6-9 Masters of Engineering approved
MEng. program approved to complement new 6-9 bachelor’s degree
Students can now receive a Masters of Engineering in Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9P), which complements the Bachelors of Science in Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9). This degree was approved in the faculty meeting May 15.
Michale Fee, associate department head for brain and cognitive sciences, and Dennis Freeman, professor of electrical engineering, jointly proposed the motion for establishing the new degree.
The 6-9 MEng. program consists of 66 units of coursework, an additional four graduate classes in EECS and BCS, two mathematics classes, and a 24-unit thesis. The program “will enable 6-9 SB students to earn both the SB and MEng degrees in a total of ten or eleven semesters,” Freeman wrote in an email to The Tech.
Students will also need to take an Approved Advanced Graduate Subject outside EECS and BCS. Examples of classes that satisfy this requirement include 1.124J (Software and Computation for Simulation), 5.64 (Biophysical Chemistry), and 8.901 (Astrophysics I).
Fee and Freeman also presented data on the current popularity of the MEng. program. Approximately half of Course 6 undergraduate students continued and completed the MEng. program; the fraction was smaller for Course 6-7.
Funding for the 6-9 MEng. is not guaranteed, but students will be allowed to apply for TA and RA support. Advising will be provided by BCS faculty, and admission to the program will be determined by an admissions committee jointly appointed by EECS and BCS.
Fee also stated that the 6-9 MEng. would contribute to important MIT initiatives such as the Quest for Intelligence and the College of Computing.