The Master of Science in Computer Science program provides you with an in-depth education geared toward meeting the needs of business and industry in Florida and throughout the United States. Your coursework will cover a broad background in the areas of programming systems and languages, computer architecture and computer science theory while specializing in a research area. Various research interests of the computer science faculty include computer and network security, database management systems, modeling and simulation, hardware/software co-design, programming languages, VLSI systems, among many others.
The program’s long and respected history produces graduates with a high level of competency in understanding, applying and enunciating the modern concepts, principles, methods and theories necessary for the design and implementation of computing systems. Upon graduating, you’ll have exhibited breadth as well as depth of capability involving both theoretical aspects of computer science and practical considerations of computing.
Computer Science (MS) – Accelerated BS to MS
The Accelerated BS to MS program in Computer Science allows highly qualified UCF undergraduate majors in Computer Science to take graduate-level courses that will count toward their MS degree while completing their BS degree program.
CSRankings.org ranks UCF’s Department of Computer Science in the top 50 for publishing in the most selective computer science conferences.
UCF’s computer science graduate program ranked No. 82 in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report .
Learn about modern processor design, instruction-level parallelism, thread-level parallelism, data-level parallelism, memory hierarchy and I/O.
Classification of algorithms, e.g., recursive, divide-and-conquer, greedy, etc. Data Structures and algorithm design and performance. Time and space complexity analysis.
While an undergraduate degree in computer science is desirable, it is not required. Applicants without a strong undergraduate background in Computer Science must demonstrate an understanding of the material covered in upper-division undergraduate courses listed under the articulation section of the curriculum information in the catalog. Applicants may choose to demonstrate their knowledge of these courses by taking these courses as non-degree seeking and scoring “B” or better in all of them:
Applications are accepted for the fall and spring semesters. All required materials must be submitted prior to the application deadline. Please note that faculty members may choose to conduct face-to-face or telephone interviews before accepting an applicant into their research program.
Request InformationIn addition to the general UCF graduate application requirements, applicants to this program must provide:
The project is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Research Translation (NSF ART) program.
The U.S. National Science Foundation award will allow for the creation of a Venture Lab to connect UCF researchers with local industry, investors and entrepreneurs.
Computer science doctoral student Esteban Segarra ’22MS is one of only five recipients of this year’s award, which will help support his work to leverage…
The project will increase access to in-demand fields and provide free training to those from historically underserved communities.
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The Master of Science in Computer Science program produces graduates with a high level of competency in understanding, applying, and enunciating the modern concepts, principles, methods, and theories necessary for the design and implementation of computing systems.
The Master of Science in Computer Science program provides students with an in-depth education geared toward meeting the needs of business and industry in Florida and throughout the United States. The program's goal is to produce graduates with a high level of competency in understanding, applying, and enunciating the modern concepts, principles, methods, and theories necessary for the design and implementation of computing systems.
Students in the program receive a broad background in the areas of programming systems and languages, computer architecture, and computer science theory while specializing in a research area. Research interests of the computer science faculty include bioinformatics and system biology, computer architecture, computer graphics, computer security and digital forensics, computer vision, database, image and video processing, machine learning and AI, networking and mobile computing, parallel computation, software engineering and systems, theory of computing, algorithms and quantum computing, virtual reality and HCI.. The program has a long and respected history, having conferred MS degrees since 1968.
Students successfully completing this program will have exhibited breadth as well as depth of capability involving both theoretical aspects of computer science and practical considerations of computing.
The Computer Science MS program offers both a thesis and nonthesis option with each option requiring a minimum of 30 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree. At least half of these hours must be at the 6000-level. Both options require 12 credit hours of required courses. Thesis students must take 12 credit hours of electives and a minimum of 6 credit hours of thesis. Nonthesis students must take 18 credit hours of electives and complete a culminating experience as determined by the program's graduate committee.
Total Credit Hours Required: 30 Credit Hours Minimum beyond the Bachelor's Degree
An undergraduate degree in Computer Science is desirable but not required. Applicants without a strong undergraduate background in Computer Science must demonstrate an understanding of the material covered in the following undergraduate courses:
Graduate students may receive financial assistance through fellowships, assistantships, tuition support, or loans. For more information, see the College of Graduate Studies Funding website, which describes the types of financial assistance available at UCF and provides general guidance in planning your graduate finances. The Financial Information section of the Graduate Catalog is another key resource.
Fellowships are awarded based on academic merit to highly qualified students. They are paid to students through the Office of Student Financial Assistance, based on instructions provided by the College of Graduate Studies. Fellowships are given to support a student's graduate study and do not have a work obligation. For more information, see UCF Graduate Fellowships, which includes descriptions of university fellowships and what you should do to be considered for a fellowship.
Approved Research Pair courses:
Operating Systems area:
Computer Graphics area:
Computer Vision area:
Computer Architecture area:
Software Engineering area:
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence area:
Mixed Reality Engineering area:
Computer Security area:
The above list is only meant to provide some examples and is not comprehensive.
Equipment Fee
Students in the Computer Science MS program pay a $34 equipment fee each semester that they are enrolled. Part-time students pay $17 per semester.
Independent Learning
The Independent Learning Requirement is met by the successful completion of a master's thesis or a set of research project based (could be partial) classes for nonthesis students.
