The Thesis option in the Master in Computer Engineering program leads to a Master of Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.Cp.E) degree, and the non-Thesis option leads to a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering (M.Eng.Cp.E.) degree. Currently, there are two areas of specialization for the M.S.Cp.E or the M. Eng.Cp.E: Software Engineering and Internet Engineering. By choosing appropriate elective courses at the graduate level the student can tailor the program to his/her specific interests or research focus.
The Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico offers graduate programs in Computer Engineering, in Computer Science, and in Electrical Engineering. For the Master in Computer Engineering, the Thesis option leads to a Master of Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.Cp.E) degree and the non-Thesis option leads to a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering (M.Eng.Cp.E.) degree. Currently, there are two areas of specialization for the M.S.Cp.E or the M. Eng.Cp.E: Software Engineering and Internet Engineering. By choosing appropriate elective courses at the graduate level the student can tailor the program to his/her specific interests or research focus. An advisor will work closely with the student to carefully choose the elective courses that fulfill the student‟s professional expectations in breadth as well as in depth.
Our program is flexible enough to be tailored to the student interests while providing sufficient breadth and depth to accommodate the rapid changes taking place in the field. This program aims to enable graduates to pursue further studies at the doctoral level, enter the industrial workforce, create technological new ventures, be self-employed, or work in a research and development environment. This graduate program offers engineers, or scientists with appropriate background, a unique opportunity to become more productive by acquiring knowledge of advanced technologies in the Computer Engineering field. This also includes the exploration of projects with a technical venture, or entrepreneurial focus.
Our graduates should be able to keep abreast of the latest developments in their areas, read and analyze journal papers from their field, conduct independent research in their areas of interest (Thesis Option), write papers or technical reports, conduct technical and scientific presentations within a conference environment, and explore technological venture opportunities with an entrepreneurial mind-set.
We also promote in our students awareness of the need to actively pursue continuing education and professional development in order to remain actualized in the computer engineering field.
Applicants must meet the general requirements for admission to the graduate program outlined by the Graduate School. In addition applicants are expected to have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, or a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, preferably from an ABET-accredited institution, and a minimum general GPA of 2.8, and a GPA of 3.00 in the computer related courses. After a revision of the student‟s credit transcript the department may require him/her to take certain developmental or pre-requisite courses.
The student is normally admitted to the master‟s degree program in the field in which his or her undergraduate degree was conferred. When the student decides to do graduate work but his background is from a different field, the department, at its discretion, may require him/her to establish additional background by taking a number of undergraduate courses. These requirements must be fulfilled as early as possible in the student’s program. Courses taken to remedy deficiencies can not be used to fulfill course requirements for the master’s degree.
The Thesis option leads to a Master of Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.Cp.E.) degree and the non-Thesis option leads to a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering (M.Eng.Cp.E.) degree.
This option provides a significant element of independent research through the completion of a thesis. This option is recommended, but not limited, to the student either seeking to pursue a doctoral degree or planning to work in a research and development environment. It consists of 15 credit-hours of core courses, 6 credit-hours of Thesis work and 12 credit-hours of elective courses for a total of 33 credit-hours. Students enrolled in this track will receive a Master of Science in Computer Engineering (M.S.Cp.E.).
The thesis research shall be directed by a member of the faculty, which also acts as the student‟s advisor and graduate committee chairperson. The purpose of the thesis is to expose the student to a reasonably independent research experience that enhances his/her academic development. The student should prepare, carry out and report a structured and methodical study of importance. Publication of this work in journals, conference proceedings, and/or poster presentations is strongly encouraged.
1. Thesis Topic: The thesis topic must be approved in writing by the student graduate committee. The topic should be of sufficient relevance to illustrate the student‟s ability to conduct independent research to the extent described above.
2. Thesis Exam (Defense): The student will make an oral presentation followed by a session of question and answers. Students must approve an oral thesis examination before his/her graduate committee.
3. Continuous Enrollment: Once the graduate committee has accepted the student‟s topic the student can receive authorization to enroll in the Thesis course. It is recommended that the student maintains continuous enrollment through the Thesis Extension course.
4. Thesis Copies: The student will be required to submit copies of the thesis in a format approved by the Graduate School. After approval and correction, a final version of the copies will be maintained in the library.
1. Thesis Topic: The thesis topic must be approved in writing by the student graduate committee. The topic should be of sufficient relevance to illustrate the student‟s ability to conduct independent research to the extent described above.
2. Thesis Exam (Defense): The student will make an oral presentation followed by a session of question and answers. Students must approve an oral thesis examination before his/her graduate committee.
