A New Procedure for MS Scholarly Paper

The ECE department posts topics for scholarly papers. Interested students should contact the respective professor to sign up for a given topic. Students who could not find a suitable topic should contact Professor Ephraim at yephraim@gmu.edu. Please do not address questions to the staff at the ECE office.

As part of the scholarly paper requirement, the student must present the work in a departmental seminar in the presence of the advisor and an additional ECE faculty member no later than the tenth week of classes of each semester. The seminar must be announced at least two weeks before the presentation date. Please coordinate your seminar presentation with the ECE Department Office, at ece@gmu.edu.

The seminar announcement must include:

1. Title of seminar, student's name, advisor's name, and attending faculty
2. Date and location of seminar
3. Abstract

Potential/suggested scholarly paper topics are posted on a separate page.

Guidelines for an MS Scholarly Paper:

• The Scholarly Paper should be done by the student with minimum supervision of the professor. Essentially it is a proof that, at the end of the MS study, the student can develop the project by himself or herself without the repeated advising by the professor. The role of the professor is to verify that the final paper meets the requirements for graduation with a Master of Science degree from the ECE Department.
• The Scholarly Paper should be an expository article based on well researched facts, expressed at the level appropriate to electrical or computer engineers with a Masters degree.
• If the student wants to engage in a more substantive study of the topic that requires several consultations with the professor, the student should ask the professor to serve as an advisor for the student for ECE 798 Research Project.
• The paper, either as a Scholarly Paper or a Research Report from ECE 798, should follow accepted standards for English, technical writing, citations of references, copyright, and George Mason Honor Code.
• Students should aim at delivering their paper to the professor well ahead of the expected date of graduation, e.g. at least five weeks before the end of the classes in a given semester.
• The professor is under no obligation to approve the paper as is. In fact, if the professor finds the paper unsatisfactory, the student may have to rework the paper, even at the expense of missing the student's intended graduation date.
• The professor may decline to read multiple revisions of an unsatisfactory draft, and the professor may reject the final version of the paper. If the professor does not approve the paper, the student may have to, in the extreme circumstance, choose another topic and another professor.
• Two final copies of the paper should be delivered to the ECE Department to be included in a repository of such papers in the ECE library in room 235.
• The Department reserves the right to put some of the exemplary Scholarly Papers on the ECE website. The student may copyright the paper and, in such situation, the student is required to give the Department a written permission for posting. In some cases, the student may be asked to authorize the faculty to use the Power Point slides in lectures and presentations to other students.
• In some cases, the material developed by the student may be used, subject to an agreement between the student and the professor, in scholarly publications such as survey papers, books etc. In such case student's contribution will be acknowledged, or, if appropriate, the student may become a co-author of the publication.