The Master of Science in Computer Science is a broad-based degree offering students strong problem-solving, communication, and team skills to design, implement, and document computer software systems. The program is known for sending well-prepared students into a lucrative job market. MTSU graduates are valued by employers ranging from tech titans such as Google to area companies. Employment in the field is projected to grow at a rate of 15 percent through 2022, double the average rate of all occupations. Students, who choose from thesis and non-thesis options, are able to concentrate in specific areas or begin preparation for Ph.D. work. Master’s students also gain experience working with systems administration and helping create apps for the university. There are additional opportunities through professional organizations. Well-equipped computer labs are available extensive hours and also provide 24/7 remote software access. Video-conference attendance is possible in some classes. A limited number of graduate assistantships are available.
Google taps MTSU computer science for new hires
Computer Science M.S. graduates Nathan Reale, Matt Houglum (pictured), and Anthony Mills are the latest MTSU alumni hired by Web giant Google. Houglum and a student team developed an Android mobile app to provide students easy access to a wide variety of university information, while Mills and Reale helped create an online Schedule Planner to assist with class planning. They also had systems administration responsibilities as grad students, experience that sold Google recruiters on him, Houglum says. “It is very difficult to get hired at Google, and the fact that a major company like Google is hiring our students is indicative of the quality of the education being offered,” department chair Chrisila Pettey says. Reale and Mills are working at Google headquarters outside San Francisco, while Houglum is an enterprise technical solutions engineer at the Seattle operations center. All three also earned bachelor's degrees from MTSU. Reale applied the day after Google employee and MTSU alum Micah Chasteen spoke to the Association for Computing Machinery student chapter. “Google was my dream job from high school through college,” Reale says.
Student works on Greek papyrus research at Oxford
Master’s candidate Alex Williams (B.S., Computer Science) landed a job at the University of Oxford in England a year before his scheduled 2015 graduation, programming with a research team identifying ancient Greek papyrus fragments. Williams created a version of BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), which is used in computational biology with genetic/DNA sequences, to align Ancient Greek papyrus fragments to known manuscript texts. His Greek-BLAST adaptation helps dramatically accelerate the tedious process of manual identification of a timeframe from days, months, or years, into minutes. "Students are usually given the option to study what interests them. Had I not been given these options, I would be weeks behind in my work here at Oxford," Williams says. "I'm only halfway through the program and I've already got the best job imaginable." He also had two undergraduate internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory while at MTSU. His research there focused on finding new attributes in mammograms that could be used in an automated fashion by software to detect early signs of breast cancer.