Directed Independent Study

Pursuing an independent study program is a great way to explore a topic of particular interest while earning academic credit.

The best way to arrange an independent study is to begin talking to professors who study topics about which you’re interested in learning more. Once you have found a professor to work with and have decided on a topic, submit a Directed Independent Study Application. Computer Science majors are required to take three additional 1-unit CMSC electives at the 300 level. Without departmental approval, no more than one of these courses can be an Independent Study course.

Below is a list of recent independent study courses and mentors.

Independent Study Topic	Faculty
Autonomous Robotics Teams	Dr. Patrick Martin
Gamification in Childhood Education	Dr. David Balash
Studying ADHD with Smartphone Sensing and Ecological Momentary Assessment (SASSEMA)	Dr. Shweta Ware
Computing Security Seminar	Dr. David Balash
Argument Mining	Dr. Jon Park
Active Question Answering Dataset & Model Development	Dr. Catherine Finegan-Dollak