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The thesis defence is an oral examination, open to all interested members of the department. Your examining committee will consist of your advisory committee plus an external examiner, and any other members of the faculty that are considered necessary. A thesis defence follows the following general format, but may deviate at the discretion of the chair of the examining committee.
You will begin the thesis defence with a short, 10-20 minute presentation that summarizes the major contributions of the thesis.
Beginning with the external examiner, each of your examiners will be given the opportunity to ask you questions. These questions may be very general in nature, testing the breadth of your knowledge, or may be very specific in nature, testing the depth of your knowledge. After each examiner has had their turn, additional rounds of questions may be conducted as needed, as determined by the examining committee chair.
At the conclusion of the examination, you will be asked to leave the room while the examining committee discusses your oral examination and your written thesis, and decides upon an outcome. Upon conclusion of these deliberations, you will be called back into the room and informed of the results.
If your thesis is accepted, you will need to make any corrections/revisions that your examining committee deems necessary. You will be required to submit an electronic copy of the final, corrected, and revised copy of your thesis to the College of Graduate Studies. You are also required to submit a bound copy to be kept in the Department of Computer Science. In addition, it is customary to offer bound copies to each member of your examining committee.
Finally, you will need to complete an online application to graduate. This process is the student's responsibility.
