Computer Science Graduate Student Newsletter

1996-02                                     February 23, 1996

 Professional MS Degree Proposed 
The Department Curriculum Committee met on January 29 to revise 
a proposed new degree in Computer Science.  The new degree is 
intended to attract computer professionals working in the 
greater Houston area.  The degree will be called Master of 
Computer Science (MCS).  

One of the major differences of the MCS degree and the MSCS 
(Master of Science in Computer Science) is in its admission 
requirements.  Two years of professional work experience in 
a computer-related job is a must for admission into the program.  

Students enrolled in the MCS program do not have to complete 
a thesis.  They have to complete 36 hours of course work 
instead.  The requirement on the Mathematics courses is also 
reduced.  

The proposal was briefly discussed by the Faculty during its 
February 6 Faculty Meeting.  A separate proposal to create a 
Non-Thesis option for the MSCS degree is still being discussed 
by the Committee.  In the meeting, Chairman J. C. Huang also 
announced the hiring of a part-time staff to manage the 
Department's computer system.

 Search for New Faculty Begins 

The Department is actively recruiting candidates for at least 
two faculty positions at all ranks.  According to Dr. Lennart 
Johnsson, Chairman of the Search Committee, we are seeking 
candidates with research interests in Systems, Communication 
and Computational Sciences even though candidates with other 
interests may be considered.  In addition, the Department is 
also seeking a candidate to fill the opening of the Chairman.  
Detail information about these positions can be found in the 
Department Home Page on the Web.

 NASA Project on Distributed Computing 
A NASA research grant was awarded to the University of Houston 
and DigiNet Research recently.  According to Dr. Stephen 
Huang, the Principal Investigator, the project is one of 
twelve projects selected for funding in a nation-wide 
competition.  One hundred fifty-nine proposals from all 
sectors of the nation were submitted for the initial phase of 
the competition.

In addition to UH, Stanford, UCLA, MIT, UC-Berkeley, and 
Maryland were among the winners of this STTR Phase II award.  
The title of the 2-year $500,000 project is "A Distributed 
Environment for Interactive Document and Data Review."  

Dr. Huang will select a number of research assistants to work 
on the project.  Students interested in Internet, World Wide 
web, and Java should submit resumes to Dr. Huang. 

 Network Problem 
Intermittent network problems have plagued the entire UH campus 
for several weeks.  In its effort to isolate the problem 
Information Technology Department will separate us from the Math 
department and place the cs.uh.edu subdomain in a different 
segment of the campus-wide LAN.  Hopefully, the problem will be 
identified and resolved soon. 

 Graduate Student Publication 
Wen Qiang Gu presented a paper, "Application of GIS Technology 
in Civil Engineering," at the Computers in Engineering 
Symposium of the Energy Information Management Conference on 
February 1. The paper was co-authored with Drs. Cunaraswamy 
Vipuiaiander (Civil Engineering) and Stephen Huang.