electronic thesis csun

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Policies and Procedures

Theses, dissertation and graduate projects rules and procedures policy.

The following rules apply to Theses, Dissertations and Graduate Projects:

•  Students must be classified before they can be given permission by the department to enroll in a Thesis/Project (698) course.
• The Thesis must be an individual effort. However, the University recognizes that there are circumstances that warrant group graduate projects. In such instances, a signed addendum by each student and by the culminating experience committee chair must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies. The addendum must identify the names of other authors and describe the project and responsibilities of each author. The division of responsibilities specified must be reviewed, endorsed and evaluated by the students’ committee chair, signed by each student and subsequently approved by the Associate Vice President of Graduate Studies.
• Students must contact their graduate coordinator to determine the maximum number of required culminating units.
• Students must be registered during the semester in which they expect to graduate.
• If a student fails to successfully complete/defend the Thesis/Dissertation or Graduate Project, or any part of it, the student will be disqualified from the master’s program in the department and normally not allowed to take the Comprehensive Examination option, if that option exists.
• Guidelines: The Thesis, Dissertation and Graduate Project must be prepared according to the guidelines set forth by the Office of Graduate Studies and available online. All Thesis, Dissertations, Graduate Projects or Abstracts must be uploaded through the  Electronic Thesis and Dissertation website.
• Time Limit: Theses and Projects must be completed, filed and approved within 2 years of the first enrollment in culminating experience. In some situations, a student is given an “RP” (Report in Progress) grade for work in progress (see Grading System ). The “RP” will be converted to a “credit” or “letter” grade once the culminating experience has been approved.

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Culminating Experiences (Graduate Policy)

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Q. Where can I find a master’s thesis written by a CSUN graduate student?

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Answered By: Laura Wimberley Last Updated: Sep 18, 2023     Views: 1713

Most recent CSUN theses are freely available online at scholarworks.csun.edu .

The Library has print copies of all CSUN master’s theses. You can find them by the local subject Dissertations, Academic -- CSUN in OneSearch.

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Computer Science Department Graduate Programs

The following page is presents information on the CSUN Computer Science Department Graduate Programs.

• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Faculty Research

CSUN Computer Science - Graduate Programs - Current Students

Degree requirements.

Steps to Completing Thesis Work

MS in CS Coursework Requirements

MS in SE Coursework Requirements

Documents and Links

University Catalog

CSUN Thesis Guidelines

ETD (Electronic Thesis and Dissertation)

Defense Announcement Form

Graduate Studies Forms

Published Theses on ScholarWorks

CSUN Writing Center

Contact Emails

R-Form: [email protected]

A/R 601 Form: [email protected]

Defense Annoucement Form: [email protected]

Part-Time Enrollment Form: [email protected]

CPT: [email protected]

Once you have been accepted to one of the graduate programs offered by the Computer Science Department and become classified, you complete your graduate coursework and carry out your thesis work. The Master's thesis work is carried out as part of a two course series, COMP 696C and COMP 698C, under the guidance of your advisor/committee chair and the other members of your committee.

Steps to Completing Your Thesis Work

• Become classified.

An important part of your graduate work is selecting a graduate advisor, who will serve as your committee chair. Your advisor may request that you prepare a thesis proposal, take certain classes, complete a specific project, and/or follow certain guidelines when completing your thesis work. Choose an advisor, who will agree to serve as your committee chair, by speaking with members of the faculty whose research interests best match yours.

Students often find a committee chair after having completed the core classes and having begun taking some electives.  This gives you the opportunity to choose some of your electives so they are relevant to your thesis topic.

Committees must be composed of at least three people, including your committee chair. Aside from the committee chair, another Computer Science faculty member must serve as a committee member. The third member may be from any department, including Computer Science. Normally this member is from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, but may be from any department at CSUN or from off-campus. If you select an off-campus individual to be your third committee member you must first obtain the Department's approval.

Discuss with each committee member what they expect in your thesis and the procedures to follow in seeking their approval.

All committee members, including your committee chair, must agree to serve on your committee by approving your planning form on the ETD system. Also, the Department Chair must approve the committee on ETD. Once this is complete you will have officially formed a committee.

To enroll in COMP 696C, an R-form must be completed and approved. To receive credit for COMP 696C, a committee must have been formed and all the work required by your committee chair must be complete.

Thesis drafts will be reviewed by your committee chair numerous times throughout your final semester. As a minimum, submit a thesis draft to your committee chair for final review by the beginning of the ninth week of classes of the semester you intend to graduate. Submit the final review draft of the thesis to all members of the committee by the end of the twelfth week of the semester in which you wish to graduate.

Follow the steps and deadlines outlined by the ETD system for submitting a draft thesis for formatting review and the final draft of your thesis. The Graduate Office will contact you if formatting changes need to be made to your thesis.

