UNM CS information for new and prospective graduate students

Contents

• About the UNM Computer Science Department
  • Students
  • Computing facilities
  • Faculty
• Getting started in the department
  • Courses
  • Student funding
  • Research resources
  • How to meet/work with faculty on research
• Moving to Albuquerque
  • Where to live
  • Jobs in Albuquerque
• Living in Albuquerque
  • Transportation
  • Events
  • The arts
  • The outdoors
• Other useful sites
• Contact us

We currently have about 60 PhD students. About 2 to 5 PhDs have finished per year so far, but we expect this number to grow. The CS department awards approximately 40 Bachelor's degrees and 20 Master's degrees each year. Many of our graduate and undergraduate students are "non-traditional," meaning that they may be returning to school after working in industry or they may be part-time students with full-time jobs. This also means that our enrollment numbers seem to be much higher than one would expect from counting the number of students you actually see in the department. Many of our grad students are full-time employees of Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs, or Kirtland Air Force Base. A list of PhD dissertations and Master's theses from our department can be found here.

Because of the differences between the goals of masters and doctoral students, they tend to have limited interactions with each other. However, there are some courses that most students take, and these classes can bring students of all backgrounds together. The harder the course, the more friends you will make. Students usually associate most with those in their own research groups. The CSGSA holds events, like picnics and game night, that allow students and faculty to meet in an informal setting.

Computing facilities

We have 100Mbps wireless (802.11b protocol) on the 3rd floor of Farris Engineering, which is where most CS offices are located. The 3rd floor computer lab has 16 computers running Debian, each between 1.7Ghz and 2.4Ghz speed, 500MB - 1GB in RAM. The official Systems Support Group FAQ has more information. Most PhD students work on computers in their own offices, and the quality of equipment in these offices depends on the advisor.

The High Performance Computing, Education and Research Center (HPCERC) is across the street. It was formerly known as AHPCC, and before that the ARC. When they are not busy changing names, they do work in high performance computing, often collaborating with people from other departments.

Faculty

PhD candidates and Master's students have different course requirements. There is an official description of courses, but not all of them are offered regularly. The list does not include the many "special topics" courses (491/591) taught each semester. These courses are a way for professors to teach a class on a particular topic without going through the long process of making the course "official". Some of the 491/591s will get "real" course numbers if they start becoming regular courses. Go here for a list of courses being offered now.

There is a choice of two course tracks in the Master's program. One of the tracks is intended to be a terminal degree (it was created for people who will use their education primarily in an industrial setting), while the other is more academic in nature (which preserves the option of continuing on to a PhD at a later date and covers a broader range of material). In either track, a student can choose between a thesis or masters exam. The more professional masters track exchanges some breadth for depth, in the form of a 4-course concentration in a particular area. The more academic track has no concentration option, but instead incorporates courses on theory, algorithms and systems. Go here for more information about the Master's program.

Doctoral students do not have many official course requirements, but they are expected to have a broad knowledge of computer science that is tested in the comprehensive exams (The Comps), an unpleasant week-long test often taken in the student's second or third year. Doctoral students typically take courses to fill in holes in their background and to brush up on old material, but they also do a good bit of independent or group studying to prepare for the comps. Lynne Jacobson (ljake@cs.unm.edu) is the undergrad and grad student program advisor, so she is the best person to talk to about course and graduation requirements.

Course registration is usually done online at I-TEL UNM or over the phone (246-2020). Your student id/social security number is your login id and your 4-digit password is initially set to your date of birth (mmdd). If you need assistance, contact the UNM Registrar's Office or Lynne Jacobson (ljake@cs.unm.edu), the academic coordinator for CS.

Student funding

10-12 Teaching Assistantships (TAs) are available each semester in our department. About 4 of these are awarded to new students, almost always PhD candidates. These are often awarded around the time acceptance letters go out. Most new PhD students TA for one semester during their first year to satisfy the PhD student teaching requirement, then find RA positions with faculty to support them for the rest of their time in the program.

Research Assistantships (RAs) are funded by individual faculty members, so their availability varies with faculty funding and interest. Professors are usually more interested in funding PhD students because PhD students are generally more interested in research and are likely to be in the department longer than Master's students. There is certainly funding available for Master's students, but one has to be more persistent and show more initiative to get it.

Some students, particularly Master's students, find jobs in other departments. The UNM CAPS tutoring program offers opportunities for work. Other students choose to work off-campus jobs or support themselves with personal savings, especially international students.

Research Resources

There are a wide variety of research resources available to UNM students. Here are a few super useful ones, although naturally there are others we don't know about.

Sun Grid Engine (SGE)

The SGE is a clustering program that allows you to submit a job to the software, which will then dispatch it to an available computer on the CS.UNM SGE network. All of the machines in the computer lab (FEC 309) and many in the CS Support server room are in the cluster. For more information about using SGE to run your jobs, see the help page.

