Submit 297 proposal and application for candidacy.
Enroll in CS 297
Form a committee
Submit CS 298 (or 299) proposal and graduation form.
Enroll in CS 298 (or 299)
File application for award of degree
Defend your writing project/thesis
The Competency in Written English Requirement
You must satisfy the Competency
in Written English requirement. For most students this means taking
CS 200W. This is a corequisite for CS 297 and a
prerequisite for CS298/299.
You must have satisfied the Competency in Written English, or you
must be enrolled in an approved technical writing course in order to enroll in CS 297. You must have
satisfied the Competency in Written English requirement to enroll in
CS298/299. No exceptions!
Preparing for the Project
MSCS students are required to complete a 2-semester thesis (297 +
299, also called "Plan A" in the university catalog) or writing project
(297 + 298, also called "Plan B") or complete the CS 240, CS 288
sequence.
If you choose the thesis or writing project path, you must decide
whether you want to work on a writing project or a thesis. The principal
difference is that the writing project will not be filed with the
Associate Vice President of Graduate Studies and Research. The Graduate
Studies office is very stringent about English language usage and
typography of theses.
You must find an advisor who is willing to work with you. It is a
good idea to be flexible and be prepared to work with one of several
potential advisors.
You and your advisor must agree on a topic for your project. Again,
it is a good idea to be flexible and find a topic that is of interest to
you and your advisor.
You should start contacting potential advisors by the middle of the
semester preceding the start of the project.
Projects must have appropriate depth for graduate work. "Literature
review" and "routine implementation" projects will not be approved by
the department. Projects that are merely lengthy but shallow are not
appropriate. In particular, you need to be able to demonstrate how your
project rises above the level of a senior undergraduate project. We consider the following criteria:
technical innovation: are you using new techniques that have not
been used in this way in the past?
technical challenge: are the tools and techniques that you are
using so difficult that they require the maturity of a graduate
student?
theoretical foundations: are you providing a theoretical
framework for your work, for example by discussing architectural
patterns, by analyzing the relationships between your implementation
and prior art, or by performing a mathematical analysis?
quantitative analysis: are you gathering and evaluating
quantitative data?
Your project deliverables should show that your project meets
one or more of these criteria.
The results of your project (i.e. the final report and the source
code) must be available for public inspection. Proprietary work is not
appropriate.
You need to file a 297 proposal (1-2 pages) with the department. In the proposal, you need to list
your and your advisor's names and email
addresses
a description of your project
a proposed schedule for your plan of study
a tentative list of proposed deliverables
a list of literature references
Your proposal must be in proper English. The Graduate Coordinator
may reject proposals that contain too many spelling or grammar
errors.
File your proposal within one week after the
first day of classes of the semester in which you want to to take
297.
As a rule, instructors and the department are unlikely to agree to
the supervision of projects over the summer, due to travel plans and
reduced compensation for summer classes. If you want to take the course
over the summer, and your instructor and the department chair
agree to it, you must file the form no later than two weeks before
the last day of classes of the preceding Spring semester.
Upon approval, you will receive a registration code from the department.
The first semester (297)
It is strongly suggested that you do some implementation work and
some writing in the first semester.
At the end of the first semester, you report your progress to your
advisor and your committee members. Your advisor determines how this
should be done (a report, a presentation to the committee, etc.)
The Committee
You and your advisor need to find two additional committee members
to form a 3-member project committee.
The advisor and at least one other committee member must be a
permanent member of the CS faculty.
You must form the committee by the end of the first semester.
If at any time you need to change the committee, you need to have
written approval from the department.
You need to keep your committee members updated throughout your
project. Meet with them at least three times (at the end of the first
semester, a month into the second semester, and when you are about to
complete your work). Solicit their input early so that you are not
surprised by requests for enhancements late in the project or even
worse, the defense.
In the defense, all committee members must agree that your work is
complete and correct. Committee members have the right and the
obligation to reject substandard projects.
