Thesis Oral Defense Process

• Obtain the LaTeX thesis document template from Catherine Copetas.
• Please use the department approved title page layout as provided below. 
• Request a Technical Report (TR) number from Catherine Copetas.

Confirm research funding citations (grants your advisor may have had which supported your work) to properly credit them on your title page. Contact Todd Seth (toddseth+@cs.cmu.edu) or Ann Stetzer (astetser+@cs.cmu.edu) who do grant management for your advisor.

Published example with Co-Chairs

NOTES:  No affiliation for CMU faculty
**See Catherine Copetas for technical report number
Keywords should be included on the bottom of the second page of your document
 

You should notify csd-phd-support@cs.cmu.edu if there are any committee member changes to your thesis committee since your proposal. 

A copy of the complete thesis document should be provided to the whole thesis committee a minimum six weeks in advance of any proposed date for the defense. Significant deviations from this rule must be approved by the Director of of the Ph.D. Program.

• The talk date should be finalized at least one month in advance to allow time for final review by your advisor, comments by the committee, and to reserve an appropriate room.
• Check the PhD Talks Scheduling Calendar to make sure there is not another proposal or defense scheduled at your preferred time.
• Students should coordinate the date of their talk with their committee members.
• A 2.5 hour time block is scheduled:
  • 30 minutes setup time
  • 90 minutes for presentation, questions, & thesis committee discussion
  • 30 minute post presentation cushion to accommodate overrun & clean-up
• Thesis orals and proposals will not be scheduled to overlap but there can be more than one presentation per day. 
• Once you have settled on a date and time email CSD PhD Support to finalize the date.
• The room scheduled must be available to the public and must accommodate a reasonably large number of people (~30). Smaller rooms are strongly discouraged.
• Be sure you arrange time to check the A/V in the room and that you are comfortable setting up your own Zoom or other remote access for any external committee member who may not travel to attend in person or for streaming your talk.

Once the Doctoral Program Manager confirms your date, time, and location you should plan to provide the information needed for the poster, calendar and email announcement of your talk. 

A minimum of seven days in advance of your talk you should send the following information to csd-phd-support@cs.cmu.edu so Marcom can prepare the appropriate announcements for your talk:

• Your name as it will appear on your published document (this should match what will be on your diploma)
• Thesis Title
• Date, start time, and location of your oral defense presentation (for confirmation we have it correct for announcement)
• Thesis Committee Member names in the following format *:
       Name (Chair) or (Co-Chair)
       Name (Co-Chair)
       Name
       Name
       Name (external affiliation fully spelled out)
• Thesis Summary of 350 words or less, describing the thesis. This can be provided as email body content or text attachment (.txt) and is utilized for your talk announcements.
• Your Zoom link & Live Streaming form if you will have remote audience attendance (please see In-person & Remote Information).

We will announce your talk on the SCS and CSD calendars and send email to the appropriate CSD D-lists.

* Affiliation is not included for CSD/SCS committee members other than stating Chair or Co-Chair.

REMINDER: 

Remember that all committee members are required attend your thesis defense and that at least three thesis committee members (the Chair and two additional members) must be physically present.

The department does not record thesis oral defense presentations.

• Please set up your own Zoom link for remote committee member(s). 
• Once your advisor(s) join the Zoom you should make them co-host(s). 
• A Live Streaming form is not needed if the only remote attendee(s) will be external thesis committee member(s). 

You are welcome to have remote audience attend.

• The Live Streaming form is only needed if you will be allowing CMU community or external attendees to remotely attend your defense. 
• Please fill out the form and have your advisor sign it.
• Send the form to csd-phd-support@cs.cmu.edu along with your talk announcement information 7-10 days in advance of your talk. This way we know to include your Zoom link in the announcement.

Your presentation should be approximately 45-50 minutes (with clarification questions only) followed by questions from the committee, questions from the audience, a private meeting of the committee concluding with a private meeting with the speaker.

