MS Mission Statement: Students should be exposed to and participate in leading-edge research. Depending on their long-range objectives, students should also do one or more of the following:
- Develop skills for critical thinking and for analyzing results.
- Learn to write technically and articulately.
- Evolve research ideas and produce research results.
- Learn about group development and be technically capable of leading a development team.
- Demonstrate ability to develop software for industrial-size problems.
MS Course Requirements
The table below reflects those hours that can be used to fulfill graduate course requirements. Specific courses depend on approval of the student's committee.
| Courses | Credit Hours |
|---|---|
| Minimum Hours |
24
|
| Below 400 Level |
0
|
| 400 Level (excluding CS 405) |
At most 9
|
| 598R |
At most 3
|
| 699R (Thesis) |
At least 6
|
| 799R |
0
|
| Total Hours |
At least 30
|
See the appendix for a list of courses and a tentative five year plan of course offerings.
MS Progress Review
The progress of each MS student is reviewed twice each year, once durning the Fall semester and once during the Winter semester.The student is expected to meet the following requirements.All 100- and 200-level provisional courses and all provisional mathematics courses must be completed before any graduate course can be taken. Any graduate course taken after admittance and before completing all 100- and 200-level and mathematics provisional courses will not count toward graduation, unless a special exception has been granted in advance.
- Timely Completion of Provisional Courses.
Students should complete provisional courses as soon as possible and must complete them within the first year after admittance.
- Early Submission of a Study List.
A graduate student should submit a study list in their first semester of study and must submit a study list no later than the third week of the second semester after admittance.
- Adequate GPA Achievement.
Provisional graduate students must earn a B- or better in each provisional course. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA on all courses on the student's program of study.
- Limited Course Repeats
A student may have a total of two repeats, at the most, during their graduate program.
- Steady Completion of Coursework
After being in the program for one year, a graduate student must have successfully completed a minimum of 9 MS coursework credit hours (excluding thesis credit hours). This minimum enrollment of 9 coursework credit hours in the three semesters preceding the semester of evaluation must be maintained throughout the graduate program (Spring/Summer together are considered to be one semester) until all coursework is complete.
This course-completion rate is a strict minimum. It is expected that most students will progress at a much faster rate.
- Timely Completion of Thesis Proposal
Graduate students must successfully pass their thesis proposal by the end of the fourth semester after admittance (Spring/Summer together are considered to be one semester).
This applies to provisional students as well as to regularly admitted students.
- Duration of MS Degree Program
All students should complete the MS degree requirements (courses, thesis proposal, thesis, and thesis defense) within two years from the time of admission.
If a graduate student fails to meet any of the above requirements, the student will be notified in writing of any action taken and of any action the student should take. The student will also be placed on Marginal status. Failure to satisfactorily perform according to the written requests in a previous evaluation will result in a student being placed on Unsatisfactory status. Being placed on Unsatisfactory status means they have until the end of the current semester in which the letter was written to fulfill the requirements or they will be dropped from the program. In addition, students on Unsatisfactory status become ineligible for Financial Aid.
Thesis Committee
With the help of the advisor, the student selects a faculty member to serve as 2nd member on the student's thesis committee. Once that faculty member has agreed to serve on the committee, the student goes to the Graduate Coordinator. The Graduate Coordinator will assign a faculty member to serve as the 3rd committee member. These three faculty serve as the student's thesis committee.
Thesis Proposal
Once a thesis topic has been firmly established, the student should submit a thesis proposal. The thesis proposal consists of two components – the thesis proposal document and the thesis proposal presentation. First, the student prepares the written thesis proposal document, as described below. Once the student’s first two committee members have approved the document, the student gives the proposal to the third committee member and schedules the time for the formal presentation of the thesis proposal. No completed thesis can be defended without first having the proposal presented and approved.
Thesis Proposal Document
The thesis proposal document should be submitted to the committee as soon as possible and must be submitted by the end of the fourth semester after the student begins the program. The thesis cannot be defended before the thesis proposal has been presented and approved.
After reading a thesis proposal, the intended audience (i.e., the 2nd and 3rd committee members) should be able to answer the following questions as they relate to your proposed work:
- What problem do you want to solve?
