You may have noticed many changes were made during the last few months. Due to the continuing growth of our graduate and undergraduate enrollments, the department is taking several steps to ensure that current students are receiving a quality education. Here is a summary of these steps.

We have revised our practice in evaluating applicants to our graduate programs. Admission to our graduate program is based on a competitive selection process. Meeting the minimum requirements published does not guarantee admission to our programs. Hopefully we will see a smaller group of new students in the fall semester. Also, all changes of degree objective (such as from MS to Ph.D., or change of major) are being evaluated as new admissions. It may take a few semesters to decrease the enrollment to a desired level.

Taking COSC Courses

The number of students taking Computer Science graduate courses has skyrocketed in recent years. As a result, classes can be large and difficult to get into. Registering as early as possible and paying your fee bill on time is the first thing you should do to handle this difficulty. The department co-heads are hiring more lecturers to teach more sections of some of the popular courses. They have committed to add sections to COSC 4310 and COSC 4330. At the same time, we have also added restrictions to our graduate courses (excluding 630X). Only COSC graduate students will be able to register for these courses through VIP. Students in other departments will have to prove that they have the required prerequisites in order to take our courses. Even though this will not eliminate all non-CS students in our courses, it does provide our students an advantage in signing up for our courses.

Under our rules, MS students are allowed to take courses outside the department. Graduate courses from Mathematics and Engineering are routinely approved as part of the non-regular courses. UH also has an inter-institutional agreement that allows our students to take courses at Rice University. If approved students will register in COSC 6398 and pay at UH and take courses at Rice. See Ms. Amanda Vaughan for the approval procedure.

The department will be hiring 12 additional Graduate Assistants this fall. Application forms are available in the department office.

What is P2MS?

No, this is not a new music format. P2MS stands for the Plan 2 Master of Science degree, commonly known as the Non-Thesis Option. After a failed attempt to propose a non-thesis MS degree in 1996, the department is about to implement this option in the coming semester. This degree plan is intended for computer professionals with at least two years of experience in the computing field. Students in this new program are required to take 36 credit hours of courses with no thesis requirement. Details of the plan will be available after it is formally adopted by the Computer Science faculty.

Our Faculty

Like many other Computer Science departments in the nation, we have multiple faculty positions unfilled. It is unlikely that we will add new faculty members this fall. Dr. Marek Rusinkiewicz, who has been on leave for several years, formally resigned as of August, and Dr. Bowen Loftin is taking a leave during the next academic year. On the other hand, Dr. Albert Cheng will be returning from his leave at Rice in January and Dr. Lennart Johnsson is returning from his special assignment to teach next semester. So, we should be able to offer courses at the same level as last year.