Graduate Handbook 2026-27

The Graduate Advising Committee (GAC) advises students in the traditional MS/PhD program, advises course plans, and evaluates satisfactory progress toward the degree. Each fall and spring semester graduate students in the program can meet with a GAC member to discuss their course selection and progress toward degree goal. Office hours for each member are posted below. Students seeking deadline extensions or exceptions need to contact the GAC Chair, Professor Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau at gac@g-groups.wisc.edu.

Fall 2026:

No appointment necessary during posted office hours. 

Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau (GAC Chair): gac@g-groups.wisc.edu
Tuesdays 11-12pm: Zoom only (https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/94376593571?pwd=aoY7mXuby1KuuQrvFMV6MZO5qabnfS.1&from=addon)
Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm: MH 7578
Check this link for instruction and upcoming hours adjustments

Mollie Stolbov, Graduate Program Manager: stolbov@wisc.edu, MH 2580
Email questions or click here to schedule an appointment with Starfish

Ali Abedi: abedi@cs.wsic.edu 
Tuesdays 2:00 – 3:00pm 
MH 7671

Gavin Brown: gavin.brown@wisc.edu 
Email to schedule meeting
MH 5508

Ethan Cecchetti: cecchetti@wisc.edu  
Wednesdays 2-3pm or email to schedule
MH 7649

Colin Dewey: colin.dewey@wisc.edu 
Email to schedule meeting
MH 7508

Rishab Goyal: rishab.goyal@wisc.edu  
Friday 1:30 – 2:30pm or email to schedule
MH 7653

Mike Hagenow: mhagenow@wisc.edu 
Fridays 10:30-11am
MH 6584

Misha Khodak: khodak@wisc.edu
Tuesdays and Wednesdays 11-12pm 
MH 5512

Kirthi Kandasamy (CS Doctoral Minor Only): kandasamy@cs.wisc.edu 
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30 – 1:30PM
MH 5506  

Paris Koutris: paris@cs.wisc.edu 
Mondays 11:00 – 12:00PM 
MH 7582 

Tianyu Li: litianyu@cs.wisc.edu 
Email to schedule meeting
MH 7580

Lucy Li: lucyli@cs.wisc.edu  
Email to schedule meeting
MH 6580 or Zoom

Sara McAllister: sjmcallister@wisc.edu   
Mondays 3-5pm
MH 7576

Akarsh Prabhakara: akarsh@cs.wisc.edu 
Mondays 9:30 – 10:30AM
MH 7669

Sandeep Silwal: silwal@cs.wisc.edu 
Email to schedule meeting
MH 6687

Manolis Vlatakis: vlatakis@wisc.edu  
Email to schedule meeting
MH 6685

Tengyang Xie: tx@cs.wisc.edu 
Email to schedule meeting
MH 5518 or Zoom

Charles Yuan: charlesyuan@cs.wisc.edu  
Email to schedule meeting
MH 7663

Jiawei Zhang: jiaweizhang@cs.wisc.edu 
Fridays 3:00 – 4:00PM
MH 6504

Yuhang Zhao: yuhang.zhao@cs.wisc.edu 
Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:00PM
MH 6582 

During the early part of the first term of a graduate student’s tenure in the Department, the student will attend a meeting with a faculty member of the Graduate Advising Committee (GAC) to discuss their plans for meeting their degree goals.

New students share their program plan in their initial meeting with a faculty member on GAC. The purpose of the program plan is to ensure that the student is pursuing a suitable course of study for the degree sought, and understands the requirements. 

In order to make a degree plan, students should use The Guide for their respective program to ensure courses will meet requirements. Click here for the Masters and here for the PhD program requirements. You can also find a list of all CS courses here.  

The student should discuss their plans with a GAC Advisor and refer to this plan for future semester planning. Students should meet with a member of GAC whenever they have changes to plan.

Recording a Faculty Advisor of Record

For departmental record-keeping purposes, each graduate student must have an advisor of record. The advisor of record may be used to route program communications, monitor progress toward milestones, and support annual review processes.

Faculty advising relationships are established by mutual agreement between the student and faculty member. The faculty advisor provides intellectual guidance, helps shape the research direction, and oversees the student’s PhD progress. They offer expertise, suggest relevant literature, and provide critical feedback on drafts, collaboration, and other skill development. The department does not assign faculty advisors through this record-keeping process.

Students who have not yet established a faculty advising relationship may consult with the Graduate Advising Committee (GAC) for academic planning and degree-progress questions. Students are encouraged to talk with faculty early in the program by taking courses, attending office hours, participating in research group activities, and discussing possible independent study or research opportunities.

