Engineering

Q	How many courses do I have to take to get an MS in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering?
A	10 courses are required. For the Electrical Engineering degree, you must take 7 electrical engineering courses and 3 technical electives. For the Mechanical Engineering degree, you must take three core mechanical engineering courses, five mechanical engineering courses at the 500 level plus 2 technical electives.
Q	Is a thesis required for the Engineering degrees?
A	The MS Electrical Engineering does not require a thesis. If you elect to do a thesis, it counts as one or two technical electives. The MS Mechanical Engineering requires a thesis for full-time students. Part-time mechanical engineering students may elect to do a thesis, which counts as two technical electives.
Q	What is the capstone or final culminating experience of the engineering program?
A	MS in Electrical Engineering candidates must choose to complete a thesis, independent study or MS Graduate Project approved by the faculty advisor. MS in Mechanical Engineering candidates must choose either a thesis or MS Graduate Project approved by the faculty advisor.

Computer Science

Q	What is this project/thesis that I have to do?
A	A project or thesis is required of all candidates for the Masters degree in Computer Science unless otherwise approved.
Q	What's the difference between a project and a thesis?
A	Both the project and the thesis are two-term course sequences that let you independently study a topic of significant scope. The thesis is more research-oriented. You study the existing literature about a topic, come up with your own ideas for broadening or expanding the field in a new way, and test out your hypotheses if applicable (e.g. writing a program to see if you get results), and then culminating all of your work into an original paper (a thesis) describing your background research, experiments, and results. The project is implementation-oriented. One doesn't come up with original research, but studies existing techniques to develop an application of significant size (usually something of a much bigger scope than in any programming class). For example, a recent Masters student implemented the game of Go in Java. This involved learning a lot about AI and some advanced aspects of the language.
Q	Is this requirement in addition to the nine courses I have to take?
A	No. It counts as 2 of the 9. So the degree requirements can be met by taking 7 "real" (i.e. lecture-style) courses, and then taking two terms of either the project or the thesis. This, of course, assumes that the 7 lecture-style courses meet all the other requirements for graduation.
Q	Is the project/thesis the same as the graduate seminar?
A	No. The graduate seminar, a regularly scheduled seminar in which you participate in a discussion of current topics in computer science, is a separate requirement.
Q	Can this requirement be waived?
A	It is possible to substitute two lecture-style courses for the project/thesis requirement. The requirement can be satisfied if, in your job, you have already been involved with large-scale programming projects. "Involved" means that you have been actively programming, debugging, expanding, testing, and maintaining a large piece of software (sometimes as part of a team). You would need to present a write-up to the graduate advisor detailing your involvement with the project(s) (1-2 pages). If accepted, you won't have to do a project or thesis, but you would need to take two more courses instead.
Q	How do I choose a topic?
A	Students typically choose topics that are extensions of what they're doing at work -- something that might be useful at work but is not part of the job assignment, or something that will let them learn material they haven't learned in classes. Another option is to extend something interesting from a course, or to build upon faculty research. The scope of the project should be comparable to two courses worth of work: at 4 class hours/week and 8-12 hours/week outside class, that amounts to 240-320 person-hours of work for the project or thesis. That's the equivalent of 6-8 weeks of full-time work.
Q	Do I need to get my topic approved?
A	Yes, you should pitch your topic to the graduate advisor. Once approved, you will be matched up with the faculty member nearest to your area of interest. That faculty member will act as your advisor on the project or thesis.
Q	When do I need to register for the project/thesis?
A	One normally registers for the project/thesis during the last year of the program. There is some flexibility in this, though. If the faculty advisor is available and willing, you can also register for one of the project/thesis courses during a summer term. The two project/thesis courses should be taken consecutively.
Q	How do I register?
A	Register for CSc 594 and 595 if doing a project. Register for CSc 596 and 597 if doing a thesis.