Requirements for Graduation
University Graduation Requirements
Students must complete all residency, curriculum, unit, GPA and culminating experience requirements as outlined in the Graduation Requirements section of the Graduate Policies and Procedures. Students must comply with all other graduate requirements contained in the catalog.
MS - Applied Data Intelligence Graduation Requirements
This program consists of 30 semester units of 200-level courses with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement
At SJSU, students must pass the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR).
Culminating Experience (Plan A or Plan B)
All students must complete one of the following culminating experience options as part of their 30-unit program requirement.
Plan A (Thesis):
Students opting to complete a master’s thesis will take the DATA 299A and DATA 299B as a two-course sequence. The student is responsible for securing the commitment of a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member of the Applied Data Science Department who agrees to serve as the thesis committee chair. The student must also secure the commitments of two additional university faculty members, one of whom must be a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member of the Applied Data Science Department, to serve as the student’s thesis committee. The student must write a thesis proposal and have it approved by the thesis committee chair before enrolling in DATA 299A. A student must pass DATA 299A before enrolling in DATA 299B. The thesis must meet university requirements as stipulated in this catalog and in the SJSU Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation Guidelines. It will be written under the guidance of the candidate’s thesis committee chair with the assistance of the thesis committee.
Plan B (Project):
The graduate project is a research or development effort performed by a team of students on a topic chosen by mutual agreement between an advisor and the team. The choice of project topic must also be approved by the instructor of DATA 298A. DATA 298A is the first part of the master’s project in which students develop a comprehensive plan and preliminary design of a data intelligence project. DATA 298B is the second part of the master’s project course in which each student completes an in-depth written project to achieve the program outcomes and satisfy the program’s culminating experience requirement.
Master’s Requirements (30 units)
Fall 2026 and Spring 2027
Core Courses (24 units)
- DATA 220 - Advanced Mathematical Methods for Data Intelligence 3 unit(s)
- DATA 226 - Big Data and Data Warehousing 3 unit(s)
- DATA 230 - Data Intelligence and Visualization 3 unit(s)
- DATA 245 - Machine Learning Technologies 3 unit(s) (CGGWAR)
- DATA 255 - Deep Learning and Computer Vision in Applied Data Intelligence 3 unit(s)
- DATA 260 - Agentic Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Systems 3 unit(s)
- DATA 262 - Embodied Artificial Intelligence Systems 3 unit(s)
- DATA 266 - Generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in Applied Data Intelligence 3 unit(s)
Culminating Experience (6 units)
Complete One Plan:
Plan A (Thesis) (6 units)
- DATA 299A - Master of Science in Applied Data Intelligence Thesis I 3 unit(s)
- DATA 299B - Master of Science in Applied Data Intelligence Thesis II 3 unit(s)
Plan B (Project) (6 units)
- DATA 298A - Master of Science in Applied Data Intelligence Project I 3 unit(s)
- DATA 298B - Master of Science in Applied Data Intelligence Project II 3 unit(s)
Upon completion of the degree requirements, the student must have achieved minimum candidacy and SJSU Cumulative grade point averages of 3.000 in order to graduate.
