CSCI Graduate Course Planning: Spring 2006

Last updated Oct 29, 2006

This is a summary of how to plan for and enroll in courses for graduate study in Computer Science at Indiana University. The file is located at http://www.cs.indiana.edu/Academics/graduate/orientation/advising.jan06.html. It includes:

• Course selection guidelines
• Links to resources to aid schedule planning (conflict planner, degree worksheets)
• Academic policy highlights - all students are responsible for reviewing these and checking for updates each semester
• Spring 2006 graduate CS courses.

To aid long-term planning, the course list includes some information about courses likely to be offered in Spring 2006. That information is not official and is subject to change. The course planning guide for Fall 2005 is still available as a reference.

For any advising questions not addressed below, please contact David Leake, Director of Graduate Studies. For procedural questions about enrollment, please contact Sherry Kay, Graduate Administrator.

Continuing students should register Oct 20 - Nov 18. Please register promptly, as courses with insufficient enrollments risk being cancelled. Prompt registration is especially important for specialized classes with small enrollments.

See the Registrar's web site for registration and drop and add for details on university procedures. The full schedule of classes is available from the Office of the Registrar.

Registration guidelines:

• Register for three CS Courses. You should choose three courses (typically 3 hours each) that count towards your intended degree.
• Be sure to adhere to the following policies, which are conditions for maintaining good standing and financial aid eligibility (See the CS support page for all policies concerning aid.)
  • "Satisfactory progress" for CS students depends on taking and successfully completing at least 9 credits of CS courses contributing towards their degree requirements each Fall and Spring semester. This is a condition for financial aid for students with CS department teaching assistantships.
  • Students with research assistantships must secure their RA supervisors' advance written permission to take any outside courses in addition to the required 9 credits of CS courses contributing towards their degrees. This approval must be provided to the Graduate Administrator prior to registration.
  • Students must enroll in three courses even if they are making up incompletes from a previous semester. Students are expected to maintain a normal load as they make up incompletes.
  • MS students are required to complete all "P" courses required for their degrees by the time they reach 10 courses.
• English Course(s). Any International Student who received a form requiring English courses (Ling T101) must enroll in all the courses checked. These are required for graduation.

Extremely important notes for international students:

• Course loads: International students should note that SEVIS regulations are stringent about having a full course load, and that it's essential to check with International Services well in advance of any event that might affect visa status, to avoid the risk of deportation for being out of status. Check International Services' immigration regulations page now and be sure that you are aware of the current policies.
• Completion dates for visa purposes:International students are considered to have completed their degrees as soon as they have completed the degree requirements, regardless of whether they have filed for the degree. Consequently, it is essential to make sure that post-graduation visa arrangements are in place before completing the requirements. International Services is expert on these rules.
• Completion dates used for OPT applications: For Optional Practical training, your date of graduation is normally the end of the semester in which you take the last courses needed for the degree, regardless of whether you will receive an incomplete in one of these courses. Even if you have an incomplete that prevents receiving your degree, you should expect the OPT to be processed using the normal completion date for your last courses (the last day of finals).

Procedures for independent study courses:

• Which research course you should take:
  • Y790's are taken before formal approval of candidacy.
  • Y890's are only allowed after all candidacy paperwork has been processed, and are for dissertation research.
  • G901 is only allowed after candidacy and completion of the required 90 credits.
• How to sign up: The independent study or research courses, the Independent Research Permission Form, (PDF, Postscript). must be signed by the research supervisor and turned in to the Graduate Administrator to obtain permission to register. This applies to any Y790, Y890, or G901 section. All Y790's in a given semester have the same section number, and likewise for Y890 and G901. For the current section numbers, please see the table below. Please be sure to allow enough time to get the instructor's signature before the deadline at the top of this page, to avoid late registration fees.
• Approvals for Y790's for R,T,or S options for the MS: If you wish to take a Y790 to count towards the R, T, or S option for the MS degree, you must discuss your plans with the research supervisor and secure the supervisor's approval before signing up for the course.
• Y790's with supervision outside CS: If your supervisor is outside of the CS Faculty, you will need to find a CS faculty member to co-supervise the project and co-sign the form. The CS faculty member must assess the student's work at the end of the semester and submit the grade for the course. Please be sure that all needed information is provided to him or her at the end of the semester, in time for the grade submission deadline.
• Time limits on G901: Students are only allowed 6 semesters of G901. If you are out of G901's you must register for Y890. Please make sure you are eligible for the G901 registration before submitting your form to the Graduate Administrator.

