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The Master of Science degree permits graduate students the flexibility in
defining specialized interdisciplinary fields that meet their professional
needs.
It is also available to undergraduate Computer Science majors through the
Concurrent BS/MS Degree Program.
The Master of Science degree requirements encompass the following areas:
The Bulletin of the Graduate School gives the general requirements for the
degree of Master of Science in all departments of the University of Colorado.
The following is a description of those requirements which specifically
pertain to students pursuing a course of study leading to the degree of
Master of Science in the Department of Computer Science. It supplements
the requirements in the Bulletin. In all cases not specifically mentioned
below, the general requirements as stated in the Bulletin are understood
to apply.
The department requires a candidate to complete an approved program of study
consisting of at least 30 semester hours. At least 24 of these 30 hours must be
in Computer Science courses at the 5000 level or above. (Any course which is
cross-listed by Computer Science is considered to be a Computer Science course,
regardless of the department in which the student actually registers.) Up to 6
hours may be taken in courses at the 4000 level or above in other departments
(CSCI 4000 level courses cannot be counted towards a Masters degree),
provided that those courses have "significant Computer Science content" and are
taught by a member of the graduate faculty. The student should file a petition
to allow these credit hours to be counted toward the degree. This petition must
explicitly verify the above requirements and must be approved by the student's
advisor and the Graduate Director of the Computer Science department.
Breadth requirement:
Computer Science Courses are listed in nine areas:
artificial intelligence,
database systems,
numerical computation,
operating systems,
parallel computing,
programming languages,
software engineering,
computer graphics,
and
theory.
All students must earn a B or better (not a B-)
in at least one 5000-level course (not 6000 or higher)
in four of these nine areas (this does not include area 0).
With the consent of the student's advisor or by petition to the
Graduate Committee, a more advanced course
(at CU) in an area in which basic graduate work was done elsewhere
may be used to satisfy part of this requirement.
Master's students may request a maximum of nine semester hours to be
transferred. All transfer requests MUST have departmental approval.
Courses outside computer science may be appropriate
for a given student's program.
With the approval of an advisor, any courses
at the 4000 level or above
are allowed under this heading if they are taught
by a member of the graduate faculty and are not
cross-listed with Computer Science.
TLEN 5833 cannot be used.
Students will be expected to submit a plan of study, in
consultation with their departmental advisor, during the
first semester of study. Changes to the plan of study
must be approved by the advisor.
Students who elect to do a thesis receive 6 hours of thesis credit,
towards the required 30 hours of coursework. They must also
take an oral comprehensive exam on their thesis work and
submit their thesis to the graduate school for approval.
Students electing the non-thesis option must take the written
comprehensive exam described below.
Each semester a written Masters Comprehensive Exam will be administered.
The due date and specific instructions for the exam will be announced via
email to the student's department email account. The due date will be announced
within the first three weeks of the semester (fall and spring only).
Below are the instructions from previous semesters.
Please note these might change slightly from semester to semester.
Write a paper on a topic in Computer Science or on an application of
Computer Science. The purpose of the examination is to show that you have
learned how to write a research paper. The paper need not report on your
own research -- it can report on any computer science topic -- but it
should be written in the style of a typical Computer Science journal
paper or review article. See an IEEE Transactions,
an ACM Transactions, the
Journal of the ACM and
ACM Computing Surveys
for examples.
Your paper can be either a survey paper or a research paper:
- Survey Paper
-
A survey paper presents a detailed overview of a limited subarea of
computer science. The goal is comprehensive coverage of current knowledge
in a prescribed domain. Furthermore the survey has an element of
originality. This could be, e.g., a new framework in which to understand
and evaluate the subject matter; original comparisons between different
sources or methods; focus on new key ideas or concepts. The paper cannot be
simply a transcription of course notes or a summary of several articles or
books.
- Research Paper
-
A research paper presents original results developed by the author. It is
similar to a research article in the above cited journals. It is not
required that the paper be accepted to a journal or conference -- the
original contribution can be much more modest. However it should have
original insights that with perhaps some further work could be published.
In both cases the paper should demonstrate mastery of some area of computer
science (i.e., one of the nine areas of the CU Computer Science Department
course curriculum) at the graduate level. The paper may be based on a paper
you have already written. Usually such a paper will need some modifications
to meet the format requirements.
