall term registration (4.THG) (Pre-registration for fall deadline is June 17, 2021.
• Degree list: Put yourself on the February degree list by applying for a degree .

Friday, December 10, 2021

• Register your final thesis title: You must return to the online site of your application and add or make a change to your thesis title by this deadline. The title on your final dissertation must be an exact match of the one you submit on your Application for Degree. If you add your title after this date, you will be charged a late fee; but you may still update your thesis title until the actual submission date.

Monday, December 31, 2021

• If you are having difficulty when logged into Office 365 or Sharepoint under a different log in, try clearing your cache on your browser so that you can log in to the form with your MIT Kerberos account.

Sept 2024 Theses Deadlines

Friday, june 14, 2024.

• Registration Deadline:  Summer  term registration (4.THG) (Pre-registration for spring deadline is May 1, 2024.
• Degree list: Put yourself on the September degree list by applying for a degree .

Friday, August 2, 2024

• Your final dissertation book is due by 9am on Friday, August  to the Department Thesis Submission Tool ( choose "Single Sign On" and log in with your MIT email address ) for formatting review. This is for the purpose of making certain the document is in compliance with MIT archive requirements. You will be contacted quickly if adjustments are needed. Your signed signature page must also be submitted at this time.

Friday, August 9, 2024

• Final, corrected, approved, electronic version uploaded to the Department Thesis Submission Tool ( choose "Single Sign On" and log in with your MIT email address )

Formatting, Specifications & Thesis Submission

Important : Consult the Formatting, Specifications and Thesis Submission information page for advice and templates on how to format your book. Please pay particular attention to the templates for the frontmatter (Title Page, Committee Page, Abstract, and Table of Contents.) Following the templates now means fewer edits to make later!

PhD Thesis Contacts

• Program Director: Leslie K. Norford
• Director of Computation PhD: George Stiny
• Director of Building Technology PhD: Christoph Reinhart
• Director of HTC PhD: Timothy Hyde
• PhD degree administrator and thesis submission: Tessa Haynes

Ph.D./Sc.D. Program

The Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering are identical; students may choose for themselves the appellation they prefer. This traditional, research-based doctoral degree program provides a thorough grounding in the fundamental principles of chemical engineering, as well as an intensive research experience.

The Doctor of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering are identical degree programs. Degree candidates may choose to be called a “doctor of philosophy” or a “doctor of science”.

The degree requires that you complete:

• the core curriculum in chemical engineering
• one chemical engineering H Level class
• the departmental biology requirement
• a minor program of related subjects outside of chemical engineering
• written and oral doctoral qualifying examinations
• the writing and oral defense of a thesis on original research

The core curriculum is:

• Numerical Methods in Chemical Engineering 10.34
• Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics 10.40
• Analysis of Transport Phenomena 10.50
• Chemical Reactor Engineering 10.65

The departmental biology requirement is fulfilled by completing an undergraduate subject equivalent to MIT 7.01x, either at MIT or at your undergraduate institution. Examples of minor programs for some recent doctoral students include applied mathematics, control theory, physical, organic or analytical chemistry, mechanical structure, power systems, process metallurgy, nuclear engineering, management, economics, music, ancient history and philosophy.

The normal duration of the degree program is five to six years. (Including an intermediate M.S. CEP degree normally has little effect on the duration.) A master’s degree is not required for entrance into the doctoral program, nor is the M.S. CEP required.

For incoming, first-year graduate students, academic advisors are members of the Committee for Graduate Students. When you select a research topic and begin your thesis, the research supervisor becomes your academic advisor. In general, students choose research advisors at the end of their first Fall semester at MIT. Should you wish to choose a research advisor from a department other than Chemical Engineering, you will also need to choose a co-advisor from the Chemical Engineering faculty.

Prior to Registration Day (Fall and Spring semesters), your subject selection must first be approved by your advisor before the Graduate Officer can authorize registration on Registration Day. Advisor approval should also be obtained for any subsequent subject add/drop actions during the term (no additional authorization by the Graduate Officer is required).

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For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates. Now, with the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment.

Image: Christine Daniloff, MIT; Dominick Reuter

Inside the new world of online dissertation defenses

Emojis, grandmas logging in, and kudos from strangers: How MIT students have finished their PhDs during the pandemic.

Call it another MIT innovation. When PhD student Jesse Tordoff passed her dissertation defense this month, she learned about the outcome in a new way: Her professors sent a thumbs-up emoji on the Zoom screen they were all sharing.

Welcome to the new world of the online dissertation defense, one of many changes academia is making during the Covid-19 pandemic. For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates, something they spend years visualizing. At a defense, a student presents work and fields questions; the professors on the dissertation committee then confer privately, and render their verdict to the student.

Which, in Tordoff’s case, was delivered in good humor, via a familiar little symbol.

“That was my most 2020 moment, learning I passed my defense by Zoom emoji,” says Tordoff, a biological engineer specializing in self-assembling structures.

With the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment. MIT students who defended dissertations this spring say they have had a variety of reactions to the change: They appreciated that family members could suddenly watch their defenses online, and some felt more relaxed in the format. But students also felt it was more challenging to engage with their audiences on Zoom.

And, inevitably, social distancing meant students could not gather in person with advisors, friends, and family to rejoice, as per the usual MIT tradition.

“That feeling of celebration — it is not something you generate by yourself,” says André Snoeck, who in late March defended his dissertation on last-mile issues in supply chains, for MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics.

That moment when you learn you have passed your doctoral dissertation defense. Congratulations to @MITSloan ‘s Dr. Maarten Meeuwis! @MIT @MITGradStudents @MIT_alumni @MITSloanAlumni pic.twitter.com/U7wNdmBPx7 — MIT Sloan PhD (@MITSloanPhD) April 21, 2020

On Zoom, grandparents in the room

Dissertation defenses are typically quasipublic events, where an audience can attend the student’s presentation but then leaves before faculty tell a student if the defense was successful. Many MIT departments stage parties afterward.

A defense on Zoom means the circle of attendees is no longer restricted by geography — something students appreciated.

“My mom logged on in South Africa from her retirement village and watched online,”  says Ian Ollis, from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, who in May defended his dissertation about public perceptions of mass transit in the Boston area. “She wouldn’t have been able to do that if it was done in person.”

Julia Zhao, a Department of Chemistry PhD student in Professor Jeremiah Johnson ‘s group, says the defense was a unique opportunity for family and friends to watch her in a professional setting.

“It was nice to see all my friends, and my family could attend too,” Zhao says, whose research focuses on polymers that have both metal and organic components. “They were going to fly in for graduation but not attend my defense, so they got to sit in on that and listen to me talk about what I’ve been doing the last five years. So that was really cool.”

Tordoff also felt that on Zoom, she could focus more easily on her remarks.

“I was less nervous than if I had been standing up there in front of a group of people,” Tordoff says. “I was sitting on my couch.” One reason for that good feeling, Tordoff adds, is that when she logged on to Zoom before the defense, the only other people already there were her grandparents, watching from England.

“I was so happy,” Tordoff says. “That never would have happened in person.”

And in Snoeck’s case, his advisors did orchestrate a virtual toast after the defense, so they could celebrate simultaneously, if not in the same room.

Congratulations Dr. Julia Zhao ( @jouleszhao )!!! Today was her defense through zoom!!! We are so proud of how you finished your PhD through a pandemic in such an impressive fashion!!! @ChemistryMIT #PhDone #AcademicChatter pic.twitter.com/En5gCtDZjQ — The ~Remote~ Jeremiah Johnson Group (@johnsonchem) May 1, 2020

Kudos from strangers

At the same time, MIT students note, being on Zoom limited their interaction with the audience, compared with the nature of an in-person talk.