- Who cares about this problem and why?
- What have others done to solve this problem and why is this inadequate?
- What is your proposed solution to this problem?
- How can you demonstrate that this is a good solution?
The thesis proposal document contains the following:
- Title Page
- Abstract – 1 to 2 paragraphs summarizing the proposal.
- Introduction – 1 to 4 pages answering questions 1 and 2 above
- Related Work – 1 to 2 pages answering question 3 above.
- Thesis statement – 1 to 2 sentences stating what is to be demonstrated in your thesis.
- Project Description – 2 to 5 pages answering question 4 above.
- Validation – 1/2 to 2 pages answering question 5 above.
- Thesis Schedule – ¼ to ½ page specifying dates for completion of major milestones.
- Annotated Bibliography – 2 to 5 pages containing references for all work cited.
- Signature Page
All thesis proposals must answer the five questions and include the bulleted information above. Students should work with their advisor to determine the specific section structure of their proposal.
The following discussion provides additional detail on the content of the thesis proposal.
Title Page - This follows the sample title page for a thesis proposal found in the appendix of the Computer Science Department Graduate Handbook.
Abstract - This section provides a short summary of the proposal. Estimated length is 1-2 paragraphs. As part of the thesis scheduling process, the title and abstract need to be emailed to the Graduate Program Assistant.
Introduction - This section provides the reader with enough information to understand and appreciate the thesis statement. This includes giving the motivation, defining terms and formulating the problem. Often, subsections labeled “Background” and “Motivation” will be included in this section. This section typically provides answers to the questions “What problem do you want to solve?” and “Who cares about this problem and why?” Estimated length is 1 to 4 pages.
Related Work – This section contains a survey of the literature related to your thesis statement and should demonstrate to your readers that you understand the context of your work. This is a place for you to position your contribution relative to other work and to state how your work builds on other work. This section answers the question “What have others done to solve the problem and why is this inadequate?” Estimated length is 1 to 2 pages.
Thesis statement – A clear and concise statement of what is to be demonstrated or developed in your thesis work. A good thesis statement makes a specific claim that your readers care about. Ideally, your introduction will give your readers the background they need to understand your thesis statement and to conclude that it matters. Estimated length is 1 to 2 sentences.
The following are examples of good thesis statements from MS proposals in the BYU Computer Science department:
Project Description – This section describes your proposed solution and how you will carry out the work of realizing the proposed solution. After reading this section, your readers should believe that, if you do what you say you will do here, you will be able to objectively and convincingly defend your thesis statement. This section answers the question “What is your proposed solution to this problem?” Estimated length is 2 to 5 pages.
Validation – This section describes the methods you will use to validate your proposed solution. This section answers the question “How can you demonstrate that this is a good solution?” Estimated length is 1/2 to 2 pages.
Thesis Schedule – This section contains a proposed schedule for the completion of your thesis work. The schedule should include deadlines for submission of the thesis to your advisor, submission of the thesis to your committee members and the thesis defense. You may also include other research milestones that seem appropriate. Estimated length for this section is 1/4 to 1/2 page.
The department and university require that you allow at least two weeks between the time you schedule the defense and the time you actually defend the thesis. In order to schedule your final thesis defense, your first two committee members must have read and approved the thesis. In order to allow sufficient time, you should plan on approximately six weeks between the time you first give your completed thesis to your advisor and the time you make your final defense. This time is an approximate time; work with your advisor and committee to determine the actual amount of time that will be required.
Annotated Bibliography – This section contains references for cited work. References should be complete and written in a uniform style, consistent with your particular sub-area of computer science. Annotations should be brief summaries (2-6 sentences) of each work and should also contain clear statements (1 sentence) of how the work relates to your own. Estimated length is 2 to 5 pages.
Signature Page – This is the standard page that the committee signs upon acceptance of the proposal. Follow the format of the sample proposal signature page in the Appendix of the Computer Science Department Graduate Handbook.
Length of the Proposal – The body of the thesis proposal should be about 12–15 pages in length. The entire proposal, including the title page, body, and signature page, is to be no longer than 20 pages.
