CSE Graduate Student Orientation

1. CSE Graduate Student Orientation Fall, 2008 M. Chuah H. Baird

2. The Agenda • Greetings from the CSE faculty • Requirements and milestones of the M.S. & Ph.D. programs in CSE • Requirements of the MS & Ph.D. programs in CompE • Choosing an advisor • Writing guidelines • Using the CSE computer resources • Q&A with CSE TA

3. Greetings from the CSE faculty • Mark Arnold (computer architecture and arithmetic) • Henry Baird (image understanding, computer vision) • Glenn D. Blank (multimedia e-learning, computer science education) • Liang Cheng (networking and distributed computing) • Mooi Choo Chuah, CompE advisor (mobile computing, ad hoc/sensor network) • Brian D. Davison (web-based systems, networking, information retrieval) • Jeff Heflin (semantic web, intelligent agents) • Sharon Huang (computer graphics) • Donald J.Hillman (information systems and databases) • Edwin J. Kay, Associate Chair (object-oriented programming) • Hank Korth, Chair (high performance and real-time database systems) • Daniel Lopresti (bioinformatics, document analysis and digital libraries) • Hector Munoz-Avila (case-based reasoning and decision support systems) • Roger N. Nagel (enterprise information analysis systems) • John Spletzer (autonomous robots and sensor planning) • Gang Tan (computer security, programming languages/software engineering)

4. Requirements • When in doubt, refer to • The University Catalog (Section 4 & CSE section) • The Graduate Student Handbook (college) • The CSE web sites • www.cse.lehigh.edu • Your Advisor • CSE Graduate Coodinators: Prof H. Baird (master), Prof M. Chuah (Phd)(hsb2@lehigh.edu, chuah@cse.lehigh.edu) • CompE Graduate Coordinators: Prof M. Wagh (ECE), Prof M. Chuah (CSE) (mdw0@lehigh.edu, chuah@cse.lehigh.edu )

5. M.S. Requirements (Summary) • 30 credits • At least 18 credits of 400 level classes • 15 credits of 400 level in major field • No more than 6 credits at 200 level • Can only be outside of major field • Courses outside of major must be in department that offers graduate courses • Optional MS Thesis (3 credits for CS, 6 credits for CompE, oral presentation)

6. Course Requirements for M.S. • Grades • Need a B- or better to count 300 level courses • Need 18 credits of B- or better • Lower than C grades do not count • If you get 4 grades lower than B-, you’re out! • Distribution/Core/Comprehensives (for CS) • 2 courses in each of the 4 areas • At least one 400 level course in 3 areas • www3.lehigh.edu/engineering/cse/academics/grad/computersci.asp

7. Computer Engineering M.S. • Both CSE and ECE courses are in the “major” • 4 core courses: ECE401, CSE403, ECE319, CSE340 (see next slide) • Distribution • 2 courses in computer hardware/architecture area • 2 courses in another area, 1 course in a third area • Of these 5 courses, 1 400 level course in each area • Other areas: • Computer software systems • Signal processing and communications • Computer software applications • Circuits and systems

8. New CompE Requirements • Need to take the following 4 courses • ECE401 Advanced Computer Architecture • ECE319 Digital System Design • CSE403 Advanced Operating Systems • CSE340 Design & Analysis of Algorithms

9. Admission to Candidacy for M.S. • Soon after completing 15 credits, you should submit an “admission to candidacy” form • Outlines how you will complete your degree • Must be approved by the Graduate and Research Committee • Get the form from the Graduate Coordinator • Get signatures • Submit to the College Graduate Office

10. The CS Ph.D. Program time Entry into PhD Program Qualifier Breadth Courses Core Competency Exams Programming Competency Course Depth Study Admission to Candidacy General Exam Dissertation Defense Submission of Written Dissertation Graduation

11. CS Ph.D. Qualifier • Purpose: Make sure you are ready to do research • Timing: Usually done after 1 year, must be done after 2 years • Complete each of 3 parts (any order): • Programming Competency Course • Depth Study • Core Competency Exams (4 core topics): • Analysis of Algorithm • Theory of Computation • Operating Systems • Computer Architecture