Coursework Requirements for M.S. in Computer Science Degree

Breadth requirement (12 units):.

COMP 610 Data Structures and Algorithms (3)

COMP 620 Computer System Architecture (3)

Computer Networking

COMP 529/L Advanced Network Topics and Lab (2/1)

Software Engineering

COMP 680 Software Engineering (3)

Foundations

COMP 615 Advanced Topics in Computation Theory (3) COMP 630 Formal Semantics of Programming Languages (3)

PROJECT/THESIS (6 units)

COMP 696C Directed Graduate Research (3 units) (CR/NC) COMP 698C Thesis or Graduate Project (3 units)

ELECTIVES (12 units): The student will select four elective Computer Science courses at the COMP 400, 500, or 600 level, excluding at a minimum COMP 450, 480/L, 482, 490/L, 491L, 492, 494, 496ALG, 499, 696, 698 and 699. 400-level courses can count as electives only if they are "approved for graduate credit" as noted in the University Catalog. (At least 6 units must be at the 500 or 600 level.)

Note: Students with a catalog year before Fall 2020, can select an elective course in place the COMP 529/L breadth requirement.

Coursework Requirements for M.S. in Software Engineering Degree

The student must complete the following four courses: COMP 582 Requirements Analysis and Specification (3 units) (Formerly numbered 682) COMP 583 Software Engineering Management (3 units) (Formerly numbered 686) COMP 680 Advanced Topics in Software Engineering (3 units) COMP 684 Software Architecture and Design (3 units)

PROJECT/THESIS (6 units):

The student must complete either a group project or a thesis in the area of Software Engineering. COMP 696C Directed Graduate Research (3 units) (CR/NC) COMP 698C Thesis or Graduate Project (3 units)

ELECTIVES (12 units): The student will select four elective Computer Science courses at the COMP 400, 500, or 600 level, excluding at a minimum COMP 450, 480/L, 482, 490/L, 491L, 492, 494, 496ALG, 499, 696, 698 and 699. 400-level courses can count as electives only if they are "approved for graduate credit" as noted in the University Catalog. At least two of these courses must be from the following list of Software Engineering electives: COMP 584 Advanced Web Engineering (3) COMP 585 Graphical User Interfaces (3) COMP 586 Object-Oriented Software Development (3) COMP 587 Software Verification and Validation (3) COMP 589 Software Engineering Metrics (3)

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• Updated on 6/13/23

• California State University, Northridge

SUS 698: Thesis or Graduate Project

• Graduate Student Resources
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Finding a Thesis or Dissertation

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[Finding a Thesis or Dissertation]

• Thesis: Capstone research for a Master’s Degree. Length: 1-2 journal articles.
• Dissertation: Capstone research for a Doctoral Degree. Length: 3-5 journal articles.
• CSUN Graduate Students: If you’re a current CSUN graduate student, you might want examples of recent successful theses from your department. Find them in ScholarWorks.
• CSUN Alumni: If you wrote a thesis while at CSUN, search for yourself as an author in OneSearch.
• Other Universities: Graduate research from other universities is available through the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.
• Embargoed? Authors can choose to restrict access to their research for a few years, usually until they publish or patent their findings. Embargoed theses and dissertations are not available.
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• Last Updated: Jul 10, 2024 4:12 PM
• URL: https://libguides.csun.edu/sus698

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Find Theses & Dissertations: Find Theses & Dissertations

Find theses and dissertations, theses and dissertations written at csu stanislaus.

Access electronic theses and dissertations online via ScholarWorks .

• You can filter your search results by resource type (Thesis, Project, etc.), CSU campus, department (Education, Social Work, Psychology, etc.), and degree level.
• Search keyword, title, or author* to find call numbers and locations of theses and dissertations written by CSU Stanislaus students. For theses in print format, one copy is available to be checked out from the University Library stacks. Theses and dissertation in electronic format are accessible through OneSearch. 
• Advanced Search   includes more features for finding available theses.   In the "Search for:" section of the Advanced Search form, use the filter "Books & Media (CSU Stanislaus)", then add in the keyword/s, title, and/or author* in the search fields.  Under the "Resource Type" filter (on the left hand of the screen), select "Theses and Dissertations."

Theses & Dissertations from Other Universities

ProQuest Dissertations Full-Text: Humanities and Social Sciences

• Includes descriptions (abstracts) of over 2.1 million dissertations and theses written for humanities and social sciences degrees, as well as the full-text (in PDF) of most written since 1997.
• The "Books & Media (CSU+)" option of OneSearch includes theses written at most campuses of the California State University system. Search for a topic and the word theses (e.g. J apanese American History theses ). To narrow search results more, use the "Tweak My Results" filters found on the left-side of the search results page.

Interlibrary Loan

• To request items not available in OneSearch , CSU+ , or ProQuest Dissertations Full-Text , please see the Interlibrary Loan Services available at the University Library.

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