Access to Online Journals

The UNM Library system offers several ways of accessing electronic versions of journals, e.g., Nature, Science, etc. For HTTP proxy access, simply visit the menu pagehttp://libproxy.unm.edu/menu/ and select from the list - you'll need your UNM NetID and password to enable the proxy access. You can also use the GoldRush search engine to search online journals. Finally, CiteSeer and arXiv are electronic repositories of many computer science and physics papers.

1. Find out which faculty are interesting to you: If you are unfamiliar with our faculty, start by visiting their web pages to find out what their interests are. Above, there is an alphabetical list of faculty members with links to their home pages and a second list organized by a few of the major research areas for your convenience. Also, take a look at the course offerings to see what looks interesting to you, especially the 500-level courses. Faculty often offer 491/591 courses to teach students about what interests them the most. If you do not intend to start doing research soon, it still might be worthwhile to take courses that are related to your potential research interests. Taking these courses can help you decide if you are really interested in the topics and the faculty teaching them. If you do well, your class performance might be remembered when you do decide to look for research opportunities. Even if you are not sure about your research interests (which is fine, even typical), hopefully some of the faculty will look more interesting than others to you. If you can't decide, go ahead and talk to everyone. It is probably a good idea to maintain informal relations with several faculty members, particularly if you have diverse research interests. At some point, all PhD students need to form a dissertation committee, which usually includes 2 or more members of our faculty.
2. Approach the faculty: The faculty here are very approachable. You can e-mail them or or visit them during office hours. Talk to them about your academic interests. It would be good to show some familiarity with their research. Tactfully ask if they have funding for students and what kinds of projects they will support.
3. Impress the faculty: Some students receive funding commitments from professors before they start school, but many faculty members would like to know more about you before investing time and money in your budding research career. They may want you to take one of their upper level classes or work on a small research project before offering an official RA. Do a good job, and hopefully they will be impressed by your abilities and sincerity. If you do not enjoy their upper level classes or preliminary research projects, then perhaps you would not enjoy working for them either. You might also want to see if they have research group meetings and if you may attend them.
4. Working with the faculty: Some faculty have specific projects they want students to work on, while others give students more freedom to determine their own research projects. Talk to the professors and their students about this. Having your own mature research ideas and presenting them well increases the chances of you being able to pursue them.
5. Oops, I don't want to work with this person anymore: Changing advisors is normal, especially during the first couple of years in the program. Talk to your current advisor about the situation and find a new advisor.

• The University area immediately around UNM has a mix of low-rent apartments and houses (particularly just south of Central) and more expensive residential neighborhoods (to the west and NE of campus).
• Nob Hill has an ecclectic mix of shops. There are no apartment complexes here, but there are houses for rent.
• As you go east along Central, you will see the streetwalkers who congregate around San Mateo, an area often featured on "Cops". There are nice residential areas mixed in this area, so it is still worth a look.
• The Northeast Heights, about 10 miles northeast of the University, is dominated by new suburban subdivisions, upscale apartment complexes, and new shopping centers.
• Midtown, the ill-defined region between University and Northeast Heights, has a lots of low- to mid- priced apartments and rental houses.
• The rentals around Gibson Blvd see high tenant turnover because of the folks stationed at the nearby Kirtland Air Force Base. The neighborhoods in this area vary widely, so look before you buy.
• West Mesa (including Rio Rancho) is dominated by Intel, and its employees have spurred the growth of new subdivisions and retail. It is a bit far from UNM, but it is home to the only Krispy Kreme in the state.
• An urban revitalization project has recently made Downtown a more desirable place to live. There are new upscale apartment complexes (such as The Lofts) and a new retail complex featuring a movie theater and a Brazilian restaurant where you can eat tons of grilled meat. With the bars and music clubs on Central, this is one of the centers of Albuquerque night life.
• Old Town is the historic center of Albuquerque. There are houses for rent in this area, but few students live there.

• NM high tech job forum
• Jared Saia's page for Computer Science students looking for jobs in Abq
• The Albuquerque Journal's classified ads

The Weekly Alibi is a free weekly paper that lists events around Albuquerque. The biggest venues for cultural events are UNM (particularly Popejoy Hall), the Kimo Theater, and the Albuquerque Journal Pavillion.

The arts

There are several museums in Albuquerque, including the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Museum of Natural History and Science, and the Albuquerque Museum. Santa Fe, about an hour away, has many excellent museums, including the Museum of International Folk Art, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and the new Museum of Spanish Colonial Art.

The outdoors

• David Muench's photographs of White Sands
• Philip Greenspun's New Mexico Photo Album, Photographer's Guide to New Mexico, and a travelogue of his trip from Boston to Los Alamos and back.

• Official UNM CS grad program page
• Dennis Chao's UNM and Albuquerque events listing
• Leigh Fanning's How to get around Albuquerque
• Sinan Al-Saffar's Albuquerque page
• Jared Saia's Albuquerque and NM page
• Lance William's Albuquerque dining page

Someday, a few grad students will volunteer to put their e-mail addresses here. These fine individuals will answer your questions or direct them to someone who can. In the meantime, try e-mailing the officers of the CS Grad Student Association (CSGSA).