Information Systems

The Master of Science in Information Systems program focuses on technical, managerial and policy issues associated with constructing and managing computer-based information systems for modern organizations. All areas of private and public enterprise rely on information systems for communication, planning, providing services, control and supporting decisions. The objectives of this program are to meet the growing demand in society for graduates with high-level information system skills and provide a path for women and men from diverse fields to rapidly transition to information system career paths by providing them with foundation graduate level courses in information systems. The program is explicitly designed to accommodate students from wide ranging undergraduate degree backgrounds.

Students develop knowledge and technical skills in foundation areas of formal methods, programming, information system design, human computer interaction and information law and ethics. Students gain working familiarity with one or more programming languages if not already acquired. Based on this foundation, students have leeway to craft a remaining selection of courses in consultation with and approval by their academic adviser and the MSIS steering committee. Flexibility is provided to accommodate the particular backgrounds, interests and information system professional career aspirations of each student as well as to be responsive to the ever-changing technological and business environments. Thus students might choose to focus additional coursework within a specific information systems domain or pursue course interests among several applications and theory domains including business, engineering, computer science, psychology, education and additional germane science areas. The goal is to prepare graduates to succeed as information system professionals in a variety of roles and settings.

Degree Requirements

The Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) consists of 30 credits, all earned in course work. The program consists of five three-credit required core courses and a minimum of fifteen additional credits from a list of elective courses approved for the program drawn from a range of disciplines. 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. The MSIS is offered wholly on-campus as well as entirely online.

Required Courses

The following five courses must be taken and all count toward the graduate degree unless they were counted in a student’s undergraduate program or are waived.

SIE 507 - Information Systems Programming Credits: 3
SIE 515 - Human Computer Interaction Credits: 3
SIE 525 - Information Systems Law Credits: 3
SIE 550 - Design of Information Systems Credits: 3
SIE 505 - Formal Foundations for Information Science Credits: 3

Elective Courses

Students must take at least fifteen additional credits that are approved in advance by the MSIS Steering Committee from the following approved elective course listings in order to arrive at the total required of 30 credits. Students should NOT assume that any combination of the following courses will be approved by the Steering Committee. Students should obtain approval of their full program of study prior to taking elective courses to ensure that they count toward their degree requirements. Students may propose additional graduate courses than those listed below be included on their program of study on a case-by-case basis or added to the list. The MSIS Steering Committee assesses the reasonableness of such requests and makes the final decision on whether specific additional courses serving the objectives of the MSIS program and the needs of the student may be included.

Some of the elective graduate courses listed may require prerequisites in addition to the minimum required for general admission to the MSIS graduate program. Some schools and departments grant enrollment preference to graduate students in their own programs so check with the relevant department or college as appropriate.

Business

BUA 601 - Strategic Data Analysis Credits: 3
BUA 680 - Foundations of Business Intelligence and Analytics Credits: 3
BUA 681 - Data Management and Analytics Credits: 3
BUA 682 - Data Pre-Processing for Business Analytics Credits: 3
BUA 683 - Information Visualization Credits: 3
BUA 684 - Business Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Credits: 3
BUA 685 - Problem Solving and Decision Analysis Credits: 3
BUA 686 - Predictive and Business Forecasting Credits: 3

Computer Science

Any formally approved 400 level COS courses and above including those addressing machine learning, cloud computing, computer vision, and including:

COS 435/535 - Engineering Privacy in Software Systems

COS 565 - Data Visualization

COS 570 - Topics in Artificial Intelligence

Data Science and Engineering

Any formally approved DSE graduate courses

Digital Curation

DIG 500 - Introduction to Digital Curation Credits: 3

DIG 510 - Metadata Credits: 3

DIG 540 - Digital Collections and Exhibitions Credits: 3

DIG 550 - Digital Preservation Credits: 3

Education

SIE 504 - The Beauty and Joy of Computing Credits: 3

EDT 520 - Methods of Teaching with Computer Technology Credits: 3

EDT 545 - Information Security in the Educational Environment Credits: 3

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Any 400 level ECE courses and above

