MSc Graduate Committees

MSc Graduate Calendar

The MSc degree is a two-year program during which students complete five courses, give a public seminar and complete and successfully defend a thesis. Heavy emphasis is placed on the thesis, which usually requires at least two semesters. Students should plan on spending minimum four full-time semesters (16 months) in the program assuming adequate preparation for graduate work. For most students, the duration of the program is 6 semesters (24 months).

Please refer to the Graduate Calendar for details regarding Program Duration Schedule.

Many graduate students are guaranteed up to 2 GTA assignments per year in their initial offer of admission (Fall and Winter semesters). While some graduate students may not be guaranteed GTA job assignments, all full-time, registered graduate students are eligible to apply for these positions.

Whether you are guaranteed GTAs or not, if you want a GTA position you must apply online each semester via GTA Work Assignments website.

Policy on Working with Another Supervisor

As soon as there is interest in planning to work with another advisor (internal or external to SoCS), please discuss with your advisor the time that will be required by you and the external advisor to work on such an endevour first. A timeframe should be created so that the advisor can ensure it will not impede the student’s thesis research. The advisor must be given an opportunity to participate in and benefit from the work at no financial cost. In particular, they will be invited to participate in any resultant publication.

An MSc student is required to take the Technical Communication and Research Methodology course CIS*6890 and at least four other CIS graduate courses [2.5 credits]. Of these four courses, at least two should be outside of the student's thesis topic area. This area and the courses which fall outside of this area are identified by the student's advisor. With approval from the Graduate Program Committee, a CIS graduate course requirement may also be met by a non-CIS graduate course or by a 4000-level course. At most one reading course (CIS*6660) and at most one 4000-level course can count towards the course requirement.

Please refer to the Graduate Calendar for details regarding graduate grade interpretation.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Collaborative Specialization

An MSc student enrolled in the AI Collaborative Specialization is required to take five and a half courses [2.75 credits] from the following below:

3 Compulsory Courses [1.25 credits]:

• CIS*6890 Technical Communication and Research Methodology [0.5]
• UNIV*6080 Computational Thinking for Artificial Intelligence [0.25]
• UNIV*6090 Artificial Intelligence and Society [0.5]

1 Course [0.50 credits] from following Elective Core courses:

• CIS*6020 Artificial Intelligence [0.5]
• ENGG*6500 Introduction to Machine Learning [0.5]
• STAT*6801 Statistical Learning [0.5]

2 Courses [1.00 credits] from the following Complementary AI-related courses:

* BINF*6970 Statistical Bioinformatics
* CIS*6050 Neural Networks
* CIS*6060 Bioinformatics
* CIS*6070 Discrete Optimization
* CIS*6080 Genetic Algorithms
* CIS*6120 Uncertainty Reasoning in Knowledge Representation
* CIS*6160 Multiagent Systems
* CIS*6170 Human-Computer Interaction
* CIS*6180/DATA*6300 Analysis of Big Data
* CIS*6190/DATA*6400 Machine Learning for Sequential Data Processing
* CIS*6320 Image Processing Algorithms and Applications
* CIS*6420 Soft Computing
* ENGG*4460 Robotic Systems
* ENGG*6090 Image Analysis
* ENGG*6100 Machine Vision
* ENGG*6140 Optimization Techniques for Engineering
* ENGG*6570 Advanced Soft Computing
* MATH*6020 Scientific Computing
* MATH*6021 Optimization I
* MATH*6051 Mathematical Modelling
* PHIL*6400 Ethics of Data Science (formerly PHIL*6760 Science and Ethics)
* STAT*4000 Statistical Computing
* STAT*6721 Stochastic Modelling
* STAT*6821 Multivariate Analysis
* STAT*6841 Computational Statistical Inference

One Health Collaborative Specialization

An MSc student enrolled in the One Health Collaborative Specialization is required to take six grad courses from the following below [2.5 credits]:

• CIS*6890 Technical Communication and Research Methodology [0.5]
• ONEH*6000 One Health Approaches to Research [0.5]
• ONEH*6100 Master’s Seminar in One Health [0.5]
• 2x 0.5 Computer Science graduate courses [1.00]

Each MSc candidate conducts thesis research by working closely with a thesis advisor. All MSc students must also have an advisory committee consisting of at least two graduate faculty members. The student's advisor chair's the committee.

All MSc students must have their Advisory Committee in place by the mid-point of their second registered semester.

Your advisory committee should meet with you at least once each semester. Be proactive about asking for committee meetings. Once the Advisory Committee has been approved, no changes may be made to its membership without the approval of the student's current Advisory Committee and Graduate Coordinator approval.

