For PhD students who have an M.Tech. degree, the minimum requirement is that of 64 units, out of which at least 16 units should be through regular post-graduate courses and at least 32 units should be through research. In case of PhD students holding a B.Tech. degree, the minimum requirement is that of 96 units, out of which 40 units should be through post-graduate courses and at least 32 units should be through research. A typical course is considered to be 4 units. All the courses in the PhD program are electives. A list of all computer science courses is available here. A large number of electives are offered in each semester. The exact courses offered will depend on availability of faculty members in a particular semester.

The department has faculty members in all areas of Computer Science & Engineering. Active research is currently being carried out in the areas of VLSI design, computer architecture, software engineering, fault tolerance, compilers, database systems, multi-media systems, operating systems, computer networks, Internet technologies, distributed computing, computer graphics and animation, CAD, algorithms, complexity theory, and artificial intelligence, etc.

The department of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT Kanpur has always been a very open and supportive department for all its students, and particularly so for the PhD students. There is a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, where faculty and students mix freely. PhD students are respected as much as any faculty member. They have their own air-conditioned office space, furniture, etc., with a telephone. Each student is given a PC on her/his desk, when they join. They get office support for photocopying, laser printing, mailing, stationery, etc. They have a say in deciding the books and journals to be bought by the library. They can expect to get travel support to attend conferences. There are a number of industry fellowships of upto Rs.15,000 per month available for PhD students. More details on financial assistantship is given below. In addition, the deparment runs a large number of short-term courses for the industry, in which PhD students have a choice to teach. If they choose to teach those courses, they will be given additional handsome remuneration for that

Non-sponsored candidates admitted to the regular full-time PhD Program who are Indian Nationals are eligible for financial assistance as follows: TA/RA ship: Candidates admitted to the PhD program (and satisfying some conditions like either holding M.Tech. degree or having a valid GATE score, minimum marks in qualifying degree examination, etc.) will be offered the Teaching Assistantship (TA) or Research Assistantship. A teaching assistant can be asked to conduct labs, help an instructor in grading, and other course-related tasks. In some cases, TA can also be asked to teach tutorial sessions to the first year BTech students. A research assistant can be asked to support the department in various academic activities. An RA can also be assigned to faculty members to help them in their research effort. The assistantship amount depends on whether the candidate has a BTech degree or an MTech degree. The assistantship after MTech is Rs. 8000 per month. This amount can be supplemented by various grants. Project Assistantship: Several faculty members are working on sponsored projects, supported by government funding agencies such as MHRD, DoE, DST, AICTE, etc. Some projects are also funded by Industry. A PhD student can be hired as a project employee to carry out research. The assistantship amount in such cases may be more than the default stipend of Rs. 10,000 p.m. Industry Fellowships: Several companies are supporting PhD students by providing them with a fellowship. The amount in these cases is usually more than Rs.10,000 per month. Infosys Technologies has setup two Infosys

Fellowships for PhD students in the department. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has setup one DNV Fellowship for PhD students in the department. Lucent Bell Labs Bangalore has setup Bell Labs Fellowship for PhD students (in the field of networking) in the department. These fellowships pay more than Rs.15,000 per month to a PhD scholar.