Computer Science and Engineering

Graduate Programs

Master's and Ph.D. Degrees in Computer Science

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offers the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science. General requirements are listed in the Graduate Studies section of this catalog. Specific requirements for each degree are described below.

Students enrolled prior to Fall 2008 can still follow the old Graduate Program.

Admission - All applicants must supply GRE General Test scores. The GRE subject test in Computer Science is recommended but not required. Applicants should have at least an undergraduate degree in computer science or a closely related field, but applicants who fail to meet this criterion may sometimes be admitted with deficiencies.

Prerequisite Material - Competence in the areas defined by the following UCR courses is essential to graduate study in computer science:

• CS 150, CS 152, CS 153, CS 161/161L

A student who is deficient in any of these competency areas may be asked to complete the corresponding UCR course with a letter grade of at least B+, or to pass a challenge examination based on that course’s final exam with a grade of at least B+. All such remedial work should be completed within the first year of graduate study, and in all cases the deficiency must be corrected BEFORE a student can enroll in any graduate course from the same specialty area.

Core Areas - Students have considerable flexibility in selecting specialty area(s) within the program. However, the following core areas introduce fundamental concepts and tools of general interest to all students.

• Hardware design principles: CS 203A or CS 220.
• Theoretical foundations: CS 215 or CS 218.
• Software and systems: CS 201 or CS 202.

Major Specialty Areas - The department has active research programs in the following major specialty areas. A list of related graduate courses is provided for each area. Courses that qualify for the M.S. Breadth Requirement are marked with an asterisk (*).

1. Algorithms, Bioinformatics, and Theory of Computation: CS 215*, CS 218*, CS 234, CS 238
2. Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, and CAD: CS 203A*, CS 203B, CS 213, CS 220*, CS 223, EE 213
3. Databases, Data Mining, and Machine Learning: CS 205*, CS 235*, CS 229, CS 236*, CS 272
4. Operating Systems, and Distributed Systems: CS 202*, CS 253, CS 255*, CS 237
5. Computer Networks: CS 204*, CS 237, CS 239*, CS 240, CS 257, CS 255*
6. Programming Languages, Compilers, and Software Engineering: CS 201*, CS 245*, CS 246*
7. Computer Graphics and Human-Computer Interaction: CS 230*, CS 231*, ME 230, ME 231

Master’s Degree

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offers the M.S. degree in Computer Science, after completion of the following degree requirements.

Satisfactory completion of CS 287 (Colloquium in Computer Science) each quarter of enrollment.

Course Requirements - 48 quarter units of graduate or upper-division undergraduate courses are required. Students who have completed similar courses elsewhere may petition for a waiver of a required course or for substitution of an alternative course. For students interested in interdisciplinary research, individual study programs can be approved.

1. Core Requirement (8 units). Choose one course from two of the three Core Areas listed above, with no grade lower than B-.
2. Breadth Requirement (8 units). Two approved breadth courses chosen in such a way that together the core and breadth courses cover four different Major Specialty Areas (A to G).
3. Electives (32 units)
   
   1. Project Option. A student pursuing the M.S. degree, non-thesis option, may include up to 4 units of Directed Studies (CS 290) towards the elective unit requirement. Of the remaining 28 units, at least 12 units must be approved graduate lecture courses. The remaining 16 units may include additional approved graduate lecture courses, up to 8 units of graduate seminars in CS 260–269, and up to 12 units of approved undergraduate technical electives.
   2. Thesis Option. A student pursuing the M.S. degree, thesis option, may include up to 12 units of graduate research (CS 297 or CS 299) towards the elective unit requirement. Of the remaining 20 units, at least 4 units must be approved graduate lecture courses. The remaining 16 units may include additional approved graduate lecture courses, up to 8 units of graduate seminars in CS 260–269, and up to 8 units of approved undergraduate technical electives.

Capstone Experience - All students must complete a capstone experience that synthesizes and integrates the knowledge and skills obtained throughout the master’s program, according to one of the following options. It is the responsibility of the student to find a faculty member willing to supervise the master’s project or thesis, to form the faculty examining committee, and to schedule the oral examination.

1. Project Option. Students must complete a research project under the guidance of a faculty member. This project will require a written report and will be presented to a committee of at least two faculty members in an oral examination. (A copy of the report must be submitted to the Graduate Division.)
2. Thesis Option. Students must submit a master’s thesis in accordance with the general requirements of the university. The thesis is original research work, and it should demonstrate the student's ability to study a research area, identify an open problem and make a research contribution. The thesis must be presented to and approved by a committee of at least three faculty members.

The normative time for the completion of a M.S. in CS is 2 years.

Doctoral Degree

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offers the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, after completion of the following degree requirements. It provides a research-oriented education in preparation for a career in research, industry, or academia and exploring both the fundamental aspects of computer science and engineering as well as their applications.

Satisfactory completion of CS 287 (Colloquium in Computer Science) each quarter of enrollment.

