The School of Computer Science offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Mathematics (MMath) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
All graduate degrees have requirements both for course work and for independent scholarship. Each student has a faculty member as advisor/supervisor, who can provide advice on course selection and directions for scholarship.
For the MMath degree, a student may choose either of two options:
A student must choose between the options before starting the second term of study.
In addition to the regular program, there is an interdepartmental collaborative MMath program in Statistics and Computing and an interuniversity collaborative program in Software Engineering (ConGESE). A co-operative MMath can be arranged. Because the Statistics and Computing program has specific course requirements it is available only in the coursework option. The ConGESE Master's and co-op programs are available in either option.
For the PhD degree, a student must complete
These basic requirements are explained in detail below.
At the start of the graduate program, each student is assigned to a faculty member who is responsible for advising the student about the selection of courses and the options available. The advisor also signs the student's forms. After the first term of registration, the student may select the same or a different faculty member (with the agreement of the faculty member) as research supervisor for the research paper or thesis. The research supervisor also serves as the advisor.
The change of research supervisor requires the written consent of the student, the current supervisor, the proposed supervisor and the Director of Graduate Studies.
When a student's advisor/supervisor is absent from campus, the advisor/supervisor is required to name a substitute who is on campus to act on his/her behalf.
Adjunct professors may supervise graduate students but if they are absent from campus, there must be a co-supervisor on campus.
For the MMath degree, a minimum of two terms of full-time registration is normally required. Part-time Master's programs can sometimes be arranged in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. The actual length of a student's program depends heavily on the student's preparation. Students with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science usually require at least three terms, and should aim to complete within four terms.
The minimum period of registration for the PhD degree is four terms after a Master's degree (or six terms after a Bachelor's). The actual length of the PhD program depends heavily upon the student's preparation and choice of research topic. The nominal length is 12 terms, but actual completion times may be longer, depending on the individual's progress in completing the thesis.
To maintain satisfactory academic standing, MMath students must maintain a 75% average over all courses taken while registered in the program. PhD students must similarly maintain an 80% average over all courses taken while registered in the program. These averages include any remedial or extra courses.
Graduate courses are classified into three levels: 600-level courses are basic graduate courses, 700-level courses are intermediate graduate courses, and 800-level courses are research-oriented courses.
These courses assume a background of at least third-year Honours Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and a similar level of mathematical maturity. Students lacking this background will be asked to acquire this material in addition to the other requirements of the program.
Computer Science courses are grouped into categories and areas as shown in Table 1.
Independent study and one-time courses (CS 690A&B, 698,798 and 898) will be assigned an area for each offering, based on course content. Graduate courses offered by other departments will also be assigned to one of the nine areas.
MMath students must have no more than half of their courses in any one area. PhD students must show competence in a cross section of categories and areas as defined by the requirements for the PhD Comprehensive-I. See the requirements section below for details.
Graduate students may be admitted to either program even though they have insufficient preparation for graduate study in one or more areas. Such students will be informed in their offer of admission of specific remedial courses that they will be required to take in addition to the other requirements. Remedial courses are numbered at the 200, 300 and 400 levels. Students must obtain a mark of at least 70% in required remedial courses. If 70% is not obtained the course must be retaken. Also, students must achieve the required overall average (including remedial courses.)
Normally, the work for a course should be completed in the term of the course. Exceptional cases do arise, however, and a grade of INC is provided to allow work to be completed later in these circumstances. This grade is converted to the appropriate numeric grade when the work is complete. This policy outlines the expectations on both students and instructors regarding grades of INC.
While an INC remains on a student's transcript, it will be counted as a failure in all calculations of averages and in determination of adequacy of progress. (This counting as imposed by the university and by various scholarship agencies, not by the school.) Further, holders of NSERC, OGS and OGSST scholarships may not carry an INC on their transcript for more than three weeks; otherwise the scholarship will be terminated. Students also may not apply for these scholarships while carrying an INC.
Grades of INC are not automatic. A failure to submit a final project or similar work ordinarily results in either (1) a numeric mark with the missing work included as 0, or (2) when the missing work represents a major part of the term grade (such as a final exam) a grade of DNW.
A student who believes that an INC is appropriate in a course should contact the instructor as soon as the circumstances that make it appropriate become evident. The instructor will make a determination as to the appropriateness of an INC grade.
Circumstances that may warrant an INC include significant illness of the student, death in the family, parental leave, etc. Also, at the instructor's discretion, exceptional academic responsibilities (for example, if the student will present his or her work an an international conference during the exam period) may warrant an INC.
Instructors should not offer INC grades in a "blanket" fashion to all students who ask.
