9/8/06 The Computer Science Department moves the following changes to their M.S. degree requirements. They will replace the current core area requirement. M.S. students are required to achieve a passing grade in courses in four distinct bins, including all three essential bins (see definitions of bins and essential bins below). Essential bins are Theory, Algorithms, and either Systems or Networks. Other bins are Design, Compilers/Languages, Graphics/Imaging, AI, and Databases. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Some bins contain preparatory courses designed specifically for students with insufficient background knowledge or skills. Graduate credit may be earned for these courses and M.S. students may use them to satisfy bin requirements, although students with a solid undergraduate degree in CS are strongly encouraged to take more advanced courses within the bins. 1. The following list shows the set of courses in each bin. Courses with a 5000 number (to the left of the ||'s) are considered preparatory courses. Courses listed in multiple bins may only be used to satisfy the requirements of one bin. Theory: 5003 (Intro. Theory) || 503 (Found.), 521 (Logic), 559 (Adv. Th.) Algorithms: 5084 (Intro. Algorithms) || 504 (Analysis), 584 (Algs) Systems: 502 (OS), 533 (Perf. Eval.), 535 (Adv. OS) Networks: 513 (Intro LAN/WAN), 529 (Multi. Net.), 530 (HP Net.), 577 (Adv.Net.) Design: 509 (SE), 546 (HCI), 562 (Adv. SE) Compilers/Languages: 536 (Langs.), 544 (Compilers) Graphics/Imaging: 543 (Graph.), 545 (Im. Proc.), 549 [Vision], 563 (Adv. Gr.) AI: 534 (AI), 538 (Ex. Sys.), 539 (Learning), 540 (AI Design), 549 [Vision] Databases: 542 (DB), 561 (Adv. DB) 2. For each bin, there will be a bin committee consisting of full-time CS faculty (generally, faculty who teach in that area), responsible for the administration of requirements related to that bin. These responsibilities include recommending courses to be added or removed from their bin, determining which independent studies and special topics courses should be included in their bin, and approving student petitions to waive their bin. The membership of the bin committees will be annually reviewed by the Department Head. 3. Independent study and special topics (CS525) courses can be counted as belonging to a particular bin with the approval of the bin committee. Approval should be sought by the instructor prior to the start of the course. 4. Students who have completed previous graduate work elsewhere may petition the appropriate bin committee to waive the requirement of taking a course from that bin. If the waiver petition is approved by the bin committee, the grade the student received for the activity will be used in determining whether the breadth requirement is satisfied. 5. Students who do not achieve a passing grade in a course within a bin can either retake the course, take a different course within the bin, or, if it is in a non-essential bin, take courses in other bins to satisfy the breadth requirement. 6. BS/MS students who received BS/MS credit for an undergraduate course may have that undergraduate course satisfy the appropriate bin requirement. 7. A student may count a total of at most two courses towards their MS degree from the following categories: preparatory CS courses and courses from other departments. 8. These new rules, once approved by CGSR and, if needed, the WPI faculty, would take effect immediately. Students currently enrolled may choose to graduate either under these rules or any rules that have been active since their matriculation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rationale: This change is made primarily to maintain compatibility with the recently approved changes in the Ph.D. breadth requirement. It essentially replaces the requirement for students to pass graduate courses in four core areas with graduate courses in three essential bins plus a bin of the student's choice. A course in the Design area is no longer required.