Resources for Choosing Courses:

A Master's work sheet is available in either Postscript or PDF format to help Master's students plan their courses.
A corresponding PhD work sheet is available in Postscript or PDF format to help PhD students plan their course requirements. (Students who entered before Spring, 2001, should use the pre-2001 PhD course work sheet ( pdf ).)

See Spring 2006 Course Information for details about times, section numbers, and discussion sections for all courses in Computer Science. See also the CS Schedule of Classes page for historical information about previous semesters.

A good way to find out about courses in detail is to consult the course home pages. Links to course descriptions and available home pages are provided on the IU Computer Science Department Courses page.

See the Course Conflict Planner for a visual summary of possible time conflicts.

Academic Policies:

Withdrawls from courses: During the automatic withdrawl period, students who withdraw will be assigned an automatic grade of W (see the Registrar's official calendar for exact dates). After that period, withdrawls are only possible with approval from the Dean, which is normally given only for urgent reasons such as illness. Note that CS students must successfully complete at least 9cr of courses towards their degrees each semester to be considered to be making satisfactory progress.

Time Limits for Courses Counted Towards Graduate Degrees: The Graduate Bulletin states: "Normally, a course may not be counted toward degree requirements if it has been completed more than (a) five years prior to the awarding of the degree for master's students or, (b) seven years prior to the passing of the qualifying examination for Ph.D. students."

Timing of Written Qualifying Exams: Students entering the PhD program with preparation in the qualifier areas are expected to use their "free try" at the qualifying exams on entry. Those who do not complete the requirement at that time must take both qualifiers in the August preceeding their second year, and must pass both by the August preceeding their third year. Students transferring from the IU Computer Science MS program must take both qualifiers in August preceding their first year as PhD students, and must pass both in August preceding their second year as PhD students. Information on exam dates and contents is available from the Qualifying Examination Implementation page.

Graduate Course Grades: Students should be aware that page 7 of the University Graduate School Bulletin stipulates that courses completed with grades below C (2.0) do not count towards degree requirements; however, these grades (e.g., C-, D+, D, D-, F) are counted in calculating the grade point average, which must be a B (3.0) or above to continue in graduate study.

Deficiencies: If you have not completed an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, you must at least take or know the material covered in C241, A592(C212), and A594(C343). It is desirable to have taken or be familiar with the material in the basic five core undergraduate courses: C241 (Discrete Structures for CSCI), A591 (C211: Intro to Computer Science), A592 (C212: Intro to Software Systems), A593 (C335: Computer Structures), and A594 (C343: Data Structures); the sixth core course, A596 (C311: Programming Languages), is also highly recommended if you do not plan to take the graduate course, B521 (Programming Language Principles), instead.

Transferring courses: As described in the Bulletin of the University Graduate School, PhD candidates may transfer up to 30 hours of courses from another graduate institution, and MS candidates may transfer up to 8 hours, subject to approval of course content (transfer is not automatic) and to various conditions (e.g., courses transferred for a degree may not have been counted towards a previous degree at the same level, the course must have been completed (1) under a graduate course number, (2) while enrolled at the graduate level, (3) within given time limits, and (4) with a grade of B or better). For details, see the Academic Regulations section of the Graduate School Bulletin.

Curricular Practical Training: International Students planning summer employment under the CPT program must enroll in Y798 and complete the arrangements with International Services and the Computer Science Department outlined in the Curricular Practical Training Y798 Authorization Form, (PDF), (Postscript). All related forms (including those requiring an advisor signature) should be submitted to the Graduate Administrator, Sherry Kay. Y798 is not allowed with an RAship or AIship, due to the departmental policy that AIs and RAs are not allowed to take additional employment.

Spring 2006 Course Offerings

The table below summarizes Spring 2006 graduate course offerings in CSCI, as well as courses from other departments that can be applied to the MS degree. The listed courses are 3 credits unless otherwise indicated.

• PhD Qualifying Exam preparation courses are B501 or B503, and P536. These are marked below by "Qual IA", "Qual IB", and "Qual II", respectively. Details on the qualifiers are available from the qualifiers implementation page.
• Different topics courses may share the same course number (e.g., two different courses may both be numbered B669). Please check course titles and be sure you register for the section with the topic you want. Section numbers are unique.
• Links to course descriptions are included where possible for topics courses and courses being offered for the first time. For other courses, see the departmental course overview page for links to descriptions and home pages from previous semesters (prior syllabi are subject to change).
• Prerequisites and other restrictions are listed in the Graduate Bulletin. Please consult these before you register, especially if you have completed undergraduate CSCI courses at IU. Having taken certain undergraduate courses may preclude credit for their graduate equivalents.