“You can’t read the room,” Ollis says, adding: “It’s different. You don’t have a complete perspective on the audience — you see squares of people’s faces, whereas if you do it live, you get a sense of who you’re talking to by seeing faces you recognize.”

The slightly mysterious nature of Ollis’ audience became apparent to him almost immediately after he wrapped up his online defense.

“There were quite a few people watching, who, well, I didn’t know who they were,” Ollis says. “I’ve been staying in the Ashdown grad dorm, and I was walking to the elevator after doing the defense, and somebody walked past who I didn’t recognize, and said, ‘Hey! Good job! I enjoyed that!’ I had no idea who the person was.”

Overall, Ollis says, “I thought it was a good experience. I got good feedback from people.” Even so, he adds, “I prefer being in a room with people.”

For his part, Snoeck, who has accepted a job with Amazon, felt his defense was somewhat “more like a series of Q&As, rather than a conversation” — simply due to the dynamics of the format, like the segmented nature of Zoom and its slight delays in audio transmission.

“It is weird to have a conversation with some lag in it,” notes Zhao, who will soon begin a job with a Boston-area startup, developing hydrophobic coatings. “But I made an effort to say, ‘If I interrupted, please continue.’ It is a little awkward.”

I am very happy, honored and thankful to announce I successfully defended my PhD at MIT last Monday! Special thanks to all mentors and colleagues for your guidance and support during the last five years. pic.twitter.com/bsn4RA2nbk — Felipe-Oviedo (@felipeoviedop) May 14, 2020

The blended defense

That said, for years now, academic faculty have sometimes been participating in dissertation defenses via Skype, Zoom, and other platforms. That typically happens when dissertation committee members are located at multiple universities, or when a professor is traveling for research or a conference. In Snoeck’s case, one of his committee members was already going to join remotely from the Netherlands anyway.

Zhao noticed a student in her department webcasting their defense last year, which seemed “a little out of the ordinary” in 2019, she recalls. But from 2020 onward, it may become standard.

“It’s kind of nice to have an extra component of people who aren’t in town but want to participate in the closing of your degree,” Zhao says. “It will definitely be more normalized, I think.”

Not all MIT PhD students defend dissertations. In MIT’s Department of Economics, the thesis consists of three papers that must be approved, and there is no formal defense, although finishing students do give fall-term presentations. Still, even for economics students, this year seems different.

“The biggest challenge has been a feeling of a lack of closure,” says Ryan Hill, a graduating MIT PhD in economics, who studies the dynamics of scientific research. “It’s been a long road.” In that vein, Hill adds, “I was really looking forward to commencement, and the doctoral hooding ceremony.” Those events will take place on May 29, online, with an in-person ceremony to be held at a later date.

To be sure, Hill is keeping matters in perspective. “In the grand scheme, it’s not bad,” says Hill, who will spend a year as a Northwestern University postdoc, and has accepted a tenure-track job at Brigham Young University.

For any new PhD, crossing that academic finish line is a huge achievement — and relief. Zhao, for instance, had to scramble to complete her lab research before MIT shuttered, and then finish writing the thesis, before the dissertation defense could occur.

“It’s been a pretty crazy two months,” Zhao reflects. “I’m just happy to be done with it.”

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Graduation Timeline + Checklist

• Frequently Asked Questions about graduation logistics
• A summary graduation guide by the BE REFS

The following checklist describes the procedures for preparing, submitting, and defending a Doctoral Thesis.

• SIX+ MONTHS BEFORE: Hold a Plan to Defend Meeting . You should finalize a plan with your committee to meet all program requirements and agree upon on a rough timeline for graduation.

• Complete an Online Degree Application through WebSIS to enter the February, June, or September degree lists. Submitting after the first deadline will result in a late fee (you can remove your name for free by emailing Dalia, so it is best to sign up even if you aren’t sure).
• Submit your “advanced degree thesis title” (within the Online Degree Application as a separate process).
• The location can be a Zoom link or the student can reserve a classroom. If the student wishes to reserve one of the BE Classrooms (56-614, 16- 220), they should contact the BE Academic Office, any other classroom reservation must be reserved through the Registrar’s Office: classrooms.mit.edu
• Register for 20.THG for all your units (36 units in Fall or Spring; 24 units in Summer)
• Pay any fines: Check  WebSIS /MITPay to make sure that there are no outstanding grades, obligations, or financial charges that would prevent you from receiving your degree.
• (Optional) Sign up for the commencement ceremony in June: Check deadlines for ordering/renting robes and details for the commencement ceremony. You sign up through the Online Degree Application portal.
• (International Students) Apply for OPT if needed: More information in the FAQ below or here .
• The Thesis Dissertation is a document prepared by the candidate which details the original research they performed throughout their PhD.
• Information about the outline, formatting, submission, and storage of the Thesis is available from MIT Libraries . Students are encouraged to look at previous theses from BE Students on MIT DSpace.
• Students who would like assistance in improving their writing skills or in any stage of writing should contact the BE Communication Lab or the MIT Writing and Communications Center .
• Committee members have two weeks to review the Thesis. The committee members must decide within these two weeks if the Thesis document is acceptable to proceed to defense.
• Students are encouraged to send their theses to their committees more than two weeks in advance of their scheduled Thesis Defense, in case the committee requests Major Revisions, to avoid rescheduling the Oral Defense.
• Remind your Chair that they will run the post-defense meeting and are responsible for reporting results ( by sending the completed Oral Examination Form ) to [email protected]
• (If defending virtually) Work out Zoom moderation logistics (such as who will create breakout rooms, etc)
• date, time, and location of your defense,
• the title of your thesis,
• your thesis abstract, and
• Prof. Samirah al-Abbas (Thesis Co-Supervisor), Rick Riordan Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT
• Prof. Meg McCaffrey (Thesis Co-Supervisor), Career Development Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT
• Prof. Annabeth Chase (Thesis Chair), Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT
• Prof. Carter Kane, Assistant Professor of Ancient Infectious Disease, HSPH
• your zoom link and passcode if you will be offering a hybrid option.
• The Oral Defense must be attended by all members of the Thesis Committee. Members may attend via video-conferencing. In highly unusual circumstances, the Graduate Program Committee Chair may approve faculty absences or substitutions. Such approval must be obtained in writing at least one week in advance of the meeting. Approval is only possible with written support from the Thesis Committee Chair and the faculty member to be replaced or absent.
• The defense begins with a formal presentation of approximately 45 minutes based on the thesis. The floor is then opened to questions from the general audience, which is thereafter excused. The Thesis Committee, and any other MIT faculty that wish to remain, continue the examination of the Candidate in private. The Candidate and any non-Thesis Committee faculty still present are finally excused from the room for the final Committee deliberations and decision.
• Students must give a copy of the Oral Examination Thesis Proposal and Defense Form to the Thesis Committee Chairperson. To verify that the Thesis Defense was acceptable, the student will return the completed and signed form to the BE Academic Office (16-267) within two weeks.
• Outcomes : A majority yes vote is required to approve the thesis. It is the responsibility of the Thesis Committee Chair to give the Committee’s decision whether the thesis is satisfactory or unsatisfactory to the Candidate and to the BE Student Office. In the event of vote not to pass, the Thesis Committee will make recommendations as to needed changes to render the thesis satisfactory. The revised thesis will then be submitted for a second final defense.
• No Revisions : If the Thesis is acceptable in the form submitted to the committee, the student may proceed to the oral defense as proposed. The student then submits the dissertation to the Institute through the BE Academic office (below).
• Minor Revisions : The Committee often requests minor revisions that are not serious enough to delay the oral thesis defense. These revisions can be completed after the oral defense, but before final submission of the Thesis to Institute through the BE Academic Office. There is no set procedure for approval of minor dissertation revisions.  Most frequently it is up to the student to make the revisions, and then the advisor(s) approve the final versions, if they want.  The committee can ask to approve the final version, but this rarely occurs.
• Major Revisions : If the Thesis is unacceptable, major revisions may be requested that require a delay of the thesis defense.
• the Student,
• the Advisor, and
• the Graduate Program Chair
• A second page with a list of all Thesis Committee members who voted in favor of the student’s defense
• A completed UMI form for MIT Libraries .
• Printing: You must submit two copies of your thesis to the BE Academic Office (16-267), unbound and printed on acid-neutral paper . MIT Copytech has many services related to thesis printing.
• You will receive a receipt from the BE Academic Office confirming that the Thesis was submitted. Once the Thesis is submitted, the student has officially graduated, and their student status is terminated (for more details, see the FAQ below).
• MIT Libraries charges a thesis fee of $115, which is automatically and directly added to a student’s personal MITPAY account. A student facing financial hardship may petition the BE department administrator to reimburse the thesis fee. A student’s thesis advisor may also reimburse the fee.
• Complete the online Institute-wide  MIT Doctoral Student Exit Survey
• Get your diploma! All graduating students are eligible to receive a  digital diploma  at no cost.