Course Work - The course requirements for the PhD degree ensure that PhD students are exposed to fundamental concepts and tools (core requirement), a deep up-to-date view of their research specialty area (depth requirement), and an advanced, up-to-date view of the some topics outside their area (breadth requirement). Students are expected to complete all of these course requirements in the first two years of the program. These requirements consist of 48 quarter units of approved graduate or upper-division undergraduate courses, satisfying all four of the following course work categories. All of these courses must be taken for a letter grade, and no course can be counted towards more than one category. Students who have completed similar courses elsewhere may petition for a waiver of a required course or for substitution of an alternative course. Units obtained in CS 270, CS 287, CS 290, CS 297, CS 298, CS 299, CS 301, and CS 302 cannot be counted in any course work category.

1. Core Requirement (12 units). Choose three courses from at least two of the three Core Areas described above, with no grade lower than B- and an overall core course GPA of at least 3.2,
2. Depth Requirement (12 units). Choose three courses listed above under the same Major Area (A to G),. This requirement ensures that PhD students, early on in their careers, acquire some depth of knowledge in a particular research area.
3. Breadth Requirement (12 units). Choose three courses from at least two different Major Areas (A to G) outside the student's depth area. No course that is listed in the student's depth area can be used to fulfill the breadth requirement, even if it is cross-listed in another area. Students, with the consent of the major professor, may petition for a non-CSE course to be counted towards the breadth requirement.
4. Electives (12 units). The remaining courses can be selected from additional CS graduate lecture courses, up to 8 units of graduate seminars in CS 260-269, and up to 8 units of approved undergraduate technical electives. Students, with the consent of the major professor, may petition for a non-CSE course to be counted as an elective.

Milestones - The Department has established three milestones to mark progress towards the PhD degree in Computer Science: advancement to candidacy, presentation of the dissertation proposal, and final oral examination. A PhD student must also satisfy all applicable Graduate Division requirements for each milestone.

Milestone I: Advancement to Candidacy. A student advances to candidacy after he/she has completed all the PhD course requirements described above, and passed both the written qualifying examination and oral qualifying examination described below. These two exams are intended to verify three components of the student's preparation for PhD research: (1) breadth of comprehension sufficient to enable Computer Science research in areas beyond the topic(s) of the research exam and dissertation; (2) ability to perform critical study, analysis and writing in a focused area; and (3) demonstrated research experience or ability to do research.

• The Written Qualifying Exam. The written qualifying examination consists of a high-quality paper, solely authored by the student. This can be either a research paper containing an original contribution or a focused critical survey paper. The paper should demonstrate that the student understands and can integrate and communicate ideas clearly and concisely and should be approximately 10 pages, single-spaced. The organization and writing style of the paper should be suitable for submission to a first-rate technical conference or journal. It must represent work that the student did as a graduate student at UCR. Any contributions that are not the student's own, including those of the major professor, must be explicitly acknowledged in detail. The paper must be approved by the student's major professor prior to submission and must have a cover page with the advisor's signature, indicating approval. After submission, the paper is reviewed and must be approved by at least two other members of the faculty selected by the Department’s Graduate Committee. The normative time for taking the Written Exam is the first quarter of the second year of graduate studies at UCR. The student must complete this requirement in no more than two attempts.
• Oral Qualifying Examination. The student is expected to demonstrate research aptitude by undertaking a research study on some topic (typically a problem from the student's chosen research specialty that may be a promising area in which to conduct the dissertation research), under the guidance of his or her faculty major professor. The research must be presented orally to a Qualifying Committee, which is appointed by the Graduate Division based on nominations from the Department. The committee evaluates the merits of the work and the student's aptitude for research. The work must represent significant progress towards original and publishable research. A written report summarizing the oral presentation must be submitted to the Qualifying Committee at least a week before the exam. The student must complete this requirement in no more than two attempts. The normative time for taking the Oral Qualifying Exam is by the end of the second year.
• Dissertation Committee. After advancing to candidacy, the student must form a Doctoral Examination Committee chaired by her or his major professor. The Committee must include at least three CSE Department senate faculty members and at least one member from outside the CSE Department.

Milestone II: Dissertation Proposal Examination. After advancement to candidacy, the student prepares a dissertation proposal that describes the dissertation topic, summarizes the relevant background literature, and presents a comprehensive research plan for the doctoral dissertation. The Dissertation Proposal Examination evaluates the appropriateness of the research topic and the feasibility of the research plan. It also establishes a realistic timeline for the completion of the Dissertation. The Dissertation Committee administers this exam. The normative time for the Dissertation Proposal Exam is by the end of the third year. The Dissertation Proposal exam must be taken at least six months prior to the Final Doctoral Examination.

Milestone III: Final Doctoral Examination. The student is required to write a dissertation in accordance with the Graduate Division requirements and may be required to defend it in a public oral final doctoral examination to the Dissertation Committee. After a satisfactory performance on the final doctoral examination, the Dissertation Committee recommends granting the PhD degree. The student’s research and the dissertation must both meet the highest standards of originality and scholarship. The normative time for the completion of a Ph.D. in CS is five years.