Proposal for Industry-Oriented Thesis: The motivation should provide necessary background and then argue that a significant piece of work (usually a piece of software) is needed. The thesis statement should concisely describe the work. The method section should describe the expectations for the finished product and explain what will be done to assure the quality of the work. The annotated bibliography should convince the reader that the student is well acquainted with techniques needed to do the work and with techniques others have used to solve similar problems. The contributions should reflect the importance of the work.
Thesis Proposal Presentation
Oral Presentation Audience: CS faculty members who may not be acquainted with the topic.
A 12-15 minute oral presentation of the thesis proposal must be carefully organized and given to the members of the thesis committee and the invited public. During the thesis proposal presentation, the student must answer committee member's questions on such areas as method, significance, organization, and literature search. After the presentation, the student and public leave the room while the committee comes to a decision on proposal acceptance. The result will range from unqualified acceptance to unqualified rejection.
General Comments: A simple restatement of the proposal document is not what is wanted. The central ideas of the document should be presented, but this should be augmented by examples and explanations. Ideally, the presentation will have been practiced in front of an audience that can help the student improve the presentation. Part of what should be learned is how to make good presentations.
Thesis Proposal Scheduling Instructions
Before Scheduling:
-
- Create and write up the proposal under the supervision of your advisor.
- Get verbal agreement from your advisor and second committee member that the proposal is now in final form.
1 week to 10 days before:
-
- Provide copies of your final thesis proposal for each of the three members of your committee. (If you do not have a third committee member, see the Graduate Coordinator.)
- Arrange for a date, time, and place to present your proposal. Make sure all three members of your committee can attend. The secretaries can schedule the conference room for you; campus scheduling can schedule other rooms, if necessary. Reserve one hour for the proposal; your presentation should not extend beyond 15 minutes, but additional time will be needed for questions from the audience and your committee.
- Fill out the top part of the Thesis Proposal Form and obtain committee signatures on the bottom part. Obtain the Graduate Coordinator's signature last and give it to the Graduate Program Assistant at least a week before the scheduled date.
Proposal day or after:
-
- Obtain signatures of all members of your committee and the Graduate Coordinator on the acceptance page in your proposal.
- Leave the signed copy of the proposal with the Graduate Program Assistant.
Thesis
The MS thesis should make a contribution to the field of Computer Science. When completed, other computer scientists working in the same or related areas should find the thesis useful in solving problems they are working on. The thesis should demonstrate creativity and originality. It should require a thorough search of existing literature in the student's area of research and exhibit the use of skills and techniques acquired during the student's Computer Science graduate education. When reasonable, it is recommended that the student make an effort to publish the accomplished research in the Computer Science literature.
Style Guidelines
Thesis format: Use the following link to see the university minimum standards requirement for the Master's thesis document. Your pages should mirror these pages. http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_11.pdf
There are specific university guidelines (given in the website listed above) set for the format of the title page, copyright page, committee approval page, acceptance page, abstract, and acknowledgment page, other formatting is left to the discretion of the department. Please be sure to review the Minimum Standards guidelines so that your thesis is in the correct format. There are LaTex templates for the Master thesis available through http://www.bouncingchairs.net/oss/latex.html#byuthesis-doc. With consultation of the thesis chair, the rest of the thesis should be written in a style and form consistent with the Computer Science literature for your research area.
Citations:
BYU requires a department to certify the consistency of format, captions, and references for all theses. Format and captions pose few, if any, difficulties, but citations are often inconsistent. (Typically, students copy citations from various places without reworking them into a consistent format.) To ensure consistency--and to avoid having to rework citations at department sign-off time-- follow the instructions in either (1) or (2) below.
- Use a top-tier journal (not a conference proceedings) in your research area as a guide. Follow the conventions as specified by the journal or exemplified in the papers.
- Be consistent and be as complete as possible:
- Use the same style for the same kind of publications throughout--italics, bold, quotes, punctuation, names (full names or initials), numbering, and indentation.
- Include all components of a citation--all author or editor names and the title and year; and, as applicable, other components such as journal name, volume, number, pages, month, publisher, city, state or country, and institution for MS theses, PhD dissertations, or technical reports.