For more help on the graduation timeline, check out this overview prepared by the BE REFS .

When do I stop being a student? There are multiple answers depending on who is asking. For most logistical purposes, the Termination of Student Status (which occurs after you submit your revised dissertation to the BE Academic Office) and your Degree List (February, June, or September) is what matters.

Can I submit my thesis to MIT before completing the thesis defense? No, you need to have completed the thesis defense and returned the  Oral Examination Thesis Proposal and Defense Form  to the BE Academic Office before your thesis can be submitted to MIT.

When does department admin (BE Academic Office) terminate student status? Normally, student status is terminated when the (revised, finalized) Thesis Dissertation is submitted to the BE Academic Office.

When do I stop getting paid? When the BE Academic Office terminates your student status.

What happens if I work in my lab after submitting in my thesis? You will need to set up a postdoctoral appointment with your advisor since you will stop being paid after your thesis is submitted.

How do I get paystubs and W2s after graduating? Students who are not currently active (including recent graduates) will not be able to access the electronic W2 or paystubs. At the end of January, the Payroll Office sends paper copies of the W2 to all former students and employees. The W2 is sent to the Home address. Make sure your home address on Athena is up to date and you will be able to access mail sent there the year after you graduate. Follow these instructions to request a replacement copy of your W2.

When do I stop paying tuition? Students pay tuition up until their student status is terminated. For example, if a student graduates in October, the full fall tuition will be charged to their account and then pro-rated for just the month of September (once student status is terminated, the student’s account will receive a reimbursement for tuition costs for the rest of the semester).

When does my health insurance stop?  MIT insurance is purchased twice a year: Fall (Sep 1-Jan 31) and Spring (Feb 1-Aug 31). If you graduate in the middle of one of these periods, your insurance lasts until the end of the period. For instance, if you are on the June degree list, your MIT Health Plan coverage continues through August 31. It appears that insurance for students on the February degree list expires on January 31, and insurance for students on the September degree list expires on August 31. More information on the  MIT Medical website .

When does my ID card stop working? In general, ID cards for graduating students expire the January or June after their graduation date. All members of the MIT community may find their ID expiration date on the front of their ID card in the bottom right corner. Once this card expires, you will no longer have access to any buildings or services requiring your MIT ID, including print quotas, TechCash accounts, and library borrowing. General building access will be revoked at midnight the day of card expiry , but this information will remain in the system for two weeks in the event your card is renewed. Graduating students may request a free Alumni ID card , which allows basic building access privileges to select buildings on campus, provides eligibility for Coop membership, and enables free admission to the MIT Museum. For more information, contact Card Services .

When does my email/Kerberos/Dropbox access stop? Typically Athena accounts are deactivated in the first week of the January after you graduate (a notice is sent in November). Your access to Dropbox, MIT Email, MIT Certificates, and other services is tied to your Athena account. Around the time of graduation, students will receive an email with instructions on how to prolong their licenses to some software (ex. Microsoft Office). Students can also request an alumni email address. More info from IS&T

What happens to my housing status? Students in MIT Housing are able to complete the full year of their leases, or they can terminate their status early without a fee (with 30 days notice). Any student who completes a degree program more than 90 days before January 31st (or July 31st) will be required to vacate at the end of the month in which they complete their degree (student status is terminated). For example, if you are to graduate within the month of October, you will be required to terminate your housing (with 30 days notice) and move out on October 31, 2021. Please be aware, there is an Early Termination fee equivalent to one month’s rent for anyone who terminates within the first 2 months of a semester (Feb/March or Sept/Oct). If your registration ends on Jan 31st, you may not stay in your apartment for the spring term.

What classes do I need to register for? Sign up for 36 units of 20.THG (no department seminars) or 24 units during the summer

Do I need to pay my student life fee? Probably. This seems to depend on a student’s degree list (so students on the June degree list will need to pay the Spring semester student life fee even if they defend in January or February).

I am an international student: what else should I worry about? If you have not yet found a postdoc or job to sponsor a new visa, you can apply for OPT (optional practical training) which allows you to continue your stay for another 12 months (24 months for STEM fields). You can apply no earlier than 90 days before degree completion and no later than 60 days after completion (this is your MIT degree list date). Note that USCIS processing times can take up to 3-4 months. Check with the ISO for more information.

MIT Libraries logo MIT Libraries

MIT Specifications for Thesis Preparation

Approved November 2022 for use in the 2022-2023 academic year. Updated March 2023 to incorporate changes to MIT Policies and Procedures 13.1.3 Intellectual Property Not Owned by MIT .

View this page as an accessible PDF .

Table of Contents

• Thesis Preparation Checklist

Timeline for submission and publication

• Bachelor’s degree thesis
• Graduate degree thesis

Dual degree theses

Joint theses, what happens to your thesis, title selection, embedded links.

• Special circumstances

Signature page

Abstract page.

• Acknowledgments

Biographical notes

Table of contents, list of figures.

• List of tables
• List of supplemental material

Notes and bibliographic references

Open licensing, labeling copyright in your thesis, use of previously published material in your thesis, digital supplementary material, physical supplementary material, starting with accessible source files, file naming.

• How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries

Placing a temporary hold on your thesis

Changes to a thesis after submission, permission to reuse or republish from mit theses, general information.

This guide has been prepared by the MIT Libraries, as prescribed by the Committee on Graduate Programs and the Committee on Undergraduate Program, to assist students and faculty in the preparation of theses. The Institute is committed to the preservation of each student’s thesis because it is both a requirement for the MIT degree and a record of original research that contains information of lasting value.

In this guide, “department” refers to a graduate or undergraduate program within an academic unit, and “thesis” refers to the digital copy of the written thesis. The official thesis version of record, which is submitted to the MIT Libraries, is the digital copy of the written thesis that has been approved by the thesis committee and certified by the department in fulfillment of a student’s graduation requirement.

The requirements in this guide apply to all theses and have been specified both to facilitate the care and dissemination of the thesis and to assure the preservation of the final approved document. Individual departments may dictate more stringent requirements.