The Doctoral Program Manager will prepare the three copies of the signature page which will be signed by your advisor the day of your talk. This is held until your degree is certified and will be dated with your certification date to be included with the physical print copy of your document.

When your final copy is ready the following items MUST be completed before your degree will be certified with the Registrar:

• Survey of Earned Doctorates: This is requested by NSF and is a requirement of the university for graduation. 
  • This should filed only AFTER your thesis is edit-complete, approved by your advisor and ready for certification. 
  • Ideally it should be done the day you intend to turn in your final document -- NOT on or around your defense date.
• Review the Instructions for Electronic Submissions of Dissertations to be aware of how the University Library's repository will handle your document.
  • The department will file the final copy of your dissertation with the library. Please DO NOT FILE a copy yourself. 
• Dissertation Checklist for Electronic Submission: This checklist form is required by the university for graduation. Please fill it out and send it along with your final copy to csd-phd-support@cs.cmu.edu to be processed.
• Fill out the CSD PhD Online Exit Form.
• Registering with Proquest is completely optional.

Send CSD PhD Support and CSD Student Payroll:

• Your intended last day (this should be your intended certification date and match the date on the Survey of Earned Doctorates) and complete the CSD PhD Online Exit form.

Send CSD PhD Support and Catherine Copetas:

1. The .pdf of your final thesis - edits completed and approved by your advisor.
2. The Survey of Earned Doctorates Certificate.
3. The Completed Library Dissertation Checklist.
    

When the required thesis forms are filled out and turned in along with your final thesis document, the Doctoral Program Manager will acquire the appropriate signatures on your Final Semester form, file it with the Registrar, and certify your degree in S3.

Official Graduation Dates:

• University documents will show May, August, or December as your official graduation date. 
• If you need a document verifying the date your degree was officially certified, please request an early completion verification letter. 
• The form is available on the Registrar's Early Completion Verification page along with instructions to file the request.

May Commencement Timing Consideration: 

If you plan to graduate in the spring and attend the current May commencement & doctoral hooding:

All paperwork and your final thesis document must be turned in to the program by the Wednesday before spring semester DSR to allow time to gather advisor, department head, and dean's signatures to enter your certification into S3 by the Friday before commencement.

Please refer to the PhD Talks Scheduling Calendar for department deadlines for processing certifications to meet payroll (see ending stipend) and university deadlines. 

Graduates certified in the two week certification window after May commencement but before certification reopens for summer semester are considered a May graduate and will be invited to attend the next year's commencement. 

Doctoral student payroll needs to be notified of your end date. 

NOTE: Doctoral students are paid semi-monthly. Pay is distributed on the 15th and the last working day of each month - the CMU Payroll Calendars will provide you more complete timing details.

Please keep this in mind when planning your final day for certification. If you are certified between the 15th and the end of the month a return request for over-payment of stipend will be required. 

Email the Disposition of Movable Asset Form to us only if you are taking your original department-issued computer with you when you depart and the computer was $5,000 or more at the time of purchase. 

• If the asset form does not open properly for you, you may need to download the latest version of Acrobat Reader.
• The original issued department asset tag is available by searching equipment in the SCS database: https://computing.cs.cmu.edu/help-support/equip-registration. 
• Select "Search, Update and Remove Equipment Support". Under "Contact Username" It will either be your andrewID or your SCS WebISO ID (no @andrew or @cs... just the ID)
• The department code is 15 (like our course numbers).
• If you are not taking your computer (laptop or desktop) please email csd-phd-support@cs.cmu.edu, provide the asset information on the Exit Form and to arrange to drop it off with PhD Support.
   

Congratulations on reaching your final milestone for your doctoral degree!

Please be sure you have filled out the CSD PhD Online Exit Form! 

Be sure to read the information about what happens to your Andrew account and how to set up and use your alumni email account.

Remove all of your belongings, turn your office key in to the Doctoral Program Manager, and please leave the space clean for new student occupancy.