In the autumn of 1966, he began graduate school at the University of Utah College of Engineering. He earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in electrical engineering in 1968, and then a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in computer science in 1969. His doctoral dissertation, "FLEX: A Flexible Extendable Language", described the invention of a computer language named FLEX. While there, he worked with "fathers of computer graphics" David C. Evans (who had been recently recruited from the University of California, Berkeley to start Utah's computer science department) and Ivan Sutherland (best known for writing such pioneering programs as Sketchpad). Their mentorship greatly inspired Kay's evolving views on objects and programming. As he grew busier with research for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), he ended his musical career.