Interdisciplinary

INT 601 - Responsible Conduct of Research Credits: 1

Spatial Information Science and Engineering

SIE 508 - Object Oriented Programming Credits: 3

SIE 509 - Principles of Geographic Information Systems Credits: 3

SIE 510 - Geographic Information Systems Applications Credits: 3

SIE 512 - Spatial Analysis Credits: 3

SIE 516 - Interactive Technologies for Solving Real-World Problems Credits: 3

SIE 517 - Spatial Interaction Design Credits: 3

SIE 554 - Spatial Reasoning Credits: 3

SIE 555 - Spatial Database Systems Credits: 3

SIE 557 - Database System Applications Credits: 3

SIE 558 - Real-Time Sensor Data Streams Credits: 3

SIE 559 - Geosensor Networks Credits: 3

SIE 580 - Ontology Engineering Principles Credits: 3

SIE 590 - Information Systems Internship Credits: 3-6

Detailed Requirements

Programs of Study are approved for each student by the Steering Committee for the MSIS graduate program. This committee consists of the MSIS Graduate Program Coordinator and two additional graduate faculty members in the department or affiliated with the program.
Each student’s Program of Study must include the five required core courses with the remainder of courses to be selected from an approved course list maintained by the department or proposed by the student and assessed for possible approval. The list is regularly updated and includes appropriate courses drawn from across campus and other UMS campuses. Each student’s Program of Study must be approved in advance by the MSIS Steering Committee.
At least 15 credits of the 30 required on a student’s program of study must be at the 500 level or above.
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 MSIS Steering Committee.
Up to two graduate courses may be transferred into the student’s graduate program of study if taken prior to admission to the Graduate School, the courses did not count towards the student’s undergraduate or other graduate degree requirements, and the courses are approved by the MSIS Steering Committee.
The MSIS Graduate Coordinator serves as the advisor for each student admitted to the program and the MSIS Steering Committee serves as the graduate committee for each student in the program.
All students must complete the entire M.S. graduate program of study within a six-year period (as established by the Graduate School).

Admission Requirements

Admission to the University of Maine Master of Science in Information Systems is competitive but on a rolling basis. In its admission process, the graduate faculty considers the potential of applicants to complete the program successfully and achieve positions of leadership in the private or public sectors. While the submission of GRE scores and letters of recommendation are encouraged, they are not required. We generally seek an undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 or above. Exceptions are considered on a case-by-case basis.

At a minimum an applicant must have a four-year U.S. bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, or a four-year international equivalent. Within their curriculum, all applicants should have completed a university course in Algebra as a minimum math prerequisite for admission. Previous programming courses or experience are recommended but not required. The review committee considers both the curriculum completed and the institution attended in its assessment.

All students apply through the Graduate School. The entire application packet including transcripts, test scores, (if required), essay, and a current resume that includes contact information for three references must be received before a formal acceptance will be issued typically. Admissions are rolling. To be considered for Fall admission, completed applications should be received if at all possible 8 weeks prior to the beginning of the term.

Concurrent Graduate Certificates - Applicants applying for the MS Information Systems that desire to acquire as well a Graduate Certificate in GIS, Information Systems, or Data Science and Engineering along the way to acquiring the MS, should apply additionally for the Graduate Certificate prior to completing the MS course requirements. For model curriculum examples that combine the MSIS with other graduate certificates, see Graduate Certificates.

Accelerated Four Plus One Program: Early Admission for UMaine Undergraduate Students - High-performing undergraduate students from any degree program at the University of Maine may apply as early as the summer before their junior year for admission to the MS Information Systems graduate degree program. Applicants to the Accelerated Four Plus One should submit the Application for Admission to the SIE or MSIS Four Plus One Program. Such applications are not accepted after the senior year has commenced. For further details, see the MSIS Four Plus One Program.

Cooperating MSIS and Business Graduate Programs - A range of opportunities exist for gaining business graduate credentials while pursuing the MSIS. Please consult the MSIS and MBA Dual Degree and Cooperating MSIS and MBA Programs

Spatial Computing and Information Systems Graduate Faculty

M. Kate Beard-Tisdale, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1988), Professor. Geographic information systems, map generalization, data quality and its visualization, geographic information retrieval, spatio-temporal phenomena and information integration.

Max J. Egenhofer, Ph.D. (Maine, 1989), Professor. Spatio-temporal reasoning, user interfaces for geographic information systems, design of spatial database systems, and mobile spatial information appliances.

Nicholas A. Giudice, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 2004), Professor and Director of the VEMI Lab. Human computer interaction in real and virtual reality environments, indoor navigation, multimodal spatial cognition, information-access technology and human-vehicle collaboration for autonomous vehicles.

Torsten Hahmann, PhD (Toronto, 2013), Associate Professor. Spatial informatics, spatial ontologies as test bed for research about formal ontologies and their development, knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, and logic.

Silvia Nittel, Ph.D. (Zurich, 1994), Associate Professor and Director of Geosensor Networks Lab. Stationary and mobile sensor networks, decentralized in-network data collection algorithms for geosensor networks, management of distributed sensor data streams in real-time.

Harlan J. Onsrud, J.D. (Wisconsin, 1982), Professor and Graduate Coordinator. Legal, ethical, and institutional issues affecting creation and use of databases, ethics driven information systems design, assessment of social and societal impacts of spatial technologies.

Nimesha Ranasinghe, (Singapore, 2013), Assistant Professor. Research interests include multi-sensory interactive media, augmented reality, and human-computer interaction.