After passing the oral qualifying exam, the student and advisor assemble a Research Advisory Committee that includes the advisor, two additional CMP faculty members and one member from either another program, another university or from outside academia. Since non-CMP faculty members can be hard to find (most faculty members belong to multiple graduate programs), an "outside" member from within CMP is permissible if they work in a different building. Members of the committee preferably possess expertise relevant to the thesis topic.
The Research Advisory Committee meets with the student at least once a year to evaluate research progress. An abstract should be presented to the committee in advance of the meeting. Ordinarily, the student will provide an update in the form of an oral presentation. Students may combine their Research Advisory Committee meeting with their yearly presentation at the Graduate Research Seminar. In this case, the committee meets with the student privately after the public presentation. An Annual Research Advisory Committee Meeting form must be filed with the program’s administrative assistant.