Before beginning your thesis research, remember that the final output of this research—your thesis document—should only include research findings that may be shared publicly, in adherence with MIT’s policy on Open Research and Free Interchange of Information . If you anticipate that your thesis will contain content that requires review by an external sponsor or agency, it is critical that you allow sufficient time for this review to take place prior to thesis submission. 

Questions not answered in this guide should be referred to the appropriate department officer or to the MIT Libraries ( [email protected] ).

• Final edited and complete thesis PDF is due to your department on the date specified in the Academic Calendar.
• Hold requests should be submitted to the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education or TLO concurrent with your thesis submission.
• Thesis information is due to the MIT Libraries before your date of graduation.
• Departments must transfer theses to the MIT Libraries within 30 days from the last day of class (end of term).
• One week later (30 days from the last day of classes + 7 days) or one week after the degree award date (whichever is later) the MIT Libraries may begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT.
• If you have requested and received a temporary (up to 90-day) hold on the publication of your thesis from the Vice Chancellor, your thesis will be placed on hold as soon as it is received by the Libraries, and the 90-day hold will begin 30 days from the last day of class (end of term).
• If your thesis research is included in a disclosure to the TLO, the TLO may place your thesis on temporary hold with the Libraries, as appropriate.

Submitting your thesis document to your department

Your thesis document will be submitted to your department as a PDF, formatted and including the appropriate rights statement and sections as outlined in these specifications. Your department will provide more specific guidance on submitting your files for certification and acceptance.

Your department will provide information on submitting:

• A PDF/A-1  of your final thesis document (with no signatures)
• Signature page (if required by your department; your department will provide specific guidance)
• Original source files used to create the PDF of your thesis (optional, but encouraged)
• Supplementary materials  (optional and must be approved by your advisor and program)

Degree candidates must submit their thesis to the appropriate office of the department in which they are registered on the dates specified in the Academic Calendar. ( Academic Calendar | MIT Registrar ). September, February, and May/June are the only months in which degrees are awarded.

Bachelor’s degree theses

Graduate degree theses, submitting your thesis information to the libraries.

Information about your thesis must be submitted to the Libraries thesis submission and processing system  prior to your day of graduation. The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis . See How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries section for more details .

The academic department is required to submit the thesis to the MIT Libraries within one month after the last day of the term in which the thesis was submitted ( Faculty Regulation 2.72 ). The thesis document becomes part of the permanent archival collection. All thesis documents that have been approved will be transferred electronically to the MIT Libraries by a department representative via the MIT Libraries thesis submission and processing system .

The full-text PDF of each thesis is made publicly available in DSpace@MIT . A bibliographic record will appear in the MIT Libraries’ catalog, as well as the OCLC database WorldCat, which is accessible to libraries and individuals worldwide. Authors may also opt-in to having their thesis made available in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database.

Formatting specifications

Your work will be a more valuable research tool for other scholars if it can be located easily. Search engines use the words in the title, and sometimes other descriptive words, to locate works. Therefore,

• Be sure to select a title that is a meaningful description of the content of your manuscript; and
• Do: “The Effects of Ion Implantation and Annealing on the Properties of Titanium Silicide Films on Silicon Substrates”
• Do: “Radiative Decays on the J/Psi to Two Pseudoscalar Final States”

You may include clickable links to online resources within the thesis file. Make the link self-descriptive so that it can stand on its own and is natural language that fits within the surrounding writing of your paragraph. The full URL should be included as a footnote or bibliography citation (dependent on citation style).

• Sentence in thesis: Further information is available on the MIT Writing and Communications Center’s website . The full-text PDF of each thesis is made publicly available in DSpace@MIT .
• Footnote or Bibliography: follow the rules of your chosen citation style and include the full website URL, in this case http://libraries.mit.edu/mit-theses

Sections of your thesis

Required (all information should be on a single page)

The title page should contain the title, name of the author (this can be the author’s preferred name), previous degrees, the degree(s) to be awarded at MIT, the date the degree(s) will be conferred (May/June, September, or February only), copyright notice (and legend, if required), and appropriate names of thesis supervisor(s) and student’s home department or program officer.

The title page should have the following fields in the following order and centered (including spacing) :

Thesis title as submitted to registrar

Author’s preferred name

Previous degree information, if applicable

Submitted to the [department name] in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree(s) of

[degree name]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Month and year degree will be granted (May or June, September, February ONLY)

Copyright statement

This permission legend MUST follow: The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.

[Insert 2 blank lines]

Note: The remaining fields are left aligned and not centered

Authored by: [Author name]

[Author’s department name] (align with the beginning of the author’s name from the previous line)

[Date thesis is to be presented to the department] (align with the beginning of the author’s name from the first line)

Certified by: [Advisor’s full name as it appears in the MIT catalog]

   [Advisor’s department as it appears in the MIT catalog] (align with the beginning of the advisor’s name from the previous line), Thesis supervisor

Accepted by: [name]

[title – line 1] (align with the beginning of the name from the previous line)

[title – line 2] (align with the beginning of the name from the first line)

Note: The name and title of this person varies in different degree programs and may vary each term; contact the departmental thesis administrator for specific information

• Students in joint graduate programs (such as Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) should list both their MIT thesis supervisor and the supervisor from the partner academic institution.
• The name and title of the department or the program officer varies in different degree programs and may vary each term. Contact the departmental graduate administrator for specific information.
• For candidates receiving two degrees, both degrees to be awarded should appear on the title page. For candidates in dual degree programs, all degrees and departments or programs should appear on the title page, and the names of both department heads/committee chairs are required. Whenever there are co-supervisors, both names should appear on the title page.

Here are some PDF examples of title pages:

• Bachelor’s Degree – using a Creative Commons license
• PhD candidate – using a Creative Commons license
• Master’s candidate – dual degrees
• Masters’ candidates – multiple authors
• Masters’ candidates – multiple authors with dual degrees and extra committee members
• Bachelor’s Degree – change of thesis supervisor

Title page: Special circumstances – change of thesis supervisor

If your supervisor has recently died or is no longer affiliated with the Institute:

• Both this person and your new supervisor should be listed on your title page
• Under the new supervisor’s name, state that they are approving the thesis on behalf of the previous supervisor
• An additional page should be added to the thesis, before the acknowledgments page, with an explanation about why a new supervisor is approving your thesis on behalf of your previous supervisor. You may also thank the new supervisor for acting in this capacity
• Review this PDF example of a title page with a change in supervisor

If your supervisor is external to the Institute (such as an industrial supervisor):

• You should acknowledge this individual on the Acknowledgements page as appropriate, but should not list this person on the thesis title page
• The full thesis committee and thesis readers can be acknowledged on the Acknowledgements page, but should not be included on the title page

Not Required

Please consult with your department to determine if they are requiring or requesting an additional signature page.

Each thesis must include an abstract of generally no more than 500 words single-spaced. The abstract should be thought of as a brief descriptive summary, not a lengthy introduction to the thesis. The abstract should immediately follow the title page.

The abstract page should have the following fields in the following order and centered (including spacing):

• Thesis title

Submitted to the [Department] on [date thesis will be submitted] in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of [Name of degree to be received]

[Insert 1 blank line]

Single-spaced summary; approximately 500 words or less; try not to use formulas or special characters

Thesis supervisor: [Supervisor’s name]

Title: [Title of supervisor]

The Abstract page should include the same information as on the title page. With the thesis title, author name, and submitting statement above the abstract, the word “ABSTRACT” typed before the body of the text, and the thesis supervisor’s name and title below the abstract.

Acknowledgements

An acknowledgement page may be included and is the appropriate place to include information such as external supervisor (such as an industrial advisor) or a list of the full thesis committee and thesis readers. Please note that your thesis will be publicly available online at DSpace@MIT , which is regularly crawled and indexed by Google and other search-engine providers.