12. CS Ph.D. Qualifier Requirements (1) • Programming Competency Course • Sign up for a “programming intensive” course (CSE 411 or other), have instructor sign the form, get a B+ or better. • Depth Study • Perform a directed independent literature review on a topic in computer science, give a oral presentation to an examination committee of 3 CSE faculty • Usually done in conjunction with an Independent Study Course or certain Graduate Seminar courses

13. CS Ph.D. Qualifier Requirements (2) • Core Competency Exams • Tests knowledge of core C.S. at the B.S. degree level • Analysis of Algorithms, Theory of Computation, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Compiler Design • 4 tests at the end of the Spring semester (after finals) • “High competency”, “Passing Competency”, “Failed” • Need 2 “High competency” scores, and no “Failed” scores • Each test can be retaken once, new score replaces old • Reading list to be made available soon • Some tests can be “placed out of” by taking the graduate course on the topic and receiving a B+, A- or A.

14. CompE Ph.D. Requirements • Passing of a dept qualifying exam within one year after entrance into the program. • This is an oral exam where students are evaluated based on their understanding and critiques of selected number of papers in their interested research area. Their creativities will also be evaluated. • The selected papers will be given to the students normally in Dec • Normally the exam takes place late Jan/early Feb • Students are allowed to retake once if they fail the 1st time. They have to retake the exam within the same semester.

15. Admission to Candidacy • Purpose: Identify viable dissertation topic and assemble dissertation committee • Timing: Completed by 1 year after Qualifier Requirements satisfied • Requirements • “Admission to Candidacy” form for the College’s Associate Dean of Graduate Studies • Includes course plan and short (about 5 page) description of research plan • Signed by identified dissertation committee

16. The Ph.D. Committee • Need 3 Lehigh faculty and 1 “external” (at Lehigh or not, but not in “home” dept.) • Includes advisor • Can have more, if useful • Need to have a rough idea of topic • Generally a hypothesis and investigation plan • To present to potential committee members

17. General Exam • Purpose: Evaluate a student’s “capacity and … proficiency in the filed of study” • Do you have the necessary background and a reasonable plan to complete a dissertation? • Timing: Can’t graduate earlier than 7 mo. after passing GE (usually completed by end of year 3) • Written review of prior work, research plan, and anticipated contributions to the field • Public oral presentation to dissertation committee

18. Dissertation and Defense • Purpose: Demonstrate that your research has produced results that provide a significant contribution to the field • Timing: See the university’s calendar. Dissertation committee needs to see a draft of the dissertation 6 weeks before anticipated graduation date. • Defense occurs after written dissertation is submitted to the committee, but changes to the dissertation may be mandated by committee after the defense • Can’t graduate without a dissertation signed by all members of the dissertation committee

19. And... Course Requirements • 72 Credits, 48 if entering with CS/CompE MS • (42 if CS/CompE M.S. is from Lehigh) • Lower than C grades do not count • If you get 4 grades lower than B-, you’re out! • Courses are subject to approval by Dissertation Committee

20. Ph.D. Breadth requirements • Uses same 4 distribution areas as the M.S. • Need to take 2 courses in each of the 4 areas • Earn a B or better in 7 of the 8 • Only 400 level courses (except CSE 411) and 300 level elective courses with no 400 level version • Note that courses taken for B.S. and M.S. can satisfy some of the required courses (w/ petition) if taken up to 5 years earlier

21. Choosing an Advisor • For M.S. students: • Find someone who you think will give good advice • Helpful, but not necessary for the academic advisor to be your thesis advisor (if doing a thesis) • For Ph.D. students: • Academic advisor is generally the thesis advisor • Needs to be able to direct/advise your thesis work • Needs to be someone you can get along with • www.cse.lehigh.edu/~chuah/advice

22. Writing Guidelines • If you don’t have one already, get a “writing manual”. I recommend: • A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian, Chicago Press • Elements of Style by Strunk and White • Read it & use it while writing • The best way to become a good writer is to write often (at least a paragraph a day) • If you can, get someone to read and critique your work

23. Citing Sources • Critically important for academic writing • Give credit where credit is due • Copying words, figures or ideas from another author’s work without citing and “quoting” is stealing. It’s called plagiarism. • Words copied directly should be quoted and cited • Ideas that are paraphrased should be cited