3. Continuous Enrollment: Once the graduate committee has accepted the student‟s topic the student can receive authorization to enroll in the Thesis course. It is recommended that the student maintains continuous enrollment through the Thesis Extension course.
4. Thesis Copies: The student will be required to submit copies of the thesis in a format approved by the Graduate School. After approval and correction, a final version of the copies will be maintained in the library.
The non-thesis option also provides for some degree of exposure to independent research through class projects, literature search and paper reviews. Because of the additional course load required by this alternative the student can select to specialize further in his/her area or to add more breadth to his program. This option is recommended, but not limited, to students who are not interested in seeking a higher degree (Ph.D.), but rather have an entrepreneurial bent. Its completion requires 15 credit-hours of core courses, 21 credit-hours of elective courses, and a 3 credit Project course, for 39 credit-hours. Students enrolled in this option will receive a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering (M.Eng.Cp.E.). This option does not require a comprehensive examination but requires a final project which the program encourages to be the exploration of an opportunity for an entrepreneurial technological venture through the development of a prototype for the proposed new product or service, the hardware aspects and environment for the project should be discussed.
The Master of Science program is a flexible program that can be tailored to the student‟s interest while providing solid grounding through 15 credit-hours of core courses on some of the key concepts and tools related to the Computer Engineering field. For each area of interest the required undergraduate courses are defined as the minimum background or prerequisites necessary to enter the field. The students will have to enroll in these courses if they did not take them as part of their undergraduate studies.
Further remedial courses could be determined, at the discretion of the department, on an individual student basis depending on the student‟s background and chosen field of study. If further remedial courses are prescribed they will not counted towards the degree, and must be approved with the minimum specified grade.
Computer Engineering FlowchartAlfredo Cruz, Ph.D.
Graduate Program Director
Email: alcruz@pupr.edu
Phone: 787-622-8000 x. 316
· Networking Laboratory – This laboratory is equipped with a broad variety of networking appliances including repeaters, switches, routers, firewalls, and servers, plus wireless access points, and wired interconnection panels housed in various cabinets and racks. There are also twenty (20) dual-processor hyper-threading workstations, where the student can configure a variety of protocol stacks and network management software.
· Configurable Hardware Laboratory – This laboratory has 15 ML-5001 Evaluation Platform boards for Xilinx Virtex-5 reconfigurable gate arrays. These are connected to PC workstations that are configured with the Xilinx Integrated Software Environment which allow the creation of VHDL models for hardware-implemented functionality of substantial complexity. These models and other intellectual property modules are then compiled, simulated, debugged, synthesized and downloaded into the Evaluation Platform boards, where they can be embedded into the application environment.
· Learning Objects Research Collaborative Atelier (LORCA) eLearning Research Laboratory – This laboratory provides space, laptop computers, and several servers to support the development of eLearning and educational support tools. This laboratory is available to students conducting work on eLearning as part of their undergraduate research course, capstone course, graduate thesis course, or graduate project course.
· High Performance Computing Center – This laboratory provides a high performance, loosely coupled, parallel computing facility that was established with a grant provided by the Air Force Office of Research of the Department of Defense in 2004 for $101,089. This lab has two Beowulf PC Clusters with 64 processors each and one SGI PC Cluster with 256 processors from a grant from the NSF for $160,000. It also houses an Altix 350 supercomputer with four processors from a grant by PRIDCO. All are used to support scientific and engineering research for graduate and undergraduate students.
· Turing Laboratory for Graduate Studies – This laboratory provides faculty members and graduate students state-of-the-art equipment to support their research. The PUPR was recently awarded a grant from PRIDCO for the establishment of the Master in Computer Science (first in Puerto Rico) of $450,000 and for the acquisition, installation, and maintenance of the PCs and workstations, housed in the Turing lab. It includes 24 state of the art Dell Pc‟s, 10 SGI power workstations, 4 Apple G5 and 4 50” Plasma Monitors.
· “Window to the Caribbean” Laboratory – This laboratory creates a virtual environment that connects Puerto Rico to the rest of the world. Its main function will be to participate in collaborative academic and research projects with students, professors, industries and others entities from around the globe. The lab was financed by a grant from the Air Force Office of Research Science of the Department of Defense (AFORS DoD) in 2005 for $181,000.
· Virtual Wireless Lab for Information Security – In September 2007 the Army Research Office of the Department of Defense (ARO DoD) awarded a grant for $193,800 for a virtual wireless lab for information security.
· Signal Processing Laboratory – This laboratory is equipped with high performance Workstations with 1 GByte of RAM, flat panel monitors and a heavy duty HP Color Laser Printer. All workstations have a research license of MATLAB and Internet access.
