In addition to the general exam, two requirements must be satisfied: breadth and programming. You are expected to complete the breadth requirement by the end of year 2. In special circumstances your advisor may request an additional year provided that you have completed 4 of the 6 courses. The programming requirement must be completed by the end of year 2.

I. Programming

This requirement can be satisfied in either of two ways - through successful completion of a project that involves substantial programming (done under faculty supervision) or by taking a course and receiving a satisfactory grade (normally B+ or higher). Acceptable courses are 318, 320, 425, 426, 429, 461, 526, 561, or any approved graduate course. Taking only the course exam does not give programming credit.

II. Breadth

The breadth requirement covers courses in four main groups: Computer Systems, Software Systems, Intelligent Computing, and Theory. A total of 6 courses are required; one from each group and one additional from two of the four groups. For courses offering a final exam, you may opt to just take the final. For courses without a final, you must take the course for a grade. Credit will not be given for both the undergrad and grad versions of the same course, i.e., 318/518; 426/526; 461/561. Acting as a teaching assistant does not give you credit for that course.

A grade of A- or higher will normally be expected for exams or courses. However, all grades will be reviewed by the faculty and a lower grade may be acceptable based on your total record.

Individual research areas may set additional requirements for their students; they may specify certain courses to be taken or may require that courses in excess of the departmental requirement be taken.

Course List

Computer Systems

318 Operating Systems; no final
375 Computer Architecture; final
432 Information Security; final
461 Computer Networks; final
518 Advanced Operating Systems; no final
561 Advanced Computer Networks; no final

Software Systems

320 Compiling Techniques; final
425 Database Systems; no final
426 Computer Graphics; no final
441 Programming Languages; final
526 Advanced Computer Graphics; no final

Intelligent Computing

402 Artificial Intelligence; final
424 Interacting with Data; no final
429 Computer Vision; no final
511 Theoretical Machine Learning; no final
551 Intro to Genomics & Comp. Mol.Bio; no final
557 Analysis & Visualization of Large Scale Genomic Datasets; no final

Theory

423 Theory of Algorithms; no final
433 Cryptography; final
451 Computational Geometry; no final
487 Theory of Computation; final
521 Advanced Algorithm Design; final
522 Computational Complexity; final
576 Nonstandard Computation; no final

In addition, the director of graduate studies may designate certain 500 level courses as alternate choices.