Graduate
Ph.D. Preliminary Examination Reading List
(Updated September 29th, 2011)
The Ph.D. Preliminary Exam tests a student's breadth of knowledge in computer science. The exam is based on subject matters normally included in a CIS undergraduate major plus one year of full-time graduate study. It includes all Breadth Areas of our CIS MS program.
Part 1: Computer Systems
- Area: Computer Architecture
Relevant Course: CISC 662- David A. Patterson & John L. Hennessy, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Fourth or Fifth Edition, Morgan Kaufman Publ. Co.
- Area: Operating Systems
Relevant Course: CISC 663- Avi Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin and Greg Gagne, Operating Systems Concepts, 7th edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. OR
- William Stallings, Operating Systems, 7th Edition, Pearson
- Area: Networks
Relevant Course: CISC 650- James F. Kurose & Keith W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Edition, Addison-Wesley.
Part 2: Software Systems
- Area: Computer Graphics
Relevant Course: CISC 640
Either of the following books can be used to prepare for this area.- Peter Shirley et al, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 2nd Edition, A. K. Peters, Ltd., 2005. (Chapters 1-3, 5-12, 15 and 19)
- Hearn and Baker, Computer Graphics (C version), Prentice Hall, 3rd edition, 2000.
- Area: Compilers - Theory of Translators
Relevant Course: CISC 672
Either of the following two books can be used to prepare for this area:- A. Aho, R. Sethi, and J. Ullman, Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, Addison-Wesley, Second Edition, 2007. (Chaps 1-8 and 10.3)
- K. Cooper and L. Torczon, Engineering a Compiler, Morgan Kaufman, First or Second Edition. (Chapters 1-7 and 11-13)
- Area: Artificial Intelligence
Relevant Course: CISC 681- Stuart Russell & Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice-Hall, (3rd edition). (Chapters 1-3, 4.1, 5, 6, 7.1-7.5, 8.1-8.3, 9, 10.1-10.3, 13, 14.1-14.4, 18.1-18.4, 18.10)
Part 3: Theory
- Area: Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Relevant Course: CISC 621- T. Cormen, C. Leiserson, R. Rivest, C. Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill & MIT Press, 2009.
- Area: Theory of Computation
Relevant Course: CISC 601- M. Davis, R. Sigal, E. Weyuker, Computability, Complexity and Languages: Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science, 2nd edition, Academic Press, New York, NY, 1994. (Chaps. 1-6, 9-10)
- Area: Logic in Computer Science
Relevant Course: CISC 604
Both of the following books should be used to prepare for this area.- Elliott Mendelson, Introduction to Mathematical Logic, fourth edition, Chapman & Hall, London, 1997. (Chapters 1 and 2, excluding Sections 1.6, 2.14, 2.16)
- Uwe Schoening, Logic for Computer Scientists, Birkhaeuser, Boston, 1989. (Sections 4 and 5 of Chapter 2)
