The Culminating Experience and Committee Composition

Every Master's degree program is required to include a culminating experience. The form of this experience differs according to degree programs, but all Master's students must satisfactorily complete either a thesis, a project or a comprehensive examination. The Master's Thesis and Project Committee Composition Policy governs who may serve on the student's committee.

For the Computer Science department, as of Spring 2012, the committee shall consisnt of your advisor (a tenure track faculty member of the CSIS department) plus one more tenure track faculty member of the department.   In order to receive advise from an expert in the field of your choice, you may add one more member to the committee and this person can be from outside the department (e.g. industry, another department).

A finished Master's thesis is a scholarly work that is the product of extensive research and related preparation. The University will make Master's theses and the abstracts of Master's projects publicly available to other students, faculty, and outside researchers in the University Library. As such, theses (and the abstract pages of projects) must adhere to uniform standards of format and construction to preserve the work and to prepare it for binding.