Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

University of British Columbia

Canada, Vancouver

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Home/Canada/Vancouver /University of British Columbia/Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

University of British Columbia

Canada , Vancouver

Key Facts

Program Level

PhD (Philosophy Doctorate)

Study Type

Full Time

Delivery

On Campus

Campuses

Vancouver

Program Language

English

Start & Deadlines

Next Intake DeadlinesSeptember-2026

Apply to this program

Go to the official application for the university

Duration 6 year(s)

Tuition Fee

CAD 9,884 / per year

Apply Date 15-Dec-2023

Next Intake September-2026

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

About

PhD students in the Department of Computer Science may focus their research in the following areas:

Artificial Intelligence: computer vision, decision theory/game theory, knowledge representation and reasoning, intelligent user interfaces, machine learning, natural language understanding and generation, robotics and haptics.
Computer Graphics: animation, imaging, modeling, rendering, visualization.
Data Management and Mining: business intelligence, data integration, genomic analysis, text mining, web databases.
Formal Verification and Analysis of Systems: analog, digital and hybrid systems, VLSI, protocols, software.
Human Centered Technologies: human computer interaction (HCI), visual, haptic and multimodal interfaces, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), visual analytics.
Networks, Systems, and Security: high performance computing/parallel processing, networking, operating systems and virtualization, security.
Scientific Computing: numerical methods and software, differential equations, linear algebra, optimization.
Software Engineering and Programming Languages: development tools, foundations of computation, middleware, programming languages, software engineering.
Theory: algorithm design and analysis (including empirical), algorithmic game theory, discrete optimization, graph theory, computational geometry

Disciplines

Faculty of Science

Requirements

Entry Requirements

1) Check Eligibility

Minimum Academic Requirements

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:

Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.

English Language Test

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.

Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based

Overall score requirement: 100

Reading

Writing

Speaking

Listening

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

Overall score requirement: 7.0

Reading

6.5

Writing

6.5

Speaking

6.5

Listening

6.5

Other Test Scores

Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:

The GRE is not required.

Prior degree, course and other requirements

Career

Career Outcomes

111 students graduated between 2005 and 2013. Of these, career information was obtained for 106 alumni (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016):

RI (Research-Intensive) Faculty: typically tenure-track faculty positions (equivalent of the North American Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor positions) in PhD-granting institutions
TI (Teaching-Intensive) Faculty: typically full-time faculty positions in colleges or in institutions not granting PhDs, and teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
Term Faculty: faculty in term appointments (e.g. sessional lecturers, visiting assistant professors, etc.)

Sample Employers in Higher Education

University of British Columbia (5)
McGill University (3)
University of Waterloo (3)
University of Manitoba (2)
Swansea University
Stanford University
University of Utah
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
University of Saskatchewan

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

Google (12)
Microsoft (4)
Amazon (3)
Intel Corporation (3)
Disney (2)
Oracle Labs (2)
IBM (2)
Tasktop Technologies (2)
Tableau (2)
OriGene Technologies Inc.

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

Research Scientist (5)
Software Engineer (5)
Senior Software Engineer (4)
Chief Technology Officer (3)
Product Manager (3)
Software Development Engineer (2)
Senior Data Scientist (2)
Senior Research Engineer (2)
Advisory Engineer
Senior Research Scientist

PhD Career Outcome Survey

You may view the full report on career outcomes of UBC PhD graduates on outcomes.grad.ubc.ca.

Disclaimer

These data represent historical employment information and do not guarantee future employment prospects for graduates of this program. They are for informational purposes only. Data were collected through either alumni surveys or internet research.

Career Options

Our faculty and students actively interact with industry in numerous fields. Via internships, consulting and the launching of new companies, they contribute to the state-of-the-art in environmental monitoring, energy prediction, software, cloud computing, search engines, social networks, advertising, e-commerce, electronic trading, entertainment games, special effects in movies, robotics, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, and more.