Within one year from the date of successfully passing the ME PhD Qualifying Exam (ME930 and ME931), the PhD student will prepare and defend a research proposal. In consultation with the PhD advisor, the PhD student will identify a research proposal topic and form their PhD dissertation advisory committee (DAC). The purpose of the Proposal Defense is to ensure that the dissertation is appropriately scoped and all members of the DAC are in agreement with the methodology, products, validation approach, results, etc., for the dissertation. This proposal should show that the research results could be publishable in a refereed journal.