Interactive Computing Qualifying Exam

Last updated: October 2025, Effective for Spring 2026 Quals Exam
Previous Interactive Computing Qual Exam website

Overview

The purpose of the qualifying exam (quals) in Interactive Computing (IC) is to assess students’ ability to:

• articulate clear and meaningful research ideas, 

• convey a breadth of knowledge in the IC area, 

• convey depth of knowledge relevant to their research interests, 

• motivate their research using prior literature, and 

• propose well-justified and feasible methods for conducting their research. 

To pass the exam, the student must demonstrate knowledge of key IC- and CS-related concepts, show promise to conduct independent research, and be able to explain, apply, contextualize, transfer, and critique these concepts.

In this document, we refer to a student taking the qualifying exam as the candidate. This document extends the qual exam rules of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science (SSCDS) for the IC area.

Registering your intention to take the exam and committee assignment:

By SSCDS rules, the candidate must submit a qualifying exam statement via the online qual exam portal. The qualifying exam statement is necessary to determine an appropriate exam committee. In addition to any other criteria required by the department, a qualifying exam statement for the IC area consists of a description of the candidate’s research interests, accomplishments, and plans for future research. The statement should be no more than one page in length. Refer to SSCDS rules and documentation for additional details and timeline recommendations for the exam statement.

Based on the candidate’s qualifying exam statement, the IC area chair will appoint a qualifying exam committee. Each committee consists of three faculty members, one of whom is designated as committee chair. The committee will exclude the candidate’s advisor, and can be composed of core and affiliated members of the IC faculty.

The Quals Reading List:

The Quals Reading List is a set of four research articles chosen via consensus of the IC area faculty. The reading list will be the same for all candidates in a given semester, but the list will differ from previous semesters. Each candidate chooses three of these four research articles to form their personal reading list. Of these three chosen articles, one should be identified as the foundation of the candidate’s Quals Research Proposal (see below). 

Exam components on which candidates are evaluated: 

Candidates are evaluated on two exam components: (1) their Quals Research Proposal, and (2) an Oral Exam. Candidates should understand the expectations of each of these components.

Timeline:

• During the year leading up (recommended): SSCDS rules dictate the appropriate timing to take the quals exam; currently, it is in a student’s 4th semester. During their first three semesters in the program, candidates should prepare independently for the qualifying exam by familiarizing themselves with material from the IC Core Reading List, taking courses offered by IC faculty, and conducting research in collaboration with their faculty advisors.

• Approximately four weeks prior to the candidate’s Oral Exam: The Quals Reading List and committee assignments will be released. The candidate should contact their committee ASAP to schedule a 2-hour window for the Oral Exam. Candidates and their committees can decide whether to hold the exam online (e.g., via Zoom) or in person. Once a date and location have been chosen, candidates should send a calendar invite to their committee with any necessary links to join online.

• No later than three weeks prior to the Oral Exam date: The candidate should convey to their committee which of the 3 papers they choose from the full set of 4 and which one of those papers will serve as the foundation of their Quals Research Proposal. 

• No later than two weeks prior to Oral Exam date: The candidate should send their final written Quals Research Proposal to their committee. This means that candidates will have around two weeks to write this proposal (from the time the Quals Reading List is released until two weeks prior to the Oral Exam date). 

• During the two weeks leading up to Oral Exam date: Prepare for the Oral Exam. During the Oral Exam, the committee will ask about the candidate’s Quals Research Proposal, and they will also ask detailed questions about the three papers that the candidate chose from the Quals Reading List. 

• After the Oral Exam: Candidates will not learn the outcome of their exam right away. The committee chair will report the decision to the Graduate Studies Office in SSCDS. Because Oral Exams are scheduled over a 1-2 week period, it is imperative that candidates not discuss the exam with their peers who have not yet completed their Oral Exam. All students taking the exam in a given semester will be informed by the Graduate Studies Office of their exam outcome by approximately the same date.

Quals Reading List

The Quals Reading List consists of four publications from IC conferences and other outlets that are deemed appropriate to test the candidate's breadth and depth of knowledge in the IC area. The candidate must choose three of these four papers for the oral exam and choose one of those papers to serve as the foundation for their Qual Research Proposal. The selections must be conveyed to the committee (see Timeline).

In the Oral Exam, the candidate must answer questions about the selected papers. To do so, the candidate is expected to know these papers deeply and be able to speak thoroughly on all portions of the papers, including but not restricted to relevant context, prior work and theory, methods, findings, and implications.

