Computer Science Graduate Student Newletter
No. 1995-01
January 12, 1995
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Prof Loftin Wins $6M Grant

On December 29, 1994, the Office of Naval Research (ONR)
announced that a proposal, submitted by the University of
Houston, to the Department of Defense Focused Research
Initiative, has been funded.  

COSC Professor R. Bowen Loftin is the Principal Investigator of
the project "Developing Virtual Environment for Training."  The
project will receive a total of $6,177,000 over the next five
years starting March 1, 1995.  This is the largest grant ever
received by the Computer Science Department.

Dr. Loftin will be working with researchers at universities (UH,
UH-Downtown, Univ. of Pennsylvania, George Mason Univ., Yale,
and Central Florida), private companies (LinCom, Loral) and
Government Labs (NASA JSC, U.S. Air Force, Navy and Army).

"This project will not only advance the state-of-knowledge in
virtual environments for training but will also create an
atmosphere that enhances the education of students in science
and engineering while broadening industrial and government
researchers through involvement in academic research," according
to the abstract of the proposal.

Prof. Loftin received his Ph.D. degree from Rice University in
1975.  He joined the Computer Science Faculty in 1994.  He is
also the Director of Virtual Environment Technology Laboratory
at UH.

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MS Rules Change Approved

There are two minor changes to the current rules governing the
M.S. students.  The first change specifies when a student should
sign up for thesis (6399).  After completing 18 credit hours
toward the degree, a student must enroll in 6399.  He/She must
subsequently enroll in 7399 each semester until graduation. 

A new requirement for Computer Science GPA was added to the new
rules.  A student must maintain a GPA of 3.00 or better for all
advanced Computer Science courses (i. e., at 4000-level or
above). This is in addition to the university's requirement that
GPA for all graduate courses be at least 3.00.

The revised rules were approved by the COSC faculty on October
25, 1994.  Students entering the MS program starting Spring 1995
will be governed under the new rules.

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Prerequisites will be Enforced

Graduate students must complete 6 COSC prerequisite courses
(630x, 4310, and 4330) before they can sign up for graduate
courses.  Any course taken prior to the completion of these
prerequisite courses will not count toward his/her degree (MS
Rules 3.1.4).  The rule was not rigorously enforced in the past.
 

This rule will be enforced starting this semester according to
Dr. Stephen Huang, COSC Graduate Advisor.  Any student who has
not completed these prerequisite courses must do so this
semester.  Past violation (Fall 94 or before) will be forgiven. 

This rule may be waived in some cases.  While completing the
last prerequisite course(s), a student is allowed to take
graduate course(s).  If a student has to complete 6304 and 4330,
for example, then he will be allowed to take them in two
semesters since 6304 is a prerequisite to 4330. Part-time
students who cannot take daytime courses can also request an
exemption of the rule.  All exceptions must be approved in
writing in advance.

This is not a rule change and will be applied to all students
(current and new).

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Graduate Student Publication

Jeng-Rung Chen's paper entitled "Response Time Analysis of EQL
Real-Time Rule-Based Systems,'' co-authored with his
dissertation advisor Dr. Albert Cheng, has been accepted for
publication and will appear in the February 1995 issue of the
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering.