Computer Science Graduate Student Newsletter

No.: 1997-05
May 5, 1997

Faculty

  1. The department hopes to hire three new faculty members for Fall 1997.
  2. Drs. Rusinkiewicz and Verma are scheduled to return from their respective leaves in Fall 1997.
  3. Dr. Paris is taking a leave during the academic year 1997/8.
  4. Dr. Davison is leaving UH at the end of Spring 1997. He will occasionally return to campus, to allow students on whose committee he serves to schedule their defense dates.
  5. Prof. Albert Cheng will present tutorials on real-time expert systems and verification tools at the 10th IEEE-CS Intl. Conference on Industrial and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems and at the 5th IEEE-CS Intl. Symposium on Assessment of Software Tools and Technology.

Summer Course Offerings

Several required undergraduate courses are offered in the summer (one notable exception however is COSC 4330). Also offered are COSC 6302 and COSC 7397 (equivalent to COSC 7380). Most courses are offered during the nine-week summer session.

A few are offered during the second six-week session; information about these courses is posted to the left of 522 PGH. Note that in recognition of the difficulty of completing a programming course in a six-week session, the programming project of COSC 4310 is due ten (10) days after lectures end.

7000-Level COSC Courses

In response to numerous requests from students, the department is making an effort to offer more 7000-level Computer Science courses. One such course is offered in the summer and several more in the fall. While Ph. D students need (a certain number of) these courses, they also count as regular-numbered COSC courses for all M. S. students (without any further approval).

Blanket Approvals

The following courses apply toward a graduate degree without any further approval:

  1. Any COSC 63xy and COSC 73xy course with 05<=xy<=96. These are known as the regular-numbered COSC courses.
  2. Any 4000-level COSC course (other than 4310 and 4330) provided all three conditions below are satisfied:

For any other course to count toward a COSC graduate degree, you must obtain written approval prior to the beginning of the semester in which the course is to be taken. In particular, in order for a Special Problems course to count (e. g., 6398), a petition must be filed stating the material to be covered and the basis on which the grade is determined. This petition must be signed by the student and by the faculty member supervising the work before being submitted to the department for approval. For more details, consult with Ms. Amanda Vaughan during her office hours.

The 130 Hour Cap

I want to review some information related to the infamous 130 hour rule. In essence, this rule, adopted four years ago by the Texas Legislature, states that all Ph. D. students with more than 130 doctoral hours must pay premium tuition, regardless of whether they are in-state or out-of- state/international and regardless of whether they are TAs/RAs or not. In particular, no tuition waivers are available in this case. (Premium tuition is defined to be the same as out-of-state tuition.) While at present, Ph. D. students who entered the Ph. D. program before Fall 1993 are exempt from paying premium tuition, there is a distinct possibility that all Ph. D. students with more than 130 doctoral hours (regardless of the date when they entered the doctoral program) will no longer be employed by the university (as TAs or RAs). Doctoral students should be aware of this and plan ahead (the best way to avoid this problem is of course to graduate...). By the way, there is a bill in the Texas legislature that would reduce the 130 hour cap to 100 (but it has not [yet] passed).

What is an M. S. Thesis?

Judging from questions and comments made by students, it seems that there is some confusion about what is an M. S. thesis. It is essentially a self-contained write-up (perhaps 50-100 pages) of a complex technical nature. It need not be original research nor need it be publishable. This is what distinguishes it fundamentally from a Ph. D. dissertation.

I will be out of the country May 12 - July 2, 1997. My office hours for July and August will be announced later. Ms. Amanda Vaughan will retain her usual office hours (Monday and Friday: 1-5pm; Tuesday through Thursday: 9am-noon).

For those of you who will graduate, we congratulate you and wish you success; for the others -- see you either in one of our summer courses or else in the fall!

Dr. Ernst L. Leiss