Computer Science, M.C.S.

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREES

MASTER’S DEGREE - MCS

The Master of Computer Science (M.C.S.) degree offers two options:

M.C.S. (coursework) focuses on coursework only: the student performs no independent research.

M.C.S. (project) involves a project: The student conducts independent research overseen by a professor. The level of research effort is commensurate with one (1) typical academic course.

An M.C.S. student is assigned an academic advisor upon entering the program. If the student selects an M.C.S. (project) degree, their research advisor then becomes the academic advisor.

M.C.S. General Degree Requirements:

Generally, only courses 6000 and above may be used to count towards the M.C.S. degree.
Up to 6 credits of non-CS 5000 level courses may be used to count towards the M.C.S. degree with advisor and Master’s Graduate Program Director (MGPD) approval.
A graded credit means that the course resulted in a letter grade (A, B, C…) as opposed to an audited course (AU) or a pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, or credit/no credit course (CR/NC).
No grade lower than a “B” will be accepted towards satisfying the M.C.S.’s degree requirements. While a course with a passing grade lower than B will count in the GPA, it will not count toward degree requirements.

M.C.S. Degree (Coursework) – 31 credits:

1 credit of CS 6190 (Computer Science Perspectives).
12 credits of graded, graduate-level 6000 and above CS breadth electives comprised of a minimum of 3 credits in any four of the six breadth areas listed below.
18 credits of graded, graduate-level 6000 and above CS electives or other graduate courses approved by the advisor and the MGPD.
At most 3 credits of CS 6993/7993 (Independent Study) may count toward the degree.
Program Assessment Forms: Engineering Graduate Plan of Study, Engineering Design, and Engineering Analysis.

M.C.S. Degree (Project) – 31 credits:

1 credit of CS 6190 (Computer Science Perspectives).
12 credits of graded, graduate-level 6000 and above CS breadth electives comprised of a minimum of 3 credits in any four of the six breadth areas listed below.
15 credits of graded, graduate-level 6000 and above CS electives or other graduate courses approved by the advisor and the MGPD.
3 credits of CS 7995 (Supervised Project Research) must be taken with the research advisor. These 3 credits reflect the execution, summary report, and presentation of the M.C.S project. CS 8999 (Thesis) cannot be used.
The assessment for the M.C.S (project) requires a written project description and an oral presentation before a minimum of two CS faculty.
Program Assessment Forms: Engineering Design, Engineering Analysis, and Engineering Oral.

TRANSFER CREDITS

Students should consult “Transfer Credits” in the School of Engineering and Applied Science—Academic Rules section of the Record for information about transferring courses toward their graduate degree.

Whether any individual transfer course counts toward CS master’s degree requirements is determined by the MGPD.

BREADTH AREAS and COURSES (6000 level and above)

1. Cyber Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Embedded Systems

CS 6205 - Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction Credits: 3
CS 6465 - Human-Robot Interaction Credits: 3
CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Autonomous and Mobile Robots (Bezzo)

Approved Topic: Engineering Interactive Technologies (Heo)

Approved Topic: Communication, Test-Beds & Policy (Campbell)

Approved Topic: Advanced Embedded Computing Systems (Alemzadeh)

Approved Topic: Smart and Healthy Buildings (Campbell)

Approved Topic: Computational Behavior Modeling (Doryab)

Approved Topic: Learning for Interactive Robots (Kuo)

Approved Topic: Learning in Robotics (Behl)

Approved Topic: Wireless Sensing for Internet of Things (Qian)

Approved Topic: Multi-Robot Navigation (Chandra)
CS 6762 - Signal Processing, Machine Learning and Control Credits: 3
CS 6763 - Cyber-Physical Systems: Formal Methods, Safety and Security Credits: 3
CS 6780 - Cyber-Physical Systems Technology and Ethics Credits: 3

2. Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Text Mining, Data Mining

CS 6316 - Machine Learning Credits: 3
CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Trustworthy AI (Zeng)

Approved Topic: AI for Digital Health (Nepal)

Approved Topic: Constrained-Aware Generative AI for Sci & Engr (Fioretto)

Approved Topic: Workshop on Building AI Agents (Kautz)

Approved Topic: Statistical Learning and Graphical Models (Hassanzadeh)

Approved Topic: Geometry of Data (Fletcher)

Approved Topic: AI for Social Good (Doryab)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning in Image Analysis (Zhang)

