Graduate Degrees Offered

M.S., Ph.D., Graduate Certificates: The Software Design and Development Certificate, The Multimedia and Information Systems Certificate, The Wireless Networks and Mobile Systems Certificate, Information Assurance & Security Officer Essentials Certificate

Areas of Excellence

The Missouri S&T computer science department has identified the following research and teaching areas of interest to focus on in the next several years. We will continue our tradition of providing a strong foundation for our students, and these areas of excellence will help students identify additional options to broaden their academic and research backgrounds, as well as their professional opportunities.

Software Engineering

Missouri S&T's Computer Science program provides a full unified software lifecycle experience over the entire course of the student's CS education at Missouri S&T. This experience includes software project management in its many roles, ranging from overall project management and process improvement to the management of individual lifecycle components, including software deployment and evolution. Missouri S&T's software engineering research program specializes in software quality, software testing, hardware/software co-design, and formal methods of software specification and verification, software requirements engineering and software process improvement, and algorithm theory.

To obtain an emphasis in Software Engineering, the student takes the following courses as part of their M.S. degree program:

Requirements Engineering, (CS 301 will become CS 309): elicitation of software requirements

Software Testing and Quality Assurance (CS 307): unit, subsystem, system, object-oriented, and specification, testing, software quality

Object Oriented Analysis and Design (CS 308): principles, mechanisms, and methodologies in object-oriented analysis and design

Software Engineering II (CS 406): software metrics used in the life cycle

Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical Infrastructure Protection is a multi-disciplinary study dedicated to improving the security, reliability, and survivability of the infrastructures that play a vital role in the effective functioning of our nation. Missouri S&T's specialty focuses on the critical hardware/software integrated systems that make up the nation's critical infrastructures. Missouri S&T's CS department focuses on the Software Engineering aspects of Critical Infrastructure Systems, Wireless Computing Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Computing, Security, Fault Tolerance, and Visualization. The intention is to improve the quality, survivability, security, and reliability of critical systems using the broadest-based technology possible, to grow a workforce aware of and trained in security (physical and cyber), and to stimulate the economic viability of US corporations and institutions by improving the security, reliability, and survivability of their critical infrastructures.

To obtain an emphasis in Critical Infrastructure Protection, the student takes at least four out of the following courses as part of their M.S. degree program (two of them must be at 400 level):

Distributed Operating Systems(CS 384): algorithms used in the creation of modern (distributed) operating systems

Distributed Systems Theory and Analysis(CS 484): advanced analysis using formal methods

Computer Communications and Networks (CS 385): network architecture model, security, and wireless with implementations

Advanced Topics in Wireless Networking (CS 401 to become CS 485):cellular networks, ad hoc networks, wireless LAN'S and security

Computer Security (CS 483): vulnerabilities and threats to information in cyberspace, principles and techniques for preventing and detecting threats, and recovering from attacks

Mobileand Sensor Data Management (CS 486): architectures, Mobile-IP, broadcasting, replication, caching fault tolerance, ad hoc and sensor routing, keys

Software Testing and Quality Assurance (CS 307): unit, subsystem, system, object-oriented, and specification, testing, software quality

Object Oriented Analysis and Design (CS 308): principles, mechanisms, and methodologies in object-oriented analysis and design

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is any application of computational methods to address biological problems. Although often used to refer to analysis of genomic information, bioinformatics is defined broadly by the NSF and NIH as "research, development, or application of computational tools and approaches for expanding the use of biological, medical, behavioral or health data, including those to acquire, store, organize, archive, analyze, or visualize such data." Missouri S&T's bioinformatics research program specializes in visualization of biological data sets, parallel algorithm development and algorithmic theory for biological data analysis, and management of biological databases.

