00:00:00

Computer Science & Data Analytics

Thank you.

Thank you, Kyle.

So let's start with the computer science, and then we'll move to data analytics.

The Department of Computer Science actually holds four different programs, a graduate program in computer science, graduate programming, Data analytics, undergraduate programming Computer Science, and undergraduate programming information.

All these programs have been offered online and on campus, and the graduate program in computer science has been relatively old. At one point, this was actually the largest program in the whole state of Illinois, and now it's one of the largest.

One distinguishing feature. Let me move my slide. One distinguishing feature of our program.

Is that it is very flexible.

The program consist of 32 credit hours and it's not long either. So you can take all these 32 credit hours in one academic year, so if you enroll in full.

2024 you can take three classes in full, three classes next spring and two classes.

In the summer following for a total of eight classes and this is what our program is about.

Also another distinguishing feature of the program is that you have you can choose your curriculum. The program consist of one required course and this is CSU 540, the graduate research seminar. And besides 5:40 you can you should take 7 elective courses and it's up to you how you choose the selective courses.

When you can choose them based on your background, based on your career goal, and based on what you like and you don't like.

There, I'm not going to talk about this slide itself.

Explanatory. There is a myriad of opportunities.

For computer science graduates, and I can write probably hundreds of such slides about the advantages of taking degree in computer science. And when I admit graduate students through our Computer Science master degree, I can assure you that I see people coming with the various other master's degree. I have admitted lawyers. I have admitted doctors to our degree engineer chemist.

You just name it.

Everybody wants to become a computer scientist and to explore this fascinating field of computer science.

I want to bring to your attention that our department has been designated as a National Centre of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defence Education and this is a very prestigious designation bestowed by the nation's Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

And students who graduate from such departments, like our department, they enjoy multiple benefits in on a job market. They can apply for federal.

Financial aid grants for federal jobs and they are given priority.

So let's talk about our program.

Our program is offered both on campus and online, and I told you that the program is quite flexible. You choose your curriculum, you choose seven elective courses and one, and you take the CSU 540. The graduate recent seminar at the end, which again gives you flexibility, gives you freedom to explore what you want and where you think you can succeed. Our program has been highly ranking. I just mentioned a couple of rankings, but we received such rankings on a regular basis.

On different.

Ranking agencies Also our program provides extensive hands on experience for students. We have powerful computational environment. Students have access to the so-called virtual server farm which is quite an extensive server farm allowing every student to have.

VirtualBox in every class and access to a specific software.

In a specific pre program preset environment in every class they are taking. Also we have several.

Data and AI clusters, which allow you to explore and solve several real world AI programs in real time.

Let me move further.

Admission requirements So.

When I talk about admission requirements, I would like to differentiate between U.S. citizens and international students.

We admit.

Everybody who has a legal right to reside in the United States.

Despite their major. So if you are age 4H1B visa holder, if you have a green card, if you're an American citizen, and if you have a bachelor degree, it doesn't matter what bachelor degree you have, you will be admitted to our program.

Of course it comes with a.

Kyle Gebeck

12:08:24 PM

https://www.uis.edu/graduate

Before we have been allowing the so-called conditional admission.

And starting from full 2024, we will not have conditional admission anymore. What conditional admission means? This means that if a student has a degree in other field.

We still admit these students conditionally, and they have to complete several prerequisite courses.

Seid Mengistu

12:08:55 PM

Thanks @KyleGebeck

These courses could be up to 9, but again, we give you the freedom to get a degree in computer science despite the fact that you don't have a bachelor's degree in computer science.

And I can assure you that this is much cheaper option because if.

Want to pursue a second bachelor's degree in computer science? It will cost you more time and more money.

So again, do you have any degree, mature degree you so far we allow students to be conditionally admitted?

The federal government, however, changed the rules for conditionally admitted students. Many of our conditionally admitted domestic students depend on financial aid.

And previously they were given one year to complete all these prerequisites which we which they don't have. The federal government changed the rules and now domestic students on financial aid don't have this luxury, that don't have the luxury of having one year to complete these prerequisites, which presents some problems for them. And starting this fall, we will admit all students.

