Research Project Administration Guidelines and Timeline

Note: These guidelines, if followed, should guarantee that a student will
complete his or her research project on time (subject to the work being of
sufficient quality).  Failure to follow these guidelines leaves the student at 
the mercy of the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and the committee in 
regards to completion time.

1. Selection of Research Advisor

Should be completed no later than during the regular Drop-Add registration
period at the beginning of the semester in which the project is to be
completed (i.e. the first week of classes).  The advisor should electronically
notify the Department Secretary with a cc to the DGS to register the student 
for the appropriate course(s) (i.e. 6995 and/or 7000).  The advisor must be a
member of the Graduate Faculty.

NOTE: In order to meet this deadline a student should normally be doing
exploratory work during the prior semester to determine a suitable 
topic (or possibly over the summer for a fall registration).

2. Notification of Research Topic

Student should send to the DGS an abstract describing the research.  The 
abstract should not exceed 200 words and should contain the following
information:

* Title
* Problem Being Studied
* Brief Description of Approach to Problem
* Brief Description of Expected Results/Outcome

This abstract should be sent to the DGS no later than 4 weeks prior to the
defense for a project, or no later than 6 weeks prior to the defense for a
thesis.  Students and research advisors are always free to discuss research
topic issues with the DGS at any time prior to submission of the abstract.

3. Formation of Committee

The formation of the committee is the responsibility of the STUDENT and the
RESEARCH ADVISOR.  You MUST contact and secure agreement from each committee
member (not including the alternate) prior to sending the list to the DGS.

Projects: Committee of 3 is required (advisor, DGS or designate, and CS
graduate faculty member).  Student and advisor should submit a list specifying
the composition of the committee no later than one week after submitting the
abstract to the DGS.  In addition, the name of one alternate for the committee
should be submitted in case the DGS is unable to serve on the committee. That
is, the alternate is a choice for the DGS's designate.  One optional external 
member is allowed.

Thesis: Committee of 4 is required (advisor, DGS or designate, external
member, and CS graduate faculty member).  Timeline is the same as for Projects
described above. Be sure to list the external member's department.  The
external member may come from another University, subject to approval by the
DGS and the Graduate School.

4. Scheduling of the Project Defense

ALL of these activities are the responsibility of the STUDENT. 

* Schedule a room and time for the presentation with the Department Secretary
after consulting with the Committee.

* Announce the scheduling of the defense through the following email
addresses:

    faculty@cs.ecu.edu
    grads@cs.ecu.edu

  The announcement should include both the abstract and the time and location
  of the defense.

Suggested timing of the announcement is as follows:

* First announcement: 1 week prior to defense
* Second announcement: 2 days prior to defense

In addition, it is *strongly* suggested you send a final reminder announcement
to your committee the day before.

The project/thesis report should be distributed to the committee according
to the following deadlines

   Project: minimum of 1 week before the defense
   Thesis: minimum of 2 weeks before the defense