The thesis may contain a short biography of the candidate, including institutions attended and dates of attendance, degrees and honors, titles of publications, teaching and professional experience, and other matters that may be pertinent. Please note that your thesis will be publicly available online at DSpace@MIT , which is regularly crawled and indexed by Google and other search-engine providers.

List of Tables

List of supplemental material.

Whenever possible, notes should be placed at the bottom of the appropriate page or in the body of the text. Notes should conform to the style appropriate to the discipline. If notes appear at the bottom of the page, they should be single-spaced and included within the specified margins.

It may be appropriate to place bibliographic references either at the end of the chapter in which they occur or at the end of the thesis.

The style of quotations, footnotes, and bibliographic references may be prescribed by your department. If your department does not prescribe a style or specify a style manual, choose one and be consistent. Further information is available on the MIT Writing and Communications Center’s website .

Ownership of copyright

The Institute’s policy concerning ownership of thesis copyright is covered in Rules and Regulations of the Faculty, 2.73 and MIT Policies and Procedures 13.1.3 . Copyright covers the intellectual property in the words and images in the thesis. If the thesis also includes patentable subject matter, students should contact the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) prior to submission of their thesis.

Under these regulations, students retain the copyright to student theses.

The student must, as a condition of a degree award, grant to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license. The MIT Libraries publish the thesis on DSpace@MIT , allowing open access to the research output of MIT.

You may also, optionally, apply a Creative Commons License to your thesis. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. For more information about CC: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ . To determine which CC license is right for you, you can use the CC license chooser .

You must include an appropriate copyright notice on the title page of your thesis. This should include the following:

• the symbol “c” with a circle around it © and/or the word “copyright”
• the year of publication (the year in which the degree is to be awarded)
• the name of the copyright owner
• the words “All rights reserved” or your chosen Creative Commons license
• Also include the following statement below the ©“ The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.”
• Also include the following statement below the © “The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.”

You are responsible for obtaining permission, if necessary, to include previously published material in your thesis. This applies to most figures, images, and excerpts of text created and published by someone else; it may also apply to your own previous work. For figures and short excerpts from academic works, permission may already be available through the MIT Libraries (see here for additional information ). Students may also rely on fair use , as appropriate. For assistance with copyright questions about your thesis, Ask Scholarly Communications .

When including your own previously published material in your thesis, you may also need to obtain copyright clearance. If, for example, a student has already published part of the thesis as a journal article and, as a condition of publication, has assigned copyright to the journal’s publisher, the student’s rights are limited by what the publisher allows. More information about publisher policies on reuse in theses is available here.

Students can hold onto sufficient rights to reuse published articles (or excerpts of these) in their thesis if they are covered by MIT’s open access policy. Learn more about MIT’s open access policy and opt-in here . Ask Scholarly Communications for more information.

When including your own previously published articles in your thesis, check with your department for specific requirements, and consider the following:

• Ensure you have any necessary copyright permissions to include previously published material in your thesis.
• Be sure to discuss copyright clearance and embargo options with your co-authors and your advisor well in advance of preparing your thesis for submission.
• Include citations of where portions of the thesis have been previously published.
• When an article included has multiple authors, clearly designate the role you had in the research and production of the published paper that you are including in your thesis.

Supplemental material and research data

Supplemental material that may be submitted with your thesis is the materials that are essential to understanding the research findings of your thesis, but impossible to incorporate or embed into a PDF. Materials submitted to the MIT Libraries may be provided as supplemental digital files or in some cases physical items. All supplementary materials must be approved for submission by your advisor. The MIT Libraries can help answer questions you may have about managing the supplementary material and other research materials associated with your research.

Contact [email protected] early in your thesis writing process to determine the best way to include supplemental materials with your thesis.

You may also have other research data and outputs related to your thesis research that are not considered supplemental material and should not be submitted with your thesis. Research materials include the facts, observations, images, computer program results, recordings, measurements, or experiences on which a research output—an argument, theory, test or hypothesis, or other output—is based. These may also be termed, “research data.” This term relates to data generated, collected, or used during research projects, and in some cases may include the research output itself. Research materials should be deposited in appropriate research data repositories and cited in your thesis . You may consult the MIT Libraries’ Data Management Services website for guidance or reach out to Data Management Services (DMS)( [email protected] ), who can help answer questions you may have about managing your thesis data and choosing suitable solutions for longer term storage and access.

• Supplementary information may be submitted with your thesis to your program after approval from your thesis advisor. 
• Supplemental material should be mentioned and summarized in the written document, for example, using a few key frames from a movie to create a figure.
• A list of supplementary information along with brief descriptions should be included in your thesis document. For digital files, the description should include information about the file types and any software and version needed to open and view the files.
• Issues regarding the format of non-traditional, supplemental content should be resolved with your advisor.
• Appendices and references are not considered supplementary information.
• If your research data has been submitted to a repository, it should not also be submitted with your thesis.
• Follow the required file-naming convention for supplementary files: authorLastName-kerb-degree-dept-year-type_supplemental.ext
• Captioning ( legally required ): text versions of the audio content, synchronized with the video: ways to get your video captioned
• Additional content, not required:
• For video, an audio description: a separate narrative audio track that describes important visual content, making it accessible to people who are unable to see the video
• Transcripts: should capture all the spoken audio, plus on-screen text and descriptions of key visual information that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible without seeing the video

For physical components that are integral to understanding the thesis document, and which cannot be meaningfully conveyed in a digital form, the author may submit the physical items to the MIT Libraries along with their thesis document. When photographs or a video of a physical item (such as a model) would be sufficient, the images should be included in the thesis document, and a video could be submitted as digital supplementary material.

An example of physical materials that would be approved for submission as part of the thesis would be photographs that cannot be shared digitally in our repository due to copyright restrictions. In this case, the photographs could be submitted as a physical volume that is referred to in the thesis document.

As with digital supplementary information and research materials, physical materials must be approved for submission by your advisor. Contact [email protected] early in your thesis writing process to determine if physical materials should accompany your thesis, and if so how to schedule a transfer of materials to the MIT Libraries.

Creating your thesis document/digital format

You are required to submit a PDF/A-1 formatted thesis document to your department. In addition, it is recommended that original files, or source files, (such a .doc or .tex) are submitted alongside the PDF/A-1 to better ensure long-term access to your thesis.

You should create accessible files that support the use of screen readers and make your document more easily readable by assistive technologies. This will expand who is able to access your thesis. By creating an accessible document from the beginning, there will be less work required to remediate the PDF that gets created. Most software offers a guide for creating documents that are accessible to screen readers. Review the guidelines provided by the MIT Libraries .

In general:

• Use styles and other layout features for headings, lists, tables, etc. If you don’t like the default styles associated with the headings, you can customize them.
• Avoid using blank lines to add visual spacing and instead increase the size of the spaces before and/or after the line.
• Avoid using text boxes.
• Embed URLs.
• Anchor images to text when inserting them into a doc.
• Add alt-text to any images or figures that convey meaning (including, math formulas).
• Use a sans serif font.
• Add basic embedded metadata, such as author, title, year of graduation, department, keywords etc. to your thesis via your original author tool.

Creating a PDF/A-1

PDF/A-1 (either a or b) is the more suitable format for long term preservation than a basic PDF. It ensures that the PDF format conforms to certain specifications which make it more likely to open and be viewable in the long term. It is best for static content that will not change in the future, as this is the most preservation-worthy version and does not allow for some complex elements that could corrupt or prevent the file from being viewable in the future. Guidelines on how to convert specific file types to PDF/A .

