Apr 23, 2024  
2016-2017 Graduate Catalog 
    
2016-2017 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Electrical Engineering, M.S.


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Master of Science (M.S.) Degree


Within five (5) years of admission, the student must earn a minimum of 30 credit hours for the thesis option or 33 credit hours for the non-thesis (w/project) option. All M.S. students MUST choose either the thesis or nonthesis (w/project) option: there is no course-only option. Students must satisfy the grade and course requirements for their field of specialty and option. Unless approved by the Graduate Program Director (GPD), a maximum of six (6) credits of courses outside the EE program will be accepted. These courses must be at the graduate level and must be approved by the student’s advisor and the GPD prior to registration.

Electives (6 or 12 credits)


Two (2) or four (4) EE electives (6 or 12 credits): 600-level. Check the ENEE Graduate Program website for the current list of approved ENEE 600-level choices for the chosen track. The 2 electives requirement is for the thesis option, and the 4 electives for the non-thesis option.

Two (2) additional electives (6 credits): 600/700 level, advisor-approved courses (can include a maximum of 3 credits from ENEE 698 /ENEE 699 ).

EE Graduate Seminar


M.S. students are required to take EE Graduate Seminar (ENEE 608 ) for one (1) semester, preferably in the first year.

Transfer Credits


No more than six (6) credits may be transferred from another university or from UMBC as a non-degree student. Course credit transfer must be approved by the Graduate Program Director.

Grade Requirements


Students must receive a ‘B’ or higher in each of the three (3) core courses, and achieve an average grade of ‘B’ or better (equivalently, a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better) across the three (3) core plus two (2) focused elective courses. Grades with + and - are possible for graduate courses. A minimum grade of ‘B’ (3.0 GPA) is required for courses taken for the degree.

Thesis Option (30 credits)


A student may undertake the M.S. thesis option, which would be supervised by a faculty member as the research advisor (or co-advisor). The thesis option requires a minimum of eight (8) graduate-level courses (24 credits), as specified above, and six (6) credits of M.S. thesis research (ENEE 799 ). The thesis research must contain a tangible research component. Upon completion of the thesis, it must be defended with an oral public exam/presentation and accepted with the approval of the student’s thesis committee. The committee must consist of at least three (3) graduate faculty members within the department. Copies of the approved thesis must be submitted both to the CSEE Department and the Graduate School.

Non-Thesis Option (33 credits)


A student may undertake the M.S. non-thesis option, which would be supervised by a faculty member as the research advisor (or co-advisor). The non-thesis option requires a minimum of ten (10) graduate-level courses (30 credits), as specified above, and three (3) credits of graduate project research (ENEE 698 ) resulting in a scholarly paper that must be approved by the advisor and read by another faculty member. A copy of the approved scholarly paper must be submitted to the department.

For the Systems Engineering (SE) track, the four (4) electives (12 credits) must be:

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