Computer Science Graduate Student Newsletter

Greetings

As the new Director of Graduate Studies, I want to welcome all new and returning graduate students. I am not planning any major policy changes, but intend to modify some of our current practices; some of this is outlined below, other aspects will be discussed in forthcoming newsletters. I thank my predecessor, Dr. Stephen Huang, for making it very easy to take over the job: I am not inheriting any major problems!

My foremost goal is to provide for the most extensive communication possible. I view this as two-way: I will let you know what the department expects of you and you in turn should let me know where we can improve what we are currently doing. Once the rush of the semester start is over, I will have more time to talk with you about this. While I cannot promise that every one of your suggestions will be accepted, I can promise that each will be considered. I do hope that you will refrain from using anonymous mess-ages; I certainly won't retaliate if I don't like your proposal but I can pro-vide you reasons if your idea is in-feasible -- provided I know to whom to respond!

Past suggestions were related to the paucity of regular 7000 level courses and to the prolonged absence of certain standard courses from our course offerings, in particular the graduate database course (COSC 6340). Both of these concerns have been addressed in the Spring schedule. We are also making every effort to provide you very soon with the course offerings in the coming summer so you can plan ahead. In particular, both COSC 4310 and 4330 will be offered this summer.

I will continue teaching my usual courses. I also continue to accept thesis students who want to work under my supervision.

Best wishes for a productive Spring semester

Ernst L. Leiss

Please give me feed-back on these planned changes in procedures:

Degree Requirements Issues

1. About two years ago, the faculty of the department voted to implement a Computer Science graduation GPA requirement. Specifically, in order to graduate, students had to have a GPA of at least 3.00 in all Computer Science courses (3000 level and higher). For technical reasons, effective immediately this rule is suspended until further notice. Note that the university require-ment of a minimum 3.00 overall GPA is not affected by this suspension.

2. Starting with the Fall 1997 semester, I plan to enforce Point 2.2 of the Rules and Requirement for the M. S. Degree in Computer Science. This rule requires approval of all courses any student takes every semester. I am planning to handle this as follows (this is an ana-logue of the process that Engi-neering uses, as I understand it): I will formulate blanket approvals; in parti-cular, if you take only Computer Science courses for which you have the prerequisite (either because you took the course or because I waived it in my initial course advising session with you), you need no further approval. All other courses will require formal approval in writing from me before registration, which is not automatic. This applies to any and all courses you are planning to take while being a Computer Science graduate student. During the semester, the department will obtain each student's course registration and may drop students from any course for which they had not received prior departmental approval.

I realize this is a significant change of implementation and invite comments. Please note that Rule 2.2 authorizes such a procedure.

Special Problem Courses

If you register for a special problem course (COSC 6x98) and want to receive credit toward your degree for it, you must file a General Petition prior to the semester start which outlines what work you have to carry out and on the basis of what product your grade will be determined. It must be signed by you and the faculty member super-vising your work. I view this document as a formal contract, binding on both parties. If such a petition is not on file, the course will not count toward your degree. There will be no retro-active approval. Also, I intend to stipulate that all courses with an approved petition on file will receive a letter grade.

Graduate Admissions

Up until now, the principal entry point in the admissions process to the Computer Science graduate programs is the Office of Admissions. I am explo-ring the implications of changing the principal entry and contact point to be the Department of Computer Science. In this scenario, the department would keep track of incomplete applications; only completed application folders would be sent to the Office of Admissions for official notification (and, for international applicants, issuance of I- 20s).

I invite comments on this possible change.

Qualifying Examinations

The department will offer Qualifying Examinations in four areas; these are

Database Management
   (COSC 6340 -- Moreau)
Operating Systems
   (COSC 6360 -- Paris)
Programming Languages
   (COSC 6361 -- Leiss)
Software Engineering
   (COSC 6350 -- J. C. Huang)

Ms. Amanda Vaughan, in 501 PGH, will have sign-up sheets. The deadline to register for one or more QEs is Friday, April 18, 1997, 4 pm. The deadline to withdraw from a QE for which you have signed up is Wednesday, April 30, 1997, 4 pm.

Lecturers' Bio-Sketches

Dennis Moreau is Executive Director of Technical Architecture and Strategic Technology Planning at Baylor College of Medicine. He also holds the office of Director of the Center for Information Infrastructure and Computing Sciences. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He has taught courses in operating systems, computer graphics and ima-ging, scientific computing & visualiza-tion, and software engineering, among others. His interests include software metrics, dataflow computing, parallel architectures for imaging and graphics, object-oriented programming/databa-ses, enterprise information system de-sign, and realistic rendering algorithms.

Wissam Rabadi is a member of the Visual Communications team at Texas Instruments. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Central Florida in Electrical Engineering. His interests include visual communications, image and signal processing, multimedia and parallel processing.

Venkat Subramanian received his Ph.D. from our own department. He works for Raytheon Engineers and Constructors as System Architect. His chief interests are object oriented systems and languages.

Carl Smith received his Ph.D. from Rice University and worked for Shell Research until his retirement. He has been involved in several system projects at Shell including research in control theory and its applications.

Office Hours

Ms. Amanda Vaughan
  Monday and Friday: 1-5pm
  Tuesday through Thursday: 9am-noon           
  All other times by appointment only.

Dr. Ernst L. Leiss
  Monday and Friday: 4-5pm
  Tuesday - Thursday: 9:30-10:30am
  Please confirm by calling 743-3350