Truly domestic students will be admitted, fully admitted. But again, there is a caveat.

Students who have not completed several foundational courses, We don't call them PEREX, we call them now foundational courses. We'll need to complete this foundation courses before they can move on to their graduate studies. So this is the same process but formally on paper. You will be fully admitted if you're domestic students and this will allow you to work on your foundational deficiencies.

While receiving financial aid, this is a huge step for.

How about international students?

International students to get so this full admission also applies to international students, so starting from fall.

This year, there'll be no conditional admission for international students What it means first, to be To be eligible for admission at all, an international student must have completed a course in Data Structures and Algorithms, a course equivalent to Data Structures and algorithms.

Without this course, your application will be denied.

Why we require discounts? Because this course is requirement for any other course in the program.

Ali Hussein

12:11:36 PM

And according to the federal rules, to keep your status active, you need to take three courses per semester if you enroll in Data Structures and Algorithms. If you don't have it, you have to enroll it in the first semester, but then you won't have any other course to take and you will fall out of your visa status.

This is why we require 388 data structures and algorithms to be completed before you apply to our program. You can complete it online with us before you apply if you like. This is the best option if you don't have the question.

Ali Hussein

12:12:15 PM

Ali Hussein

Now, international students may also have some foundational deficiencies. Many students don't have a course equivalent to programming languages. Some students don't have a course equivalent to operating systems. Some students don't have course equivalent to Java or don't have enough Java experience in their previous studies. So these students.

Will also be fully admitted, but they will be given all these foundational courses as required.

And this foundation courses will need to be completed as soon as possible, first foundational courses and then the remaining graduate.

Course.

So in practice, for you, this won't change anything. Moving from conditional to full admission won't change anything in the way you study. It will give you the advantage that if you have some foundation deficiencies, previously conditionally admitted students who were receiving undergraduate I-94.

Which sometimes presented difficulties when they apply for AUS visa US councils. Now, because all of the students will be fully admitted, they'll receive graduate in IIT for even those students who will need this foundational courses.

As require.

I think this more or less explains the call admission process in addition.

Both domestic and international students who have some foundational requirements to complete will need to be placement exam and this placement exam is administered in the first week of classes and it tests your Java.

Knowledge and skills.

If you pass the exam. If you fail the exam, you will be required to take CSC 501.

Which is?

Course. Very brief course.

To help you learn Java.

Graduate programming practical. If you fail the exam, you need to take five fold.

If you pass the exam, you still can take 5 for one, because 5 for one counts towards your graduate credit. But you may decide not to take it, so the choice is yours if you've passed it.

A. Again, to repeat, all graduate students with foundational deficiencies will need to take this placement exam.

OK, let's move further.

The program requirements, as I told you in the very beginning, are very simple. This is very short, very flexible, very convenient, but yet helpful and excellent program. So you need to complete 32 credit hours.

20 hour 28 of those are electives and one core class 540 the graduate Research seminar. Again, if you have foundational deficiencies, you need to complete them in addition to these courses and they will not count towards your graduate course word, with the exception of 540 of 541 or, sorry, with deception of 541 which counts towards your graduate course.

Career prospects. They're enormous. I want to point out that the university, and this is not just our department, offers a Graduate Public Service internships, which allow graduate students to work at local state agencies and receive a tuition break.

Our we have International Student Services office which will assist you with your OPT application. Both the Data analytics and the Computer Science program are OPT eligible.

And in the Computer Science program, we also have a CPT course. We have designed a special course called 545 Graduate Summer Internship, which allows students to pursue an internship in the summer and earn graduate credit towards their graduate requirements.

And I believe that was everything I wanted to tell you about our program today.

Any interesting questions?

Kyle, can you see any questions? Because I don't see anything on the chat room.

Oh your your voice is archive.

OK now. Yep, that is on now.

Then I'll turn it to Doctor Nguyen, who represented the Internet analytics program.

OK. Thanks, Doctor Abrino.

So can you help to load the the data analytics slice, Kyle?

You don't have it.

