Master of Science in Electrical Engineering

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers coursework and thesis supervision leading to the degree Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE). Courses at the graduate level are ordinarily taught at 8:00 a.m. or after 4:30 p.m. to enable students from local industry to continue their studies. The completion of the MSEE degree is normally accomplished in one to three years, and should be accomplished in six years, commencing with the beginning of course work.

• Be able to read, interpret, and critically assess literature in specialized fields of electrical engineering and to evaluate its impact on current issues on engineering and society
• Be able to write acceptable technical reports and other documentation
• Be able to give acceptable oral presentations of a technical nature
• Be able to apply basic and advanced knowledge in science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines to perform analysis and synthesis of engineering problems

Action Checklist and Typical Timeline

Once accepted the student must select an academic advisor and complete a Plan Of Study (POS). The POS must be approved by his or her academic advisor and by the ECE Graduate Program Director. This should be done by the end of the first semester of study. Then complete the coursework specified in his or her POS. Any transfer of credit must occur prior to the semester in which he or she will graduate.

If the student has elected the thesis option, he or she must

• Complete the required research and write a thesis (This process occurs in parallel to some of the items discussed below).
• Notify the ECE department of plans to graduate at the beginning of the semester during which the student plans to graduate. Completed diploma card (available in ECE office), and Application for Admission to Candidacy for an Advanced Degree must be submitted at this time as well.
• Form an M.S.E.E. Thesis Committee and select a second reader a minimum of sixty days prior to the defense.
• Notify the ECE department of the Thesis defense date (a minimum of one month prior to thesis defense). Get department thesis covers and log number from the ECE department.
• Submit final draft form of written thesis to Thesis Committee a minimum of one week prior to the thesis defense.
• Successfully defend the thesis in an oral defense. The student must be registered for the semester during which the defense occurs.
• Obtain approval from the Thesis Committee Chairman that the written thesis meets all format requirements.
• Obtain approval (and signatures) from all Thesis Committee members that the written thesis has acceptable content.
• Forward one bound copy of thesis to the ECE department, one bound copy to each Thesis Committee member, and two unbound copies to the Library by the semester deadline.

If the student has elected the non-thesis option, he or she

• Must form an M.S.E.E. Advisory Committee consisting of at least three members: the academic advisor (committee chair) and at least two other approved Graduate Faculty.
• Notify the ECE department of plans to graduate at the beginning of the semester during which the student plans to graduate. Completed diploma card (available in ECE office), and Application for Admission to Candidacy for an Advanced Degree must be submitted at this time as well.
• Must successfully complete a final examination consisting of two parts, an oral presentation and a written report on a subject chosen by the student and approved by the Advisory Committee, and a general written examination in his or her concentration area.

Commencement ceremony is held in May. Students become a graduate the semester they complete all requirements. Note: The student must meet all deadlines in the Schedule of Deadlines for Graduate Degree Candidates published annually by the UCCS Graduate School.

Duration of Program

The completion of the M.S.E.E. degree is normally accomplished in one to three years, and must be accomplished in six years commencing with the beginning of course work. A student becomes "inactive" if he or she fails to register for three consecutive semesters. An inactive student must reapply to the program in order to continue studies. An application fee will be charged only if one or more of the following apply:

• Semester of most recent registration was more than six years prior to date of reapplication
• One or more courses have been taken at another institution subsequent to most recent registration at UCCS
• Coursework completed more than six years prior to date of reapplication will be applied to the degree

Advisor and Plan of Study

The student should choose an academic advisor and complete a Plan Of Study with input from his or her advisor, by the end of the first semester of residence in the M.S.E.E. program. The POS must be approved by both the academic advisor and by the ECE Graduate Program Director. The academic advisor must be Graduate Faculty of the UCCS Graduate School, but need not be a member of the ECE faculty if approval has been obtained from the ECE Graduate Program Director.

Degree Requirements

Thesis option:

30 semester hours total. 24 semester hours of course work. 6 hours of thesis credit

At least 18 semester hours must be ECE courses. The remaining 6 semester hours may be replaced by allied department courses (e.g., computer science, mathematics, physics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, etc.)

At most 6 semester hours may be independent study courses

All course work must be numbered 5000 & above if ECE, or 400(0) & above if non-ECE

Up to nine semester hours of accepted course work may be transferred from another university or from course work taken as an unclassified student

Non-Thesis option:

30 semester hours total; all 30 semester hours are course work

At least 24 semester hours must be ECE courses

The remaining 6 semester hours may be replaced by allied department courses (e.g., computer science, mathematics, physics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, etc.)

