The student is required to pass written preliminary examinations. These examinations consist of four examination areas: two in engineering and two in mathematics. These examinations should be taken immediately after completion of the relevant course work at each institution. These examinations are given two or three times a year at the discretion and under the control of the Program Committee. Should a student fail an examination, they may petition the Program Committee for one retake.
Before taking the first preliminary examination, the student is required to complete the Preliminary Examination Permission Form (available at the CSULB website, www.csulb.edu/colleges/coe, or at the CGU site, www.cgu.edu/math). This form requires the student to specify the four areas of the Preliminary Examination; the student’s intended dissertation advisor and the directors of the Joint Doctoral Program must sign it. The purpose of this form is to certify that the student and dissertation advisor are in agreement on the set of examinations. If, in the course of time, this set of examinations and/or the advisor is amended, the form must be resubmitted. The preliminary examinations are considered completed when the four examinations specified on the student’s form have been successfully passed.
The College of Engineering requires a minimum of two graduate courses as a basis for each Preliminary Examination. With the consent of their dissertation advisor, students may select two topics from the list below. With the permission of their dissertation advisor and the CSULB director of Joint Doctoral Program, they may also designate other topics for their Preliminary Examination.
Preliminary examinations in mathematics for the joint program may be chosen from single courses of sufficiently advanced level. These include Math 273, Math 282, and courses numbered 3XX. It is also possible for a preliminary examination to be based on material from two courses at a beginning graduate level, e.g. Math 251/252 or Math 251/256.
Students in the Joint Doctoral Program must demonstrate proficiency in problem-solving ability using computer programs. This demonstration may take different forms depending on the student’s engineering sub-discipline, but must include evidence that the student has used an appropriate computer language and an algorithmic method to solve a problem from an engineering discipline.
