Independent Study and Capstone Course Approval

This process is for students who wish to undertake an independent study under the supervision of a faculty member in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI). As stated on this UNC Charlotte page, an independent study is “A method of receiving credit for study or research independent of the assignments of any specific course, but supervised and graded by a faculty member.”

In CCI, students can do an independent study through the following courses (courses with an asterisk can count as Capstone courses):

  • ITSC 4850 – Senior Project I (3 Credits)* – individual project with no research component
  • ITSC 4851 – Senior Project II (3 Credits)* – individual project that is a continuation of ITSC 4850
  • ITSC 4681 – Senior Design I (3 Credits)* – group project with no research component
  • ITSC 4682 – Senior Design II (3 Credits)* – group project that is a continuation of ITSC 4681
  • ITSC 2990 – Undergraduate Research (3 Credits) – individual research project
  • ITSC 3990 – Undergraduate Research (3 Credits) – individual research project
  • ITSC 4990 – Undergraduate Research (3 Credits)* – individual research project
  • ITSC 4991 – Undergraduate Thesis (3 Credits)* – individual thesis
  • BINF 3900 – Undergraduate Research (3 Credits) – individual research project in Bioinformatics
  • BINF 4650 – Senior Project (3 Credits)* – individual project with no research component in Bioinformatics

Process details

Step 1: Identify a faculty member with whom you are interested in working and approach them with a project idea and / or learn about projects they may already have on hand.

Step 2: Once you have identified a faculty member who is willing to supervise you on a project, fill out this Independent Study Approval request form with information about yourself, your supervising faculty member and the project. Note: Please use your faculty supervisor’s original UNC Charlotte email address and not an alias. DocuSign does not recognize aliases.

Step 3: The college will initiate an independent study form via DocuSign, using the details that you provide. The form will first be routed to your supervising faculty member, who will be asked to attach a project description & syllabus before signing the form.

Step 4: The DocuSign form will be routed to you (the student) and the chair of your supervising faculty member’s department for signatures.

Step 5: Once the DocuSign form is completed, you will be issued an authorization / permit to register for the relevant course section.