Approved Topic: Interpretable Machine Learning (Ji)

Approved Topic: Learning in Robotics (Behl)

Approved Topic: Topics in Reinforcement Learning (Zhang)

Approved Topic: Digital Signal Processing (Fletcher)

Approved Topic: Program Analysis for ML and ML for Prog Analysis (Elbaum)

Approved Topic: Learning for Interactive Robots (Kuo)

Approved Topic: Risks and Benefits of Generative AI and LLMs (Evans, Qi)

Approved Topic: Responsible AI: Privacy, Fairness, and Robustness (Fioretto)

Approved Topic: Probabilistic Machine Learning (Farnoud)

Approved Topic: 3D Computer Vision (Cheng)

Approved Topic: Graph Machine Learning (Chen)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning for Software Reliability (Wang)

Approved Topic: Neural Networks (Daneshmand)

Approved Topic: Analyzing Online Behavior for Public Health (Kautz)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning on Graphs (Li)
CS 6762 - Signal Processing, Machine Learning and Control Credits: 3
CS 6770 - Natural Language Processing Credits: 3
CS 6771 - Reinforcement Learning Credits: 3

3. Security, Privacy, Cryptography

CS 6222 - Introduction to Cryptography Credits: 3
CS 6434 - Dependable Computing Systems Credits: 3
CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Security of AI Systems: Attacks & Defenses (Ul Hassan)

Approved Topic: Software Security via Program Analysis (Kwon)

Approved Topic: Cyber Forensics: Automated Software Approaches (Kwon)

Approved Topic: Hardware Security (Venkat)

Approved Topic: Network Security and Privacy (Sun)

Approved Topic: Data Privacy (T. Wang)

Approved Topic: Threat Detection and Response (Ul Hassan)

Approved Topic: Responsible AI: Privacy, Fairness, and Robustness (Fioretto)

Approved Topic: Risks and Benefits of Generative AI and LLMs (Evans, Qi)

Approved Topic: Economics of Distributed Systems (Ferreira)

Approved Topic: Software Security Testing (Davidson)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning in Systems Security (Ul Hassan)

4. Theory and Algorithms

CS 6160 - Theory of Computation Credits: 3
CS 6161 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms Credits: 3
CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Convex Optimization for Engineering and Data Science (Li)

Approved Topic: Software Logic (Sullivan)

Approved Topic: Geometry of Data (Fletcher)

Approved Topic: Computational Genomics (Sheffield/Zang)

Approved Topic: Learning in Robotics (Behl)

Approved Topic: Economics of Distributed Systems (Ferreira)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning for Software Reliability (Wang)
CS 8501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Neural Network Verification

5. Computer Systems

CS 6111 - Cloud Computing Credits: 3
CS 6354 - Computer Architecture Credits: 3
CS 6434 - Dependable Computing Systems Credits: 3
CS 6456 - Operating Systems Credits: 3
CS 6457 - Computer Networks Credits: 3
CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Networking Infrastructure Within Data Centers (Cai)

Approved Topic: Serverless AI (Cheng)

Approved Topic: Hardware Security (Venkat)

Approved Topic: Computer Networks (Sun)

Approved Topic: Network Security and Privacy (Sun)

Approved Topic: Advanced Embedded Computing Systems (Alemzadeh)

Approved Topic: Computer Architecture: Hardware Accelerators (Skadron)

Approved Topic: Software-Defined Networking and Prog Networks (Kim)

Approved Topic: Cloud System Reliability (Lou)

Approved Topic: Modern Computing Architectures (Jog)

Approved Topic: GPU Architectures (Jog)

Approved Topic: CPU/GPU Memory Systems and Near-Data Processing (Skadron)

6. Software Engineering

CS 6501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Cyber Forensics: Automated Software Approaches (Kwon)

Approved Topic: Software Logic (Sullivan)

Approved Topic: Program Analysis for ML and ML for Prog Analysis (Elbaum)

Approved Topic: Cloud System Reliability (Lou)

Approved Topic: Machine Learning for Software Reliability (Wang)
CS 6620 - Compilers Credits: 3
CS 6763 - Cyber-Physical Systems: Formal Methods, Safety and Security Credits: 3
CS 6888 - Software Analysis and Applications Credits: 3
CS 8501 - Special Topics in Computer Science Credits: 3
Approved Topic: Neural Network Verification
CS 8524 - Topics in Software Engineering Credits: 1 to 3