Most of the students at the AI lab are part of the EECS Department (or course 6 in MIT lingo). Course 6 is divided into 6 areas and computer science falls under area II. The Area II web site lists the current and past degree requirements. Students in other departments must complete different requirements. Those can be found though the web pages of that department.

As graduate students in area II, there are a number of requirements we must meet before receiving our Ph.D. Firstly, we must complete a Masters of Science either before or during our time here. Most students do not enter with a Masters and hense must complete the following:

• Course Work — Courses are divided into three categories: Systems, Theory, AI. To complete a Masters, we must take three core classes covering at least two different areas. (not all classes fall into an area) A listing of course 6 classes can be found in the course catalog.
• Masters Thesis — Most of the work for a Masters is spent on the thesis research. A Masters thesis is not as large as a Ph.D. thesis, yet requires some original work. It is hard to describe what constitutes a Masters Thesis. The best way is to look at some examples.

After the Masters (usually it takes two years), we must complete the following additional requirements to secure a Ph.D.:

• Oral Exam — As the first step, each student must pass an oral exam. The exam is composed of two parts. In the first, the student presents his or her own research (usually the Masters research). During the second part, the student is asked questions about the course work completed by the panel of three faculty members. This is usually taken right after finishing the masters.
• Additional Course Work — In addition to the courses above, we must take at least two more courses in one of the three areas mentioned above such that, between the Masters and Ph.D. coursework, we have covered all three area.
• Minor — As part of the Ph.D. program, we must complete a minor program. The minor is defined to be three courses in a different field than our field of study. The three courses should form a "cohesive program of study." Popular minors include neuro-biology and mathematics.
• Area Exam — Some time between the Masters and Ph.D., all students must pass an area exam. A committee of three professors is chosen and they pick three papers on a topic that is outside the area of the student's Ph.D. area. The student then must write another paper summarizing this new area of research and present the paper to the committee orally.
• Thesis — Finally, most of the work is spent on research leading up to the production of a Ph.D. Thesis. (more on the thesis).

As can be seen from above, this program of study differs from that of many other schools or disciplines where two or three years of solid coursework is followed by a research and a thesis. In the AI lab, students start research as soon as they arrive. Most students take two courses each semester for the first few years in conjunction with their research efforts.

Sidenote to current members of the lab: These pages are in constant need of updating and correction. In particular it is important that they don't just represent my opinions. So please, e-mail me at cshelton or just change the pages if you see something that needs "help."