To obtain an emphasis in Bioinformatics, the student takes the following courses as part of their M.S. degree program:

Data Base Systems (CS 304): normalization and functional dependencies, transaction models, concurrency and locking, time stamping, serializability, recovery techniques, and query planning and optimization

Data Mining & Knowledge Discovery (CS 404): data knowledge representation and knowledge acquisition, machine learning and neural networks

Bioinformatics (CS 311): application of computational methods to biology with problems in molecular, structural, morphological, and bio diversity informatics

Advanced Bioinformatics (CS 401 soon to be CS 411): a continuation of CS 311

Java GUI and Visualization (CS 342): Java classes with an eye towards algorithm visualization

Web Data Management and XML (CS 412): semi-structured data models and XML, query languages such as Xquery, XML indexing, and mapping of XML views and schema management change detection, web mining and security

CS PhD Entrance Requirements – Effective for Fall Semester 2008

Application is made to the Missouri S&T admissions office along with the required transcripts, etc.  Applicants who do not have a graduate degree will normally request admission to the M.S. program first.  Applicants must submit a letter outlining tentative research interests and career goals along with GRE verbal, quantitative and analytical writing test scores.  Admission into the Ph.D. program in Computer Science is granted by majority vote of the Computer Science Graduate Faculty, demonstration of supervisory interest by a faculty member, and approval of the College Dean.

A student with only a B.S. interested in Ph.D. study may be admitted, at the discretion of the faculty, directly into the Ph.D. program.  The student will be expected to meet all requirements for the M.S. and Ph.D. programs.  Examination schedules for the Ph.D. program will apply.  Thus, the student must pass the Ph.D. academic programs/qualifier within the three semesters of admission, and continue to following all Ph.D. timelines.  All M.S. minimums must apply for admission and a faculty member must demonstrate interest in admitting the candidate to the Ph.D. program.

Applicants are expected to have the following minimum qualifications before being admitted as a "regular" graduate student:
A minimum GRE verbal score of 370
A minimum combined GRE quantitative and analytic score of 1200 or GRE Quantitative = 700 and WR score >=4.0
A minimum TOEFL score of 570 (CBT >=230 OR IBT >=89), for those students not speaking English as their native language
An undergraduate GPA of 3.0/4.0 or better over the last 2 years, or successful completion of 12 graduate Hours in Computer Science as a "conditional" graduate student at Missouri S&T with at least a 3.0 GPA.

Admission to the Ph.D. program has the same requirement as the MS program plus a MS in Computer Science or related field.  For direct Ph.D. admit outstanding performance in undergraduate program.

Knowledge of the following:

           1. Strong Math Skills
           2. Competency in a Modern Programming language
           3. Computer Science Core including:
                   * Algorithms & Data Structures
                   * Computer Organization/Architecture
                   * Database & File Structures
                   * Discrete Mathematics & Automata
                   * Operating Systems
                   * Software Engineering

Applying

Refer to the Graduate Catalog for current guidelines.  Additionally, the verbal, quantitative, and analytical sections of the GRE are not required for admission to Missouri S&T as a "special" graduate student in Computer Science, but are required before being admitted as a "regular" graduate student in Computer Science.

Assistantship Information

Graduate Assistant Application (department specific)

Federally Funded Fellowships for U.S. Graduate Students

GAANN Fellowships for U.S. Graduate Students (jointly with Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Nationally Competitive Fellowships for Graduate Students
Nationally Physical Science Consortium Ph.D. Fellowship

Your estimated costs for attending Missouri S&T are outlined at: Estimated Student Budgets

Financial Aid for M.S. and Ph.D. Students

Financial assistance is available to graduate students at Missouri S&T in the form of assistantships and fellowships. Half-time assistants devote approximately 20 hours per week to laboratory supervision or other departmental duties, including research, and/or teaching, and receive a stipend of $16,325 per academic year for the 2007-2008 school year. Applications for these assistantships may be obtained here. For priority consideration, this application should be submitted by January 1 of each year for the ensuring fall semester.

All applicants for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) MUST satisfactorily complete a five-day Instructional Communication Workshop during the week prior to registration week. One aspect of this workshop is the assessment period at the end of the workshop. Each individual will demonstrate the ability to communicate by presenting a brief introduction to a subject in the appropriate discipline. A panel of four individuals, one from the workshop faculty, two students, and one faculty member from the potential teaching assistants' department, will evaluate the candidates' performance at the end of the workshop. A GTA may be granted to the individual only if this assessment period is judged satisfactory.

