Honors Program

The honors program is for students who want to dive even more deeply into research, usually after initial exploration in CS 399: Directed Readings. It involves writing a formal scientific report, giving an oral presentation, and publishing your research, typically over two or three semesters. Students interested in honors research should have an established research project and fill out the honors application.

Students who complete the program will graduate “With Honors in Computer Science.”

Eligibility

In order to be accepted into the program, you must:

• earn a 3.5 GPA in CS courses;
• earn a 3.0 GPA overall;
• complete 18 semester hours in CS courses;
• define a research project with a CS faculty mentor;
• complete the honors application (at right) at least one week before the first day of class; and
• enroll in CS 398: Undergraduate Honors Research for exactly 1 semester hour

Program Requirements

To complete the honors program, you will:

• take 3 semester hours in CS 398: Undergraduate Honors Research, with each semester hour involving a minimum of three hours of laboratory work per week during the semester of enrollment;
• submit a formal research proposal by the end of the first term of Honors Research, including an introduction, proposed methods, and relevant literature citation;
• complete a formal written report in the form of a scientific paper; and
• deliver an oral or poster presentation at a CS department seminar; it is possible that you will be recommended or required to give a formal presentation of your work at a scientific meeting.

Animating motion (right) using a rational quaternion spline (left). (Shape Lab; Johnstone, with former PhD student Jim Williams, now at Siemens Research)