When a student establishes or changes a faculty advising relationship, the student or faculty member should notify the Graduate Program Manager so the student’s academic record can be updated.

Student status	How the advisor of record is updated
New student without a faculty advisor	The Graduate Program Manager is listed as the student’s advisor.  No faculty advisor is listed until an advising relationship is established. The student may consult with GAC members for academic advising and degree planning.
Student with a committed faculty advising relationship	The faculty member emails gac@g-groups.wisc.edu confirming that they are serving as the student’s faculty advisor. The student’s academic record is updated accordingly.
Student who has passed the qualifying exam/project	If the student’s academic record does not yet list a faculty advisor, the department may update the record to reflect the faculty member who chaired the qualifying process, after confirming that this reflects the current advising relationship.
Student changing faculty advisor	The student emails gac@g-groups.wisc.edu to request the change and copies the new faculty advisor to confirm the advising relationship.

 

 

Students must meet the minimum requirements to obtain the Computer Sciences PhD. See The Guide for details. 

The milestone requirements for a PhD in CS are: the qualifying process, the preliminary process, and the final defense process. Milestones must be met within the allotted time frame as follows:

Qualifying Process:

Students must complete breadth requirements and pass the qualifying examination within 3 years (6 semesters) after admission to the program.

Preliminary:

Students complete minor and pass preliminary examination within 4 years (8 semesters) after admission to the program; up to one additional year extension is possible with GAC chair and advisor approval.

Dissertation:

Students must pass final defense examination and deposit dissertation within 5 years (10 semesters) from date of preliminary examination. Extensions to this deadline are granted by the Graduate School PhD coordinator with the approval of the student’s PhD advisor.  Extensions to this deadline are rarely needed.

It is the responsibility of a PhD student to find a dissertation advisor and the Department does not guarantee that one will be provided. The dissertation advisor must be a full-time or affiliate faculty member of the CS Department, or have retired or resigned from such a position no more than one year prior to the student’s defense.

It is recommended that students reach out to faculty early in their program and that students take courses with professors they have an interest in working with. 

Students who intend to get a PhD should find a dissertation advisor no later than the end of second year in the MS/PhD program. The dissertation advisor chairs the qualifying process, the preliminary exam committee and the final oral exam committee.

To learn more detailed information about the milestones, enroll in the CS PhD Milestones Canvas Course.

Qual

The qualifying milestone (Qual) includes the qual exam or project and the completion of band courses. All areas of Computer Sciences except Optimization use a project based qualifying exam. 

Students must take one course from each of the bands as listed on The Guide. 

This milestone deadline is the 6th semester from matriculation.

Qual project committee requires minimum of three members including qual advisor. All the required committee members must be CS tenure home or CS affiliate faculty. Minimum two of the three must be CS tenure home faculty.

Additional members can be added to the committee. Additional members can be anyone with expertise to serve on the committee, including people from outside the university. If an additional member is non- CS faculty or non-CS affiliate they do not grade the project.

Prelim

After passing the Qual milestone, students will complete the Preliminary Exam. The Preliminary Exam (Prelim) milestone includes the prelim presentation to display a depth of knowledge in their specialized research area for their dissertation. 

This milestone deadline is the 8th semester from matriculation.

The preliminary examination committee consists of three or more members and is chaired by the dissertation advisor. At least two of the committee members must be full-time faculty members of the CS Department.

Students should request a preliminary warrant three weeks before the scheduled date for their examination. When the student requests the preliminary warrant they need to know the date and their committee members. Once the Prelim is passed, the committee will sign the electronic warrant. 

The minor requirement involves 9 to 12 credits of course work outside of CS. There are two methods of fulfilling this requirement, referred to as Option A and Option B on the Minor Declaration Form.  Students should decide on their minor and get it approved at the beginning of taking minor courses. They should not wait until they complete the course work to declare the minor. Students must complete the minor by their 8th semester, when they Prelim.

Option A: Existing program
This option consists of fulfilling the PhD minor requirements as specified by an existing program outside of CS. The guide contains information on the available minors at UW–Madison. Graduate Minors

• Students should contact the minor-granting program and meet with the faculty minor advisor for that program to discuss the minor requirements and get approval. On a student’s transcript, fulfillment of this option appears as Minor: followed by the name of the program. The Minor Advisor for that department attests to it by signing the Minor Declaration Form.
• After the minor form has been signed, the student needs to request to add the minor in their grad portal. How to request add minor in grad portal The request is approved by the minor advisor.  This step is required. If the minor has not been approved and does not appear in grad portal, a student cannot obtain a warrant for a preliminary examination.
• The student should retain a copy of the minor form. When the student has their preliminary exam the faculty minor advisor from the minor department will be sent an electronic signature request for the warrant.