Supplementary Readings: The candidate is responsible for general knowledge within the IC area, especially but not limited to that which is relevant to: a) the candidate’s research interests, and b) the three papers on the candidate’s personal reading list. To assist candidates in this preparation, the faculty have constructed an IC Core Reading List, which they will continue to update over time. This reading list compiles foundational readings including books/book chapters, research articles, and more. It covers research methods in HCI and the research areas of IC faculty. The list is neither exhaustive nor required; however, the faculty strongly recommend candidates become familiar with relevant works from this list.

Quals Research Proposal

The Quals Research Proposal is a written document in which the candidate independently proposes a new research project. The proposed work should be something that would be reasonable follow-up work for one paper from the Quals Reading List. 

Expected Content: 

The Quals Research Proposal should contain the following sections. Except as specified below, the content in these sections should be similar to what you would find in a typical CHI paper. 

1. Abstract

   • No more than 150 words

2. Introduction

   • Articulate clear and meaningful research questions. Provide a concise motivation for why these research questions matter and are important to answer.

3. Related Work

   • This section must provide a concise motivation for why these research questions and/or design objectives matter, and are important to answer.

   • Due to the time constraints of quals, this will be a smaller section than in a published CHI paper; we expect 5-10 related papers, rather than a full-size literature review section. As in any research paper, you may cite non-academic sources, but your writing should contextualize these alternative sources appropriately, and you should still include 5-10 academic sources. 

4. Methods

   • Describe the method(s) for how you will answer the research questions. The proposed methods should be reasonable, well-justified, and appropriate for answering the research questions.

5. Proposed analysis

   • Propose reasonable, well-justified, and appropriate methods for data or systems analysis, connecting these directly to the research questions. Do not execute the proposal, rather, explain what you would do with the outcomes from the Methods and justify your choices.

   • This section may look different depending on the type of research proposed (e.g. Technical/Systems, Empirical Quantitative or Empirical Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Design, etc.)

     • e.g. a systems proposal might use this section to justify design choices, provide mockups to illustrate the proposed system and how the design objectives are addressed, and describe an evaluation method. 

     • e.g. a study employing statistical, quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods to answer proposed RQs might use this section to expand on the details of the analysis of the data, justifying why each analysis approach is chosen. 

6. Limitations & Feasibility

   • Critically reflect on the feasibility of executing your proposal. While a published paper demonstrates feasibility by having executed on the work, the proposal must convince the exam committee that it will be possible.

Additional Requirements:

• The Quals Research Proposal should be at most 10 pages in length excluding references and figures, and use the single column ACM submission template.

• The Quals Research Proposal must be new. Concretely, this means: 

  • It should be meaningfully different from any already-published paper. 

  • It should not be something the candidate came up with before the Quals Reading List was released. 

• The Quals Research Proposal must be written independently. Concretely, this means:

  • Candidates must write the proposal themselves, and may not consult with their advisor, other faculty members, or their peers on the proposal. 

  • The proposed work cannot be a prior paper that the candidate has published or is working on with their advisor(s).

Oral Exam

The Oral Exam is a 2-hour session in which the exam committee asks the candidate questions about their research proposal, the qual papers, and related topics from the background reading list.The candidate should schedule a date and time for the Oral Exam with their committee. The Oral Exam can be held in-person or online. If the exam is held online, the candidate should be prepared to configure the conferencing technology. 

During the Oral Exam, the candidate should be prepared to:

1. Summarize each of the three papers they chose from the Quals Reading List

2. Summarize their Quals Research Proposal

3. Answer questions from the committee about the papers, the proposal, and related IC and CS topics.

During the Oral Exam, candidates may reference their Quals Research Proposal, the papers from their Quals Reading List, and their notes. In fact, faculty regularly ask questions referencing details in these documents, so the candidate should have them readily available. However, candidates may not reference other online materials, and they may not use generative AI tools in any capacity during the Oral Exam. 

After the committee has concluded their questioning, they will ask the candidate to leave so that they may discuss the candidate’s performance. Because Oral Exams are scheduled over a 1-2 week period, it is imperative that candidates do not discuss the exam with peers who have not yet completed their Oral Exam.

Criteria for Passing the Exam

To pass the exam, candidates must demonstrate mastery of key IC- and CS-related concepts in the Quals Reading List and their Quals Research Proposal, show promise to conduct independent research, and be able to explain, apply, contextualize, transfer, and critique these concepts.

AI Policy:

The purpose of the qualifying exam is to assess the student’s ability to independently articulate clear and meaningful research ideas. As such, candidates may not use AI tools for any part of the preparation for the written or oral portion of the exam. This includes but is not limited to: 

• Generating text for the proposal, including brainstorming, outlining, or polishing

• Getting feedback on written or oral responses from AI tools

The following questions describe key competencies for the written and oral portions of the exam.  This list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive.

Quals Research Proposal

Oral Exam