• PhD Degree Requirements
• Curriculum

The combined Ph.D. in Communication and Computer Science, known as the Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior (TSB), is the first combined Ph.D. in two distinct fields to be offered at Northwestern. The TSB program draws on Northwestern’s strong support for interdisciplinary study, benefits from talented faculty who contribute to a tradition of collaboration, and attracts unique students who are eager for academic experiences that cross school and department boundaries. The combined degree benefits students by providing training in social science methods to study human behavior and computer technology, experience designing and implementing new technologies, practice incorporating the results of empirical research into these technologies, and preparation for the widest range of academic and industrial jobs.

The study of Technology and Social Behavior involves many disciplines, but until now it has been rare to find graduate training that prepares students to bridge several of those disciplines in the way that is demanded by both academic and industry research jobs of today. The Northwestern TSB doctoral program recruits students from a variety of backgrounds and gives them rigorous training in humanities, social sciences, human-computer interaction and computer science methodologies to allow them to understand and participate in technological developments in their broadest possible contexts.

The curriculum for the joint degree program is rigorous, as it combines requirements from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Ph.D. program in the School of Engineering and from the Media, Technology & Society (MTS) Ph.D. program in the School of Communication.

The combined degree benefits students by providing training in multiple methodologies to study human behavior and computer technology; experience designing and implementing new technologies; practice incorporating the results of empirical research into these technologies; and preparation for the widest range of academic and industrial jobs.

Students in the TSB doctoral program have the opportunity to spend summers carrying out research on the Evanston campus, or to do internships in industry research labs such as IBM, Google, MITRE and Microsoft.

On the job market, the TSB joint degree in Computer Science and Communication will give students strong credentials for jobs in both academia and industry. In academia, our graduates make strong candidates for jobs in both traditional and emerging departments such as: Information Technology, Library and Information Sciences, Information Systems (or Informatics), New Media, Communications, Computer Science, Learning Sciences, and Cognitive Science departments. While interdisciplinary research is fundamental to discovery and progress, evaluating this research from traditional perspectives can be problematic. The joint degree prepares graduates with the authority to communicate about their research within multiple disciplines.

Faculty

The primary appointment for those faculty with joint or affiliate status in another program is noted in parentheses.