The MS Thesis track is for students who want to concentrate on research in some sub-field of Computer Science. You are required to arrange for a Computer Science faculty member who agrees to advise the thesis and the rest of your course selection prior to selecting the track.
1. Overall Requirements
Students must complete at least a total of 30 graduate credits.
Fulfill the 12-credit core requirement.
9 required points of COMS E6902.
9 additional elective credits of graduate courses selected from Computer Science and/or related areas together with your faculty thesis advisor.
Students using previous courses to fulfill core requirements may complete the 30 graduate credits by selecting additional graduate courses; at most 3 credits overall may be from "non-technical" graduate courses.
2. Core Courses
For the 12-credit core requirement, students take four courses from the following six:
COMS W4115 Programming Languages & Translators
COMS W4118 Operating Systems
COMS W4156 Advanced Software Engineering
CSOR W4231 Analysis of Algorithms
COMS W4701 Artificial Intelligence
COMS W4824 Computer Architecture (same as CSEE W4824 Computer Architecture)
Core courses may be imported from another institution.
3. Required Track Courses
9 points of COMS E6902 Thesis. The points are typically spread over multiple semesters, e.g., 3 points each for 3 semesters or 4.5 points each for 2 semesters. No more than 9 points of E6902 may be taken. Sign up for the section number of E6902 associated with your thesis advisor.
4. Elective Track Courses
Candidates are required to complete 9 additional elective credits of graduate courses (4000 level or above) selected from Computer Science and/or related areas together with your faculty thesis advisor. These would normally be strongly related to your thesis topic.
Up to 3 of these points may be in COMS E6901 Projects in Computer Science.
The elective track courses cannot be imported from another institution.
5. General Electives
Students using previous courses to fulfill core requirements may complete the 30 graduate credits by selecting additional graduate courses beyond the 9 points required for the track. At most 3 credits overall may be from "non-technical" graduate courses. All general electives must be approved by your thesis advisor.
6. Thesis Defense
A thesis proposal is presented to your thesis committee at
least three months before your defense. Your thesis committee should have three members. Two of them must be internal, but one can be an
outsider. A publication-quality thesis
document is published as a CS department technical report. Please bring
the thesis defense form to your defense.
The thesis cannot be imported from another institution.
7. Contact
Please direct all questions concerning the MS Thesis Track to Prof. Mihalis Yannakakis.
8. Graduation
Candidates preparing for graduation should submit a completed application for degree to the Registrar's Office and submit a track graduation form to C.S. Student Services (an example of a completed form is available here).