Option B: Distributed
This option consists of at least nine credits in courses from two or more departments outside of CS. For this option, the Graduate Advising Committee Chair acts as the minor advisor. On a student’s transcript, fulfillment of this option appears as Minor: Distributed.

Students pursuing a distributed minor must receive approval from the Graduate Advising Committee Chair before completing the courses for the minor. The proposed program must be submitted to and approved by GAC upon, or before, the completion of three credits.

The following conditions are minimum requirements for courses to be considered as part of a distributed minor. Meeting these conditions does not by itself guarantee approval of the minor plan:

• All credits counted are for courses numbered 300 or above.
• No credits counted are for courses in CS or courses cross-listed with CS.
• No credits counted are for individual instruction courses.
• All credits counted are graded on the A-F scale and have received a grade of BC or higher.
• The GPA of the credits counted is at least 3.00.
• Students can use no more than five credits counted for coursework completed more than five years prior to admission to the PhD program; no credits counted are for coursework taken 10 years ago or more.

In addition to these minimum requirements, the Graduate Advising Committee (GAC) will review whether the proposed courses form a coherent plan, are appropriate for the student’s PhD program, and are reasonably comparable in rigor to an approved departmental minor. For example, if a distributed minor includes substantial Mathematics coursework, GAC may compare the proposed plan with the Mathematics doctoral minor, which requires MATH courses numbered 500 and above. Distributed minor plans need not exactly meet the requirements of a departmental minor, but students should be prepared to justify differences in course level, content, or structure.

After the Graduate Advising Committee Chair has approved the distributed minor plan, the student must request to add the minor in their Grad Portal: [How to request add minor in grad portal]. This step is required. If the minor has not been approved and does not appear in the Grad Portal, a student cannot obtain a warrant for a preliminary examination.

The student should retain a copy of the email approving the distributed minor plan. The Graduate Program Manager verifies completion of the distributed minor when the preliminary warrant request is made. When the student has their preliminary exam, the CS Graduate Advising Committee Chair will be sent an electronic signature request for the warrant.

After completion of the prelim and doctoral minor, the student will become a dissertator in the following semester. Students will receive notification from the Graduate School of dissertator status and subsequent enrollment requirements until defense and deposit of dissertation.

The student must conduct, under the supervision of a dissertation advisor, a substantial piece of original research in CS and report it in a dissertation that is made public and meets the highest standards of scholarship.

The Defense is a presentation where the student will defend and explain the contents of their dissertation to a committee.

When a student is ready to defend and has determined the date and committee composition they can request a PhD Final Defense Warrant. This form should be submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the defense.

The members of the final examination committee should receive a copy of the dissertation at the latest three weeks before the exam. After passing the final exam, the student needs to electronically deposit the dissertation along with the fully signed defense warrant.

The final examination committee consists of four or more members and is chaired by the dissertation advisor. The composition of the committee will be suggested by the dissertation advisor. Defense committee requirements can be found here: Graduate School: Committees.

 All of the following conditions need to be satisfied:

• At least three of the committee members must be UW–Madison graduate faculty or former UW–Madison graduate faculty up to one year after resignation or retirement.
• At least two of the committee members must be full-time faculty members of the Department.
• At least one of the committee members, other than the dissertation advisor, must represent a UW department outside of CS.
• The fourth member can be from UW–Madison or external to UW–Madison. They must have a PhD.
• At least three committee members must be designated readers. 

After the student passes the exam, each committee member needs to electronically sign the PhD Defense Warrant.

After your successful defense, you will need to deposit your dissertation to officially complete your PhD. Review this page from the Graduate School for details on how to complete this step: https://grad.wisc.edu/academics/doctoral-guide/

Once you deposit your dissertation, you will be done with your program. This may have implications on your employment status with the university – such as an RA or TA position. Contact the CS HR team if you have any questions or concerns: hr@cai.wisc.edu.  

A graduate student in good standing may request a deadline extension of one regular term when he or she experiences childbirth or adoption. The extension does not extend the funding guarantee by the Department.

The extension is available for each birth or adoption, to each parent, both males and females, and without regard to sexual orientation.

To obtain the extension, the student must email the GAC Chair and the dissertation advisor (if any) within 12 months of the date of birth or adoption. The GAC Chair checks that the conditions are met and, if so, automatically grants the extension.

