Masters Degree
Course Requirements
M.A.Sc. or M.Sc. degrees with thesis: A candidate for the M.A.Sc.or M.Sc degree with thesis is required to complete a minimum of four half courses and to successfully defend a thesis (thesis topic is chosen in consultation with the supervisor). Two of the four half courses must be the core courses (CSE 700, CSE 701) offered by the School. The remaining two half courses are normally chosen from the list of the courses approved by the School. Students may be required to take more courses as judged by the supervisor and the graduate committee. It is expected that many students will choose this route towards a Ph.D. degree; however the master’s program also prepares students for high-level industry jobs that involve independent critical thinking and state-of-the-art knowledge of modern computational methodology.
M.Eng. or M.Sc. degrees with coursework and project: A candidate for the M.Eng. or M.Sc. degrees with the coursework and project option is required to complete a minimum of six half courses and successfully complete a research project written under the supervision of a faculty member. The project topic is chosen in consultation with the supervisor. Of the six half courses, two must be the core courses (CSE 700, CSE 701), one must be chosen as either CSE 745 (Parallel and High-Performance Computing) or CSE 780 (Data Science), whereas the remaining three course may be chosen from those listed by the School, in consultation with the project supervisor. Up to two of the half courses may be at the 600-level. The goal of the M.Eng or M.Sc. degree programs with the coursework and project option is to prepare students for a career in industry or in the public sector; the M.Eng. or M.Sc. degrees with the coursework and project option are not a preferred route to a Ph.D. program.
Students who can demonstrate adequate training may request to replace a core course with a different (more advanced) course. This can be done in exceptional cases only and the decision will be made by the Program Director after consulting with the student’s Supervisor.
Seminar Requirement
The School of Computational Science and Engineering arranges a series of seminars; graduate students are required to attend and may be required to present part of their research results as part of this series.
Ph.D. Degree
Course Requirements
Students are required to complete a minimum of two half courses at the 700 level.
*Please refer to the graduate calendar for more details
Supervisory Committee Meeting: Students are required to meet on an annual basis with their Supervisory Committee in order to assess their research progress.
Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Requirements
During their course of study, doctoral candidates will have to pass a Comprehensive Examination of the School of Computational Engineering and Science. The purpose of this examination is to ensure that the candidate possesses sufficient knowledge and maturity in computational engineering and science. This examination normally takes place between 12 and 20 months, but no later than 24 months, after the start of the program, and is scheduled by the supervisory committee at a mutually convenient time. The Comprehensive Examination will be in two parts.
Part I will be an oral examination which is designed to test the student’s breadth of knowledge, her/his understanding of computational sciences and computational engineering, and to test the student’s ability in critical thinking, and her/his ability to synthesize and integrate ideas from within and peripheral to the candidate’s research area.
The examination committee will meet to determine the topic related to, but peripheral to the candidate’s intended research topic. The choice of topic may be made in consultation with the Director.
Once the candidate receives the topic, he/she will have four weeks to review the state of art on the specified areas, write a maximum 20 page report surveying these areas and identify between 1 and 3 interesting open problems without the aid of any other individual. An official letter is sent to the candidate outlining the proposal topic, examination procedures and guidelines. The oral examination will take place two weeks after submission of the report. The examination will include an oral presentation, not more than 20 minutes in length. This is followed by a question period from the examination committee. The total examination will normally be 2 hours in length, but no more than 3 hours. At the end of Part I an interim form should be returned to the School. This form can be obtained from the Administrator.
Part II will take the form of a written research proposal and an oral examination designed to examine the student’s understanding of, and approach to, her/his proposed dissertation research topic. Formulation of the dissertation topic shall be done in consultation with the Supervisor. Both parts of the examination may be repeated once.
The examination committee consists of the student’s supervisory committee plus one additional member whose area is relevant to the examination topic. Suggestions for the additional member will be provided by the supervisory committee and approved by the Director. During its initial meeting the examination committee will also determine its Chair.
Seminar Requirement
The School of Computational Science and Engineering arranges a series of seminars; graduate students are required to attend. PhD students are required to participate and present their research results in these seminars at least twice before they graduate.
Thesis Requirement
PhD candidates must present a thesis that embodies the results of original research and mature scholarship. Before preparing the final version of the thesis the student must be authorized to do so by the supervisory committee. When a majority of the supervisory committee has approved the final version of the thesis, it may be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies for examination. Once a positive outcome from the supervisory committee has been received, the date of the oral defense will be determined.
The examining body will consist of the following members: the student’s supervisory committee, an external examiner, and two representatives of the faculty at large. The examiners will report to the Dean of Graduate Studies as to whether the thesis is satisfactory or not.
If major revision is not required by the external examiner, an oral defense will be convened by the Dean of Graduate Studies. In this case, the defence will be chaired by the Dean of Graduate Studies or a designate and conducted by all members of the examining committee.