Second Semester

The 298/299 Proposal

To continue your project, you need to file a 298/299 proposal (1-2 pages) with the department. In the proposal, you need to list:

    • your name, your advisor's and committee members' names, email addresses, and affiliations (if not SJSU CS regular faculty)
    • a description of your project
    • a summary of your 297 results
    • a proposed schedule for the completion of your project
    • a concrete description of deliverables in your software and report
    • a description of the challenging and/or innovative aspects of your proposal
    • a list of literature references

Students are encouraged to use any one of the following CS 298/299 Proposal Templates

 

  • If you are retaking CS 298/299 and your proposal has not changed, add a statement: "This is a continuation of the CS 298/299 project that was approved for (insert semester), and there are no changes to the proposal."
  • Your proposal must be in proper English. The department may reject plans that contain too many spelling or grammar errors.
  • File your proposal within one week after the first day of classes of the semester in which you want to to take 298/299. (You may file it at the end of the preceding semester if you prefer.)
  • CS 298 cannot be taken over the summer.

  • Submit your request form and your completed CS298/299 proposal along with an approved graduate candidacy form from GAPE (CS 298/299 cannot be taken without the approved candidacy form) to the CS Department office via email.

    • We encourage you to use Docusign as Instructors have varying schedules on campus.

  • We also ask that you submit your graduation form [pdf] (via MySJSU) while you complete your 298/299 application so you don't forget to file it. 
  • Upon approval, you will receive a registration code from the department.

 

Second Semester CS 298/299

  • Complete your experimental or implementation work early enough to give you ample time to finish your written report.
  • Give your committee members at least a month before your defense date to read and comment on your written report.
  • Your report should be about 40 single-spaced pages. That said, you can choose to write the report in either single or double-space.
  • Follow the Graduate Studies formatting instructions. Additionally, you are free to use the LaTeX template maintained by Prof. Thomas Austin.
  • Your report must be in proper English. It is your job - and not that of your advisor or committee members - to proofread your report and fix any spelling and grammar errors before you give it to your committee to read. Your advisor and committee members are responsible for reviewing the technical contents of your report, not your spelling and grammar.
  • Your committee - or in the case of a thesis, the Graduate School - has the right to reject your report if it is not written in proper English.
  • You must submit the draft report at least two weeks before the scheduled defense. In order to upload the report: you must be added as a student in the "CS 298/299 Report" Canvas course. If you are not added there yet, please send an email request to <info-compsci@sjsu.edu> . Please use the following subject header: CS298/299 Canvas Add Request [Name, Student ID]. Please do not include any additional documents or information in this email. Once added, go to Assignments and upload your report to the CS 298/299 Report assignment. At the same time fill out the Oral Defense Room Request Form [pdf] and email it to <jutomue.quenavah@sjsu.edu> 
  • Contact the office to request a room assignment. You will receive it after the plagiarism check has passed. The office will post an official announcement of your defense.
  • The defense date must be before the last day of the semester. It is strongly suggested to schedule the defense before the first day of finals.
  • If you schedule your defense during finals, it may happen that no room is available. It is acceptable for you to reserve a room in Clark Hall or the library. These rooms are only available for checkout by students, so you must do this. The office cannot do it for you. You must then notify the office so that they can post an official announcement with the correct time and location.
  • Any rescheduling of the defense requires at least one week's notice.
  • If you do not follow this procedure (that is, if you simply find your own room and hold the "defense" there without plagiarism check and an official announcement), you will not be allowed to graduate.

 

Preparing for your Defense

  • Any changes on the defense exam (date/location/committee member) need to be approved by the department. The CS 298 Advisor must send an email to both the Department Chair and the Program Coordinator and cc the Dept staff (Chan or Jutomue). The advisor must obtain permission from either the Department Chair or the Program Coordinator for any change to be allowed.
  • All committee members must join the defense in-person. If a committee member is unable to join in-person due to unavoidable circumstances, the CS 298 Advisor must send an email to both the Department Chair and the Program Coordinator and cc the Department staff (Chan or Jutomue). The CS 298 Advisor must also set up the Zoom meeting for the committee member to join virtually.
  • Both of the above changes must be notified to the Chair and the Program Coordinator one week before the scheduled defense.
  • The defense must have been officially announced by the department in order to be valid.
  • You must provide your final report at least one month before the defense to all your committee members.

The Defense

  • The defense must have been officially announced by the department in order to be valid.
  • Any changes on the defense exam (date/location/committee member) need to be approved by the Department. The CS 298 advisor should send an email to both the Dept Chair and the Program Coordinator and cc the Dept staff (Chan or Jutomue), and obtain permission from either the Dept Chair or the Program Coordinator for any change to be allowed.
  • The defense is open to the public.
  • You need to procure any necessary projection equipment.
  • In the defense, you will give a presentation of your project and answer questions from the committee and the audience. You should bring a printed copy of your written report to the defense and make it available to the audience.
  • The committee may request modifications to your work.
  • You need to get your advisor's and your committee members' signature which the department office should have prepared for your advisor.
  • Turn in that form to the department office.
  • Defense must be completed before/on the last day of final exams.
     

Your Final Report

  • Produce a PDF file with name lastname_firstname.pdf where firstname, lastname are your first and last name in lowercase. For example, John Q. Nguyen would send a file nguyen_john.pdf, that is, the six lowercase letters n g u y e n followed by an underscore (U+005F), the four lowercase letters j o h n, a period (U+002E), and the three lowercase letters p d f. Do not zip the file.
  • The cover page of your report should contain your name and the title of your project in Title Case (not all uppercase) and the publication year.  You must supply an abstract (a single paragraph, < 1000 characters). Your abstract must be legible on its own. Do not include page references, section references, or literature references. Your abstract must consist of UTF-8 characters that can be copied out of Adobe Acrobat. If you use TeX, you must figure out how not to have ligatures appear as invalid characters.
  • Once you made any final changes to your report, ask your advisor to send it to the appropriate program coordinator: MSCS <navrati.saxena@sjsu.edu> or MSDS <teng.moh@sjsu.edu>.
  • The report will be posted on https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/computer_sci_grad/ (by default) or, for the first year on a protected web site (by your or your advisor's written request, to allow for publication)
  • Once you have seen your report published, you can go to the office and ask them to send a "Culminating Experience Memo" to Graduate Studies. That will trigger your graduation.