OK. Then I don't have anything on the screen, but I I can bring it up and talk a little bit more about that. So again, hello everyone. Thanks for attending this Red week's section today. So as Doctor Breno mentioned, data analytics is kind of.

Under the The big umbrella of Computer Science department is a more specialized program, so it's more specific. It doesn't have the kind of flexibilities for the overall CSC student, but if you like to work with data.

Then it is the right option for you. So.

The data analytics program.

Enjoy very much all of the benefits Doctor Preno mentioned. But I want to kind of get a little bit more into the details, some of the specific details of this degree. So first of all, it is the same program, which means it's for international students. You qualify for OPT, extended OPT.

Now it's also available for both online and on campus formats.

I want to.

Clearly mentioned that the online format is only available for.

Bhavana Gottepu

12:19:32 PM

I started applying for the CSE program but I see that I need to complete an English Proficiency requirement. I am a domestic student. How do I prove English proficiency? Do I need to take TOFEL exam as a domestic student?

Non F1 student basically. So any other type of visas?

And domestic student eligible to apply to the online program, while international students are required to apply to the on campus program.

We take application basically in spring and fall semester and now for.

Online students, even if you have some deficiency in the foundation.

You can still apply.

And and to take those foundation glasses.

But for international student AIDS Doctor Breno already mentioned, you really need to have taken a course Computer Science course named Equivalent to Data Structure and Algorithm to be eligible to apply. The reason is that if you don't have that course, you will not have enough courses to take to maintain your F1 status. That's mainly the reason it's not about.

Your qualification it just.

The requirement from the federal so to take certain number of credit hours per semester. So without that classes, without that class you win a payment to maintain your help one status. So Doctor Brennan already mentioned one way to deal with you know the lack of that class for international student. So if you don't have that class you can still apply to us.

To the undergrad computer science program.

So that you can take that glass and once you have that glass, you take that class as an online student. So after you're done with that class then you can apply as an F1 student to our master program because at that point you are eligible. So that's that's the best way for you to.

To go around that limitation if you have not taken the data structure and algorithms already.

Bhavana Gottepu

12:21:55 PM

Additionally, I don't see an option to submit my statement of purpose. Does the CSE program not require a statement of purpose?

So now for this particular program we offer.

We kind.

Uh, different from the other programs in the nations in the sense that.

Kyle Gebeck

12:22:13 PM

https://www.uis.edu/international-applicants/english-proficiency-requirements Please review the Frequently asked questions for the English Proficiency Requirement as you may qualify to be exempt. You can access the exempt form through the same link

We have an interdisciplinary curriculum, so we have some two statistics courses planned with the computer science courses.

And this helps you to basically gain the deeper understanding of the statistical concept which you to process the data.

And you will use. I love how to use our Python scaler and Java in our classes.

So that is.

Courtney Singleton

12:22:42 PM

We do not require a statement of purpose or letters of recommendation for admission to the MS Computer Science program.

Nabiha Noor

12:23:07 PM

I also do not see any option to submit transcripts and LOR.

Sum up the highlight of this program and of course with this degree you have an enormous opportunity, you know, to live from career tracks. So to name like on our website, you can at least a bunch of them. I don't want to really repeat them here, so that's but very much anything with processing data, big data. Then there is the the degree for it.

So now.

Our requirement our fundamental classes including Java programming, Discrete structure, Data structure and algorithm, which is the one computer science course I mentioned a must have for international student to be eligible to apply and some basic calculus, introductory statistics and.

Linear Algebra class.

So for most international students.

Especially who graduate as a complete science major, you got all of this, so you usually are eligible for this.

Now for online student, if you don't have you know a few of these requirement foundational courses then you can apply to the computer science undergraduate to.

To take them if you want to.

I think that's the best way because many of you can take advantage of the financial aid. So if you do that way we will admit fully without doing the condition on admission.

Now for the curriculum of the courses, we have a total of nine courses required.

Two of them are electives, and we have a very flexible list, a long list of electives which we keep expanding based upon the interest and the development of the field. And for the required courses. We prepare you all of the necessary foundation, the basic foundation for you to learn how to process data.