In general: (should we simplify these bullets)

• Convert to PDF/A directly from your original files (text, Word, InDesign, LaTeX, etc.). It is much easier and better to create valid PDF/A documents from your original files than from a regular PDF. Converting directly will ensure that fonts and hyperlinks are embedded in the document.
• Do not embed multimedia files (audio and video), scripts, executables, lab notebooks, etc. into your PDF. Still images are fine. The other formats mentioned may be able to be submitted as supplemental files.
• Do not password protect or encrypt your PDF file.
• Validate your PDF/A file before submitting it to your department.

All digital files must be named according to this scheme: authorLastName-kerb-degree-dept-year-type_other.ext

• Thesis PDF: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-thesis.pdf
• Signature page: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-sig.pdf
• Original source file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-source.docx
• Supplemental file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplmental_1.mov
• Second supplemental file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplmental_2.mov
• Read Me file about supplemental: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplemental-readme.txt

How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries

Before your day of graduation, you should submit your thesis title page metadata to the MIT Libraries  prior to your day of graduation. The submission form requires Kerberos login.

Student submitted metadata allows for quicker Libraries processing times. It also provides a note field for you to let Libraries’ staff know about any metadata discrepancies.

The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis . Please have a copy of your completed thesis on hand to enter this information directly from your thesis. If any discrepancies are found during processing, Libraries’ staff will publish using the information on the approved thesis document. You will be asked to confirm or provide:

• Preferred name of author(s)as they appear on the title page of the thesis
• ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. The goal is to support the creation of a permanent, clear, and unambiguous record of scholarly communication by enabling reliable attribution of authors and contributors. Read ORCID FAQs to learn more
• Department(s)
• A license is optional, and very difficult to remove once published. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. Read more information about CC .
• Thesis supervisor(s)
• If you would like the full-text of your thesis to be made openly available in the ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global database (PQDT), you can indicate that in the Libraries submission form.
• Open access inclusion in PQDT is at no cost to you, and increases the visibility and discoverability of your thesis. By opting in you are granting ProQuest a license to distribute your thesis in accordance with ProQuest’s policies. Further information can be found in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Author FAQ .
• Full-text theses and associated supplemental files will only be sent to ProQuest once any temporary holds have been lifted, and the thesis has been published in DSpace@MIT.
• Regardless of opting-in to inclusion in PQDT, the full text of your thesis will still be made openly available in DSpace@MIT . Doctoral Degrees: Regardless of opting-in the citation and abstract of your thesis will be included in PQDT.

Thesis research should be undertaken in light of MIT’s policy of open research and the free interchange of information . Openness requires that, as a general policy, thesis research should not be undertaken on campus when the results may not be published. From time to time, there may be a good reason for delaying the distribution of a thesis to obtain patent protection, or for reasons of privacy or security. To ensure that only those theses that meet certain criteria are withheld from distribution and that they are withheld for the minimum period, the Institute has established specific review procedures.

Written notification of patent holds and other restrictions must reach the MIT Libraries before the thesis in question is received by the MIT Libraries. Theses will not be available to the public prior to being published by the MIT Libraries. The Libraries may begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT one month and one week from the last day of classes.

Thesis hold requests should be directed to the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) ( [email protected] ) when related to MIT-initiated patent applications (i.e., MIT holds intellectual property rights; patent application process via TLO). Requests for a thesis hold must be made jointly by the student and advisor directly to the MIT Technology Licensing Office as part of the technology disclosure process.

Thesis hold or restricted access requests should be directed to the Office of the Vice Chancellor ([email protected]) when related to:

• Student-initiated patents (student holds intellectual property rights as previously determined by TLO) [up to 90-day hold]
• Pursuit of business opportunities (student holds intellectual property rights as previously determined by TLO)[up to 90-day hold]
• Government restrictions [up to 90-day hold]
• Privacy and security [up to 90-day hold]
• Scholarly journal articles pending publication [up to 90-day hold]
• Book publication [up to 24-month hold]

In the unusual circumstance that a student wants to request a hold beyond the initial 90-day period, they should contact the Office of Vice President for Research , who may consult with the TLO and/or the Office of the Vice Chancellor, as appropriate to extend the hold. Such requests must be supported by evidence that explains the need for a longer period.

Find information about each type of publication hold, and to learn how to place a hold on your thesis

After publication

Your thesis will be published on DSpace@MIT . Theses are processed by the MIT Libraries and published in the order they are transferred by your department. The Libraries will begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT one month and one week from the last day of classes.

All changes made to a thesis, after it has been submitted to the MIT Libraries by your department, must have approval from the Vice Chancellor or their designee. Thesis documents should be carefully reviewed prior to submission to ensure they do not contain misspellings or incorrect formatting. Change requests for these types of minor errors will not be approved.

There are two types of change requests that can be made:

• Errata: When the purpose is to correct significant errors in content, the author should create an errata sheet using the form and instructions (PDF)  and obtain approval first from both the thesis supervisor or program chair, before submitting for review by the Vice Chancellor.
• Substitution: If the purpose of the change is to excise classified, proprietary, or confidential information, the author should fill out the  application form (PDF) and have the request approved first by the thesis supervisor or program chair, before submitting for review by the Vice Chancellor.

Students and supervisors should vet thesis content carefully before submission to avoid these scenarios whenever possible.

You are always authorized to post electronic versions of your own thesis, in whole or in part, on a website, without asking permission. If you hold the copyright in the thesis, approving and/or denying requests for permission to use portions of the thesis in third-party publications is your responsibility.

MIT Libraries Thesis Team https://libguides.mit.edu/mit-thesis-faq [email protected] | https://thesis-submit.mit.edu/

Distinctive Collections Room 14N-118 | 617-253-5690 https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/

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MIT Libraries,  Scholarly Communications https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/ Ask Scholarly Communications

Office of  the Vice Chancellor Room 7-133 | 617-253-6056 http://ovc.mit.edu [email protected]

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Doctoral Thesis: Light-induced Non-equilibrium States and Phase Transitions in Quantum Materials

Doctoral thesis: safe and ethical implementation of intelligent systems, doctoral thesis: programmable interactions between optical fields and atom-like systems in integrated circuits, doctoral thesis: designing for participation and power in data collection and analysis, doctoral thesis: hybrid magnonics in antiferromagnets and cavity spintronic devices, doctoral thesis: making sense of training large ai models, doctoral thesis: learning to improve clinical decisions and ai safety by leveraging structure, doctoral thesis: interactive spin dynamics in magnon and quantum spin systems.

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The MIT Department of Physics has a graduate population of between 260 and 290 students, with approximately 45 students starting and graduating each year. Almost all students are pursuing a PhD degree in Physics, typically studying for 5 to 7 years and with the following degree structure:

Elements of the Doctoral Degree in Physics:

This is a roadmap for the path through our doctoral program. Each category is an element needed to complete your degree. Further information is available by clicking the accordion and links.. Read our Doctoral Guidelines PDF for more complete information.

Core Requirements – Written Exams/Classes

Students demonstrate knowledge in 4 four areas. Each of the Core Requirements can be satisfied either by:

• passing a written exam ; or
• receiving a qualifying grade in a related class.

A B+ grade or above in the related subject satisfies the requirement in:

• Classical Mechanics ( 8.309 )
• Electricity & Magnetism ( 8.311 )
• Quantum Mechanics ( 8.321 )
• Statistical Mechanics ( 8.333 )

See the Written Examination section of the General Doctoral Examination page for more information and schedule for the upcoming written examination .