- Order the bibliography alphabetically by last name of first author.
The actual organization of a traditional thesis is flexible. A typical organization would be as follows.
Chapter 1 - Introduces the thesis problem and motivates it's importance.
Chapter 2 - A careful overview of related work, referencing similar research.
Chapter 3 ... n-1 - A progressive presentation of the research effort, typically including chapters on:
foundational material (terms, definitions, etc.)
the actual innovations (algorithms, theorems, models, etc.)
validation and analysis of results (proofs, simulations, complexity analysis, etc.).
Chapter n - Overviews the contributions of the thesis and discusses possible directions for future work.
References
Appendices - Contains extended results, code fragments, documentation, etc.
In trying to modernize some ideas about theses and to tailor them more towards particular types of students and their needs, we also allow two alternative styles which may be used in place of a traditional thesis. We call one of the alternatives a paper thesis and the other an industry-oriented thesis. Both are roughly equivalent to each other and to the traditional model in amount of work. However, they differ in the type of work and experience gained.
Guidelines for the thesis document, the proposal document, and presentations for these two alternatives are provided below. The main difference is in the audience being addressed in the thesis. For a traditional thesis, the audience is primarily the student's committee, broadened, at times, to additional faculty members who may be assigned to examine the student's work. In the alternatives, the audience addressed is different for the thesis than for the proposal and for the presentations and is more appropriate for the objectives of the particular type of thesis.
Thesis Document -- Paper Thesis
Audience: Researchers well acquainted with the topic.
Document: The thesis should be written as a paper for a journal. Except for formatting required by BYU such as double spacing and chapters instead of sections, the thesis should read exactly like a paper that can be submitted for publication. Appendices may include additional material that would not be appropriate for publication, but is pertinent to the student's work. Ideally, the quality of the paper would be similar to papers found in top publications in the research field of the thesis.
Thesis Document -- Industry-Oriented Thesis
Audience: Industrial colleagues well acquainted with the topic.
Document: The document should be written as an industrial technical report. The abstract should read like an executive summary. The introduction should include necessary background and introductory and overview material sufficient for industrial peers to read the document on their own. The body should be appropriate for the type of work done and may include high-level and low-level descriptions of software, test cases, user manuals, and data supporting arguments made in the document such as claims about time and space efficiency. A conclusion should summarize the work. Ideally, the document would show that the work accomplished is topnotch, industrial-quality work.
Industry-oriented means that the work done for a thesis should help prepare a student for industry. It does NOT mean that the thesis is the result of doing a project in industry. Indeed, most projects that would be done in industry are likely to be unsuitable for thesis topics either because there are employer expectations beyond what a thesis should entail or because there are too few expectations about the kind and quality of the work to be accomplished. Almost always, students doing industry-oriented theses will do projects connected with faculty research interests. It is just that the focus is not on creating new ideas and writing papers, but on doing a topnotch job with the work as would be expected in industry.
We should not encourage students to seek projects in industry for theses, and if they bring such projects as suggestions for thesis topics, we should carefully scrutinize these projects, with the idea that nearly all of them should be rejected. There may be some that are appropriate, but the entanglements, expectations, and associated problems all have to be carefully dealt with before allowing a student to proceed.
Thesis Defense
Oral Presentation Audience: CS faculty members who may not be acquainted with the topic.
The presentation should be polished. Ideally, it will have been practiced in front of an audience that can help the student improve the presentation.
Thesis Defense:
The defense of the thesis is open to the public. For the defense, a student must prepare and make a polished presentation, which should last about 25 minutes. After a short introductory overview of the research for the benefit of those not familiar with the work, the presentation should focus on the technical details of the research. At the conclusion of the presentation questions may be asked by the audience and committee relating to the methods and evaluation techniques used to complete the thesis work; when complete the audience will be excused. The committee may ask the student further questions. When the committee is satisfied, the student being examined will be asked to leave the room.
Examination Results:
At this point the examining committee decides on a result. The possible results are:
Pass
Pass with qualifications - Revision to thesis or strengthening of course knowledge are examples of why this would be selected.