24. Citing Sources, the Form • Two main forms for citing sources: • Parenthetical: (Kessler, 2004) • Sources listed in “References” alphabetically by author: Kessler, G. Drew (2004). “Advice for CSE students,” Proceedings of the CSE Conference, Aug. 2004, pp. 1-5. • Numerical: [1] • Sources list numerically by order of appearance: [1] G. Drew Kessler, “Advice for CSE Students,” Proceedings of the CSE Conference, Aug. 2004, pp. 1-5. • Usually specified by publication or instructor

25. Department Representatives • 2 Graduate Student Council (GSC) Reps. • (Needed to qualify for dept. graduate student travel money) • 2 Reps. to CSE faculty meetings & other committees • Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) • Student chapter • acm.cse.lehigh.edu

26. Computer Resources • Separate from the Lehigh LTS resources • help@cse.lehigh.edu • System Manager/Administrators: Bryan Hodgson and David Morrisette • Graduate students can have an account on the department UNIX systems • Provides yet-another-email-address • Provides disk space that can be used for class work, research, or file-sharing • Provides certain UNIX-based tools for research

27. Where are the computers? • The Sun workstations in PL 118 and PL 122 are available to CSE students • Computer Room at PL502 • One can access these machines remotely through an ssh (Secure Shell) client • From off-campus: gateway.cse.lehigh.edu • From on-campus or from gateway (example): ssh pioneer.cse.lehigh.edu

28. The Unix File System Commands man <command> Get a manual page on a unix command man -k <topic> Get a list of manual pages on topic ls List current directory ls -als List directory with details cd Go to your “home” directory (aka “~”) cd <dir> Enter the <dir> subdirectory mv <a> <b> “Move” <a> file to name or directory <b> rm <file> Remove a file mkdir <dir> Create a directory rmdir <dir> Remove a directory quota -v Describes your disk usage and quota

29. More UNIX Commands cat <file> List a file’s contents cat <file> | more List a file’s contents, “piping” them to a “pager” program more <file> Same as above cp <f1> <f2> Copies <f1> to file or directory <f2> export Lists “shell variables” export VAR=val Sets variable “VAR” to value “val” echo stuff Prints “stuff” to the screen echo $VAR Prints the value of “VAR” man bash Manual page for the “bash” shell exit Like it sounds

30. Email • Your address will be netID@cse.lehigh.edu • By default, email will be forwarded to your Lehigh Account (netID@lehigh.edu) • You can change the forwarding address by editing the .forward (note the dot in front) file • If you remove the .forward file or change it to forward to a department machine, you can use mailx (or elm, or ...) command to read (and send) your mail

31. Editing • There are primarily two editors for UNIX: vi and emacs (and its cousin xemacs) • emacs is easier to use for beginners • Arrow keys move you around, also: • Cntr-f, Cntr-b: forward and back • Cntr-n, Cntr-p: next and previous line • Cntr-d: delete character • Cntr-x-Cntr-s: save file; Cntr-x-Cntr-f: find file • Cntr-x-Cntr-c: quit

32. Printing • The lpr command can be used to print a text or PostScript file to a printer (use a2ps for program listings) lpr -P<printer> <file> cat <file> | lpr -P<printer> a2ps -P<printer> <source file> • Available department printers (lpstat -a to list): • PL122, B&W: “pl122-4000n” or “pl122” • PL122, color (may need paper): “pl122-cps” • PL355: “pl355-si”, 2-sided: “pl355-duplong”

33. Where are the Windows? • X is the windowing system for UNIX workstations (Sun’s version is OpenWindows) • initx (or openwin) will start the windowing system (if sitting at the machine) • How the windowing system is configured is dependent on a few configuration files • .xinitrc, .Xdefaults, .twmrc, others... • Best advice: ask to copy config files from someone who has it working

34. Unix Processes • UNIX is a multi-processing OS • Adding “&” at the end of a command runs it the “background” (as a “job”) • Output is job and process id • fg brings a job to the “foreground” • Cntr-z stops a process running in the foreground • bg restarts a process, putting it in the background • kill <id> halts the job with the given process id • kill -9 <id> halts the given job without fail • ps -elf lists running processes with ids