Master of Science Requirements

The Department of Computer Science offers graduate work leading to the master of science degree in computer science with either a Thesis (Plan A) or Non-Thesis (Plan B) option.

M.S. Program Requirements*

Summary of Requirements	Plan A**	Plan B***
CORE REQUIREMENT:COSC 5110; COSC 5050, and COSC 5000 Seminar	8	8
BREADTH REQUIREMENT:
One Theory course, One Artificial Intelligence course, and Two Systems courses	12	12
Additional Courses	9	12
Coursework Total Hours	29	32
Thesis (COSC 5960)	4	1
Total Hours	33	33

   
* MS General Requirements: Both Plan A and Plan B students must complete the CORE REQUIREMENTS and the BREADTH REQUIREMENTS. A total of at least 33 credit hours at the 4000 level or above must be completed.  The student must complete a minimum of 29 hours of courses, including the CORE REQUIREMENTS and the BREADTH REQUIREMENTS.
Each M.S. student will have a supervising committee of at least three members appointed. The committee will consist of at least two members of the computer science faculty and at least one non-COSC faculty member.
** Plan A (thesis) requirements: The student must complete a minimum of 29 hours of courses, including the CORE REQUIREMENTS and the BREADTH REQUIREMENTS, and a minimum of 4 hours of COSC 5960 (Thesis Research).  At least 20 credit hours must consist of computer science department courses.  At least 15 credit hours must be at the 5000 level, not including seminars, COSC 5050, Independent Study, and Research.  No more than 6 hours of 4000-level computer science coursework may be counted toward the total credit requirement. Coursework from other departments may count towards degree requirements with the approval of the supervising M.S. committee.  
***Plan B (non-thesis) requirements: The student must complete a minimum of 32 hours of courses, including the CORE REQUIREMENTS and the BREADTH REQUIREMENTS, and a minimum of 1 hour of COSC 5960 (Thesis Research).  At least 20 hours must consist of computer science department courses. At least 15 credit hours must be at the 5000 level, not including seminars, COSC 5050, Independent Study, and Research.  No more than 6 hours of 4000-level computer science coursework may be counted toward the total credit requirement. Coursework from other departments may count towards degree requirements with the approval of the supervising M.S. committee.
BS/MS Program:
High performing undergraduates in Computer Science can elect for Quick Start admission to the graduate program allowing the sharing of up to six credit hours of 5000-level coursework toward the completion of both the B.S. and the graduate degree.

UW Coursework Requirements for M.S. Transfer Students
M.S. transfer students must complete at least 21 credit hours at the University of Wyoming.  At least 12 credits of the CORE & BREADTH REQUIREMENTS must be taken at the University of Wyoming.  No more than one class per category of breadth may be counted towards this 12-credit total. The research writing course and algorithms course credits may be counted toward this 12-credit total.  Seminar credits may not be counted toward this 12-credit total.
COMPUTER SCIENCE CORE REQUIREMENTS:
Each of the following must be completed with a B or better for COSC 5110 (algorithms) and a Satisfactory for COSC 5050 (research writing) and COSC 5000 (seminars):
●      COSC 5110 Analysis of Algorithms
●      COSC 5050 Research Writing for Computer Science
●      COSC 5000 Seminars: 2 for M.S. students and 4 for Ph.D. students
Students are strongly encouraged to take COSC 5110 the first time it is offered after enrollment.

COMPUTER SCIENCE BREADTH REQUIREMENTS
Students must earn a grade of B or better in one class from the Theory category, one class from the Artificial Intelligence Category, and one class from each of two different Systems categories (e.g. one class from Programming Languages and Compilers and one class from Computer Graphics, Visualization, and Interaction). Although some courses may count under multiple categories, a course may only count once towards the breadth requirement. Thus there must be 12 credits taken to satisfy the breadth requirement. Only 5000-level computer science courses may count towards the breadth requirement.
 
Theory Course:
●     COSC 5120 Theory of Computation
●     COSC 5200 Computational Complexity
●     COSC 5220 Languages and Automata
●     COSC 5010/20 Theory topics courses as offered (must be approved by the department)
 
Artificial Intelligence Courses:
●     COSC 5550 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
●     COSC 5555 Machine Learning
●     COSC 5560 Modern Robots
●     COSC 5010/20 Artificial Intelligence topics courses as offered (must be approved by the department)
 
Systems: Programming Languages and Compilers Courses:
●     COSC 5750 Computer Architecture
●     COSC 5785 Compiler Construction
●     COSC 5010/20 Programming Languages and Compilers topics courses as offered (must be approved by the department)
 
Systems: Computer Graphics, Visualization, and Interaction Courses:
●     COSC 5450 Computer Graphics
●     COSC 5730 Mobile Device Programming
●     COSC 5010 Human-Computer Interaction
●     COSC 5010 Virtual Reality Environment Systems
●     COSC 5010/20 Computer Graphics, Visualization, and Interaction topics courses as offered (must be approved by the department)
 
Systems: Networking, Distributed Computing, and Data Management:
●     COSC 5750 Parallel and Distributed Systems
●     COSC 5755 Network Applications
●     COSC 5820 Advanced Database Systems
●     COSC 5010 High Performance Computing
●     COSC 5010/20 Networking, Distributed Computing, and Data Management topics courses as offered (must be approved by the department)
M.S. Seminar Requirements

M.S. Thesis/Project Defense
Both Plan A and Plan B students are required to formally defend (Plan A) or present (Plan B), their theses or papers, which describe their work, as a public colloquium before their supervising committees and a public audience. All defenses and presentations must be open and announced at least two weeks in advance.  The thesis or paper must be distributed to the committee at least two weeks in advance of the defense or presentation.  If the student does not pass the defense or presentation, the committee will instruct the student as to what needs to be accomplished (and by when) to pass. The results of the examination are reported on the Report of Final Examination form. The graduate committee members may request changes in the thesis, and they may postpone signing the form until they are satisfied that those changes have been made.  
Publication of Thesis
After the defense, an electronic copy (in PDF format) of the thesis must be uploaded in accordance with the Registrar's requirements. This copy will be rejected if the format standards specified by the Dissertation Format Guide are not met. This guide allows for a publication-ready format. If required by the department and/or committee additional copies should be delivered to the University Bookstore for binding.

COSC Graduate Courses