Overview
American University was founded as a Methodist institution, chartered by Congress in 1893, and intended originally for graduate study only. The University is located on an 84-acre site in a residential area of northwest Washington. As a member of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, AU offers its degree candidates the option of taking courses at other consortium universities for residence credit.

Graduates from the master's programs have begun their own start-up ventures or are employed in networking, databases, and system development and administration with government organizations such as the Census Bureau, the Department of Defense, and Fannie Mae and with private companies such as Oracle Corporation, America Online, Discovery Corporation, and Hughes Network Systems.

The Community
The national capital area offers students access to a variety of educational, governmental, and cultural resources that enrich the student's degree program with opportunities for practical applications of theoretical studies. In recent years, students have completed internships at organizations such as IBM, AT&T, MCI, the American Council on Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Treasury, the General Accounting Office, and the National Security Agency.

The department has approximately 200 graduate students, with a number of these in part-time status. The University's favorable student-faculty ratio of 14:1 allows ample opportunity for one-on-one interaction among faculty members and fellow students.

Programs of study and degree requirements
The Department of Computer Science and Information Systems offers programs leading to the M.S. degree in computer science or the M.S. degree in information systems, both in a broad array of formats. Both programs balance the practical and theoretical aspects of computer science and information systems. The 30-credit-hour M.S. in computer science provides a thorough background in computer science and its applications. The 36-credit-hour M.S. in information systems is a professionally oriented program covering all aspects of the analysis, design, development, and maintenance of computerized information systems. Formats include traditional day and evening classes as well as cohort-based weekend classes that meet in twelve sequenced courses, each course running for six weekend sessions on Friday and Saturday. The department also offers professional advancement courses through its graduate certificate program in information systems. Graduate students may also integrate cooperative education experiences into their curriculum, earning credit while working in paid positions in the Washington, D.C., region. Graduate degree programs are designed to prepare students for professional careers or for further doctoral study. Department emphasis is on software, with concentrations in intelligent systems, database management, and software development.

Facilities & Resources
The University has a campuswide fiber-optic network (EagleNet) that supports Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX workstations. Many standard applications are provided through the network as well as broadband Internet access. The University supports twenty-two computing laboratories, including a 24-hour facility, a Macintosh-based multimedia lab, a comprehensive new media lab, and teaching classroom labs, two of which support the department curriculum. The department also maintains two specialized facilities. These laboratories contain applications and resources required for research and scholarship and have restricted access to those enrolled in department courses. The department is a member of the Oracle Academic Initiative and uses Oracle software in appropriate courses. The Bender Library and Learning Resources Center houses more than 700,000 volumes and 3,500 periodicals as well as extensive microform collections and a nonprint media center. In addition, more than fourteen indexes in compact disk format and more than sixty electronic/Web-based indexes are searchable using library microcomputers. Students have unlimited book check-out privileges and access to online bibliographical search services. As a member of the Washington Research Library Consortium, AU graduate students have borrowing privileges at six college and university libraries in the Washington, D.C., area. Dozens of other private and governmental collections, including the Library of Congress, are easily accessible.

Expenses and Aid
Costs: Tuition is $1,948 per semester hour.

Financial Aid: Graduate fellowships, assistantships, and study grants are available to full-time students. There are special awards for members of minority groups and international students. Part-time work is also available, as are loans and deferred-payment programs. Duties of graduate assistants usually include helping students in the department's computer center and assisting faculty members in their research.

Housing/Living Expenses: Although many graduate students live off campus, the University offers limited graduate dormitory rooms and apartments. The Off-Campus Housing Office maintains a referral file of rooms and apartments. Housing costs in Washington, D.C., are comparable to those in most other major metropolitan areas.

How to Apply
Applications for admission should be submitted prior to February 1 if the student is also applying for financial aid. Deadlines vary for different fields of study, but early application is always encouraged. The application fee is $50.

Nabil Arman, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., George Mason. Database systems, knowledge discovery.

Thomas J. Bergin, Professor; Ph.D., American. History of computing, information resources management, ethical issues in computing.

Frank W. Connolly, Professor; Ph.D., American. Legal and ethical issues of technology, educational computing, intellectual property.

Alan M. Ford, Instructor; M.S., American. Database systems, networks, geographic information systems.

Richard Gibson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Maryland. Global information technology and software process improvement.

Michael Gray, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Penn State. Artificial intelligence (AI), distributed AI, intelligent systems architecture.

Reza Khorramshahgol, Associate Professor; Ph.D., George Washington. Data communications, quantitative methods, software engineering.

Anita J. LaSalle, Professor; Ph.D., Stevens. Software engineering, expert systems, communications, multimedia design and development.

Charles Linville, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon. Environmental computing, geographic information systems, simulation, decision analysis.

Gene McGuire, Associate Professor; Ph.D., American. Organizational and behavior aspects of information systems, software quality, hypermedia computing, expert systems, educational computing.

Raymond Myers, Instructor; M.S., American. High performance networks, telecommunications, security.
Mehdi Owrang, Professor; Ph.D., Oklahoma. Database systems, expert systems, knowledge discovery in databases.

Simon Reed, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Manchester. Formal verification of hardware and software systems, software engineering.

Vincent Ribiere, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., George Washington. Knowledge management, information systems quality, multimedia and Web development.

Angela Wu, Professor; Ph.D., Maryland. Computer vision systems and computational geometry.

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