For detailed information on Advisory Committees, please refer to MSc Graduate Committees

Advisory Committee Appointment & Graduate Degree Program Form (Gryphform)

MSc students must give one publicly announced research seminar on their MSc thesis research (this is also a good time to have an Advisory Committee meeting after).

Each MSc student must provide the Graduate Program Assistant (GPA) with the following details of their MSc seminar, at least 1.5-2 weeks in advance:

• Title of the Abstract
• Body of the Abstract
• Names of the selected Seminar Committee members - The MSc Seminar must be attended by the student's Advisor and at least one other member of the student's Advisory Committee.
• A tentative preferred time & date (after confirming with Seminar Committee members)

It is recommended that the seminar is completed during the third semester, however, third semester students may defer until fourth semester.

Each seminar will be booked by GPA for 30 minutes. The seminar presentation should be a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 20 minutes in duration, followed by 10 to 15 minutes of questioning by the Seminar Committee. The quality of the presentation is graded on a pass/fail basis. It must be attended by the student's Advisor and at least one other member of the student's Advisory Committee. The MSc seminar requirement is intended for students to practice presentation and communication skills and to participate in the process of knowledge dissemination as part of the academic life.

When preparing your MSc thesis, please ensure you follow one of the following guidelines for format, style and organization:

• For students who prefer using the EDT template via MS Word, please use the Graduate Studies Guidelines
• For students who prefer using LaTeX, please download the MSc Thesis Template for LaTeX

Arrangements for the MSc thesis defence should be made at least four weeks prior to the anticipated date of the defence.

Below you will find the steps and forms that are required for a MSc Thesis Defence. The defence is expected to be no more than 2.5 hours in length, consisting of a 30 minute oral presentation by the student followed by questions from the Examination Committee.

• Please refer to the OGPS website for more information on preparation of your thesis.

• Please see Guidelines for Oral Examination of Thesis for the timing details of the defence

The student provides the Advisory Committee with a copy of their thesis for review and approval. Once the Advisory Committee has approved the thesis, all members of the Advisory Committee must sign the Examination Request Form. Once completed, the Examination Request Form must be submitted to the Graduate Program Assistant (GPA) at least 4 weeks prior to the anticipated date of the defence.

To initiate the MSc Examination (defence) Scheduling Process, the GPA will require the following:

• Examination Request Form

• Graduate Faculty Nomination [Exam Committee]

• Tentative date range for the defence

• Mode of delivery: Students have the option of conducting defences online or in-person

All graduate students have access to TurnItIn, whereby students can upload their thesis drafts for instant plagiarism analysis. Students must register using their @uoguelph.ca email address (all others will be deleted). The 'course' you should register in is called “Graduate Research 2024-2025”. The class id and enrollment password are:

• Class ID: 41253109
• Enrollment password: SoCSRules

Preparations to begin forming the Examination Committee for the MSc Defence will begin once the Examination Request, Graduate Faculty Nominations and target defence dates have been submitted to the GPA. The student's advisor is responsible for assisting the student with selecting the graduate faculty nominations, and these should be completed using the Graduate Faculty Nomination form.

The GPA will work with the Graduate Progress Committee to establish and approved the Examination Committee. Once the Examination Committee is formed, the examination will be officially scheduled.

The candidate must have the final version of their thesis submitted directly to the GPA via email (this will be the version of the thesis shared with the Examination Committee). The Examination Committee requires at least 2 weeks to review the thesis prior to the scheduled oral defence.

For detailed information on Examination Committees, please refer to MSc Graduate Committees

SoCS follows the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies thesis guidelines for MSc Defences.

Notice of the defence will be sent by the GPA (at least one week prior) to the SoCS Faculty & Graduate Students email listserv and advertised on the News & Announcement section of the SoCS website.

Upon successfully passing an MSc Defence Oral Examination, students must follow the thesis completion instructions on the Graduate Studies Website. This includes uploading the thesis to the Atrium.

Graduate Studies Thesis Completion Checklist

The School of Computer Science (SoCS) does not require a bound copy of the student's thesis. Students can still get a bound copy for themselves through PageforPage, M & T Printing Group (email your request to guelph@mtprint.com) or at Staples.

Make sure you review the Graduate Calendar for important dates, such as:

• Last date for application to graduate for Convocation without late fee
• Last day for program completion for Convocation; includes thesis submission, final grades
• Last day to submit late application for Convocation

As soon as you are ready to defend, please ensure you apply to graduate online.

Depending on when students defend/submit their final thesis, registration for the following semester and fee payment may be required. Please refer to Graduate Calendar for dates and deadlines.

If students successfully defend their thesis before the end of the current semester, they may be entitled to an Early Completion Rebate. Please refer to Student Financial Services for up to date refund schedules.