Computer Science, MS Degree Requirements
The Master of Science in Computer Science requires 30 credit hours, including 21 hours of graded course work and 9 credits of thesis research (CS 700).
The student is expected to complete a significant research project and submit a thesis adhering to the formatting requirements of the student's advisory committee and to the requirements of the Graduate School. The thesis work should be submitted for publication prior to scheduling the thesis defense. It is the student's responsibility to meet the deadlines specified by the Graduate School and to have the thesis printed, photocopied, and distributed. One bound copy of the thesis must be provided to the School of Engineering and Computer Science as part of its library.
Requirements
The 21 semester hour credits of graded course work are subject to the restrictions listed below:
• A maximum of six credits of 400-level course work
• A maximum of one 3-credit Directed Study (CS 595) course
• A maximum of six graduate-level transfer credits are allowed
One 400-level course is permitted in the student's MSCS program. The course is to be chosen in consultation with the advisor. However, CS 402 cannot be used for the program nor can conjoint courses (those listed 400/500). That is, students must take the 500 level-course if they wish to use it in their graduate program of study. Undergraduate courses listed as admission requirements cannot be counted towards the MSCS degree.
A maximum of six graduate-level transfer credits are allowed. All graduate students in the MSCS program are required to take CS 500 (Computer Science Seminar) in the fall of their first year after admission to the program.
In order to ensure that each student obtains a reasonable graduate level understanding of a number of fundamental areas of computer science, each MSCS student must complete at least four CS graduate courses selected from three different categories, as follows:
• one course from the Theory and Algorithms category
• three courses from at least two other categories
Graduate course categories:
Architecture and Operating Systems
CS 566 Embedded Systems
Graphics and Animation
CS 542 Computer Graphics
CS 548 Advanced Computer Graphics
Intelligent Systems
CS 534 Neural Network Design and Application
CS 541 Artificial Intelligence
CS 570 Machine Learning
Networks and Security
CS 527 Computer Security
Parallel, Distributed and Real-time Computing
CS 550 Parallel Computation
CS 564 Distributed Systems
Software Engineering
CS 521 Software Engineering Analysis
CS 522 Software Reuse
Theory and Algorithms
CS 516 Algorithmics
Specific offerings of CS 580 (Advanced Topics in Computer Science) will be classified into one of the above categories, based on the course content. Offerings of CS 500 (Computer Science Seminar) are not classified into any of the above categories.