At most 6 semester hours may be independent study courses

All course work must be numbered 5000 & above if ECE, or 400(0) & above if non-ECE. Up to nine semester hours of accepted course work may be transferred from another university or from course work taken as an unclassified student

There are no additional requirements as to which specific courses a student must take. The student's selection of courses need only meet the above requirements and be approved by the student's academic advisor and the departmental graduate studies committee

The non-thesis student must choose an Advisory Committee with the same composition as a Thesis Committee; choose a subject for his/her Masters Report that must be approved by his/her academic advisor; and make an oral presentation and submit a written report to the advisory committee. Both must be approved by the advisory committee.

Grades

The student must have an overall graduate GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate. The student must have a grade of C or better in all courses applied toward the MSEE degree.

Thesis Committee

Should the student elect to complete the thesis option, he or she will need to form a M.S.E.E. Thesis Defense Committee. This committee consists of at least three persons, with the following stipulations:

• All members of the thesis committee must be Graduate Faculty or Associate Graduate Faculty of the UCCS Graduate School, the chair of the thesis committee must be Graduate Faculty of the UCCS Graduate School, there may be at most one Associate Graduate Faculty of the UCCS Graduate School on the thesis committee, and individuals who are neither Graduate Faculty nor Associate Graduate Faculty of the UCCS Graduate School may not be voting members of an examination committee.
• The chair of the thesis committee must be in the faculty of the ECE department, although the chair need not be the student's academic advisor. (This provision allows a student who is studying in a closely-related field to EE - such as some areas of physics, mathematics or mechanical and aerospace engineering - to achieve an M.S.E.E. while having an academic advisor from his or her own specialty field. Such a student must still be admitted to the M.S.E.E. program in the normal way and meet all other requirements for the degree.)
• At least one other member of the committee must be ECE faculty.

Thesis Defense

The final oral defense of the thesis is taken at the completion of the work on the thesis after the first and second readers have approved its contents. This examination is open to anyone who wishes to attend. A successful candidate must receive the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of the thesis committee. In case of failure, the examination may be attempted once more after a period of time determined by the committee.

Written Thesis

The M.S.E.E. thesis is a written, polished document reporting the results of the student's investigation into an area of research. It must be written according to a departmentally approved format and enclosed in the department report cover. Each will be assigned a department report number EAS_ECE_xxxx_yy, where xxxx denotes the calendar year and yy denotes the report's assigned number in the series, e.g., EAS_ECE_2000_12. The number will be assigned by the department after the student's committee has approved the content of the final manuscript and the department has verified that the form of the thesis is in compliance with the department's format for reports. A bound archive copy of the thesis will be presented to the department and to each committee member by the candidate by the date on which the library is to receive its copy of the work. See the Thesis/Dissertation Manual.

The following procedures will be adopted for submitting theses to the Graduate School for graduation:

• All theses will be submitted by the student directly to the Technical Services Division of the Library after departmental approval is received.
• Students will be responsible for compliance with all instructions in the UCCS Thesis and Dissertation Manual. Use the Manual, the Gold Checklist and the Schedule of Deadlines. The thesis is to be in the manuscript style of the IEEE transactions.
• Theses will not be prechecked by the Graduate School. Questions concerning matters not discussed in the UCCS Thesis and Dissertation Manual must be directed to the ECE Department (see approval of Content and Form, below).
• Copies submitted to the committee members prior to the final defense should be prepared in final draft format. The committee chairperson will sign a statement of Approval of Format (i.e., style of referencing, quality of figures and other text materials) and acknowledge that the final copy is consistent with acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the discipline. The signature must be original. This statement will not be bound into the thesis. You must get this signed statement from the ECE office prior to submitting your final thesis to the Library. The usual approval page (page 2 of the preliminary pages of the thesis) will be required and will be bound into the thesis.
• Final copies will be judged acceptable or unacceptable based on the requirements stated in the UCCS Thesis and Dissertation Manual and the style designated by the department. If a thesis is not acceptable, corrections must be returned to the Library no later than 5:00 p.m. on the date indicated on the Schedule of Deadlines. If the deadline is missed, the student will be awarded their degree the following semester.
• Out of state students who are mailing their final copies should send them to the committee chairperson (their advisor) for final review and the necessary statement of approval for the thesis (page 2 of the preliminary pages of the thesis). This must have been previously approved by their advisor.

