2003-2005 - Graduate School - The University of Alabama

378 The University of AlabamaDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE (CS)Professor David W. Cordes, HeadOffi ce: 101 Houser HallThe Department of Computer Science offers interdisciplinary graduate programs leadingto the master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees. The programs are forstudents who are interested in professional careers in computer science. Two master’sdegree programs are available. The Plan I degree is a research-oriented degree, whilePlan II is for students who are principally interested in design.Research activity in the department includes active investigations in software en gi -neer ing, algorithms, artifi cial intelligence, database management, networks, paralleland distributed computation, programming languages, and human-computer interaction.Lab o ra to ry fa cil i ties in clude net worked con nec tions to some of the world’s mostad vanced computer systems.Departmental Admission RequirementsIn addition to meeting the admission re quire ments established by the Graduate School,students applying for graduate study in the department must also meet the followinggeneral requirements: (1) demonstrated competence in programming with assemblyand several high-level languages; (2) completion of the equivalent of the department’sundergraduate core computer science curriculum; and (3) demonstration, by an ap pro -pri ate score on the general test of the Graduate Record Examination, of competence inthe dis ci pline of computer science.Each student must submit scores from the Graduate Record Examination generaltest. This requirement may be waived for a student who graduated from an institutionaccredited by CSAB (Computer Science Accreditation Board) with a GPA of 3.0 or higheron a 4.0 scale. It is strongly recommended that each student submit a score from theGRE Subject Exam in Computer Science, particularly students who wish to be consideredfor funding opportunities.In addition to the above requirements, the maximum number of hours a student maytransfer from another institution and apply toward the M.S. degree is 6; for the Ph.D.degree, the maximum number of transferable hours is 18. Courses may be transferredonly subject to the approval of the faculty of the Department of Computer Science.Additional details of these requirements may be obtained directly from the department.Applicants who present most but not all of these qualifi cations may be considered forconditional admission.Master of Science Departmental Degree RequirementsDepartmental degree re quire ments for the M.S. degree, which are in addition to thoseestablished by the College and by the Graduate School, are as follows for Plan I andPlan II students:Each Plan I candidate must earn a minimum of 27 semester hours of credit for coursework,plus a 6-hour thesis under the direction of a faculty member.Each Plan II candidate must earn a minimum of 33 semester hours of credit forcoursework, which may include a 3-hour nonthesis project under the direction of afaculty member.Unlike the general College of Engineering requirements, graduate credit may not beobtained for courses at the 400-level.Both plans also have core and depth requirements, which can be found at thedepartment’s Web site: www.cs.ua.edu.Doctor of Philosophy Departmental Degree RequirementsThe doctor of phi los o phy degree is regarded as a research degree and is granted onthe basis of scholarly profi ciency, distinctive achievement in a special fi eld, and the capacityfor independent, original investigation. The fi rst two criteria are tested in courseworkand a qualifying examination, the last by a dissertation that must present the results ofsubstantial research clearly and effectively. A combination of these ac com plish ments,