Graduate Curriculum Summary

Graduate Curriculum Summary In designing the overall curriculum of study for the M.S. in Computer Science, the guidelines for computer science curriculum content from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) were consulted. The ACM is a highly respected professional organization that has guided the development of computer science educational programs for many years. Essentially, the ACM recognizes a set of fourteen (14) content areas that represent the body of knowledge for computer science. These areas are as follows:

1. Discrete Structures (DS)	2. Programming Fundamentals (PF)	3. Algorithms and Complexity (AL)
4. Architecture and Organization (AR)	5. Operating Systems (OS)	6. Net-Centric Computing(NC)
7. Programming Languages (PL)	8. Human-Computer Interaction (HC)	9. Graphics and Visual Computing (GV)
10. Intelligent Systems (IS)	11. Information Management (IM)	12. Social and Professional Issues (SP)
13. Software Engineering (SE)	14. Computational Science (CN)

The M.S. in Computer Science, as proposed, requires the completion of thirty (31) semester credit hours to be completed over a two-year period. Students enrolled will have the option of either doing a thesis (Plan A) or not doing one (Plan B). For the Plan A curriculum, six (6) semester credit hours are devoted to original research, while Plan B curriculum requires the completion of six (6) extra elective credits and an independent Master’s project. For Plans A and B, 13 semester credit hours through five courses constitute a core curriculum that must be completed before a student is allowed to establish his/her candidacy for the M.S. Degree Plan A. If the student elects to follow Plan A, he/she is appointed a Thesis Advisor by the Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science in accord with the regulations of the Graduate School. The five core courses address the first seven content areas of the fourteen total areas referenced by the ACM. The remaining content areas are addressed in elective offerings in accord with the backgrounds and research interests of the faculty members to anchor the overall graduate program. Thus, the Plan A curriculum requires completion of 5 core courses for 13 semester credit hours, 4 elective courses for 12 semester credit hours, and 6 semester credit hours of thesis research for a total of 31 semester credit hours. The Plan B curriculum requires completion of four core courses for 13 semester credit hours, and 5 elective courses for 15 semester credit hours, and one course of independent master’s project for 3 semester credit hours for a total of thirty (31) semester credit hours. These overall plans are designed for students to complete at Texas Southern University once admitted. Transfer students will not be recruited. However, in the event that a student wants to transfer credits from an accredited institution of higher learning to the University for use in fulfilling requirements for the M.S. in Computer Science, the Dean of the Graduate School must be contacted directly for review of the request. If the request for transfer credits is approved by the Dean, official notification is provided to the Office of the University Registrar to include these credits on the student’s official transcript. The following two restrictions apply to these transfer credits: no more than six (6) semester credit hours may be transferred at the graduate level, and credits accepted for transfer must have been earned with grades of “B” (3.00) or better. The five core courses are listed below. Reference is made to the ACM content area(s) addressed at the end of each course title:

COSC5311 Algorithmic Analysis and Data Structures, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: PF, PL and AL
COSC5331 Advanced Computer Architectures, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content area: AR
COSC5341 Operating Systems, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: OS and NC
COSC5351 Theory of Computation, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: DS and AL
COSC5199 Graduate Seminar in CS, 1 semester credit hour, ACM content areas: NC, HC, and PL

The following courses are intended as electives for the degree program with ACM content areas noted:

COSC5345 Computer Networks, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: NC and OS
COSC5347 Cryptography and Computer Security, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: SP and NC.
COSC5353 Formal Languages and Automata, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: PL, AL
COSC5371 Artificial Intelligence, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content area: IS
COSC5383 Data Mining, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content area: IM
COSC5391 Web Services, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: NC, HC, and PL
COSC6361 Advanced Topics in Software Engineering, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content area: SE
COSC6381 Advanced Database Management Systems, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content area: IM
COSC6396 Special Topics in Computer Science, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: All Possible
COSC6397 Independent Master’s Project, 3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: All Possible
COSC6X98 Master’s Thesis Research I, 1-3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: All Possible
COSC6X99 Master’s Thesis Research II, 1-3 semester credit hours, ACM content areas: All Possible

First Year
First Semester			Second Semester
Course	Course Name	Hours	Course	Course Name	Hours
CS511	Algorithmic Analysis and Data Structures	3	CS541	Operating Systems	3
CS531	Computer Architectures	3	CS551	Theory of Computation	3
CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3	CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3
Total		9	Total		9
Second Year Plan-A(Thesis)
First Semester			Second Semester
Course	Course Name	Hours	Course	Course Name	Hours
CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3	CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3
CS	Thesis Research	3	CS	Thesis Research	3
Total		6	Total		6
Second Year Plan-B(Non-Thesis)
First Semester			Second Semester
Course	Course Name	Hours	Course	Course Name	Hours
CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3	CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3
CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3	CS Elective	(500 or 600 Level)	3
Total		6	Total		6

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