Grades of INC should be cleared as soon as possible. If it appears that an INC may not be cleared within three weeks from the start of the next term, the student and instructor should jointly submit an explanation to the Director of Graduate Studies. The explanation should include both the reason for the INC and the manner and time in which the student expects to clear it.
All grades should be submitted in a timely manner. In particular, an INC for one student must not delay final grades for other students in the class. Further, once a student submits work to clear an INC, that work must be evaluated and a grade-change submitted.
As a benchmark for timely submission of grades or grade changes, the length of time between the end of an exam period and the normal due date for grades will be considered both reasonable and sufficient for evaluation of work and submission of grades.
Students who fail to request and INC or who do not submit the required work will receive the appropriate mark based on work submitted. If this results in poor overall performance, the Graduate Committee will consider the case in the same manner as others.
Instructors should grant INC grades only for adequate cause and should reassign a numerical mark in a reasonable time following submission of the completed work. If violations may have occurred, the Director of Graduate Studies will refer the matter to the Director of the School for consideration and appropriate action.
Students who have concerns under this policy should contact the Graduate Advocate
or the Director of Graduate Studies. Instructors should contact either the Director
of the School or the Director of Graduate Studies.
The changes in course offerings starting September 2001 renumbered some courses offered in prior terms. In the new course requirements listed below, courses taken in Spring 2001 or earlier will count as follows.
Students who wish to continue their program under the old requirements should contact the department regarding the interpretation of the new courses under the old requirements.
Progress reports have been instituted to help the student focus on making timely progress through the program requirements and to encourage continual, constructive interaction between the student and supervisor. The student will fill out a prepared progress report form in consultation with the supervisor at the intervals specified below and submit it to the Graduate Committee which will review the student's progress.
MMath students are required to submit an annual progress report in July of every year. Additional progress reports will be required if the student needs an extension to the program time limit of six terms.
PhD students are required to submit an annual progress report in July of every year. Additional progress reports will be required if the student needs an extension to the program time limit of twelve terms.
Completion of the required progress reports will affect registration decisions. For example, an extension will not be granted to a student who fails to submit the progress reports.
A student who is concerned about the information required on the progress report or is uncomfortable with the collaborative nature of the process is encouraged to discuss the particular circumstances with the Graduate Advocate.
In the first term, a student takes two or three courses and attends seminars in the School. During this time the student selects either the coursework or thesis option in consultation with a faculty member.
The School offers a regular series of seminars by faculty and senior graduate students, intended to help students find thesis and essay topics (and supervisors). Attendance at these seminars is required of all MMath students.
Student who intend to pursue the thesis option should arrange supervision by the end of the first term of registration. The student and supervisor must agree on an area in which the thesis is to be done. At the end of the first term of registration, the student must report the option selection to the Director of Graduate Studies.
The basic requirements for the coursework option are eight one-term courses, including a research paper, in addition to any remedial work. The following details the requirements.
The Master's Research Paper requirement is met and credit assigned when the supervisor returns the 'Research Paper Certification' form and a copy of the presentation announcement to the Director of Graduate Studies.
The basic requirements for the thesis option are four one-term graduate courses and a thesis. The following details the requirements.
The thesis must be approved by the supervisor and two readers. Credit for the Master's Thesis is assigned when the supervisor returns the signed 'Thesis Acceptance Certification' form and a copy of the seminar announcement to the Director of Graduate Studies.
Required courses
Optional Courses
For ConGESE students the degree requirements and procedures are the same as for other MMath students, except that the number of courses taken each term is normally one. Thus, with this modification, a ConGESE student who chooses the coursework option should follow the requirements outlined under Coursework Option above. Similarly, a ConGESE student who chooses the thesis option should follow the requirements outlined under Thesis Option above. A number of the courses will be given by the other universities in the consortium.
In addition to satisfying all other requirements for the MMath degree, a student pursuing a concentration in software engineering must take courses to satisfy the ConGESE requirements which place emphasis on core software engineering material, project management material, software technology material, applications engineering material, and related electives.
The School offers excellent students a means of transferring directly from a MMath program to a PhD program. This transfer enables the student to begin doctoral research, bypassing the MMath thesis. To apply for this transfer, a student submits a letter of application to the Director of Graduate Studies any time after the completion of the second term of registration in the MMath program. The application must be strongly supported by the student's proposed PhD supervisor. A successful applicant would normally be in the thesis option and have an excellent academic record. Evidence must be available that the student has begun a viable research program. If accepted for transfer to the PhD program, the student becomes a PhD student and is expected to meet the requirements for a PhD student entering directly from a Bachelors degree (hence a transfer to PhD eliminates the requirement to write the MMath thesis, but leaves all other requirements unchanged).
