The research proposal and oral exam includes both a written and an oral component. The written component involves submitting an NIH-style proposal (maximum 13 pages) to the student’s dissertation committee no less than two weeks prior to defending it orally to the same committee.
The purpose of the proposal is to assess students’ progress toward the completion of a Ph.D. Degree in Biomedical Engineering. During the oral examination the student will be expected to demonstrate the following:
- Identification of an important and impactful research problem, including significant scholarly knowledge of the specific and related research areas. The student should be able to clearly articulate what the problem is and why it is important.
- Creation of a viable research strategy and specific plan to address the problem. The student should be able to clearly articulate the planned solution and the outcomes of success. The proposal and presentation should include details of the proposed experimental, theoretical and/or computational methods and a timeline for completion of the proposed tasks.
- Presentation of preliminary results. The student should demonstrate that they are able to carry out the proposed work with preliminary results using some of the proposed methodologies. The expectation is that the results of the research work are preliminary; content equivalent to a completed research paper is not expected at the time of the preliminary oral examination.
