Information Systems

Program Requirements

The MS - Information Systems Science (MSIS) consists of 30 credits, all earned in course work.
All students apply through the graduate school for admission. Students must be admitted to the graduate degree program by the Steering Committee for the MSIS graduate program or by a subcommittee explicitly formed by the Steering Committee to address admissions decisions.
Program of Study
1. for each student are approved by the Steering Committee for the MSIS graduate program. This committee consists of one representative each from the Maine Business School, the Depar-tment of Computer Science, and the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering along with a representative from the Graduate School who serves as the chair of the Steering Committee and Graduate Program Coordinator.
2. Each student’s program of study must include the six required core courses with the remainder of courses to be selected from the approved course list subject to approval of the student’s advisory committee.
3. At least 15 credits of the 30 required on a student’s program of study must be at the 500 level or above.
4. Up to two courses may be taken at other universities by distance methods or otherwise if contained on the student’s graduate program of study and approved in advance by the Steering Committee.
5. Up to two graduate courses may be trans-ferred into the student’s graduate program of study if taken prior to admission to graduate school, the courses did not count towards the student’s undergraduate degree requirements, and the courses are approved by the Steering Committee.
6. The graduate coordinator (that is, the Chair of the Steering Committee) will serve as the initial advisor for each student admitted to the graduate program.
Distance education and part-time students must complete the entire M.S. graduate program of study within a six-year period (as established by the Graduate School).

Prerequisites for Admission

Students must take the GRE or GMAT exam and complete the following prerequisite courses or equivalents prior to being admitted to the graduate program. Those with less than a GRE score of 1500 (or GMAT equivalent) and/or lower than an undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 are discouraged from submitting an application to the program. If one or more prerequisite courses are lacking, a student may be admitted on a provisional basis but all prerequisite courses must be completed with a grade of C or better by the end of the first semester of admission to the graduate program and such courses will not count toward the degree requirements. Course descriptions in the Graduate Catalogue should be checked for further prerequisite requirements of individual courses.

COS 220 - Introduction to Computer Science I. Credits: 3
MAT 126 - Calculus I. Credits: 4
MAT 232 - Principles of Statistical Inference. Credits: 3

Course Work Requirements for the M.S. Degree

The MSIS program consists of 6 core courses and a minimum of four additional courses from the list of courses approved for the program for a total of 30 credits. If some required courses are duplicative of courses that may have been taken in the student’s undergraduate degree program, those courses need not be repeated and the student will select in consultation with the Graduate Coordinator and the Steering Committee additional approved courses to arrive at the total of 30 credit hours.

Core Courses Required

Note: All of these courses must be taken and all count toward the graduate degree unless they were taken in a student’s undergraduate program. Three of these courses are offered typically in the fall (BUA 664, SIE 550 & SIE 525) and the other three are offered typically in the Spring.

BUA 465 - Information Systems Development Credits: 3
BUA 661 - Knowledge Management and Decision Support Systems Credits: 3
BUA 664 - Databases and Data Mining in Industry Credits: 3
COS 420 - Introduction to Software Engineering Credits: 3
COS 545 - Data Communications and Networking Credits: 3
SIE 525 - Information Systems Law Credits: 3
SIE 550 - Engineering Databases and Information Systems Credits: 3
SIE 598 - Selected Studies in Spatial Information Engineering Credits: 1-3
or COS 545 Networking or COS 420 Software Engineering

Approved Courses for the MS Information Systems Program

Students must take at least four courses that are approved by their graduate committee from the following approved course listings in order to arrive at the total of 30 credits required. Students should NOT assume that any combination of the following courses will be approved by their graduate committee. Students should obtain approval of their full program of study prior to taking the following courses to ensure that they will count towards their degree requirements. Some of these additional graduate courses may require prerequisites in addition to the minimum required for general admission to the M.S. graduate program.

Courses Recommended from the Primary Information System Academic Units

Business Administration

BUA 636 - Quantitative Methods for Business Decisions Credits: 3
BUA 638 - Operations Research

BUA 668 - Electronic Commerce

Computer Science

All 400 level COS courses

COS 400 - Introduction to Compiler Construction Credits: 3
COS 415 - Computer Simulation and Modeling, from Development to DisplayDisplay Credits: 3
COS 416 - Parallel Programming Credits: 3
COS 420 - Introduction to Software Engineering Credits: 3
COS 431 - Operating Systems Credits: 3
COS 440 - Computer Networks I Credits: 3
COS 441 - Computer Networks II Credits: 3
COS 460 - Interactive Computer Graphics Credits: 3
COS 470 - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Credits: 3
COS 480 - Database Management Systems Credits: 3
COS 490 - Computers, Ethics and Society Credits: 3
COS 495 - Field Experience Credits: 1-3
COS 498 - Topics in Computer Science Credits: 1-3

Spatial Information Science and Engineering

In general, the normal expectation is that students taking these courses must be admitted to the MSIS program. Preference in class enrollments is given to formally admitted graduate students. Students not formally admitted to the MSIS program or to a graduate program of the academic unit offering the graduate course may be admitted to the course only if all of the following are met:

class enrollment caps have not yet been met
the student meets all background and course prerequisites for entry into the course and is specifically approved by the concerned instructor
admission is not contrary to accrediting or other academic unit policies.

SIE 433 - Remote Sensing Credits: 4
see Note 1
SIE 434 - Digital Image Processing and Analysis Credits: 3
see Note 1
SIE 510 - Geographic Information Systems Applications Credits: 4
see Note 1
SIE 512 - Spatial Analysis Credits: 3
SIE 551 - GIS User Interface Design
see Note 1

SIE 565 - Reasoning With Uncertainty in Spatial Information Systems Credits: 3
Note 1: courses requiring added special lab sections for distance students on weekends or off-hours if the courses are even offered using distance technologies

Distance Education Issues

Some of the courses listed above are offered by “webcast” through distance education methods. Students taking courses by distance methods must meet access, software and hardware requirements.

To be considered for Fall admission, completed applications must be received by April 1, for Spring admission November 1. For additional information contact the Graduate School, IS Coordinator, 5782 Winslow Hall, Room 2, Orono, Maine 04469-5782 or e-mail graduate@maine.edu or visit www.spatial.maine.edu/MSIS.htm.

Graduate Faculty

Virginia R. Gibson, Ph.D. (State University of New York at Binghamton, 1986), Associate Professor of Management Information Systems. Information systems for management decision support, business climate.

Kathleen Hornsby, Ph.D. (University of Maine, 1999), Assistant Research Professor of National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. Geographic information systems (GIS), spatio-temporal knowledge representation, GIS user interface design.

Nory B. Jones, Ph.D. (Missouri, 2001), Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems. Knowledge management, collaborative technologies, and diffusion of technological innovations.

Laurence J. Latour, Ph.D. (Stevens Institute of Technology, 1985), Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator. Database systems, software engineering, programming languages and environments, software reusability, software specification techniques, concurrency reliability.

Silvia Nittel, Ph.D. (Zurich, 1994), Assistant Professor. Spatial database management systems, mobile object systems, heterogeneous information systems, high performance architectures.

Harlan J. Onsrud, J.D. (Wisconsin, 1982), Professor. Computer and information systems law, cadastral systems, boundary law, and environmental law.

David M. Steiger, Ph.D. (Oklahoma State, 1993), Associate Professor of Management Information Systems. Knowledge management, data mining, decision support systems.