CMU - MS Degree in Intelligent Information Systems (IIS)

M.S. Degree in Intelligent Information Systems

Objective

The Master of Science in Intelligent Information Systems (MIIS) degree provides advanced study and practical experience in areas of Computer Science focused on the processing and analysis of unstructured and semi-structured information, for example, text, image, video, speech, and audio information. It is a practice-oriented professional degree designed for students who want to rapidly master advanced content-analysis, mining, and intelligent information technologies prior to beginning or resuming leadership careers in industry and government.

Students who intend to pursue a research career or a Ph.D. degree should consider a research-oriented degree program such as the LTI's M.S. in Language Technologies (MLT) degree.

Program Description

Just over half of the curriculum consists of graduate courses. The remainder provides direct, hands-on, project-oriented experience working closely with CMU faculty to build systems and solve problems using state-of-the-art algorithms, techniques, tools, and datasets.

The Intelligent Information Systems (IIS) degree offers students the flexibility to create their own course of study in consultation with their advisor. Students must take at least 84 units (typically 7 courses) of qualifying and elective courses that satisfy human language, machine learning, and language technology applications breadth requirements.

Students gain practical experience by doing software development projects with their advisors and classmates. Students must do 24 units (2 course-equivalents) of directed study projects with their advisor, and a 42 unit capstone group project.

A typical IIS student completes the program in one year (12 months) of full-time study at the Pittsburgh campus that begins in late August (beginning of the fall semester), and finishes in mid August of the following year (end of the summer semester). An example curriculum is shown below, however a student could choose many other course sequences.

Fall	11-641, Web Search and Text Mining (12 units, satisfies the application requirement) 11-772, Analysis of Social Media (12 units) 11-791, Design and Engineering of Intelligent Systems (12 units) 11-610, Directed Study (12 units, required)
Spring	10-601, Machine Learning (12 units, satisfies the machine learning requirement) 11-611, Natural Language Processing (12 units, satisfies the natural language requirement) 11-796, Question Answering (12 units) 11-610, Directed Study (12 units, required) 11-926, Capstone Planning Seminar (6 units, required)
Summer	11-781, Academic Research Practices and Scientific Communities (12 units) 11-927, Capstone Project (36 units, required)

Part-time and distance education options are available in some cases, for example, to students working for affiliated companies. Students interested in these options should discuss them with the Program Director prior to applying to the program.

Graduate Student Handbook

The degree requirements for the Master of Science in Intelligent Information Systems are described in the MIIS graduate student handbook.

Contact Information

Program Coordinator: Kathleen Schaich
Program Director: Jamie Callan

To Apply

To apply to the M.S. Program in Intelligent Information Systems, please use the SCS Graduate Online Application and follow the instructions carefully.