And for a domestic, I mean for for domestic students, you may be eligible for financial aid. We have financial aid office to help you with that. For international students, you actually have a very good opportunity to get an internship. It is our unique feature here because we are.

In the capital of Illinois. So you will have a chance if you get this.

Courtney Singleton

12:25:43 PM

We do not require LOR's for the Computer Science master's program. We cannot accept unofficial transcripts/records. Please review the following links for more information on submitting academic records/transcripts: https://www.uis.edu/apply.

Internship which is very competitive because it's very good. It has very good benefit. You will be working for some, you know, government agency and at the same time get a tuition waiver and maybe some small type and too. So it's very competitive on international students really like this. So of course the more international supply the more competitive it is. But you have, you do have a chance, I do see a lot of.

Data analytics student get this internship.

Which is very good benefit.

So if you have, that's basically the highlight of this special.

Nabiha Noor

12:26:37 PM

When is the deadline to apply for the MS CS program?

Program under the Computer Science department. If you have any questions, feel free to type in the chat and I will try to explain it.

And I'd like to add to everything which Doctor Nguyen said, and this applies for both DAT and CAC applicants.

Please apply directly to UIS.

Don't use any recruitment agencies.

Because if you use recruitment agencies, the chances are they will ask you to pay upfront more money. There will be some delays, some inconvenience also you have. If you apply directly for data or CSE to US, you receive the best and preferential print.

One thing actually I forgot to mention, we actually got.

Very good drinking to for this particular DAT. So a few years back we got ranked number one as the best online master degree in data science program. And I just checked it and it's still there. It's it's still ranked #1 where it's affordable, it's balancing, it's a good program overall and just this year we got another.

Good ranking and we actually this time got second which is not number one, but guess who's number one? Number one is Columbia University. So it's actually an honor to be ranked second you know behind Columbia University and in terms of the cost is enormously different. I am looking at their their, their cost now is the total tuition is 91,000 + a year and we are at you know 13,000.

So this is for online program of course for international it's probably, you know a little bit more but.

Bhavana Gottepu

12:28:34 PM

Where can I find the slides and recording for this webinar?

Close to Colombia's tuition and we are right behind calling me a university.

Courtney Singleton

12:28:37 PM

Applicants to the on-campus and online M.S. degree are accepted in fall, spring, and summer semesters. International on-campus applicants are accepted only in fall and spring semesters. For students needing UIS to host an F-1 visa, please note the following advisory deadlines: June 1st for Fall, November 1st for Spring. Due to the high demand for our Computer Science master’s program, at times we must close admission early due to reaching our enrollment capacity. So, we encourage applicants to apply early!

So any other questions?

Oh, I see you want to answer this doctor right now.

Nabiha Noor

12:29:23 PM

Thank you!

OK, so if we're applying for a full semester and if your international student, the deadline is July 1st. If you're applying for the spring semester, the deadline is December 1st. So we impose these deadlines to give you enough time to apply for US visa. You need some time to apply and get the visa and organise your trip. If your domestic students, you can apply until one week before the semester starts.

Yeah, and and actually those deadlines are.

Lanre Ajala

12:29:46 PM

When is the deadline for Fall 2024

Nana Kweku Mbrah

12:29:58 PM

I have a Bachelor of Education in Accounting, do I qualify?

Super strict obviously if if the for international student it it it may be uh difficult because uh as Doctor Preno mentioned you need time to apply for the visa. But we we always you know see if there's still you know sit to to offer then we we will continue to apply. But you are always recommended to apply as early as possible so that you know you can secure the spot and you have plenty of time to prepare.

Yeah.

Kyle Gebeck

12:30:14 PM

You should receive a link to the recording via email after the session is finished.

Another reason to apply earlier is that registration for example for four semesters starts in April. So if you if you apply earlier, you can register for the classes for all the classes you want. If you apply lead, by the time you know you arrive on campus, many of these classes could be full.

Lanre Ajala

12:30:39 PM

Thank you

And that can spell problem for international students because you will not be able to maintain your F1 status. So for international student, once you admit it you committed to come, then you should contact your advisor immediately to register for your classes to secure your your spot to make sure that you comply with with the federal requirement.