The 298/299 Proposal
To continue your project, you need to file a 298/299 proposal (1-2 pages) with
the department. In the proposal, you need to list
your, your advisor's and committee members' names, email
addresses, and affiliations (if not SJSU CS regular faculty)
a description of your project
a summary of your 297 results
a proposed schedule for the completion of your project
a concrete description of deliverables in your software and
report
a description of the challenging and/or innovative aspects of
your proposal
a list of literature references
If you are retaking CS 298/299 and your proposal has not changed,
add a statement: "This is a continuation of the CS 298/299 project that
was approved for (insert semester), and there are no changes to the
proposal."
Your proposal must be in proper English. The department may reject
plans that contain too many spelling or grammar errors.
File your proposal within one week after the
first day of classes of the semester in which you want to to take
298/299.
As a rule, instructors and the department are unlikely to agree to
the supervision of projects over the summer, due to travel plans and
reduced compensation for summer classes. If you want to take the course
over the summer, and your instructor and the department chair
agree to it, you must file the form no later than two weeks before
the last day of classes of the preceding Spring semester.
Your report must be in proper English. It is your job--and not that
of your advisor or committee members--to proofread your report and fix
any spelling and grammar errors before you give it to your
committee to read. Your advisor and committee members are responsible
for reviewing the technical contents of your report, not your spelling
and grammar.
Your committee--or in the case of a thesis, the Graduate School--has
the right to reject your report if it is not written in proper
English.
You must submit the draft report at least two weeks before
the scheduled defense. Upload the report to http://turnitin.com with course ID 2736168 and password swordfish. Send an email to both Cay.Horstmann@sjsu.edu and Veronica@cs.sjsu.edu with the following information:
Your turnitin.com submission ID
your full name and the title of your thesis, as they should appear on the defense announcement
your two choices of defense dates
the names of your advisor and committee members, and their emails if they are not SJSU CS faculty members
You
will receive a room assignment after the plagiarism check has
passed, and your defense will be announced.
If you do not follow this procedure (that is, if you simply find your own room and hold the "defense" there without plagiarism check and an official announcement), you will not be allowed to graduate.
Any rescheduling of the defense requires two weeks
notice.
The Defense
Once your project is completed, you need to schedule a defense date
that is agreeable to all committee members. The defense date must be
before the last day of the semester. It is strongly suggested to
schedule the defense before the last day of classes.
The defense is open to the public. You need to contact the
department to reserve a room, procure any necessary projection
equipment, and request that an announcement be posted.
In the defense, you will give a presentation of your project and
answer questions from the committee and the audience. You should bring a
printed copy of your written report to the defense and make it available to the
audience.
The committee may request modifications to your work.
You need to get your advisor's and your committee members' signature on a form with the following wording (including the NOTE at the end)
(insert your name) has passed the defense for the project (insert project name).
_______________________________ ____________
(Insert advisor's name) Date
_______________________________ ____________
(Insert committee member's name) Date
_______________________________ ____________
(Insert committee member's name) Date
NOTE: The advisor should send the final report to the graduate coordinator so that the student can be cleared for graduation
Turn in that form to the department office.
Your final report
Produce a PDF file with name
lastname_firstname.pdf where firstname, lastname are your first and last name
in lowercase. For example, John Q. Nguyen would send a file nguyen_john.pdf, that is, the six
lowercase letters n g u y e
n followed by an underscore (U005F), the four lowercase letters
j o h n, a period (U002E),
and the three lowercase letters p d f. Do not zip the file.
A variety of commercial and free tools are available to produce PDF
files, such as the free OpenOffice software
(http://openoffice.org).
Once you made any final changes to your report, ask your advisor to send it to Cay.Horstmann@sjsu.edu.
The report will be posted immediately on a public department web site (by default) or, for the first year on a protected web site (by your or your advisor'swritten request, to allow for publication)