Required Classes – Specialty & Breadth

In addition to the demonstrated proficiency in the 4 subject in the Written Exams, graduate students must take 4-5 additional subject classes in Physics Specialty and Breadth areas .

• The Specialty Area builds proficiency related to the student’s research area, with 2 subject classes required (3 in NUPAT and 3 in NUPAX ( effective Fall 2023 )) from the pre-approved Specialty Area chart.
• The Breadth Area extends the student’s knowledge beyond their research area with 2 subject classes in different areas of Physics. The pre-approved Breadth Area chart lists many options.
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Preparing to Complete the Degree – Final Year

• Submitting any necessary requests for any subject substitutions, if needed.
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• International Students – Consulting International Students Office with post-completion plans
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Defense of Thesis Research

Student defends Thesis Research to Committee Members

Written Thesis

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Thesis Submission and Degree Completion

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• Fill out the  Degree Application  through the student section of  WebSIS . Petitioning to be on the degree list for a particular commencement is required. Note that it is easier to be removed from the degree list to be added, so students are encouraged to apply for the degree list if there is any reasonable chance they will complete the PhD in the coming term.
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Note: For more detailed information regarding the cost of attendance, including specific costs for tuition and fees, books and supplies, housing and food as well as transportation, please visit the SFS website .

Dissection of Deep Neural Networks David Bau PhD Dissertation MIT CSAIL

Do Deep Networks Contain Concepts?

A deep network learns its own computations, so we cannot ask a programmer to explain the reasons for the specific calculations that a network happens to do. But what if we could ask the network itself what it is thinking?

Investigating the classical question of the role of a neuron.

One of the great challenges of neural networks is to understand how they work. Unlike ordinary software programmed by a human, we cannot expect a machine-learned neural network to explain why it does the specific calculations that it does. So we have traditionally focused on testing a network's external behavior, ignorant of insights or flaws that may hide within the black box.

But what if we could ask the network itself what it is thinking? Inspired by classical neuroscience research on biological brains, I introduce methods to directly probe the internal structure of a deep convolutional neural network by testing the activity of individual neurons and their interactions.

We can conduct experiments on artificial neural networks that would not be practical in a biological brain. Famously, Jerome Lettvin imagined (humorously) that some neuroscientist might someday identify all the neurons in a human brain responsible for the concept of 'mother', so that removing those neurons precisely would render a person unable to describe their own mother. Lettvin imagined that if this could be done precisely, other thoughts, such as recollections of the mother's dress, might remain intact. In an artificial neural network, we can conduct experiments closely resembling Lettvin's thought experiment, by identifying, measuring and manipulating sets of neurons for a concept.

What experiments does the thesis cover?

Why do we care about what deep networks contain inside?

Understanding the internals of deep networks will allow us to debug, manipulate, and reprogram them. That is important because deep networks do more than what they are trained to do. They contain their own concepts. They apply their own rules. These concepts and rules go beyond what is explicitly labeled in training data.

Working with the emergent structure of a deep network is not just interesting for debugging. It also enables new applications. For example, by uncovering internal concepts for objects within a generative model, we can create "GAN Paint" semantic manipulation of objects in an image, even though the training data did not label any objects. And by understanding the encoding of rules within a model, we can create new models that obey the modified rules that we choose. That allows us to create deep networks whose behavior is not determined only by a data set, but also directly by a human designer.

Someday, we will be able to understand deep network internals well enough to enable machine teaching, rather than just machine learning. Instead of just setting a network on the data to learn on its own, we will treat it as a member of an engineering team, where machine-learned models and human experts will both teach and learn from each other.

In the dissertation, we challenge the notion that the internal calculations of a neural network must be hopelessly opaque. Instead, we strive to tear back the curtain and chart a path through the detailed structure of a deep network by which we can begin to understand its logic.

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A two-subject core is required of all doctoral students.

Biological Engineering Core:

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Academic Program Restricted Electives

To enhance depth and breadth, the core subjects are supplemented by electives in science and/or engineering. The student in consultation with the advisor chooses four elective subjects. Elective subjects in three categories are acceptable upon approval by advisor and, for the subjects not listed here, the BE Graduate Program Chair.

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For more information on courses, see the course catalog .

MEMP PhD Thesis Defense (Virtual - 3:30pm): Ang Cui

Back to Events List

Zoom Meeting (Information posted at the end of the announcement)

Systems Biology Approaches to Deciphering Complex Immune Responses

Many diseases, including cancer, autoimmunity, infections, and allergies, are associated with dysregulation of immune responses. Therapeutic strategies targeting the immune system have succeeded in treating a wide range of diseases. However, we lack the detailed understanding of the immune system needed to design more effective and targeted therapies for many immune-mediated diseases that yet have no cure.

To address this knowledge gap, this thesis presents a dictionary of immune responses. We leveraged recent advancements in high-throughput genomic technologies to comprehensively interrogate how major cell types involved in the immune system respond to immune stimuli. We created a dictionary of single-cell transcriptomic profiles of individual responses to 86 cytokines and 5 vaccine adjuvants in over 20 cell types, representing one of the most comprehensive analyses of cellular responses to immune stimuli to date. Based on the dictionary, we created companion software for assessing cytokine activities, constructing cell-cell communication network models, and analyzing time-series data. Our dictionary reveals principles of immune responses, expands our knowledge of activation states in each immune cell type, and provides a framework to assess the roles that cytokines and cell-cell communication networks play in any immune response.

Based on a detailed understanding of immune responses provided by these systems approaches, we created vaccination strategies that significantly enhanced CD8+ T-cell responses in animal studies. Overall, this thesis combines high-throughput computational and experimental approaches to systematically characterize immune responses, enabling the design of more targeted and effective vaccines and immune-based therapies for thus far incurable diseases.

Thesis Supervisor: Nir Hacohen, PhD Professor of Medicine, HMS

Thesis Committee Chair: Darrell J. Irvine, PhD Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering, MIT

Thesis Readers: Chris Sander, PhD Professor of Cell Biology, HMS

Ernest Fraenkel, PhD Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Topic: Ang Cui Thesis Defense Time: Thursday, May 20, 2021 3:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada )

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This collection of MIT Theses in DSpace contains selected theses and dissertations from all MIT departments. Please note that this is NOT a complete collection of MIT theses. To search all MIT theses, use MIT Libraries' catalog .

MIT's DSpace contains more than 58,000 theses completed at MIT dating as far back as the mid 1800's. Theses in this collection have been scanned by the MIT Libraries or submitted in electronic format by thesis authors. Since 2004 all new Masters and Ph.D. theses are scanned and added to this collection after degrees are awarded.

MIT Theses are openly available to all readers. Please share how this access affects or benefits you. Your story matters.

If you have questions about MIT theses in DSpace, [email protected] . See also Access & Availability Questions or About MIT Theses in DSpace .

If you are a recent MIT graduate, your thesis will be added to DSpace within 3-6 months after your graduation date. Please email [email protected] with any questions.

Permissions

MIT Theses may be protected by copyright. Please refer to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Note that the copyright holder for most MIT theses is identified on the title page of the thesis.

Theses by Department

• Comparative Media Studies
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• Department of Chemistry
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Collections in this community

Doctoral theses, graduate theses, undergraduate theses, recent submissions.

Climate Change and Aging: analyzing the disproportionate health and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of older adults in relation to the climate crisis in the U.S. 

IoT at Amgen - Evaluating and Piloting Industry 4.0 Technology in Biomanufacturing 

A System Dynamics Approach to Analyzing U.S. Army Officer Talent Retention 

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Events Calendar

Physics PhD Thesis Defense: Minyong han

Monday, July 25, 2022 at 4:00pm

Duboc Room #4-331

You are cordially invited to attend the following thesis defense.

