Graduate Thesis

   
Marjan Asadinia Advanced computer architecture, Memory system architectures, Next-generation storage systems, Systems-on-Chip (SoC) and Networks-on-Chip (NoC), Interconnection networks, and deep learning.
Richard Covington Graphical user interfaces; Computer architectures; Simulation and performance analysis. Fall only
Kyle Dewey Compilers and programming languages; Automated test case generation; software testing; Computer Science education.
Mahdi Ebrahimi Big data management with the focus on large-scale scientific workflows; Big data workflow scheduling; Cloud computing.
Rashida Hasan Data Mining, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Feature Engineering, Data Preprocessing-Feature selection, feature extraction, and Anomaly/outlier detection.
Wen-Chin (Amy) Hsu Computer Science education; Human-computer interaction; Computing with human factors; Data analysis/science.
Enno Huang Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Deep Learning, Large Language Model (LLM) / Vision-Language Model (VLM), AI-Agent, AI-Robotics, Embodied AI, Trustworthy AI, AGI, and AI-Interdisciplinary Research
Maryam Jalalitabar Network Function Virtualization(NFV); Software Defined Networking(SDN); Virtual Network Embedding(VNE).
Xunfei Jiang Energy-efficient storage system; Thermal-aware resource management; Parallel and Distributed Computing; Cloud computing; Spatial database systems; Data Science.
Adam Kaplan High-performance Computing, Cloud Performance vs. Cost Tradeoff, Embedded/Low-Power Machine Learning.
Li Liu Accessible Computing, Assistive Technology, Data Visualization and Explainable AI, Human-machine Teaming.
Robert McIlhenny High-speed architectures.
Katya Mkrtchyan Computer Vision and Image Processing.
Alex Modarresi Computer networking and security, IoT and smart systems, Software Define Networking (SDN), and ad-hoc routing protocol.
Ani Nahapetian Mobile and wearable computing; User interface design; Mobile and hardware security; Algorithm design for embedded systems.
John Noga Design and analysis of algorithms.
Ruobin Qi Machine Learning, Deep Learning.
Tasmia Tasrin Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), Deep Reinforcement Learning,  Computer Vision, Resource Efficient LLMs. 
Abhishek Verma Data Science, Big Data Computing, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Data Mining, Biometrics.
George (Taehyung) Wang   Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Semantic Computing, Data Mining.
Jeffrey Wiegley Automated assembly path planning; Geometric shape analysis; Embedded systems; Software and infrastructure applications design.

The Master's thesis work is carried out as part of a two course series, COMP 696C and COMP 698C, under the guidance of your advisor/committee chair and the other members of your committee.

  1. Become classified.
  2. Select a Computer Science Department faculty member who will agree to serve as your graduate advisor/committee chair.

    An important part of your graduate work is selecting a graduate advisor, who will serve as your committee chair. Your advisor may request that you prepare a thesis proposal, take certain classes, complete a specific project, and/or follow certain guidelines when completing your thesis work. Choose an advisor, who will agree to serve as your committee chair, by speaking with members of the faculty whose research interests best match yours.

    Students often find a committee chair after having completed the core classes and having begun taking some electives.  This gives you the opportunity to choose some of your electives so they are relevant to your thesis topic.

  3. Enroll in and successfully complete COMP 696C.

    To enroll in COMP 696C, an R-form must be completed and approved. To receive credit for COMP 696C, a committee must have been formed and all the work required by your committee chair must be complete.

  4. With the help of your committee chair, select your committee members.

    Committees must be composed of at least three people, including your committee chair. Aside from the committee chair, another Computer Science faculty member must serve as a committee member. The third member may be from any CSUN academic department, including Computer Science. To select an off-campus individual to be your third committee member, you must first obtain the Department's approval.

    Discuss with each committee member what they expect in your thesis and the procedures to follow in seeking their approval.

  5. Complete the Planning Form through the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) system.

    All committee members, including your committee chair, must agree to serve on your committee by approving your planning form on the ETD system. Also, the Department Chair must approve the committee on ETD. Once this is complete you will have officially formed a committee.

  6. Apply for degree and diploma.

    Apply for graduation the semester before you plan to graduate.

  7. In a following semester enroll in and successfully complete COMP 698C.

    To enroll in COMP 698C, an R-form must also be completed and approved.

  8. Prepare and submit your thesis.

    Thesis drafts will be reviewed by your committee chair numerous times throughout your final semester. As a minimum, submit a thesis draft to your committee chair for final review by the beginning of the ninth week of classes of the semester you intend to graduate. Submit the final review draft of the thesis to all members of the committee by the end of the twelfth week of the semester in which you wish to graduate.

    Follow the steps and deadlines outlined by the ETD system for submitting a draft thesis for formatting review and the final draft of your thesis. The Graduate Office will contact you if formatting changes need to be made to your thesis.

  9. Defend your thesis.

    To schedule your defense consult with you committee members and find a good day and time. Prepare and submit a defense announcement form to the Department office, at least one week before the scheduled date of defense. The defense must be scheduled prior to the final thesis draft submission deadline.