The departmental page "Spring '06 Computer Science Courses" may have more recent schedule changes.

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Area	Course	Title/(section start end days)	Instructor
Theory Qual IA Choose A or B for 2006 Qual.	B501	Theory of Computing - Will be offered Fall 2006
Theory	B502	Computational Complexity	Van Gucht
		24023 LEC 9:30AM 10:45AM MW SY001
Theory Qual IB Choose A or B for 2006 Qual.	B503	Algorithms Design and Analysis	Purdom
		14815 LEC 1:00PM 2:15PM MW WH121
Theory	B510	Introduction to Applied Logic	Leivant
		26647 LEC 2:30PM 3:45PM MW ARR
Theory	P515	Specification and Verification	Johnson
		14863 LEC 9:30AM 10:45AM TR LH102
Prog. Lang.	P523	Programming Language Implementation	Sabry
		14864 LEC 11:15AM 12:30PM TR WY015
Prog. Lang.	B524	Parallelism in Programming Languages and Systems	Lumsdaine
		22139 LEC 2:30PM 3:45PM MW BH147
Systems	B543	Computer Architecture	Mills
		14817 LEC 9:30AM 10:45AM MW WY005
AI	B552	Knowledge-Based Computation	Leake
		24027 LEC 2:30PM 3:45PM MW LH115
Database/ SW Eng	P566	Software Engineering I-II, contd	Robertson
		14865 LEC 4:00PM 5:15PM TR LH102
		14866 DIS 10:10AM 11:00AM F BH005
Sci Comp	P573	Scientific Computing	Gottschling
		14867 LEC 11:15AM 12:30PM MW WY101
Prog. Lang.	B629	(Topics in Programming Languages): Practical Compilers for Modern Machines"	Chauhan
		24029 LEC 2:30PM 3:45PM TR BH205
Systems	B649	(Topics in Systems): Trusted Computing	Hill
		24032 LEC 2:30PM 3:45PM MW LH019
Systems	B649	(Topics in Systems): Internet Services and Protocols	Gupta
		25820 3 9:30 AM 10:45 AM MW
AI	B651	Natural Language Processing	Gasser
		26652 LEC 4:00PM 5:15PM TR TBA
AI	B657	Computer Vision	Cutu
		26649 LEC 1:00PM 2:15PM TR TBA
AI	B659	Web Mining	Menczer
		14821 LEC 11:15AM 12:30PM TR TBA
Database/ SW Eng	B666	Software Engineering Management II	Robertson
		14822 LEC 10:30AM 12:00PM MW LH019
		Requires instructor authorization.
Database	B669	(Topics in Database and Information Systems) Research Seminar in Databases and Datamining	Robertson
		22740 LEC 4:00PM 6:00PM M LH102
Database	B669	(Topics in Database and Information Systems) Database systems and internal design	Wu
		24039 LEC 1:00PM 2:15PM TR BH246
Research	Y790 (1-6 cr)	Graduate Independent Study	Faculty
		Research and Reading
		Software System Development
		"R" Master's Research Project
		"S " Master's Software Project
		"TH " University Master's Thesis
		14873 IND 0 0 TBA TBA LEAKE
Internships	Y798 (0 cr)	Professional Practicum/Internship
		0 credit/pass-fail. Not allowed with RA or AI.
		22724 IND 0 0 TBA TBA
Research	Y890 (1-12 cr)	Thesis Reading and Research	Faculty
		14875 IND 0 0 0 TBA
Research	G901 (6 cr)	Advanced Research	Faculty
		14852 IND 0 0 TBA TBA
Courses in other areas counting for CS Master's Degree
Math	M472	Numerical Analysis II	Glassey
		25136 02:30P-03:45P TR WH 109
SLIS	L542	Intro to Human-Computer Interaction (Cognitive issues)	Kurtz
		25467 05:45P-08:30P ARR LI 031
Informatics I590s: Selected I590 topics courses may be approved to count as "10th course" electives for the MS, based on their fit with the student's MS program. Specific courses and conditions for credit must be approved by the CS Director of Graduate Studies in advance. Please e-mail the course title, how you see the course contributing to your program, and a list of your planned 10 courses for the MS in the format of the Master's work sheet. Please see the Informatics courses page for information on I590 offerings and schedule.