’’Engineering topology and correlation in epitaxial thin film kagome metals’’ Presented by Minyong Han Date: Monday, July 25, 2022 Time: 4 pm Location: Duboc Room #4-331

Also on Zoom. Link available from Physics Office. Committee:   Joseph Checkelsky, Riccardo Comin, Vladan Vuletic Best of luck to Minyong! Regards, The MIT Physics Graduate Program

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Mechanical Engineering

• Graduate study in Mechanical Engineering
• Ph.D. programs

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

The Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering prepares students for careers in research and academia. Our collaborative faculty are investigating a diverse range of research areas like additive manufacturing, air quality, cellular biomechanics, computational design, DNA origami, energy conversion and storage, nanoscale manufacturing, soft robotics, transdermal drug delivery, transport phenomena, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Interested? Visit our research pages for more information, including faculty areas of expertise and research videos.

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I’d like more information.

View the  degree requirements  in the handbook.

Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering

Students typically complete the Ph.D. degree requirements in three to five years. Early in the program, students focus on course-work that enhances their knowledge as they prepare to conduct research.

Within one year, students must pass the departmental qualifying exam, an oral exam that tests research skills and knowledge of a core mechanical engineering subject area.

Student research forms the core of the Ph.D. program. Research involves active student-directed inquiry into an engineering problem, culminating in a written thesis and oral defense.

Ph.D. Financial Support

The majority of full-time Ph.D. students accepted through the standard application process receive fellowships that cover full tuition, the technology fee, and a stipend for living expenses for up to five years, as long as sufficient progress is made toward degree completion. These awards are sufficient to cover all expenses for the year (including summers). Students are required to pay for health insurance, the transportation fee, the activity fee, books, and course supplies. Off-campus housing is available within walking distance of campus. At least one year of residency is required for the Ph.D. We offer two ways to enter the Ph.D. program.

Advanced entry Ph.D.

The advanced entry Ph.D. is for students with an M.S. in an engineering discipline or equivalent field.

Direct Ph.D.

The direct Ph.D. is for students entering the program with a B.S. in an engineering discipline or equivalent field.

For a comprehensive overview of the programs, including degree requirements, please consult the most recent handbook

Ph.D. candidate Remesh Shrestha, co-advised by Professors Sheng Shen and Maarten de Boer, explains his research to create polymer nanowires that have high thermal conductivity:

Other Ph.D. programs and partnerships

Apply here (by these deadlines).

For spring 2023

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The application for fall entry opens in October.

More information

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PhD Defense: Enhanced Robot Planning and Perception through Environment Prediction

IRB IRB-4105

https://umd.zoom.us/j/8188451867?pwd=RXdUVHd2eFdFOFluVElFVjVYbmRlZz09&omn=92316383987 Mobile robots rely on maps to navigate through an environment. In the absence of any map, the robots must build the map online from partial observations as they move in the environment. Traditional methods build a map using only direct observations. In contrast, humans identify patterns in the observed environment and make informed guesses about what to expect ahead. Modeling these patterns explicitly is difficult due to the complexity in the environments. However, these complex models can be approximated well using learning-based methods in conjunction with large training data. By extracting patterns, robots can use not only direct observations but also predictions of what lies ahead to better navigate through an unknown environment. In this dissertation, we present several learning-based methods to equip mobile robots with prediction capabilities for efficient and safer operation. In the first part of the dissertation, we learn to predict using geometrical and structural patterns in the environment. Partially observed maps provide invaluable cues for accurately predicting the unobserved areas. We first demonstrate the capability of general learning-based approaches to model these patterns for a variety of overhead map modalities. Then we employ task-specific learning for faster navigation in indoor environments by predicting 2D occupancy in the nearby regions. This idea is further extended to 3D point cloud representation for object reconstruction. Predicting the shape of the full object from only partial views, our approach paves the way for efficient next-best-view planning, which is a crucial requirement for energy-constrained aerial robots. Deploying a team of robots can also accelerate mapping. Our algorithms benefit from this setup as more observation results in more accurate predictions and further improves the task efficiency in the aforementioned tasks. In the second part of the dissertation, we learn to predict using spatiotemporal patterns in the environment. We focus on dynamic tasks such as target tracking and coverage where we seek decentralized coordination between robots. We first show how graph neural networks can be used for more scalable and faster inference while achieving comparable coverage performance as classical approaches. We find that differentiable design is instrumental here for end-to-end task-oriented learning. Building on this, we present a differentiable decision-making framework that consists of a differentiable decentralized planner and a differentiable perception module for dynamic tracking.

In the third part of the dissertation, we show how to harness semantic patterns in the environment. Adding semantic context to the observations can help the robots decipher the relations between objects and infer what may happen next based on the activity around them. We present a pipeline using vision-language models to capture a wider scene using an overhead camera to provide assistance to humans and robots in the scene. We use this setup to implement an assistive robot to help humans with daily tasks, and then present a semantic communication-based collaborative setup of overhead-ground agents, highlighting the embodiment-specific challenges they may encounter and how they can be overcome.

The first three parts employ learning-based methods for predicting the environment. However, if the predictions are incorrect, this could pose a risk to the robot and its surroundings. The third part of the dissertation presents risk management methods with meta-reasoning over the predictions. We study two such methods: one extracting uncertainty from the prediction model for risk-aware planning, and another using a heuristic to adaptively switch between classical and prediction-based planning, resulting in safe and efficient robot navigation.

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Ph.D. Defense Presentation by Jiechao Gao

Computer Science Department

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Towards private and accurate IoT applications

Abstract  .

Over the past years, the fast-growing trend of Internet of Things (IoT) is bringing millions of new smart devices and sensors into homes, office buildings and industries. These smart devices and sensors enable smart IoT applications (e.g., energy prediction, activity recognition, etc.) to increase the quality and efficiency of our lives. To achieve promising performance for smart IoT applications, it requires massive data from different users and sensors to guarantee the performance due to machine learning and deep learning purposes. However, the edge devices of IoT applications often collect and store only limited data, which is insufficient for training modern learning models. Collaboratively training sets steps to achieve better application performance among different devices while introducing the concern of data privacy. On the other hand, directly applying privacy-preserving techniques such as differential privacy can dramatically degrade the performance of IoT applications.

In this research, we aim to achieve privacy-first smart IoT applications while ensuring their accurate performance for multi-user and multi-sensor scenarios. First, we propose Personalized Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning~(PFDRL), a system that helps local users achieve private and accurate energy management. PFDRL replaces the central server with a decentralized federated learning (DFL) framework and enables personalized federated reinforcement learning to tackle the standby energy reduction in residential buildings. Next, we propose PFed-LDP, a personalized federated local differential privacy framework for global users. The PFed-LDP design includes a weight-enhanced local differential privacy (LDP) with a dynamic layer-sharing mechanism in the federated learning framework to accomplish privacy-preserving, personalized and communication efficient IoT applications. Finally, we introduce PrivateHub, a system that utilizes contrastive learning with diffusion models for synthetic data generation in multi-sensor scenarios. PrivateHub helps to prevent the private applications' identification from multi-sensor environments while ensuring the accurate performance of the non-private applications.

Committee:  

• Yangfeng Ji, Committee Chair  (CS/SEAS/UVA)
• Bradford Campbell, Advisor (CS, ECE/SEAS/UVA)
• Lu Feng (CS, SIE/SEAS/UVA)
• Cong Shen (ECE/SEAS/UVA)
• Jorge Ortiz (ECE/School of Eng/Rutgers)