Recess - Substantial revision of thesis and/or course knowledge preparation. A minimum of one month must pass before a subsequent defense can take place.
Fail - Fail the oral exam and be terminated from the graduate program.
The Graduate Program Assistant will have given a packet of forms from the Office of Graduate Studies to the student's advisor prior to the presentation. The advisor also serves as the examination chair. The examination chair manages the forms as follows:
Report of Committee Action for Final Oral Examination - Conduct a vote, get signatures, and give the form to the Graduate Program Assistant.
Committee Member Evaluation of Final Oral Examination - Each member of the examining committee fills out one of these forms regarding the student's potential in a PhD program. Give these forms to the Graduate Program Assistant
Approval for Submission of Dissertation, Thesis, or Selected Project - Get appropriate signatures and then give this form to the student.
Grade Change Authorization - All 699R hours must be changed from a T to a P. Have the student fill out the top portions of the form and have it signed by the Graduate Coordinator. In this case, the instructor name must be the Graduate Coordinator, not the chair advisor.
Thesis Defense Instructions
Before Scheduling:
Create and write up the thesis under the supervision of your advisor.
Get verbal agreement from your advisor that the thesis is in final form and give a copy to your second committee member. The second committee member is very likely to suggest changes.
Get verbal agreement from your advisor and second committee member that the thesis is now in final form.
No later than 2 weeks before defense (earlier is better):
Apply for graduation.
Be registered for at least 2 credit hours (either 2 hours of 699R or a class that is on your study list)
E-mail an electronic copy of your thesis or bring a paper copy to the Graduate Program Assistant for review by interested parties. If you give a paper copy please send a soft copy of your abstract to the Graduate Program Assistant to send out with the e-mail announcement.
Pick up form 8C "Departmental Scheduling of Final Oral Examination," from the Graduate Program Assistant or through the Office of Graduate Studies website at http://www.byu.edu/gradstudies/images/forms/ADV_Form_8c.pdf
Provide a copy of your thesis for your third committee member and also your first and second committee member if they do not already have an adequate copy. (If you do not yet have a third committee member, see the Graduate Coordinator.)
Arrange for a date, time, and place to present your defense. Make sure all three members of your committee can attend. The secretaries can schedule the conference room for you; campus scheduling can schedule other rooms, if necessary. Reserve one hour for the defense. (As you complete this step, fill out the corresponding parts of form 8C.)
Give the completed form 8C, with all the signatures, to the Graduate Program Assistant. You are not scheduled until you complete this step, which must be done 2 weeks before the actual day you defend. (This is a critical step, which you must complete two or more weeks before the date of your defense. The software on the administrative computers at the university will not let departments schedule examinations less than two weeks from the date of defense.)
Defense day or after:
Grade Change Authorization - All 699R hours must be changed from a T to a P. Fill out the top portion of the form and have it signed by the Graduate Coordinator. In this case, the instructor name must be the Graduate Coordinator, not the chair advisor.
Finish any required revisions of the thesis.
Obtain signatures of your committee, the Graduate Coordinator, and the Associate Dean of the college for the graduate committee approval and acceptance pages before making your final copies. It is usually convenient to bring these two pages to the defense, so that they can be signed immediately. Note that only one original graduate committee approval and acceptance page with signatures is required.
Complete Form 8d "Approval for Submission of Dissertation, Thesis, or Selected Project" (received at your defense), and obtain the necessary signatures. Unless technically or legally not possible, students must submit an electronic thesis. Obtain the necessary signatures on the back of Form 8d for ETD submission. Students are expected to provide a bound copy of the thesis for both the advisor and the department; thus neither the advisor nor the Graduate Coordinator should check the box to waive their bound copy.
Application for Graduation
Contact the Graduate Program Assistant for the form to apply for graduation. Students may not apply for MS graduation unless they have (a) completed all of their coursework and (b) successfully proposed their thesis. Students may defer graduation for one semester, if they did not sucessfully meet all the graduation requirements for the semester in which they applied to graduate. Afterwhich time, they will need to reapply for graduation with a new form. There is no charge for graduate students to apply for graduation.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Thesis Proposal.pdf | 32.95 KB |