A denial of transfer to the PhD program typically results from a lack, at the time of application, of sufficient evidence to merit transfer to the PhD program; in this event, the student completes the MMath requirements, and then applies for admission to the PhD program in the usual way.
The following is a brief outline of the requirements. Full details of the exams and thesis may be obtained from the department.
A student who already has a Master's degree must take four one-term graduate courses in addition to any prescribed as remedial courses. At least three of the courses must be above the 600 series, including a minimum of one 800 series course. Students are permitted to carry over any extra courses from their MMath program at the University of Waterloo.
A student who enters the PhD program directly from a Bachelor's degree must take eight one-term graduate courses in addition to any prescribed as remedial courses. At least five of the courses must be above the 600 series, including a minimum of three 800 series courses.
The PhD Comprehensive-I (breadth) requirement ensures that a student has sufficient breadth of knowledge to undertake research at the PhD level. A student meets the requirement by taking a number of advanced courses in a broad range of categories and areas. The courses used must all have a minimum mark of B+ (or equivalent).
The breadth requirement divides the subject matter of computer science into three broad categories. Each category is subdivided into areas that represent a range of the fields of computer science as given in the table below. The table also indicates where computer science courses at the University of Waterloo fit in these categories and areas. A student must have at least one advanced course in six of the nine areas, including at least one from each category (see table below).
Advanced courses taken in an undergraduate program
and graduate courses can be used to meet the breadth requirement in
each of the categories and areas. For example, at UW many of the 600-level
graduate courses are held with 400-level fourth year courses. For the
purposes of meeting the breadth requirement, the 400-level course is
considered to be equivalent to the 600-level course. Although courses
from other universities may not cover exactly the same material as the
UW courses, they will be evaluated by the Graduate Committee to determine
if the topics covered and the depth of the material is appropriate.
Offerings of CS 690B, 698, 798 and 898 or equivalent may also count
in an appropriate area. Courses offered by other departments may also
have assigned areas.
Table 1: Categories and Areas of Courses
| Category | Area | UW CS Courses |
|
Computing Technology |
Software Engineering |
645, 646, 647, 745, 746, 846 |
|
Programming Languages |
642, 644, 744, 842 |
|
|
Hardware and Software Systems |
650, 652, 654,656, 657, 758, 854, 856, 869 |
|
|
Mathematics of Computing |
Algorithms and Complexity |
662, 664, 666, 667, 761, 762, 763, 764, 765, 840, 860 |
|
Scientific and Symbolic Computing |
672, 673, 676, 687, 775, 778, 779, 780, 870, 887 |
|
|
Applications |
Artificial Intelligence |
686, 784, 785, 786, 787, 886 |
|
Databases |
648, 740, 741, 742, 848, *856 |
|
|
Graphics and User Interfaces |
688, 781, 788, 789, 888 |
|
| Bioinformatics | 682, 683, 782, 882 |
* The version of CS 856 entitled
Web Data Management can be used as a database course
Within a month of entering a PhD program, a new student submits a document to the Graduate Committee detailing their relevant past courses and future plans. Written in consultation with the student's supervisor, it should indicate
The Graduate Committee must be able to determine the content, level and mark for courses used to fulfill the requirement as compared to courses at Waterloo. The student must provide sufficient evidence to convince the committee that a course (or courses) listed does indeed fulfill an area requirement. Pertinent information includes course syllabi, textbooks used, descriptions of prerequisites or co-requisites, and references to university catalogues (web-based or otherwise accessible). The Graduate Committee will ask the student for more information or certification in cases of doubt and will consult with experts in the department as it deems appropriate. The Graduate Committee will be the final arbiter of whether courses taken and marks obtained satisfy the requirement.
The breadth requirement must be completed by the end of the student's fourth term.
The PhD Comprehensive-II tests the student's preparedness to pursue thesis research. It is an oral presentation of a Research Proposal (not a Thesis Proposal) together with questioning by the Advisory Committee. The examination is normally held in camera. The candidate should convince the committee that the chosen research area is suitable and demonstrate an appropriate breadth of knowledge in the chosen area. The committee should decide if there is a thesis topic in the area and whether the candidate is capable of completing such a thesis. The result of the examination can be either (1) pass or (2) fail and retake later. The committee reports the results to the student and to the Graduate Committee; in case (2) the report details the reasons for failure and what needs to be done to satisfy the committee.
