Course Requirements.   There are two options for completing the MSIT degree:

1. Thesis Option. 24 credit hours of course work and six hours of thesis work
2. Non-Thesis Option. 33 credit hours of course work coupled with an oral exit exam (the non-thesis option is especially recommended to applicants from the professional community who would prefer to expand their background knowledge by taking additional courses and whose time and professoinal committment does not allow research)
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Focus Area Requirement.   Regardless of the thesis/non-thesis option, a student should choose an ``area of focus'' for his or her graduate studies. The selection of an area of focus implies taking four or five courses in that area and when choosing the thesis option, completing the thesis research in that area.

There are currently three focus areas available under the Master's of Science in Information Technology:

Software Engineering and Management.

This focus area aims at uniting theory with industrial-strength practices to provide a solid education in software development, management and maintenance. The program contents emphasize skills in requirements engineering, software architecture, software project managements, software quality assurance and object technologies.

Internet Engineering.

The focus area in Internet engineering covers important topics related to computer networks, networking performance tuning, routing architectures, information and network security, data retrieval, storage and transmission, and other important topics related to Internet applications and operations.

Information Security and Assurance.

The focus area in information security and assurance (to be offered in 2007) will provide technical knowledge and practical skills in the science and methodologies for identifying important information assets, securing and protecting such assets, and assuring their availability for authorized users.