Combined Bachelors and Masters Programs in Computer Science

Transcription

1 Combined Bachelors and Masters Programs in Computer Science The Computer Science Department has offered BA/MS and BS/MS degrees (simply Bx/MS, hereafter) for students who are majoring in Computer Science and have an interest in research for the last four year. We have decided to expand this program to include a professionally-oriented option for CS majors and a professionally-oriented option for non-cs majors. We have also revised the requirements for the research-oriented option to allow students to have more time to focus on research. This document describes these three options along with the process for applying to the program for the academic year. Option 1: Research-oriented CS majors Option 1 is designed for CS majors who are interested in research. Students pursuing a Bx with a Computer Science major currently have to take at least fourteen courses chosen from an approved program, 1 while obtaining an MS requires taking nine courses. The research-oriented option requires students to take a total of 21 courses: 12 which count only towards the Bx degree, seven of which count only towards the MS, and two which count towards both the Bx and MS degrees. The required courses for Option 1 are: Discrete Mathematics (CMSC 27100, CMSC 27130, or CMSC 37100) Algorithms (CMSC 27200, CMSC or CMSC 37000) Systems Core Course (See Table 1) Machine Learning (CMSC 25400, CMSC 35400, or TTIC 31020) Research Practicum (Autumn) Research Practicum (Winter) 1 See for the exact requirements of the CS major.

2 At most two courses can be drawn from the CMSC 2xx list and at most two courses can be counted towards both a student s CS major and MS degree. Students taking this option are required to take their electives from the department s CMSC 3xx offerings and selected TTIC offerings (See Tables 2, 3, and 4). Students in this option are required to complete a master s project, write a report describing the project, and give a public presentation. Master s projects are over seen a faculty member and evaluated by a committee of three faculty members, including the student s project advisor. The two required practicums are intended to help students get started on their projects early in their fourth year and to complete their projects in a timely fashion. Option 2: Professionally-oriented CS majors Option 2 is designed for CS majors who are seeking the opportunity to build upon their foundational skills and take some industry-oriented electives. As with Option 1, CS majors who are pursuing a joint Bx/MS are required to take a total of 21 courses: 12 which count only towards the Bx degree, seven of which count only towards the MS, and two which count towards both the Bx and MS degrees. Here is a list of the required courses for Option 2: Discrete Mathematics (CMSC 27100, CMSC or CMSC 37100) Algorithms (CMSC 27200, CMSC 27230, or CMSC 37000) Systems Core Course (See Table 1) Systems Core Course

3 At most two courses can be drawn from the department s CMSC 2xx offerings and at most two courses can be counted towards both a student s CS major and MS degree. Students in this option can take electives from the department s CMSC 3xx and MPCS 5xx offerings and selected TTIC offerings (See Tables 2, 3, and 4). With prior approval, students in this option are allowed to take up to one course from a UChicago graduate program outside of the CS department. Option 3: Professionally-oriented non-cs majors Option 3 is designed for students who are not CS majors and wish to combine a professionally-oriented MS in Computer Science with their undergraduate major. Students in this option are expected to complete nine courses, two of which can be also counted as electives towards a student s BA or BS. Discrete Mathematics (CMSC 27100, CMSC 27130, CMSC 37100, or MPCS 50103) or Core Programming (MPCS 51036, MPCS or MPCS 51100) Algorithms (CMSC 27200, CMSC 27230, CMSC 37000, or MPCS 55001) Systems Core Course (See Table 1) Systems Core Course Systems Core Course At most two courses can drawn from the department s CMSC 2xx offerings and at most two courses can be counted towards both a student s Bx and MS degrees. Students in the option are allowed to take electives from the department s CMSC 2xx, CMSC 3xx and MPCS 5xx offerings or selected TTIC offerings (See Tables 2, 3, and 4). With prior approval, students in this option are

