Project and Final Defense

With concurrence of the supervisory committee, the student proceeds with the project research, during which time the student must continuously enroll in IT 997 Engineer Project. The student must complete a minimum of 12 credits from among IT 991, 996, and 997, with a minimum of 6 credits of IT 997. When the central portions of the project work have been completed to the point that the student is able to describe the contributions of the project effort, a candidate submits the written project report to the supervisory committee. Once the committee believes the student is ready, a final public oral defense may be scheduled; the application for the defense must be submitted to the Associate Dean at least one month in advance of the defense in order to have an announcement posted for at least two weeks.

Following a satisfactory evaluation of the oral defense of the project by the supervisory committee, the student must submit, with supervision from the project director, a final project that represents a definitive contribution to applied knowledge in information technology. This document must meet format guidelines specified by the Guide for Preparing Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Projects. This guide can be accessed through the web at:

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/dtwebguide.htm

If the candidate successfully defends the project, the supervisory committee recommends that the final form of the project be completed, and that the faculty of IT&E and the graduate faculty of George Mason University accept the candidate for the Engineer degree.