Computer Science, Accelerated Master of Science in Computer Science

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Accelerated Master of Science in Computer Science Program

Description

The Accelerated M.S. Program targets at the undergraduate students majoring in Computer Science at TSU. It gives them an opportunity to complete Master of Science in Computer Science (M.S. in CS) degree program within two semesters upon completion of their Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (B.S. in CS) degree program. The existing M.S. in CS program requires completion of 33 credit hours of coursework. The Accelerate M.S. in CS program uses course substitutions for 9 credits hours of undergraduate courses, i.e., it allows the undergraduate students to take 9 credit hours of graduate courses during their undergraduate matriculation and use these courses to substitute the related undergraduate courses. The additional 9 credit hours of graduate courses will be added into the minimum 120 credit hours of graduation requirements for B.S. in CS program. The remaining 15 credit hours of coursework will be completed as a graduate student at TSU. The program is integrated with the current programs at the department. Therefore, the students will be graduating with one of the three concentrations offered by the department for the MS in CS program: (1) high-performance computing and bioinformatics, (2) cyber-security and networking, and (3) data science.

Admission Requirements

All students desiring to enroll for this program must apply through the Engineering Centralized AppCAS application system. School of Graduate and Professional Studies. To be admitted to the program, students should demonstrate readiness to succeed in the graduate program. To do this, students should meet the following criteria:

The applicant must be in the process of completing or already have completed 90 hours of required undergraduate coursework towards his/her B.S. in CS degree in the Department of Computer Science.
The applicant must have a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale or a GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for coursework in computer science only.

The application materials of each applicant will be evaluated by a committee.

Course Substitution Table

The following table shows the list of the graduate courses that substitute undergraduate coursework. Note that the student will not be allowed to enroll in a graduate course until the prerequisite requirement of its correspondent undergraduate course in the table is fulfilled. The three (3) graduate courses with 9 credit hours can be taken from the list of M.S. courses depending on the preferred concentration.

Graduate Courses - Substitutes	Undergraduate Courses
COMP 5200 - Advanced Algorithms Design and Analysis	COMP 4700 - Algorithms
COMP 5720 - Cryptography and Computer Security	COMP 4720 - Cryptography and Computer Security
COMP 5750 - Computer Network Management and Security	COMP 4750 - Computer Network Management
COMP 6100 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology	COMP 4820 - Intro to Bioinformatics Computing
COMP XXXX - Course Title See NOTE: below	COMP 4900/4910 - Special Topics: Course Title

NOTE: the Department typically offers COMP 4900/4910 - Special Topics course every semester with a different special topic in computer science.
Also, COMP 4900/4910 is typically dual listed with a corresponding graduate course. For example,

COMP 5600 - Mobile App Development	COMP 4910 Special Topics: Mobile App Development
COMP 5520 - High-Performance Computing	COMP 4910 - Special Topics: High-Performance Computing

Non-Thesis and Thesis Options

The proposed program requires completion of either a 6-credit hour thesis, for the thesis option, or 6 credit hours of design-based courses, for the non-thesis option. For the thesis option, a thesis manuscript and an oral presentation are required to document the student’s research activity. A thesis committee will supervise the student’s thesis work. The committee will consist of three faculty members, including the thesis chair. At least two of the committee members must be computer science graduate faculty. The chair must be a computer science faculty with graduate faculty credentials. For the non-thesis option, 6 credit hours of design-based courses are required. These courses will be selected from an approved list with consent of the student’s advisor. These courses have a strong project/design component.

Retention Requirements

The following is a list of the retention requirements:

Students are required to maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.00 throughout the program. After completion of nine semester hours of graduate work, if the student’s cumulative GPA at the end of the given semester falls below 3.00, the student will be placed on probation. A student who fails to attain a cumulative GPA of 3.00 during the next semester enrolled will be suspended.
Students must have a grade of B or better in all core courses and may not have more than two C grades in other courses used to meet degree requirements.
Students who have repeated a core course and failed to achieve a grade B or higher will be dismissed from the program.
The maximum time allowed for completion of the master’s degree is six calendar years. All requirements for the M.S. in CS degree must be completed within the six-year period beginning with the student’s first term of enrollment in a graduate course.
Students dismissed from the program will not be readmitted.
In Accelerated M.S. Program, if the student is dismissed from the program, any graduate course taken from the substitution table above with a grade D or better while in the accelerated program can still be counted toward the B.S. degree.

Graduation Requirements

The M.S. in Computer Science program has two tracks: (a) a non-thesis program that requires 33 hours of coursework or (b) a thesis program that requires completion 27 hours of coursework and a thesis. The thesis option is strongly recommended for the students who intend to pursue a doctoral degree. The Master of Science degree in Computer Science will require the following:

Admission of all degree-seeking students to candidacy for the degree after the completion of nine (9) graduate credit hours in residence at the University. The student must file an Admission to Candidacy form with the Graduate School prior to the semester in which graduation is desired.
A minimum of 33 credit hours of graduate work, including 21 credit hours of required graduate core courses, with the following conditions for the Non-Thesis Option and Thesis Option.

Non-thesis Option

The student must complete 33 credit hours of graduate computer science coursework.

Thesis Option

The student must complete 27 credit hours of graduate computer science coursework and 6 credit hours of thesis work. A thesis is documented by a report and an oral presentation is required. A thesis committee will supervise the student’s thesis work. The committee will consist of three faculty members including the thesis chair. At least two of the committee members must be computer science graduate faculty. The chair must be computer science faculty and hold full graduate faculty membership.