Intelligent Systems, MS

Return to: School of Computing and Information

Requirements for the Master’s Degree

Students pursuing the Master of Science degree in ISP must adhere to the SCI requirements for graduation and complete a minimum of 30 credits as outlined below, as well as a MS Project.

General Intelligent Systems Track Curriculum:

First-year students are encouraged but not required to take:

• ISSP 2020 - TOPICS IN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS  
• INFSCI 3005 - INTRODUCTION TO THE DOCTORAL PROGRAM  
• ISSP 2030 - ADVANCED TOPICS IN INTELLGENT SYSTEMS  

Core

• ISSP 2160 - FOUNDTNS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLGNC  

AND Choose Two of the Following:

• ISSP 2170 - MACHINE LEARNING   / CS 2750 - MACHINE LEARNING  
• ISSP 2230 - INTRO NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCSSNG   / CS 2731 - INTRO NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCSSNG  
• I ISSP 2180 - COMPUTER VISION  / CS 2770 - COMPUTER VISION  

Theory

Applied or mathematical statistics.  Choose one of the following:

• BIOST 2041 - INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL METHODS 1  
• BIOST 2042 - INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL METHODS 2   
• BIOINF 2131 - PRACTICUM IN ADV BIOMEDICAL IT  
• STAT 2131 - APPLIED STATISTICAL METHODS 1  
• STAT 2132 - APPLIED STATISTICAL METHODS 2  

Theory of computation, algorithms. Choose one of the following:

• CS 2110 - THEORY OF COMPUTATION  
• CS 2150 - DESIGN & ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS  

One additional course required. Any of the theory courses listed above are acceptable.

Advanced courses

Four ISSP advanced lecture courses, numbered 2000 or higher and approved by the PhD adviser.

MS Project

For this requirement, the student must complete a research project, approved by the student’s preliminary evaluation committee, involving (1) significant research, design, or development work, (2) a written report, and (3) an oral presentation. Students must form a MS project committee (MS) or a preliminary evaluation committee (PhD) consisting of three faculty members, two of whom must be ISP faculty. The student’s adviser chairs the committee, and must be an ISP faculty member.

Preferably, the research project is completed by the end of the summer term of the second year. Students who have not defended their research project by end of the fall term of their third year in the program will be placed on provisional status in the program, unless extenuating circumstances warrant an extension, as judged by the student’s preliminary evaluation committee.

Although not a requirement, it is strongly suggested that the student submit the project report for publication in a refereed journal or conference. Thus, the scope of the research project is intended to be at the level of a paper that is of publishable quality in a peer-reviewed AI journal or conference.

• The steps to completing the project are as follows:
• Submit a project proposal to your committee for its approval.
• Perform the work, and write a project report.
• Submit your project report to your committee at least two weeks in advance of your oral presentation of the work.
• Present your work in a talk given to your committee. As a guideline, you should give about a 30-minute talk and leave about 30 minutes for questions and discussion. The ISP faculty should be invited to the oral presentation. General questions relating to the field of AI are appropriate at this examination. The oral presentation may take place in an open forum, such as the ISP AI Forum, followed by a closed session with just your committee and any other ISP faculty members who wish to be present.

The committee will evaluate the project and presentation. The following criteria should be considered: The project and presentation should represent independent research, design, or development work; they should be technically sound; and they should be relevant to the ISP. Also, the student should display breadth of knowledge, understanding of the significance and motivation of the work, and understanding of the relationship of the work with prior work; and, the presentation should be clear.

The committee will combine that evaluation with an evaluation of the student’s progress in coursework to arrive at an overall evaluation of one of the following:

• Pass at the PhD level.
• Provisional pass at the PhD level: Must complete additional requirements specified by the committee in order to obtain a pass.
• Pass at the MS level: Student obtains a terminal MS degree, once all course requirements for the MS are completed.
• Fail.

See the ISP PhD Catalog page  for further details about doctoral degree requirements.