Detailed Information
Programs of Study
The Department of Computer Science has a commitment to high-quality teaching and research in computer science and helps provide its graduate students with an excellent education in the major. It aims to recognize and respond to the ever-changing needs of society through concentrated areas of research, teaching programs, and initiatives that are reviewed and revised accordingly.
The graduate program offers both the Master of Science (M.S.) degree and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in computer science. The master’s degree requires 27 semester hours of computer science course work and 6 hours of thesis research; the usual completion time is two years. The Ph.D. requires 24 semester hours of 400/500-level courses and 24 semester hours in computer science dissertation research; the estimated completion time is four years.
The course offerings and research areas include artificial intelligence, computer graphics, database systems, distributed and parallel processing, computer networks, computer security, wireless sensors, soft computing, fault-tolerant computing, visualization, object-oriented programming, logic programming, image processing, bioinformatics, and multi-agent systems.
Research Facilities
There is a dedicated research lab for multiple areas of research that allows students to have hands-on experience and instruction. Two computer labs are multipurpose for instruction, student study, and individual research. In addition, several faculty members have their own research labs. There are two eight-node clusters, five P3 DX mobile robots, several sensors, and a Microscribe MLX robotic arm system for use in programming and research studies.
The University’s Morris Library is the main library for Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). The library holds more than 2.4 million volumes, 3.1 million microform units, and over 12,500 current periodicals and serials. Library users have access to I-Share (the statewide automated system) and to a comprehensive array of databases and other electronic data files. As the campus center for access to academic information and collaborative academic technology projects, the library provides a wide range of services, including reference assistance, instructional and technical support, distance learning, geographic information systems (GIS), and multimedia courseware development. Morris Library is a member of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA).
Financial Aid
The Department of Computer Science is able to support approximately one third of its master’s students with teaching or research assistantships that carry a stipend of $1310 per month and all of its Ph.D. students with a stipend of $1436 per month (2007–08), in addition to a tuition waiver. There are a few fellowships with stipends offered through the Graduate School. International students may qualify for the assistantships and the Graduate School’s Master’s Fellowship or Ph.D. Fellowship. All assistantships and fellowships are offered on a competitive basis. Computer science majors are also in high-demand for positions in many other departments on campus.
Cost of Study
In-state graduate tuition is $328 per credit hour in 2009–10. Out-of-state tuition is 2.5 times the in-state tuition rate ($820 per credit hour). Graduate students with at least a 25 percent appointment as a graduate assistant receive a tuition scholarship. Fees vary from $589.03 (1 credit hour) to $1557.50 (12 credit hours). Students with a graduate assistantship receive a 25 percent reduction in the primary care medical fee.
Living and Housing Costs
For married couples, students with families, and single graduate students, the University has 690 efficiency and one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments that rent for $499 to $720 per month in 2009–10. Residence halls for single graduate students are also available, as are accessible residence hall rooms and apartments for students with disabilities.
Student Group
The Department of Computer Science is very diverse, with professors and students from a variety of countries, cultures, and backgrounds. Approximately 90 percent of the graduate students are international. Most of the graduate students support themselves by assistantships, scholarships, or student work on campus.
In fall 2006, SIUC had a total enrollment of 21,003 students, of whom 18,548 were on-campus and 17,430 were full-time. There were a total of 4,709 graduate/professional students. In fall 2006, the Department of Computer Science had 61 full-time enrolled students in its computer science master’s degree program–17 women and 44 men.
In fall 2006, 45 percent of the Department’s graduate students had financial assistance provided by assistantships or fellowships. Others had student work positions on campus, and 8 percent had personal support.
Student Outcomes
Students are able to overcome and manage the future challenges of information technology by obtaining a strong theoretical and practical background in science and mathematics. Such qualified students are in demand, more than ever, in the higher-level technical/administrative positions of educational institutions, business/industry, and government. Some of the recent companies that have hired graduates are Boeing, Rockwell Collins, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, Lockheed-Martin, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Motorola, Nortel Networks, State Farm Insurance, Peri Software, Trans Union Credit, and United Airlines. Their job titles are systems analyst, technical analyst, test coordinator, systems engineer, technical support, and software engineer.
Location
The city of Carbondale is approximately 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri, in Jackson County, the western border of which is the Mississippi River. Immediately south of Carbondale is some of the most rugged and picturesque terrain in Illinois. The region immediately surrounding Carbondale is noted for its large peach and apple orchards. Within 10 miles of the campus are two state parks and four lakes, and much of the area is a part of the Shawnee National Forest.
There are lots of outdoors activities like biking, hiking, swimming, boating, horseback riding, and much more. The region is also known for its artistic, historical, and musical venues, with many types of artists, music groups and programs, old-world dancing, craft fairs, historic reenactments, etc.
The University and The Department
Southern Illinois University Carbondale is categorized by the Carnegie Foundation as Research University (high research activity), with Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Applied Sciences and Arts, Business and Administration, Communications and Media Arts, Education and Human Services, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Library, and Science and a Law School and a School of Medicine. Master’s and doctoral programs are available in most major disciplines. Part of the University’s mission, as stated in its strategic planning document Southern at 150: Building Excellence through Commitment, is “our teaching must be excellent” and “our scholarship must receive recognition.” The Department of Computer Science is committed to strengthening SIUC’s ability to meet these goals and to serving society better. The Department serves as an academic computing resource to benefit all levels of students. The Department is headed toward having more viable and productive programs.
