Computer Science

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science degree is a joint program offered by the School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carleton University and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa under the auspices of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Computer Science (OCICS) and the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering. Learn more about Ottawa-Carleton Joint Institutes.

The PhD program provides graduate students with an opportunity to conduct in-depth research in their area of specialization and become technical experts in the domain. PhD students can augment their expertise by combining coursework with their research in a wide range of areas, e.g., algorithms, computer security, distributed and parallel computing, computer gaming, computer graphics, robotics and GIS.

The PhD program is research intensive. However, graduate students in the PhD program can select from over 50 courses that are offered by OCICS either at the School of Computer Science or at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Typically, graduate students will engage in research for three to four years leading to a PhD thesis in their area of interest.

Capital Advantage

A large number of high technology companies, e.g., Alactel, IBM, Mitel, Thales, Cognos (IBM),  Research Labs, e.g., National Research Council, Communication Research Centre, and a large number of Government of Canada departments are located in the Ottawa-Gatineau area.  The technology cluster provides students with an opportunity to conduct joint research with the private and public sector. Graduating students have a large range of employment opportunities from research to development in areas such as designing new software security products, creation of computer games, designing animation software, building robot, medical imaging and devices, and data mining and business intelligence.

Research Highlights

• Building recommender systems in social networks
• Secure and usable software installation on smartphones
• Mapping the human protein interaction network
• Games of hide & seek and black holes