CS MS Entrance Requirements – Effective for Fall Semester 2008

Applicants are expected to have the following minimum qualifications before being admitted as a "regular" graduate student:
A minimum GRE verbal score of 370
A minimum combined GRE quantitative and analytic score of 1200 or GRE Quantitative = 700 and WR score >=4.0
A minimum TOEFL score of 570 (CBT >=230 OR IBT >=89), for those students not speaking English as their native language
An undergraduate GPA of 3.0/4.0 or better over the last 2 years, or successful completion of 12 graduate Hours in Computer Science as a "conditional" graduate student at Missouri S&T with at least a 3.0 GPA.

Knowledge of the following:

           1. Strong Math Skills
           2. Competency in a Modern Programming language
           3. Computer Science Core including:
                   * Algorithms & Data Structures
                   * Computer Organization/Architecture
                   * Database & File Structures
                   * Discrete Mathematics & Automata
                   * Operating Systems
                   * Software Engineering

 * Master Students are expected to satisfy their 400 level course requirements using Computer Science courses

Applying

Refer to the Graduate Catalog for current guidelines.  Additionally, the verbal, quantitative, and analytical sections of the GRE are not required for admission to Missouri S&T as a "special" graduate student in Computer Science, but are required before being admitted as a "regular" graduate student in Computer Science.

Assistantship Information

Graduate Assistant Application (department specific)

Federally Funded Fellowships for U.S. Graduate Students

GAANN Fellowships for U.S. Graduate Students (jointly with Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Nationally Competitive Fellowships for Graduate Students
Nationally Physical Science Consortium Ph.D. Fellowship

Your estimated costs for attending Missouri S&T are outlined at: Estimated Student Budgets

Financial Aid for M.S. and Ph.D. Students

Financial assistance is available to graduate students at Missouri S&T in the form of assistantships and fellowships. Half-time assistants devote approximately 20 hours per week to laboratory supervision or other departmental duties, including research, and/or teaching, and receive a stipend of $16,325 per academic year for the 2007-2008 school year. Applications for these assistantships may be obtained here. For priority consideration, this application should be submitted by January 1 of each year for the ensuring fall semester.

All applicants for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) MUST satisfactorily complete a five-day Instructional Communication Workshop during the week prior to registration week. One aspect of this workshop is the assessment period at the end of the workshop. Each individual will demonstrate the ability to communicate by presenting a brief introduction to a subject in the appropriate discipline. A panel of four individuals, one from the workshop faculty, two students, and one faculty member from the potential teaching assistants' department, will evaluate the candidates' performance at the end of the workshop. A GTA may be granted to the individual only if this assessment period is judged satisfactory.

 Dr. Ali Hurson, Professor & Department Chair

325B Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6201
e-mail: Dr. Hurson

Areas of Interest: Parallel and Distributed Systems, Databases, Multi-Databases, Global Information Processing, and Mobile Data.

 Dr. Sriram Chellappan, Assistant Professor

306 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4637
e-mail: Dr. Chellappan

 

Areas of Interest: Mobility in Sensor and Wireless Networks, Security in Sensor Networks, Security in Overlay and Peer to Peer Networks.

 Dr. Maggie Cheng, Assistant Professor

313 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-7501
e-mail: Dr. Cheng

Areas of Interest: Wireless Networking and Mobile Computing, and Combinatorial optimization with focus on network applications.

 Dr. Fikret Ercal, Professor

314 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4857
e-mail: Dr. Ercal

Areas of Interest: Parallel and Distributed Processing, Bioinformatics, Image Processing, Computer Vision, and Neural Networks. 

Dr. Wei Jiang, Assistant Professor

312 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4989
e-mail: Dr. Jiang

Areas of Interest: Privacy, Security, Data Mining and Databases.

Dr. Huzefa Kagdi, Research Assistant Professor

326B Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6737
e-mail: Dr. Kagdi

Areas of Interest: Software Engineering. 

Dr. Jennifer Leopold, Associate Professor

307 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-7219
e-mail: Dr. Leopold

Areas of Interest: Database Accessibility and Analysis, Scientific Visualization, Bioinformatics, and Chemoinformatics.

Dr. Dan Lin, Assistant Professor

317 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4988
e-mail: Dr. Lin

Areas of Interest: Database Systems and Information Security.

Dr. Xiaoqing (Frank) Liu, Professor

323 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4848
e-mail: Dr. Liu

Areas of Interest: Software Engineering, Object-Oriented Software Engineering, Fuzzy Logic and Knowledge Based Systems, Software Total Quality Management, Artificial Intelligence Applications, and Hardware/Software Co-design.