4 allowed take up to one course from a UChicago graduate program outside of the CS department. Students who apply to this program must have completed one of CMSC 12100, CMSC or CMSC and either one of CMSC 12200, CMSC or CMSC or one of CMSC 27100, CMSC or CMSC Students who have completed CMSC 12200, CMSC or CMSC are required to complete Discrete Mathematics as part of their nine required courses. Students who have completed undergraduate or graduate Discrete Mathematics, but not one of CMSC 12200, CMSC or CMSC 16200, are required to take an MPCS core programming class (MPCS 51036, MPCS or MPCS 51100) instead of Discrete Mathematics. Admissions requirements Students must apply to the joint program, and be selected by a departmental committee. Prior to applying interested candidates must meet with their major advisor (Dr. Diana Franklin for CS majors), Dr. Borja Sotomayor, the CS department Bx/MS advisor, and Pete Segall, the College Bx/MS advisor. (For an appointment call the College Adviser s Reception Desk at ) To be considered for the program, students must have earned a 3.5 average overall and completed: one of CMSC 12100, CMSC 15100, or CMSC and one of CMSC 12200, CMSC 15200, or CMSC with at least a B+ average or one of CMSC 12100, CMSC 15100, or CMSC and one of CMSC 27100, CMSC 27130, or CMSC with at least a B+ average. Also, students must have finished or nearly finished the Core requirements for their Bx degree. Applicants cannot have more than one or two Core courses left to complete in their fourth year. Third year students interested in entering the program for the academic year should submit the following to Karin Czaplewski (karin at cs dot uchicago dot edu) by a transcript,

5 a resume, a completed Bx/MS checklist, a completed Degree Program form obtained from Pete Segall, and a personal statement. Also, students must have two letters of recommendation, at least one of which must be from an instructor in a CS course, submitted by to Ms. Czaplewski on their behalf. Each recommendation letter must include a scanned signed waiver form. The waiver forms may be scanned and sent with the letter or to Ms. Czaplewski directly. All application materials are due no later than Friday, March 24th at 5pm. Students interested in Option 1 should use their personal statements to describe either a specific project or the kinds of projects that would be of interest and to identify specific faculty as potential Bx/MS advisors. Students interested in Options 2 and 3 should use their personal statements to describe their career goals and explain how participating in this program will help them meet their goals. When completing the checklist, please include any courses you have taken and intend to use towards the degree along with the grade you received, any such courses that you are currently taking, and, to the best of your ability, a proposed course plan for next year. You may assume that the core courses will be offered in the same quarters as this year. We will not know which electives will be offered before the application deadline, so you may have to leave that section blank. Advising Diana Franklin is responsible for course advising and approval of degree programs for CS majors. Borja Sotomayor is responsible for approving degree programs of non-cs majors.

6 Table 1: Systems Core Courses Course Course Eligible Number Title Options CMSC Operating Systems 1, 2, 3 CMSC Introduction to Computer Graphics 1, 2, 3 CMSC 22200/32200 Computer Architecture 1, 2, 3 CMSC Advanced Implementation of Computer Languages 1, 2, 3 CMSC Advanced Operating Systems 1, 2, 3 CMSC 23300/33300 Networks & Distributed Systems 1, 2, 3 CMSC Data Intensive Systems 1, 2, 3 CMSC 23500/33550 Introduction to Databases 1, 2, 3 CMSC 23710/33710 Scientific Visualization 1, 2, 3 MPCS Introduction to Computer Systems 3 MPCS Operating Systems 3 MPCS Computer Architecture 3 MPCS Networks 3 MPCS Compilers 2, 3 MPCS Distributed Systems 2, 3 MPCS Databases 2, 3

7 Table 2: Approved Electives for Autumn 2016 Course Course Eligible Number Title Options CMSC Mathematical Toolkit 1, 2, 3 CMSC Topics in Systems: 1, 2, 3 Intermittent Computing: Desktops to the Cloud CMSC Introduction to Computer Security 1, 2, 3 CMSC Mathematical Computation I: Matrix Computation 1, 2, 3 CMSC Geometric Complexity 1, 2, 3 CMSC Topics in Theoretical Computer Science: 1, 2, 3 Analysis and Approximation of Boolean Functions MPCS Introduction to Software Engineering 2, 3 MPCS Topics in Software Engineering 2, 3 MPCS Big Data 2, 3 MPCS Advanced Data Analytics 2, 3 MPCS Bioinformatics for Computer Scientists 2, 3 SOCI Introduction to Spatial Data Science 1, 2, 3 TTIC Statistical and Computational Learning Theory 1, 2, 3