For details on degree requirements, please visit the Academic Catalog.

Thesis option:

• 30 semester hours total.
• 24 semester hours of course work.
• At least 18 semester hours must be ECE courses. The remaining 6 semester hours may be replaced by allied department courses (e.g., computer science, mathematics, physics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, etc.).
• At most 6 semester hours may be independent study courses.
• 6 semester hours of thesis credit.

Non-Thesis option:

• 30 semester hours total.
• All 30 semester hours are course work.
• At least 24 semester hours must be ECE courses. The remaining 6 semester hours may be replaced by allied department courses (e.g., computer science, mathematics, physics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, etc.).
• At most 6 semester hours may be independent study.
• The student must choose an advisory committee with the same composition as a Thesis committee (see section 7.1).
• The student must choose a subject for his/her Masters Report. This subject must be approved by his/her academic advisor.
• The student must make an oral presentation and submit a written report to the advisory committee. Both must be approved by the committee.

In either case:

• Cross-listed courses which are offered at the 400(0)/500(0) levels must be taken at the 500(0) level.
• All course work must be numbered 5000 and above if ECE, or 400(0) and above if non-ECE.
• Up to nine semester hours of accepted course work may be transferred from another university (including other universities of the CU system) or from course work taken as an unclassified student.

Acceptable Grades:

• The student must have an overall graduate GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate.
• The student must have a grade of C or better in all courses applied toward the M.S.E.E. degree.

For details on program coursework, please visit the Academic Catalog.

Guaranteed Early Admission

A student who is in their final semester studying toward either a BSEE or BSCpE at UCCS is guaranteed admission to the MSEE program if they satisfy the following criteria:

1. The student must have completed a maximum of 45 semester hours at UCCS at the time of graduation with the BS degree.
2. The student must be registered in their final undergraduate semester (in either the BSEE or BSCpE programs) at the time of application to the MSEE program.
3. The student must have a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.25.
4. The student must submit a letter of recommendation from the current department chairperson.

Early admission is not available to students who are not residents of the United States of America.

Fast-track Admission

The fast-track admission process is designed to offer a more efficient admission process to former undergraduate students who have graduated from UCCS no more than four years prior to the time of application to a graduate program. A student applying under the fast-track admission rules must submit the following to the Department:

• The Fast-Track Admission application form, accurately and completely filled out
• A completed residency form(back of application form), if the student claims in-state-tuition eligibility
• A check or money order (for the appropriate amount) nonrefundable application fee
• Official transcripts for any university level studies attempted after graduation from UCCS
• A statement giving permission to the ECE graduate program office to obtain an internal transcript from SIS for the applicant. These forms are available from the ECE office, and must be signed by the student
• A letter of recommendation (which may consist of a signed letter from the chairperson of the student’s former undergraduate department). Any student with a record that will only allow provisional admission must provide a minimum of two letters of recommendation, using the forms available from the ECE office.

Fast-track admission is only available to graduates of the College of EAS.

Regular Admission

Regular admission to the MSEE program requires the following:

• A 3.0 undergraduate grade point average (GPA)
• The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) may be required of any student whose GPA falls below this average or is not a graduate of an undergraduate program in electrical engineering. The verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning portions of the GRE are required of all foreign applicants.

Graduates of foreign universities are required to take the TOEFL exam: A score of 550-600 on the paper-based exam or, 79 or 80 on the Internet-based exam is required.

Note that units completed before admission may not all be transferable into a graduate degree program.

Provisional Admission

Students not admitted on a regular basis may be admitted on a provisional basis depending on their overall application file, including GPA, GRE, letters of recommendation, etc. Students admitted on a provisional basis are often required to take remedial courses (these are specified in the letter of acceptance). Registration for such remedial courses must commence with the first semester of a student’s program with at least three credits completed per semester until all remedial requirements are satisfied.

Application Deadlines

Applications are reviewed on a continual basis, but need to be received by April 1 (fall admission) or October 1 (spring admission) for students who are applying for assistantships. It is recommended that international students apply at least three months prior to the start of the semester to allow time to request a visa.

For more information about these programs, contact the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Graduate Program, Engineering Bldg. Room 299, or call (719) 255-3548. Send an e-mail to ecedept@eas.uccs.edu for application materials and more information.

To learn more about admission requirements and the application process, please visit the UCCS Admissions page.

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