Graduation Requirements

Program Course Requirements:

MSDS Students need to complete 36 credits (12 courses) divided as follows:

To complete the MS degree, students must present 36 credits satisfying the requirements listed above, and yielding at least a B average.

 

Thesis option

The student must write a masters thesis, and must register for exactly six credits of 198:701-702. The Master's thesis must be a written account of a critical and scholarly investigation in an area of computer science. It may represent:

  • (a) a piece of independent research (extensions and improvements of work in a given part of the field are acceptable at a level of novelty which is less than that required for a doctoral thesis);
  • (b) a work of synthesis that gives new significance and insight to previously-known results;
  • or (c) an important constructive contribution to the development of a computer application.

The thesis may not be a digest of known results from the literature, a summary of a published report, company classified or government classified material, or dependent for its background on other non-available reports. The thesis topic should be chosen by mutual agreement between the student and a member of the faculty. The thesis must be approved by the student's thesis committee. The committee consists of the thesis supervisor and two other faculty members who are appointed by the Graduate Committee in consultation with the thesis supervisor. The advisor and members of the thesis committee must be members of the Graduate Faculty in Computer Science.

The thesis must be written in English (except that some portion may require a computer language, with English documentation), it must be the student's own work and it must demonstrate the student's facility for expository writing.

There are several forms that must be filled out and submitted by the appropriate deadlines in order for the student who has fulfilled the above requirements to receive a Master's degree. (The approximate deadlines are listed in section 9.) It is the student's responsibility that all this paperwork be done on time. Information and forms can be obtained from the graduate secretary.