Eligibility

The Bachelor of Science degree with honors will be conferred upon those students who, in addition to having completed the requirements for a bachelor degree, have satisfactorily completed the honors program in the School of Engineering Physics and have been recommended for the degree by the honors committee of the department.  An honors program student must enter with and maintain a cumulative GPA ³ 3.50 or must be eligible for one of the cum laude distinctions at the time of graduation.

Content

The student must:

1.    Complete at least eight credits of field approved electives at the 4000-level or higher and receive a minimum grade of an A- in each of the courses taken to fulfill this eight-credit requirement.  These eight credits are in addition to the credits obtained by completing the senior thesis or special project requirement as discussed in item 2.

2.    Enroll in A&EP 4900 or an equivalent course over two semesters for the purpose of completing an independent research project or senior thesis under the supervision of a Cornell engineering or science faculty member.  For a 4900 project to satisfy the research component of an honors project, it must have substantial physical science content. The minimum enrollment is to be two credits in the first semester and four credits in the second.  The level of work required for a successful completion of this project or thesis is to be consistent with the amount of academic credit granted.

Timing

All interested students must complete a written application no later than the end of the third week of the first semester of their senior year, but are encouraged to make arrangements with a faculty member during the second semester of their junior year.  A student must be in the program for at least two semesters before graduation.  Most often, these 4900 courses are taken during the student’s senior year, after completion of the EP junior year curriculum. Students may apply for honors after early completion of AEP 3210 and AEP 3220. However, for the project to be considered for honors, the proposal must be approved within three weeks of the start of the semester.

Procedures

Before enrolling in A&EP 4900, or the equivalent, the honors candidate must submit a brief proposal (AEP Honors Program Proposal Form) outlining the topic and scope of the proposed project or thesis and a faculty supervisor’s written concurrence to the associate director for undergraduate studies.  This proposal will be reviewed by the A&EP Honors Committee and either approved or returned to the candidate to correct deficiencies in the proposal.  The proposed research project or senior thesis is to consist of a research, development, or design project and must go beyond a literature search.  This proposal must clearly describe a self-contained, independent project that can be completed within two semesters. The final steps in completing the honors project are a written and oral report.  The written report is to be in the form of a technical paper with, for example, an abstract, introduction, methods section, results section, conclusions section, references, and figures.  This report will be evaluated by the faculty supervisor and the chair of the A&EP Honors Committee and at least one other departmental faculty member, along with the other honors candidates.  The final research project course grade will be assigned by the faculty supervisor, following the oral presentation and after consultation with the chair of the honors Committee.  A minimum grade of A- is required for successfully completion of the honors requirements.

Revised LP 01/09