Master of Science in Computer Science

• Overview
• Curriculum
• Learning Outcomes

Curriculum

Program requirements: The M.S. curriculum in computer science has two tracks: thesis and non thesis.

Program requirements for thesis option

4 courses from a list of CSC courses the department maintains; 4 other courses chosen with approval of the major professor; eight credits of thesis.

Program requirements for non-thesis option

6 courses from a list of CSC courses the department maintains; 4 other courses chosen with approval of the advisor; at least one of the ten courses listed above should include writing a substantial paper based on significant independent research. All non-thesis students have to pass a comprehensive exam.

A program of study can include at most 3 courses at the 400-level. Students who have undergraduate credits for a particular 400-level course (or equivalent) cannot repeat the course for graduate credit.

Please refer to the MS thesis or MS non-thesis guidance documents to make sure you are making timely progress with your program. You can find it here:

MS (thesis track): Thesis Track Guidance
MS (non-thesis track): Non-Thesis Track Guidance

CS approved list of courses

Theory
CSC 541, Advanced Topics in Algorithms
CSC 542, Mathematical Analysis of Algorithms
CSC 544, Theory of Computation
CSC 550, Computer Algebra
CSC 501, Programming Language Semantics
CSC 546, Algorithms for Big Data

Systems
CSC 412, Operating Systems and Networks
CSC 415, Introduction to Parallel Computing
CSC 505, Advanced topics in Software Engineering
CSC 512, Topics in Distributed Systems
CSC 411/511, Computer Organization
CSC 417/519, Computer Networks

Applications
CSC 402/502, Programming Language Implementation
CSC 461, Machine Learning
CSC 406, Computer Graphics
CSC 536, Database Management Systems
CSC 522, Bioinformatics
CSC 481, Artificial Intelligence
CSC 583, Computer Vision [3 credits]

Note: In addition, a student can use a CSC 592 special topics course toward their MS coursework by petitioning the director of graduate studies for computer science.

Previous Curriculum
If you were admitted to the MS program in Fall 2018 or earlier you can choose between the previous curriculum and the current one. If you were admitted to the program in Spring 2019 or later you must follow the current curriculum.