The committee consists of the supervisor and two additional members from the School of Computer Science. It is assumed that this committee will become part of the candidate's PhD Thesis Committee. For this reason it is expected that the committee will meet regularly to discuss the candidate's progress and be available to discuss the research topic with the candidate. The make up of the Committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies of the School of Computer Science.
The scope of the examination includes not only the research proposal, but also breadth in the chosen area. The student's supervisor is primarily responsible for the definition of what constitutes breadth. For example, for a research proposal in hashing, the candidate might be questioned on other aspects of file techniques, and for a research proposal in systolic automata the candidate would be expected to know about classical automata theory.
The candidate should submit a written research proposal to each member of the committee and to the Director of Graduate Studies of the School of Computer Science at least two weeks prior to the examination.
The examination should be satisfactorily completed within six terms of entering the PhD program. Credit is assigned following a satisfactory oral examination as determined by the supervisor and advisory committee. If a student switches supervisors or area after passing the PhD Comprehensive-II, the Director of Graduate Studies should be consulted whether a new examination will be required so that the student takes a PhD Comprehensive-II examination in the area of the actual PhD research.
Each candidate for the PhD degree must present at least three publicly announced School seminars (or lectures, possibly in 700 level courses) during the program (on average one seminar each year, for three years). The purpose of this requirement is twofold: first, it ensures that each student participates in the academic life of the School and, second, it provides an opportunity for students to hone their presentational skills.
Each seminar should be attended by (at least) the student's supervisor and one other faculty member of the School of Computer Science, who will be required to assess the quality of the presentation. The student's supervisor should obtain the `PhD Student Seminar Requirement' form from the School's Graduate Office and return it after each seminar has been given and two signatures have been obtained. This milestone will be met when the three seminars have been completed.
The PhD thesis examination culminates the candidate's research program. It exposes the candidate's work to scholarly criticism by members of the University, and gives the student the opportunity to defend it.
Detailed regulations concerning the submission, defense and approval of the thesis are available from the Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Office.
The University of Waterloo operates on a three term basis: Fall (September-December), Winter (January-April), and Spring (May-August). Registration takes place at the beginning of each term. The registration procedure consists of two phases: fee payment and course selection. They may be done in either order, but should be done as early as possible.
Courses may be dropped or added using the studentQUEST system until the end of the sixth week of the term. After that courses can be dropped or added until the end of lectures by completing a 'Drop/ Add' form. After the sixth week of the term, the Associate Dean, in addition to the student's supervisor and the Director of Graduate Studies must approve any courses dropped or added.
The principal reason for requiring a student to withdraw is unsatisfactory progress. The responsibility for this decision rests with the Graduate Committee, acting on information from the student's advisor/supervisor and other faculty members who have interacted with the student. Under normal circumstances, poor performance in courses is interpreted as unsatisfactory progress. MMath students are expected to maintain an overall average of at least 75%, and PhD students an average of at least 80%. Averages within 5% of these requirements will be reviewed each term; averages below 70 for MMath or 75 for PhD will ordinarily result in automatic and immediate withdrawal. In addition, failing to complete the required number of courses each term may be construed as unsatisfactory progress, as is failure to complete the PhD comprehensives within the allotted time. Excessive delay in completing a thesis is also unsatisfactory.
A student who is asked to withdraw from the program can appeal this decision in writing to the Director of Graduate Studies. The appeal is then considered by the Graduate Committee, who may consult with the student and/or the student's advisor/supervisor. In the event that the appeal is rejected, the student can further appeal to the Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, Faculty of Mathematics. If rejected, a final appeal is allowed to the Faculty of Mathematics Student Appeals Committee. Normally, the student remains registered in the program during this process.
Advanced degree requirements originate at three levels: the University, the Faculty and the School. University level requirements are found in the first chapter of the Graduate Calendar. University level concerns are handled by the University Graduate Office in Needles Hall under the Director of Student Services, L. Judge.
Faculty level matters are handled by the Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Office, MC 5090, under the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Dr. R. Cohen.
The School's requirements are outlined in this Handbook. The graduate program in the School is administered by the Department Graduate Office, DC 2332, under the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. J. Shallit
There is also a Graduate Advocate who is a faculty member in the School to whom a student can turn, if the student wants to discuss something that directly concerns the student's graduate program, but which the student feels is inappropriate to direct to either the student's supervisor or officials involved with Graduate Studies.
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Tel: 519-888-4567 x33293
Fax: 519-885-1208
Contact | Feedback: csgrad@uwaterloo.ca | David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science | Faculty of Mathematics
Last modified: Wednesday, 24-Aug-2005 14:53:26 EDT
