Our M.S. IST degree requires 30 graduate credit hours and is available in two options—with or without a thesis.

The M.S. degree with thesis requires the completion of 24 hours of graduate course work (5000-level or above), 6 hours of research, and the successful completion and defense of a research thesis. Courses below the 5000-level will not count toward the M.S. degree, even if they are taken to fulfill prerequisites. 9 credit hours of graduate work (including research) must be at the 6000-level. A minimum of 12 credit hours must be in either IST or ERP courses. Up to 6 credit hours may be taken outside the department with advisor approval if courses are not counted towards a graduate certificate. Up to 12 credit hours may be taken outside the department with advisor approval if courses are counted towards a graduate certificate. A placement examination will be given. See footnote 1 with regard to the placement exam.

The M.S. degree without thesis requires the completion of 30 hours of graduate course work (5000-level and above). Courses below the 5000-level will not count toward the M.S. degree, even if they are taken to fulfill prerequisites. 9 credit hours of graduate course work must be at the 6000-level. A minimum of 12 credit hours must be in either IST or ERP courses. Up to 6 credit hours may be taken outside the department with advisor approval if courses are not counted towards a graduate certificate. Up to 12 credit hours may be taken outside the department with advisor approval if courses are counted towards a graduate certificate. A placement examination will be given. See footnote 1 with regard to the placement exam.

The following five courses are required of all M.S. IST students.

• IS&T 5420 Business Analytics and Data Science¹
• IS&T 5423 Foundations of Data Management¹
• IS&T 5551 Foundation of Computing and Programming for Data Science¹
• IS&T 6150 Strategic Management Information Systems
• IS&T 6336 Internet Computing and Internet of Things¹

^{1. Student will be skills tested before enrollment. If test is passed, student can replace with any 5000-level and above course in BIT.}

Students often have difficulty deciding what electives to take. The following sets of courses have been identified as useful for students seeking specialization in particular fields of IST. Note there is no specific recognition of tracks in the degree.

Project Management, Management and Leadership Track (choose 5 courses):

• BUS 5115: Introduction to Individual and Group Dynamics in Business
• BUS 5150: Customer Focus and Satisfaction
• BUS 6121: Leadership
• BUS 6425: Supply Chain and Project Management
• ENG MGT 5320: Project Management
• ENG MGT 6322: Case Studies in Project Management
• ENG MGT 6323: Global Project Management
• ERP 5310: Supply Chain Management Systems in an ERP Environment
• IS&T 5251: Management and Leadership of Technological Innovation
• IS&T 6251: Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
• IS&T 6261: Advanced Information Systems Project Management

Enterprise Resource Planning Track (choose 5 courses):

• ERP 5110: Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Design and Implementation
• ERP 5130: ERP in Small & Mid-size Enterprises
• ERP 5310: Supply Chain Management Systems in an ERP Environment
• ERP 5410: Use of Business Intelligence
• ERP 6120: Enterprise Resource Planning: Systems Configuration and Integration
• ERP 6220: Data Modeling & Visualization Prototyping for Enterprise Decision Dashboard

Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning Track (choose five courses):

• IS&T 5450: Introduction to Information Visualization
• IS&T 5520: Data Science and Machine Learning with Python
• IS&T 5535: Machine Learning Algorithms and Applications
• IS&T 5725: Fundamentals of Cybersecurity Analytics
• IS&T 6443: Information Retrieval and Analysis
• ERP 5410: Use of Business Intelligence
• IS&T 6444: Essentials of Data Warehouses
• MKT 5762: Marketing Revolution with Machine Learning

General Information Science and Technology Track (choose five courses):

Choose five courses not counted as required courses to satisfy overall degree requirements.

Many M.S. IST students opt to complete a graduate certificate to fulfill some of the electives. Our department offers over a dozen graduate certificates in many popular, high-demand fields. Each certificate is comprised of four courses selected to fit a specific area of emphasis. This option allows you to give your master's degree a documented focus.

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