Dr. Sanjay Madria, Associate Professor

319 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4856
e-mail: Dr. Madria

Areas of Interest: Mobile Data Management, Secure Sensor Computing, Web Data Management and XML, and P2P Computing. 

Dr. Bruce M. McMillin, Professor

322 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6435
e-mail: Dr. McMillin

Areas of Interest: Fault-tolerant Computing, Parallel & Distributed Systems, Formal Methods in Software Engineering and Cyber Security.

 Dr. Chaman Sabharwal, Professor

318 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6353
e-mail: Dr. Sabharwal

Areas of Interest: Computer Graphics, Robotics, Image Databases, Computer Vision, Neural Networks, and Machine Learning.

Dr. Daniel Tauritz, Associate Professor

324 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-7218
e-mail: Dr. Tauritz

Areas of Interest: Evolutionary Algorithms, Natural Computation, Artificial Intelligence, Combinatorial Optimization Problems in Critical Infrastructure Protection, and Automated Software Engineering.

Dr. Thomas Weigert, Professor and Daniel St. Clair Endowed Chair

326C Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4634
e-mail: Dr. Weigert


Areas of Interest: Application of artificial intelligence techniques and formal methods to the development of product software, in particular for real-time distributed systems. Research contributions to all phases of the software and system development life cycle, from the creation of modeling languages and design methods to the derivation of efficient programs from abstract models to the use of automated theorem proving in requirements and systems verification.

Dr. Ralph Wilkerson, Professor

315 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4653
e-mail: Dr. Wilkerson

Areas of Interest: Combinatorial optimization employing both traditional computational approaches and evolutionary computing techniques.

Teaching Faculty

Matt Buechler, Lecturer

342A Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6350
e-mail: Mr. Buechler

Teaching Interest: CS 153 - Data Structures I, CS 206 - Software Engineering I, CS 397 - Software Systems Development I and CS 398 - Software Systems Development II.

David M Mentis, Teaching Associate

309 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4965
e-mail: Mr. Mentis

Teaching Interest: CS 53 - Introduction to Programming with C++, CS 74 - Introduction to Programming Methodology, CS 78 - Programming Methodology Laboratory, and CS 158 - Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science.

Clayton Price, Instructor

325 Computer Science Building
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4620
e-mail: Mr. Price

Teaching Interest: CS 1 - Introduction to Computer Science, CS 53 - Introduction to Programming with C++, CS 54 - C++ Programming Lab, CS 153 - Data Structures I, CS 228 - Introduction to Numerical Analysis and CS 328 - Object Oriented Numerical Modeling I.

Joint Appointment Faculty

Dr. Ann Miller, Professor and Cynthia Tang Endowed Chair in Computer Engineering

125 Emerson Electric Co Hall
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6339
e-mail: Dr. Miller

Areas of Interest: Computer engineering, in particular, computer and network security, software engineering, in particular, design and test of large-scale, networked systems, high assurance systems, and process control systems.

Dr. Jagannathan Sarangapani, Professor in Electrical Engineering

221 Emerson Electric Co Hall
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-6775
e-mail: Dr. Sarangapani

Areas of Interest: Systems and control, computer/wireless/sensor networks, robotics/autonomous systems, and prognostics. 

Dr. Donald Wunsch, Professor and Mary Finley Endowed Chair in Computer Engineering

131 Emerson Electric Co Hall
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Rolla, MO 65409
(573) 341-4521
e-mail: Dr. Wunsch

Areas of Interest: Adaptive critic designs, neural networks, fuzzy systems, surety, nonlinear adaptive control, intelligent agents, and applications.

Adjunct Faculty

William Bond   

Adjunct Professor
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Engineering Education Center St. Louis
One University Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63121-4499
(314) 516-5431
email: Dr. Bond

Areas of Interest:

Randy Canis

Adjunct Professor
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Engineering Education Center St. Louis
8001 Natural Bridge Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63121-4499
314-345-4736
email: Randy Canis

Areas of Interest:

Chris Merz

Adjunct Professor
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Engineering Education Center St. Louis
8001 Natural Bridge Rd.
St. Louis, 63121-4499
(314) 516-5431
email: Chris Merz

Areas of Interest: