Computer Science Ph.D. (Ithaca)

Field of Study

Computer Science

Program Description

The Field of Computer Science is intended for students who are primarily interested in the general aspects of computational processes, both theoretical and practical. Areas of research in the field include algorithms, architecture, artificial intelligence, computer vision, computational biology, concurrency and distributed computing, database systems, machine learning, machine vision, natural language processing, networks, numerical analysis, programming environments, programming languages and methodology, robotics, and theory of computation.

Research facilities:
The department makes use of a mix of computing platforms, with about three-quarters of our research and instructional computing taking place on Microsoft's Windows operating systems and Intel Architecture processors and the remaining quarter on Red Hat Linux desktop and Red Hat Linux and Sun Solaris back-end servers. The department has more than1,200 computers ranging from desktops to high-end parallel processing servers, more than 15 terabytes of online disk storage, and a backbone network based on switched Gigabit Ethernet.

In addition to the resources directly owned and operated by the department, computer science students and researchers have access to a number of university facilities. The university provides extensive campus-wide networking, including RedRover, an 802.11b wireless campus network. National and international access is provided by three OC3 connections to the global Internet. High-speed community access is available through Time-Warner's RoadRunner cable modem system and several DSL providers. Finally, through the Cornell Theory Center and the Program in Computer Graphics, computer science researchers have access to a wide range of advanced parallel processing and supercomputer systems, as well as advanced graphics and visualization systems.

Contact Information

110D Gates Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Concentrations by Subject

• artificial intelligence
• computer science
• programming languages and logics
• scientific computing and applications
• systems
• theory of computation

Tuition

Visit the Graduate School's Tuition Rates page.

Application Requirements and Deadlines

Application Deadlines:

Fall: Dec. 1; Spring: No admission

Requirements Summary:

To permit immediate enrollment in graduate-level courses, applicants are expected to have an appropriate background in the major subject chosen. Please visit our Web site for more information on the field.

• all Graduate School Requirements
• including the TOEFL or IELTS Exam for Non-Native English Applicants
• Ph.D. -- three recommendations; M.Eng. -two recommendations
• Ph.D. -- e-mail questions regarding the Ph.D. application to phd@cs.cornell.edu or see the CS PhD Applicant Guide.
• For more information on the Ph.D. program, please visit the Computer Science PHD page.

Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate knowledge at the undergraduate level of four core areas in the computer science

• Systems, AI, PL, and theory
• Students should be able to solve problems in these four core areas at the undergraduate level

Demonstrate knowledge, understanding, applications, analysis, and evaluation of material at the graduate level in four out of five important core areas of computer science

• The five different core areas are as follows: algorithms and theory of computation, artificial intelligence, systems, programming languages and methodology, scientific computing and applications

Demonstrate knowledge, understanding, applications, analysis, and evaluation of the three different value systems of the three computer science research styles that differ in how they evaluate and validate research results

• The three different research styles are theory, systems, and applications.

Complete a significant computer science project.