For the purposes of this regulation, graduate students are considered in good standing if they are not dismissed, suspended, or on probation, and if they did not fail the conditions for satisfactory academic progress for the term prior to the child birth or adoption.

Qualifying Process Extensions 

If you are unable to finish your PhD qualifying process by the regular deadline (i.e., by the end of your 6th semester) you must request an extension from the GAC chair at least 3 weeks before your deadline.

Qualifying process extensions are not common, but are possible.  An extension may be given for either completing the qualifying exam or the qualifying process course breadth requirement.  

Extensions, when given, are usually for a single semester or for the summer session.

To request an extension, either stop by Office Hours for the GAC chair or email gac@g-groups.wisc.edu. During office hours or in your email, you should identify a supporting faculty member, describe your progress towards the qualifying process thus far, and explain why you need an extension.

A strong endorsement from a CS or CS-affiliated faculty member who is willing to serve as your qualifying exam advisor greatly improves your chances of an extension.  The faculty member you’ve identified will be asked about their willingness to be your qualifying advisor, their past experience working with you, and their estimation of your ability to complete the qualifying process.

Preliminary Process Extensions

If you are unable to finish your PhD preliminary process by the regular deadline (i.e., by the end of your 8th semester) you must request an extension from the GAC chair at least 3 weeks before your deadline.

Preliminary process extensions are not uncommon.  An extension may be given for either completing the preliminary exam or the minor requirement.

Extensions, when given, are usually for one or two semesters; however, longer extensions are possible.

To request an extension, either stop by Office Hours for the GAC chair or email gac@g-groups.wisc.edu. During office hours or in your email, you should identify your PhD advisor, specify the length of your requested extension, describe your progress towards the preliminary process thus far, and explain why you need an extension.

A strong endorsement from a CS or CS-affiliated faculty member who is serving as your PhD advisor is necessary for an extension of the prelim exam.  For exam extensions that are one year or less, your PhD advisor will simply be asked to endorse this extension. For longer extensions, you may need an endorsement from your complete preliminary exam committee (i.e., 3 faculty members) and have scheduled a tentative date for your exam.

Students shall show respect for a diversity of opinions, perspectives and cultures; accurately represent their work and acknowledge the contributions of others; participate in and commit to related opportunities; aim to gain knowledge and contribute to the knowledge base of others; understand the UW Student Code of Conduct; represent their profession and the program; and strive to incorporate and practice disciplinary ideals in their daily lives. Resumes/CVs must reflect accurate information.

Students shall demonstrate honesty and integrity as shown by challenging themselves in academic pursuits; honesty and ethics in research and Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications–including honesty in interpretation of data, commitment to an unbiased interpretation of academic and professional endeavors; and the need to document research activities, protect subject/client confidentiality and HIPAA regulations. Students shall follow through and pull their weight in group activities and understand where collaboration among students is or is not allowed; not plagiarize others’ work or their own past work (self-plagiarism), cheat, or purposefully undermine the work of others; and avoid conflicts of interest for the duration of their time in the program. As a professional, honesty and integrity also extends to personal behavior in life outside of the academic setting by realizing that students are representatives of the program, UW–Madison and the profession as a whole.

Students shall interact with peers, faculty, staff and those they encounter in their professional capacity in a manner that is respectful, considerate and professional. This includes and is not limited to attending all scheduled meetings, honoring agreed upon work schedules, being on time and prepared for work/meetings, contributing collaboratively to the team, keeping the lines of communication open, offering prompt response to inquiries, and employing respectful use of available equipment/technology/resources. Chronic or unexplained absences are unprofessional in the workplace and could be grounds for termination or removal of funding. To facilitate the free and open exchange of ideas, any criticism shall be offered in a constructive manner, and the right of others to hold different opinions shall be respected.

Students are expected to meet their educational responsibilities at all times. Be actively prepared for class and be ready for questions and answers. Be on time for every class and always show courtesy during class or if you have to leave class early. If possible, students should notify the instructor at least one day in advance of a planned absence. Students who are unable to attend class are responsible for finding out what occurred that day and should not expect instructors to give them individual instruction. Recognizing that the pursuit of knowledge is a continuous process, students shall show commitment to learning by persevering despite adversity and seeking guidance in order to adapt to change. Students shall strive for academic excellence and pursue and incorporate all critique, both positive and negative, in the acquisition of knowledge in order to understand and respect the community in which they work.

Students shall convey a positive, professional appearance in order to represent the program in a dignified manner. Appearance includes a person’s dress, hygiene, and appropriate etiquette/protocols for the environment (including safety protocols and protective clothing in environments that require them).