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AI Thesis Option

Thesis students, in collaboration with their major professor, thesis director and guiding committee, chooses a research area when enrolled. This research area is supported by their coursework chosen and then fleshed out in subsequent research hours. This work culminates in a thesis document and defense shared with the community of scholars.

Program of Study

For the MS program with thesis, the program of study requires 31 graduate credit hours:

  • 19 hours (6 courses + seminar) in the AI Core
  • 6 hours (2 courses) of a AI/ML Electives
  • 6 hours (2 courses) of CSE 9000: Thesis

Any required courses previously completed by a student may be applied for completion and replaced with another free course of the student’s and committee’s choosing. Students must have at least 6 8xxx credit hours (2 8xxx level courses) on their final program of study; as such, their elective must be at the 8xxx level. The majority of credits must have course code CSE. See the Graduate Handbook for additional course policies.

Core

The AI core introduces students to fundamental areas in AI/ML.

  • CSE 8011 Graduate Seminar
  • CSE 6763 Ethical & Legal Issues in Computing
  • CSE 8813 Theory of Computation
  • CSE 8843 Complexity of Sequential and Parallel Algorithms
  • CSE 8833 Algorithms
  • CSE 6633 Artificial Intelligence
  • CSE 6693 Introduction to Machine Learning
  • CSE 6683 Machine Learning & Soft Computing
  • CSE 8673 Machine Learning

AI Electives

The student’s Graduate Committee has final approval of all applicable courses.

  • CSE 6653 Cognitive Science
  • CSE 6643 AI Robotics
  • CSE 6623 Computational Biology
  • CSE 6293 AI for Cybersecurity
  • CSE 7000 Directed Individual Study
  • ECE 8493 Introduction to Neural Networks
  • ECE 8833 Computational Intelligence
  • MA 6183 Mathematical Foundations of Machine Leaming
  • ST 6243 Data Analysis I
  • ST 6253 Statistical Learning
  • ST 8114 Statistical Methods
  • ST 8253 Regression Analysis
  • ST 8273 Advanced Regression Analysis
  • IE 6683 Machine Learning with Industrial Engineering Applications

Thesis Hours

Graduate students must complete at minimum 6 credit hours of graduate research, indicated by CSE 9000 sections under the direction the major professor or thesis director. Thesis hours representing work as a TA or RA cannot be used for this purpose (unless the RA position is tied to the relevant research).

Thesis & Defense

The thesis (research) option of the AI Master's program requires that the degree candidate successfully undertake an independent research project and present the results of the research in a defensible thesis document. These guidelines supplement, but do not supersede, those provided by the Graduate School; see their guidelines for additional details such as the deadlines, exam process, submission steps, format for the dissertation, and so on.

For students electing this option, the following steps must be followed:

  1. The student develops a thesis proposal with the major professor containing:
    • An introduction to the research being proposed and research goals/questions addressed.
    • A review of the relevant research in the area and discussion of the research's relevancy/motivation.
    • A proposed approach to completing the research including hypotheses, proposed research methodology/procedures/experiments, and potential publication plan.
  2. The major professor schedules a research proposal session with the students Graduate Committee and gains Committee approval of the proposed research.
  3. The semester before their anticipated graduation, students should review their Program of Study via CAPP on Banner to ensure all coursework will be completed.
  4. Upon completion of the research, the student submits a draft copy of the thesis document to each member of his/her Graduate Committee. This draft copy is must be distributed to the committee members at least one week prior to the planned date of the presentation. All suggestions and concerns should be resolved under the direction of the major professor.
  5. When the student is ready to defend the thesis and be examined, the major professor schedules the presentation and examination. Once the date has been agreed upon, contact CSE-Grad-Paperwork@cse.msstate.edu to reserve a room for the defense and to initiate the paperwork that your major professor and committee members will need to evaluate the thesis defense. The thesis presentation is open to all students and faculty. The presentation is followed immediately by an oral examination of the student that is open only to the members of the student's Graduate Committee (and the research director).
  6. Once the student has made all changes to the thesis document requested by the committee members and the committee members and the Graduate Coordinator have signed the approval page, the student submits a signed copy of the approval page to the departmental office via email at CSE-Grad-Paperwork@cse.msstate.edu. Approval of the thesis proceeds from the committee, to the Graduate Coordinator of the department, and thence to the Dean of Engineering. After all approvals are obtained, the student must submit an electronic copy of the thesis to the Library for final approval.

The Library provides guidelines for the format of theses. Dr. Ramkumar provides a LaTeX template for those wishing to use it, under the disclaimer that Library guidelines are the primary source of formatting and must be consulted at all times.