Computer Science and Engineering

Master's and Doctoral Programs

Graduate opportunities

Where will your graduate studies take you in the future? Will you break new ground in artificial intelligence, computer security, game programming – or something entirely new?

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas offers course work leading to a Master of Science degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computer Science and Engineering.

Within the department, we are constantly assessing our degree programs with an eye on tomorrow’s marketplace. With a graduate degree, you’ll be well-positioned for an accomplished career at the epicenter of the future.

The College of Engineering is a pioneer in developing project-oriented curricula that allow you to apply knowledge in tangible real-world applications. Its state-of-the-art laboratory and research facilities are the envy of other universities nationwide. With small class sizes, you will work closely with distinguished faculty members to solve complex problems faced by businesses and consumers. You also will have the opportunity to take advantage of the many research relationships we have with leading companies.

Choose from a variety of courses and research areas ranging from algorithm analysis to simulation and modeling. To easily accommodate working students, classes are offered on a rotating schedule, with all core classes offered at night at least once every two years.

Faculty research

UNT is committed to excellence in teaching and the discovery and application of knowledge through research and creative activities. We also are making significant investments in programs, infrastructure and leading faculty members who partner with students on many unique research projects.

For example, Professor Ian Parberry has been recognized six times by Microsoft as a “Most Valuable Professional” for his work in game development. Associate Professor Rada Mihalcea earned the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her groundbreaking research on understanding the meaning of text. Associate Professor Saraju Mohanty was awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to reduce power consumption and lower costs for consumers by making electronic chips more energy efficient. He also holds two patents for innovative chip technology.

Research centers and laboratories

Engineering classes and research are conducted at Discovery Park, a nearly 290-acre research park with wireless Internet access and cutting-edge equipment. In addition to instructional facilities, the department supports numerous centers and research laboratories that offer virtually unlimited possibilities for study and research.

Our facilities include several laboratories dedicated to special projects such as parallel/distributed algorithms and programming and advanced software technology. Generalpurpose departmental facilities include a cluster of Intelbased machines running Linux.

The Center for Computational Epidemiology and Response Analysis brings together the departments ofgeography, computer science and engineering, and biological sciences, and the Department of Biostatistics at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth to develop models that predict the extent of future disease outbreaks.

The Center for Information and Computer Security helped UNT earn the designation of “Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education” from the National Security Agency for its strong computer and information security program.

The Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratoryapplies computational science applications to the public health field.

The Computer Systems Research Laboratory investigates multithreaded architectures, compiler optimizations, memory systems, intelligent memory devices and real-time and embedded processing.

The Computer Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory focuses on computer vision problems such as image fusion and target recognition.

The Dependable Computing Systems Laboratory aims to explore in-depth understanding of reliability, availability and performance in distributed and cloud computing systems and develop innovative system technologies.

The Geometric Computing Laboratory conducts research to improve the efficiency of geometric algorithms.

The Global Software Development Laboratory works with student teams in Great Britain, Panama and Turkey to create curriculum materials aimed at teaching students to work more effectively in global software teams.

The Laboratory for Recreational Computing serves as a center for research, education and development for computer game programming.

The Language and Information Technologies Laboratory investigates natural language processing and computational linguistics.

The Multimedia Information Laboratory conducts research on multimedia material processing, multimedia information extraction and multimedia information modeling and retrieval.

The NanoSystem Design Laboratory conducts research in design and computer-aided design for low power high-performance nanoscale mixed-signal, mixeddiscipline systems.

The Net-Centric Software and Systems Center aims to promote cooperative research between industry and universities.

The Network Security Laboratory advances wireline and wireless security and communication.

The Trusted Secure Systems Laboratory conducts research on building trusted and secure computing systems.

The Wireless Sensor Laboratory conducts research to advance wireless sensors.

To learn more about UNT's research laboratories, visit www.cse.unt.edu.

Attending UNT

Admission requirements

Departmental application deadlines are Feb. 15 for the fall semester and Sept. 15 for the spring semester

M.S. degree

You must meet the admission requirements of the Toulouse Graduate School and the following program requirements:

• minimum 3.0 GPA in the last 60 hours of undergraduate course work
• acceptable score on the GRE
• minimum TOEFL score of 580 on the written exam or 237 on the computer-based exam for international applicants whose native language is not English and who do not have a prior degree from an accredited U.S. institution

Our faculty will evaluate your overall credentials when your application is first considered for acceptance. For admission into the graduate program, an undergraduate degree in computer science is desirable. If necessary, you may take leveling courses to complete any requirements. For more information about leveling courses for computer science, please contact the department.

Ph.D. degree

You must meet the admission requirements of the Toulouse Graduate School and the following program requirements:

• Minimum 3.5 GPA
• Acceptable GRE scores
• Minimum TOEFL score of 580 on the written exam, 237 on the computer-based exam or 79 on the Internet-based test for international applicants whose native language is not English and who do not have a prior degree from an accredited U.S. institution
• Three letters of recommendation
• Statement of purpose

An overall evaluation of your credentials will be used as a basis for admission.

Degree requirements

M.S. degree

You have two options for earning a master’s degree. You may choose the thesis option, which consists of 31 credit hours of course work, including CSCE 5020 (Current Research in Computer Science and Engineering), and 6 credit hours of thesis.

You may opt for the nonthesis course option, which consists of 37 credit hours of course work, including CSCE 5020, and which may include 3 hours of project or 6 hours of problem in lieu of thesis.

Leveling courses do not count toward either option. You can select an area of specialization, which will be decided in consultation with a major professor and the graduate coordinator.

Ph.D. degree

You must complete 42 credit hours beyond the master’s degree or 72 hours beyond the bachelor’s degree. At least 6 hours must be from 6000-level organized courses in computer science and engineering. At least two consecutive semesters of enrollment in 9 or more semester hours are required to meet the university residence requirement.

In addition to the course work, you must find a research topic, organize and pass an oral qualifying exam related to the topic, and write and defend a dissertation to a committee of at least four faculty members.

Financial assistance

Many computer science and engineering graduate students are supported each year through teaching and research assistantships with the department. Submit your completed assistantship and admission applications to the department by Feb. 15 for the fall semester and Sept. 15 for the spring semester. Application forms and of Engineering deadline information for available assistantships are at www.cse.unt.edu.

Information about federal financial assistance programs is at financialaid.unt.edu.