Bulletin Number One 1983

THE PH.D. PROGRAMME IN ELECTRONICS 一 Chan Chih-Fan Professor Chen Chih-Fan, Professor of Electronics, is the Supervisor of Dr. Kwong Chung-Ping. He has kindly written for the Bulletin this article, introducing us to the Ph.D. programme in Electronics as well as the research of his first Ph.D. student here. There are, generally speaking, two main systems of doctoral programmes, the old and the new. The new system is characterized by its course work requirement. A student is required to complete a certain number of units of courses before he can take the Ph.D. qualifying examination. It is only when he has passed the examination that he can register as a Ph.D. candidate. He is expected to write a thesis when he has completed his research and upon submission of his thesis, he is required to attend an oral examination conducted by a panel consisting of several professors of the institution. Successful candidates will be recommended by the Faculty for the award of a Ph.D. degree. This is the system most commonly adopted by American universities. The old system is research-oriented and there is no course work requirement. A candidate is given one or half a year's time to prove his suitability for the programme. By the end of the prescribed time, he is required to submit a research paper or report, on the basis of which the professors will decide whether he is qualified to continue with his doctoral studies. If found qualified, he is to carry out his own research and eventually write a thesis embodying the results of his study. The oral examination is conducted by a panel consisting of an external examiner and internal examiners, of which his supervisor will not be a member. Successful candidates will be awarded a Ph.D. degree on the recommendation of the Senate. This system is often identified with Cambridge University of the United Kingdom. The research-oriented Ph.D. Programme is so designed as to minimize any unnecessary interference with students' studies. Research, after all, mainly involves the development of new ideas or the breaking away from the old, both of which can hardly be achieved by taking prescribed courses. The course work requirement, stipulated by most American universities, of Ph.D. candidates has often hindered rather than facilitated students' research and has thus led to a waste of time. The system adopted by The Chinese University is a mixture of the two, but is more inclined to the old. Take the Electronics Division for example. A Master's degree holder is not required to take any course work. Instead, he is required to publish in international academic journals one or two research papers embodying the preliminary findings of his study, which are equivalent to the research reports at Cambridge. On the basis of these papers, we will decide whether he is qualified to proceed. The oral examination also combines features of both systems. It is conducted by a Thesis Committee, which is chaired by an external examiner (as in the old system) and has the candidate's Supervisor as a member (as in the new). As Mr. Kwong Chung-Ping, the 1st Ph.D. candidate of the Electronics Division of this Uni- versity, is a Master of the British Loughborough University, he was not required to take any courses and was able to carry out his research immediately after he registered. During the two years of his study, he published six research papers: two in the American IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, two in the International Journal of Systems Science (UK) and two in the International Journal of Control (UK). The first four were written in collaboration with his Supervisor, and the last two on his own. Such outstanding results are rare even in American and British graduate schools. His oral examination was chaired by Professor William Schneider, Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Houston. The other members of the Thesis Committee were from the University. After his thesis defense, the Committee unanimously recommended that Mr. Kwong be awarded the Ph.D. degree. The topic of his research is in the area of advanced technology. His thesis is full of new ideas and insight, especially the last two chapters, which have been rewritten into two independent papers and published in the International Journal of Control. NEWS 11