Systems and Theory Course Buckets

As described in the Graduate Program Handbook, the course requirements for the MS degree (which also apply to the PhD degree) and the PhD core exam require students to take courses from two distinct categories (or “buckets”) — the theory bucket and the systems bucket.

The lists below represent the courses approved by the graduate committee as satisfying these requirements, effective Fall 2020.

Theory Course Bucket

The courses satisfying the theory requirements are:

• COSC 530 – Intro to Cryptography
• COSC 540 – Algorithms
• COSC 545 – Theory of Computation

Systems Course Bucket

The courses satisfying the systems requirement are:

• COSC 520 – Hardware and Architecture
• COSC 525 – Advanced Networking
• COSC 534 – Advanced Computer Security
• COSC 580 – Database Management Systems