I am happy to report that I have passed the Advancement to Candidacy exam, the second milestone towards my PhD. Still a long way to go, but there is now one less thing to worry about! Also it seems, that now I get to call my self a Ph.D. Candidate at UC Irvine.

The Advancement to Candidacy exam is the second milestone for a Ph.D. student in the Software Engineering Program at UC Irvine. It requires the student to write a journal length/style research paper pertaining to an area of software engineering. This paper is then submitted to a review panel of three experienced software engineering researchers who provide detailed feedback on the paper and research. The student is then required to turn in a revised version of this paper to the reviewing committee who then either accept or reject the revised paper. Upon acceptance, the student is allowed to present his/her research in an oral defense to a committee of five experienced software engineering researchers many of whom are faculty members at UCI.