Senior Capstone Experience
Majors in mathematics and computer science should have a thesis topic selected and approved by the end of the junior year. For students with double majors in mathematics and computer science, one thesis may satisfy the thesis requirement for both majors.
Each major will research and write a senior thesis with the supervision of a faculty member and will make an oral presentation on the thesis that includes a demonstration of the developed software, if any, at a departmental seminar.
The Senior Capstone in mathematics consists of two components: a senior thesis and oral presentation, as well as the solution and oral presentation of six approved problems or equivalent.
Capstone problems may be selected from a list of approved problems or from current issues of journals (see sidebar).
For students with double majors in mathematics and computer science, the senior programming project may be awarded credit for some of the problems to be done as part of the Senior Capstone Experience for a major in mathematics.
Students may also earn credit for as many as three problems solved while participating in the annual ACM Programming Contest or the COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
Weekly seminars are scheduled to provide information about careers, graduate school, thesis ideas, and research areas, as well as to enable each major to make the required presentation on the thesis or programming project.
The Senior Capstone Experience is graded as Pass, Fail, or Honors.