The Department and the University give the highest priority to facilitating an atmosphere where the faculty members and students can succeed in their careers. With this in mind, the Department assigns each junior faculty member three courses per year normally in the areas related to their research. When a faculty member obtains federal funding, their teaching assignment is further reduced by one course per year.
Applying
Students interested in graduate studies should start by applying online through the Graduate School, indicating either a Master of Science or a Doctor of Philosophy degree program in computer science as their interest. For the master’s program there is also an online Department application to fill out and submit.
The evaluation of applicants for admission to the master’s program is primarily based on the student’s academic record, with particular attention being given to past performance in relevant undergraduate course work. Applicants are expected to have a substantial background in undergraduate computer science courses covering programming, data structures, computer organization, and logic design as well as discrete mathematics, calculus, and linear algebra. The applicant is expected to have completed course work in the above subject areas prior to admission. Normally, a GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 is required by the Department of Computer Science. In addition, applicants must submit Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test scores. It is recommended that results from the GRE Subject Test (computer science or a related field) also be submitted. International students must take the TOEFL. The deadline for spring semester admission consideration is September 15 of the preceding fall; for fall admission consideration, all materials and fees should be received by February 15. However, applications for fellowship consideration must be received by December 15 preceding the fall semester for which an applicant seeks admission, since these take more compilation of materials, review, and processing. The fellowship applications are most competitive. All application fees and supporting documentation should be sent to the Graduate Admissions Assistant in the Department.
Admission requirements for the Ph.D. in computer science consist of having a master’s degree in computer science or a related field with a minimum GPA of 3.25/4.0 and a minimum score of 700 for the quantitative and 4 for analytical writing for the general GRE, and it is recommended that results from a GRE Subject Test in computer science or a related area be included. In exceptional cases, high achieving students with only bachelor’s degrees are admitted to the program. Each student with a bachelor’s degree, in addition to the Ph.D. program course requirements, must complete at least 15 semester hours of approved computer science courses, including CS 401, CS 420, CS 455, and two 500-level lecture courses with a minimum accumulated GPA of 3.25/4.0 in those courses. If a specific course or its equivalent is already part of the student’s academic background, an alternate course is substituted.
The Faculty and Their Research
- Kemal Akkaya, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, Baltimore County, 2005. Wireless sensor and actuator networks, ad-hoc networking, spatio-temporal and geosensor databases.
- Norman F. Carver III, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts, 1990. Multi-agent systems, sensor interpretation, knowledge-intensive control of AI systems.
- Dunren Che, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1994. Database, structured document management, bioinformatics.
- Qiang Cheng, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002. Signal, image, and multimedia processing; learning theory; multimedia computing and communications.
- Bidyut Gupta, Professor and Graduate Program Director; Ph.D., Calcutta, 1986. Distributed systems, fault-tolerant computing, mobile computing, computer networks.
- Henry Hexmoor, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Buffalo, SUNY, 1996. Artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, cognitive science, mobile robotics, knowledge representation and reasoning.
- Wen-Chi Hou, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve, 1989. Statistical databases, query optimization, data-stream processing, spatial data structures.
- Namdar Mogharreban, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Southern Illinois, 1989. End-user computing, computer training, computing in special populations, decision making, decision science.
- Shahram Rahimi, Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director; Ph.D., Southern Mississippi, 2002. Distributed computing, software agents, expert systems, fuzzy logic, soft computing.
- Michael S. Wainer, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Alabama at Birmingham, 1987. Computer graphics, agile software development and testing, HCI.
- Mehdi R. Zargham, Professor and Chair; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1983. Computer architecture, fuzzy logic, neural networks, parallel processing, expert systems.
- Mengxia Zhu, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., LSU, 2005. Remote visualization system, distributed high-performance computing, bioinformatics, distributed sensor networks.
- Adjunct Faculty
- Mark Byrd, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. (physics), Texas at Austin, 1999. Quantum error prevention methods, simulating quantum systems with quantum systems, quantum information theory.
- Frank Gaitan, Associate Professor; Ph.D. (theoretical physics), Illinois, 1992. Quantum control, decoherence, quantum algorithms in the presence of noise, quantum error correcting codes, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
- Dimitrios Kagaris, Professor; Ph.D. (computer science and engineering), Dartmouth College, 1994. VLSI design automation, built-in self-test, communication networks, bioengineering.
- Mohammad R. Sayeh, Professor; Ph.D. (electrical engineering), Oklahoma State, 1985. Photonics and neural networks.
- Spyros Tragoudas, Professor; Ph.D. (computer science), Texas at Dallas, 1991. Large intelligent networks, graph labeling, combinatorial arrays.
- Walter Wallis, Professor; Ph.D. (mathematics), Sydney, 1968. Large intelligent networks, graph labeling, combinatorial arrays.
Correspondence and Information
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Graduate Program Assistant
Department of Computer Science
1000 Faner Drive, Room 2125, Mail Code 4511
Carbondale, Illinois 62901
Telephone:
618-536-2327
Fax:
618-453-6044
Email:
csinfo@cs.siu.edu
