raedelson@lion.waterloo.edu (Robyn Edelson) (11/25/89)
A while ago I asked a bunch of questions about AI schools and grad school
funding. I promised to summarize to the net, so here goes. I have shortened
the responses I received, but this is still quite long (sorry):
I also asked about the reputation of my undergrad school, University of
Waterloo, but have omitted this info due to a probable lack of interest.
I would be happy to send all the details to anyone who requests them by e-mail.
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From dwights@cse.ogc.edu Tue Oct 31 11:04:52 1989
As far as getting support for a M.S. program - in general that is not
available unless you enter a research group that is well-funded and
there are master's level contributions possible to the project.
What is a better way is to enter a Ph.D. program and get support
much more easily and defer your decision to opt for the M.S. until
you reach a milestone, such as Ph.D. qualifiers, that you don't wish
to overcome. Then you drop down to the M.S. program and do the Masters...
I feel compelled to mention that the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the OREGON GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(formerly the Oregon Graduate Center close to Portland) might be especially
interesting to you and your classmates who are serious about achieving an
OUTSTANDING graduate education in computer science, either at the Masters
or Ph.D. level, but at a smaller, less intimidating, and more informal
private institution.
[lots of very good information deleted...]
Ron Cole cole@cse.ogc.edu (CS recruitment coodinator)
Dick Kieburtz dick@cse.ogc.edu (CS&E chairman)
Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering
Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology
19600 N.W. Von Neumann Drive
Beaverton, Oregon 97006-1999 USA
- Dwight Spencer
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From rapaport@cs.Buffalo.EDU Tue Oct 31 18:52:03 1989
Univ of Georgia has a master's in AI; there are similar programs at Pitt
and at CMU. SUNY Buffalo is good, too (but I'm biased), ditto Rochester,
UMass/Amherst.
>to machine learning, genetic algorithms and intelligent tutoring systems.
SUNY Buffalo wouldn't be good for these, however.
> I am graduating in April '90, but plan to work for a year and start school
>in September `91. It is my impression that most schools do not allow deferrals
>for graduate studies, and that I should thus delay the application process
>until I am actually ready to attend. Is this a correct impression?
Yup.
William J. Rapaport
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Interim Director, Center for Cognitive Science
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From ppgbms!moe!jeremy@philabs.philips.com Tue Oct 31 19:21:34 1989
I went to school in Buffalo at the State University of New York at Buffalo
not to be confused with Buff State.
While I would not go there for supercomputing or VLSI design the
AI department is great. The head of the computer science dept. is
and AI nut and so are most of the professors!!! Lots of work in
neural-nets , machine vision , semantic networks , computer theorm
proving , lots of logic stuff etc. There is an excellent supply
of sun workstations , Symbolics machines , vaxs , hypercubes etc.
YOu could email to this man for more info
William J. Rapaport
* Jeremy D. Levine
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From ken%aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk@NSFNET-RELAY.AC.UK Tue Oct 31 20:22:53 1989
Well, you could always come here. Send me your steam mail address
and I will get details off to you.
-- Ken
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From gds@CS.UCLA.EDU Thu Nov 2 15:15:19 1989
MIT has one of the best programs in AI. They do just about
everything. I'm sure you could find someone doing research in your
area of interest. However, they don't really have an MS program. The
MS program is more like a fifth year of undergraduate where you work
at a company. When you're admitted to MIT's grad school you're in an
MS/PhD program. Some people stop at an MS, while others go on for a
PhD. I think you have to actually earn the MS, but I'm not sure. It
is difficult to get in, but well worth your time if you do (provided
you want to go there, of course).
Would you consider Stanford? They have a strong AI program as well.
It's easier to get into the MS program, but much harder to continue
for the PhD if you change your mind.
There's a guy here doing "artificial life" -- using neural nets and
finite automata to model growth and dynamics of populations. His name
is David Jefferson. Maybe you might like to come here?
> I am an American citizen who has been living in Canada for the past 13
>years. What resources are available for funding my graduate
>education, outside of the particular schools themselves?
NSF, I suppose, is one alternative. Some companies have fellowships
set up as well. I think you can find this type of information in your
graduate office.
> Also, is there any information out there to aid in studying for
>the Computer Science GRE other than the single test published by the
>ETS?
There's a review book that came out a few years back published by
Arco. It's OK, but somewhat out of date. I can't provide much useful
advice here, except to try and find multiple choice exams or make ones
up of your own. Most people have attributed their success at the GRE
CS to the ability to take a multiple choice exam more so than the
ability to do computer science. (Not me, though.)
--gregbo
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From rab@tuck.fit.edu Thu Nov 2 16:15:49 1989
I am responding to your inquiry about Masters programs in Computer Science.
I am currently a Ph.D. student and full-time instructor of Computer Science
at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. I received
my masters from this school in 1984.
We are currently pretty strong in AI (we offer about 8 grad courses in it) and
have research going on in Expert Systems, Natural Language Processing,
AI and Ada, among other things.
We are a relatively small school, (7500 I think). We also have some
research going on in genetics on a Cray in Pittsburgh, Pa.
As far as a "deferral" of grad studies, F.I.T. will let you defer up to
two years following official acceptance. After two years you must reapply.
You may start your studies any time during those two years.
Rhoda Baggs
Dept. of Computer Science
Florida Institute of Technology (F.I.T.)
Melbourne, Florida
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From GPOY@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU Tue Nov 21 20:18:48 1989
I haven't done much research into AI grad. schools, but here are the schools
my AI professor pointed out as some of the top schools in the US for AI:
Carnegie-Mellon (Pittsburgh, PA)
MIT (Cambridge, MA)
University of Texas -- Austin (not in the Northeast)
Yale (New Haven, CT)
Stanford (Stanford, CA) (not in the Northeast)
And, also, Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Professor Segre (the professor
refered to above) is conducting research primarily in machine learning.
>It is my impression that most schools do not allow deferrals
>for graduate studies, and that I should thus delay the application process
>until I am actually ready to attend. Is this a correct impression?
I would say so. Especially in the more competitive schools, space in
graduate programs is very limited. To defer your acceptance would be to
deny an opportunity for a student who is ready to study.
> I am an American citizen who has been living in Canada for the past 13
>years. What resources are available for funding my graduate education, outside
>of the particular schools themselves?
Well, lots of companies sponsor fellowships. Your university might have some
information on these.
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From unf7!ckurak@bikini.cis.ufl.edu Tue Oct 31 12:42:08 1989
(regarding funding)
Send a note off to the National Research Council at 2101 Constitution Ave,
Washington, D.C. 20418. Tell them you are looking for financial assistance for
graduate schools. They have info on the 'National Science Foundation Research
Fellowships" program. It looks like a good deal, but you must be a beginning
graduate student. You should qualify. Good luck.
Charles Kurak
University of North Florida
gatech!uflorida!unf7!ckurak
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From reiher@onyx.jpl.nasa.gov Tue Oct 31 13:29:29 1989
Most of the people I knew in graduate school were funded in one of three
ways: 1). Teaching assistantships/research assistantships/fellowships/
scholarships obtained through the university; 2). companies paying for
full or part time graduate study by their employees; 3). generous parents
combined with part-time work, usually on campus.
--
Peter Reiher