It is not acceptable to work together with anyone else on this paper. If
you base the paper on a joint paper already written with others (such as a
faculty member or another student in a course) then you will need to
substantially rewrite it to differentiate it clearly from the joint paper.
In this case, hand in an additional statement identifying the original
paper and its authors, and explaining the difference between the two
versions.
Extensive quoting and paraphrasing is not acceptable. In addition to usual
citations, any figure, definition or equation taken from a source should be
clearly delimited and cited.
Students should make full use of the library and other sources. At least 20
relevant references to the literature must be included and cited in the
text. (Do not pad the list with equivalent references, e.g., five Java
textbooks.) Website references are permitted but should not be included in
the reference count, unless the website is refereed (e.g., an electronic
journal).
Handwritten submissions will not be accepted. Papers should be no less than
6000 words (excluding references) in length. Each paper should include an
abstract of at most 200 words that clearly summarizes the contents. Papers
must also have an Introduction, which sets the general context for the
paper (with appropriate references), and a Conclusion, summarizing the key
points. References should be placed at the end, not as footnotes.
Otherwise, the detailed format is up to the student, provided it has the
appearance (appropriate sections, section and equation numbering, reference
citation format, etc.) of a typical journal paper. Sections and pages
must be numbered. A word count should appear at the end of the
document.
A paper needing minor revisions to get a passing grade will be returned
with reviewers' comments. The paper should be revised to address all these
comments. In addition to the revised paper, a summary sheet should be
submitted, listing how each of the reviewers' comments was addressed.
Include specific page numbers and textual references, wherever appropriate.
A paper that needs substantial revisions, or a paper violating the
guidelines of this document, will receive a failing grade with no
opportunity for revision.
Questions about the exam can be addressed to the Chair of the Exam Committee,
Harold Gabow.
The Graduate School requires that to receive a Master's degree a
student must maintain a grade point average of at least 3.0 in all courses
taken as a graduate student.
Any student who does not enroll for any course work relevant to
Computer Science in any one semester (summer semesters
excluded) must
supply the Department with a written statement describing the reasons
for such an inactivity and the student's current intentions concerning
work towards the degree.
This statement must be received by the Department by the end of the
eighth week of the semester in question. Failure to do so
will be regarded as evidence of a lack of interest in continuing in the
program. Similarly, any student who does not enroll for any Computer
Science course work for three consecutive semesters (summer semesters
excluded) will be regarded as showing a lack of
interest in continuing in the program. In either case, the student
may be asked to explain to the Department why the student should not be
removed from the degree program, with the Department making the final
decision on the removal.
All requirements for the MS degree must be completed within
four years of the start of course work.
A student who fails either the Masters Comprehensive Exam or the oral thesis
defense may retake the failed exam once, in a later semester. In doing this the
student may switch between the thesis and the nonthesis option of the program.
A maximum of two attempts is allowed.
Each graduate student is assigned an initial advisor when they are accepted
into the program. Students consult with their advisor to
plan their course of study. If a student does a master's thesis,
typically they change advisors and use their thesis supervisor
as both academic and thesis advisor.
There are several programs related to the Master of Science degree that may be
of interest. These include the Certificate in Human Language Technology and the
Dual MS/MBA Program.
Certificate in Human Language Technology
The
Interdisciplinary Certificate in Human Language Technology,
jointly sponsored by the Computer Science Department together with the
Center for Spoken Language Research,
and the Departments of
Linguistics,
Electrical and Computer Engineering,
and
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences,
provides a rich and broad background for students interested in computational
tools for human language processing. The Certificate curriculum covers areas
such as computer speech recognition, natural language processing,
text-based information retrieval, and web-based dialog agents.
This Masters-level certificate accompanies a normal MA or MS degree
in one of the four Human Language Technology disciplines:
- Computer Science
- Linguistics
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
The program is available to currently enrolled CU Boulder Masters or PhD
students in any of these four fields, including students in the five-year
Concurrent BS/MS Degree Program
in Computer Science.
Interested Computer Science students should contact the HLT Curriculum Committee
member for Computer Science, Professor James Martin.
Dual MS/MBA Program
To support the University's mission of advancing knowledge across disciplines
and in recognition that business education and training has relevance to many
academic fields, the
Leeds School of Business and the
Department of Computer Science endorse a
Dual Degree Program in which both a
Master of Business Administration
and a Master of Science in Computer Science are awarded to those students who
satisfy the requirements.
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