We encourage students to follow their interests and to pursue interdisciplinary contacts as appropriate for their program of research and study. The doctoral program is broad and flexible, so usually we can find ways to accommodate these interests. However, there are times when a student's research goes so far afield that an interdisciplinary Ph.D. would be more appropriate. The department accommodates these students by allowing a self-defined interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.
A student interested in a self-defined Ph.D. sets it up between Computer Science and another academic department. The student must draw up a description of the area in which he or she wishes to work and a proposed academic plan, which typically includes coursework, a description of the qualifier (if any), and how the thesis will be approved. The student then must put together a program committee consisting of people from both departments who will agree to oversee the student's progress through the program; this committee acts as the student's department. Finally, the program must be approved by the DRC and by the equivalent committee of the other department.
The process of setting up an interdisciplinary Ph.D. is not easy and can easily take a year or two. The process by which interdisciplinary Ph.D.s is created is unfamiliar to most other departments and is not well-defined by the university itself, so it may take some anguished brow-beating before the other department will recognize the student's proposed interdisciplinary program. It is therefore in most students' interests to stay within the Computer Science program; once coursework is done, there are few limitations on a Computer Science Ph.D. student's course of study, thereby giving the student nearly the same flexibility achievable through a self-defined program.