8 Table 3: Approved Electives for Winter 2017 Course Course Eligible Number Title Options CMSC Topics in Computer Security: 1, 2, 3 Cloud & Distributed Systems Security CMSC Mobile Computing 1, 2, 3 CMSC Computability and Complexity Theory 1, 2, 3 CMSC Computational and Metric Geometry 1, 2, 3 MPCS ios Application Development 2, 3 MPCS C++ for Advanced Programmers 2, 3 MPCS UNIX Systems Programming 2, 3 MPCS High Performance Computing 2, 3 MPCS Introduction to Software Engineering 2, 3 MPCS Applied Software Engineering 2, 3 MPCS Entrepreneurship in Technology 2, 3 MPCS Foundations of Computational Data Analysis 2, 3 TTIC Neural Networks for Computer Vision 1, 2, 3 TTIC Introduction to Bioinformatics 1, 2, 3 and Computational Biology

9 Table 4: Approved Electives for Spring 2017 Course Course Eligible Number Title Options CMSC Topics in Programming Languages: TBD 1, 2, 3 CMSC Topics in Systems: Methods for the 1, 2, 3 secure analysis of sensitive data CMSC Usable Security and Privacy 1, 2, 3 CMSC Data Intensive Computing Systems 1, 2, 3 CMSC Complexity Theory B 1, 2, 3 MPCS Computer and Network Security 2, 3 MPCS Advanced ios 2, 3 MPCS Advanced C++ 2, 3 MPCS Numerical Methods 2, 3 MPCS Cloud Computing 2, 3 MPCS Machine Learning 2, 3 MPCS 5xxxx Applied Data Analysis 2, 3 MPCS Web Development 2, 3 MPCS Object-Oriented Architectures: 2, 3 Patterns, Technologies, & Implementation MPCS Android App Development 2, 3 TTIC Planning, Learning, and Estimation 1, 2, 3 for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence TTIC Advanced Natural Language Processing 1, 2, 3 TTIC Unsupervised Learning and 1, 2, 3 Large-Scale Data Analysis

10 Table 5: Sample Schedule: Option 1 - systems-heavy Taken Type Course Number Course Name 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Discrete Mathematics 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Algorithms Fall Practicum Research Practicum Fall System Core CMSC Computer Architecture Fall Elective CMSC Topics in Systems - Intermittent Computing: Desktops to the Cloud Winter Practicum Research Practicum Winter Elective CMSC Advanced Operating Systems Spring Elective CMSC Data Intensive Computing Systems Spring ML Core CMSC Machine Learning Table 6: Sample Schedule: Option 1 - theory-heavy Quarter Type Course Name Course Name 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Discrete Mathematics 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Algorithms Fall Practicum Research Practicum Fall Systems Core CMSC Operating Systems Fall Elective CMSC Topics in Theoretical Computer Science: Analysis and Approximation of Boolean Functions Winter Practicum Research Practicum Winter Elective CMSC Computability & Complexity Spring ML Core CMSC Machine Learning Spring Elective CMSC Complexity Theory B

11 Table 7: Sample schedule: Option 2 Taken Type Course Number Course Name 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Discrete Mathematics 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Algorithms Fall Systems Core CMSC Introduction to Computer Security Fall Elective MPCS Introduction to Software Engineering Fall Elective MPCS Big Data Winter Systems Core CMSC Advanced Operating Systems Winter Elective MPCS ios Application Development Spring Elective MPCS Advanced ios Spring Elective MPCS Cloud Computing Table 8: Sample schedule: Option 3 #1 Taken Type Course Number Course Name 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Discrete Mathematics 2nd or 3rd year Theory Core CMSC Algorithms Fall Systems Core MPCS Introduction to Computer Systems Fall Elective MPCS Introduction to Software Engineering Fall Systems Core MPCS Databases Winter Systems Core MPCS Networks Winter Elective MPCS Foundations of Computational Data Analysis Spring Elective MPCS Machine Learning Spring Elective MPCS Web Development

12 Table 9: Sample schedule: Option 3 #2 Taken Type Course Number Course Name Fall Theory Core CMSC Discrete Mathematics Fall Systems Core MPCS Introduction to Computer Systems Fall Elective MPCS Introduction to Software Engineering Winter Theory Core CMSC Algorithms Winter Systems Core MPCS Networks Winter Elective MPCS Foundations of Computational Data Analysis Spring Systems Core MPCS Databases Spring Elective MPCS Machine Learning Spring Elective MPCS Web Development