Dissertation and Final Defense

With concurrence of the advisory committee, the student proceeds with the doctoral research, during which time the student must continuously enroll in INFT 999, Doctoral Dissertation. The student must complete a minimum of 24 credits from among INFT 990, 998, and 999, with a minimum of 12 credits of INFT 999. When the central portions of the research have been completed to the point that the student is able to describe the original contributions of the dissertation effort, the final oral presentation of the dissertation research may be scheduled. A candidate submits the dissertation to the doctoral supervisory committee one month before the scheduled date of the dissertation defense. The dissertation is then presented to the committee in a public oral presentation. Following a satisfactory evaluation of the oral defense of dissertation by the supervisory committee, the student must prepare, with supervision from the dissertation director, a final publishable dissertation that represents a definitive contribution to knowledge in information technology. This document must meet format guidelines specified by the Guide for Preparing Graduate Theses, Dissertations and Projects. If the candidate successfully defends the dissertation, the dissertation defense committee recommends completion of the final form of the dissertation, and that the faculty of the School of Information Technology and Engineering and the graduate faculty of George Mason University accept the candidate for the conferral of the degree of doctor of philosophy.