Computing Sciences
Degrees and Certificates
Chair: Daniel Joyce, Ph.D.
Office Location: Mendel Science Center Rm. 161
Telephone: (610) 519-7307
Website
About
The Department of Computing Sciences seeks to provide outstanding education, to advance scholarship, and to engage in activities that benefit society as a whole, in accordance to the University mission. The Department aims to equip students with a solid foundation in computing theory, and to prepare them for lifelong independent learning and innovative thinking in a constantly changing discipline. Its faculty members strive to maintain professional currency, and to involve students and colleagues in their research investigations. These endeavors support the University mission to transmit, pursue, and discover knowledge in an atmosphere of collegiality in the university community. Supported by a liberal arts education, the Department seeks to develop the total person, sensitive to social and ethical concerns affected by the computing discipline, and committed to addressing the needs of a diverse and interconnected modern society.
Classes
CSC 1010 : Programming for All
Programming fundamentals using the Python programming language: data, variables, selection, loops, arrays, input/output, basic graphics and functions. Object-oriented design: encapsulation, objects, classes and methods.
Credits
Credits 3CSC 1020 : Computing and the Web
Information representation and manipulation; file systems and directories; compatibility and data exchange; security and privacy; elements of computer architectures and operating systems; computer networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web; web site design principles and creation; PC-based examples and illustrations.
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Credits 3CSC 1030 : Prob Solv with Computers
Using the microcomputer as a problem solving tool; system use; general purpose language programming; spreadsheet analysis and modeling; retrieving information from the Internet; strengths and weaknesses of computer based problem solutions.
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Credits 3CSC 1035 : Databases for Many Majors
No background in computing necessary. Design and implementation of your own database as a group project. Cooperative learning techniques to demystify key concepts: the relational model, normalization, the Entity-Relationship model and SQL.
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Credits 3CSC 1040 : Computing with Images
Computing systems as tools for designing and publishing graphically rich material in many forms; image processing techniques and systems; image style and related tools; digital image processing theory; computational complexity; multimedia presentations.
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Credits 3CSC 1043 : Laptop Instrument
Music structure and theory; programming structures, algorithms and language to create music on your laptop; component of Living in the KnowlEdge Society project (NSF) connecting computing with other disciplines.
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Credits 3CSC 1045 : 3D Modeling and Animation
Computer-assisted animation & its programming dialects; cartoon creation from story-boarding to product delivery; algorithms - efficiency, correctness, understanding via animation.
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Credits 3CSC 1051 : Algorithms & Data Struc I
Object-oriented design: objects, classes, methods, encapsulation; programming fundamentals: data, variables, selection, loops, arrays, input/output; exceptions. EXCLUSION: This course may not be taken by students who have already taken and passed ECE 1620.
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Credits 4CSC 1052 : Algorithms & Data Struc II
Object-oriented design: inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism; problem analysis; recursion; abstract data types; dynamically linked structures; data structures: stacks, queues, lists, collections, trees, maps, priority queues, library collections framework.
Credits
Credits 4Prerequisites
CSC 1051 :C or CSC 2014 :C
CSC 1300 : Discrete Structures
Mathematical structures that support computer science: sets, matrices, trees, graphs, logic and proof, mathematical induction, relations, functions, sequences, summations, and elementary combinatorics.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1600 : Operating Systems
System software design and implementation; process and resource management; concurrency, scheduling, and deadlock; memory management; file systems and security.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2400 :D- or ECE 2042 :D-
CSC 1700 : Analysis of Algorithms
Efficiency classifications and mathematical analysis of recursive and nonrecursive algorithms; design techniques: brute force, greedy, divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, backtracking, branch-and-bound, space and time tradeoffs; NP-completeness; approximation algorithms; computational problems: sorting, searching, string processing, graphs, arithmetic, linear algebra.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1300 or MAT 2600) and (CSC 1052 or ECE 2620)
CSC 1800 : Organ of Prog Languages
High level language features: data types, control structures; formal lexical and syntactical analysis; operational semantics; language translation.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1300 or MAT 2600) and (CSC 1052 or ECE 2620)
CSC 1930 : Explorations in Computing
Emerging technologies & their applications; computing in support of investigations & applications in the humanities & social sciences.
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Credits 3CSC 1990 : Enrichment Sem in Computing
Skills for success in computing: research questions and methodologies, oral and written presentation techniques, argumentation and critical thinking, time and project management strategies, study skills.
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Credits 1CSC 2000 : Digital Divide,Theory&Praxis
Students will research the effects of the digital divide and implement a program that addresses the needs of underserved high school students preparing for their transition to college.
Credits
Credits 1Prerequisites
CSC 1990
CSC 2014 : Java Bootcamp
Fast-paced coverage of object-oriented programming using Java and the Java API, including packages for creating graphics and applets; Java syntax and control structures; arrays; designing objects, classes, and methods; graphical user interfaces; input streams, exception handling and threads.
Credits
Credits 1Prerequisites
CSC 1010 or ECE 1620 or MIS 2020
CSC 2020 : Web Devel & Tech I
Design of web content, utilization of web tools, configuration of supporting technologies. Emphasis on client-side services: HTML, style sheets, Javascript, DHTML.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2025 : Web Devel & Tech II
Design of web content, configuration of supporting web technologies. Emphasis on server-side services: databases and forms, XML, AJAX, cookies, security CGI.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2053 : Platform Based Computing
Python APIs, internet programming and security, mobile app programming, a team project.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 or ECE 2620
CSC 2300 : Statistics for Computing
Probability, counting, discrete and continuous distributions, descriptive and inferential statistics, experimentation, reading of scientific papers -- all taught from the point of view of computer science. Some programming may be required.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1051 and CSC 1300
CSC 2400 : Computer Systems I
Architecture of computer systems: representation of data; processor, memory and I/O organization. Assembly language programming. C programming language constructs and their relationship to the underlying architecture. Basics of operating systems: interrupts, concurrency, process scheduling, security, networking.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 and (CSC 1300 or MAT 2600)
CSC 2405 : Computer Systems II
Processes, threads and concurrent programming. Scheduling and dispatching. Linking and relocation. Memory management. Virtual memory. System-level I/O Device management. File systems. Security and protection in depth. Real-time and embedded systems. System performance evaluation. Scripting.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2400
CSC 2500 : Survey of Information Science
Brief introductions to several areas in which problems in information use are important. Examples are business, law, biology, medicine, electronic commerce, and libraries.
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Credits 3CSC 2993 : Internship in Computing
Internship in computer science involving computer system development, maintenance, or evaluation in an environment which supports sound software engineering techniques. Restricted to second semester sophomore with junior standing and above.
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Credits 3CSC 3010 : Overview of Cybersecurity
Exploration of the basic concepts and terminology in cybersecurity for students from a variety of technical or non-technical backgrounds; major sub-disciplines of cybersecurity; impact of cybersecurity on business, ethical, and technical levels; data protection concepts, privacy, and intellectual property; data protection techniques, encryption, and authentication; security in wired and wireless networks, operating systems, applications, databases, and the cloud; ethical hacking and vulnerability management; lab exercises and case studies to introduce technical concepts; prepares students to study cybersecurity in-depth in future coursework; course is the introductory required course for a minor in cybersecurity.
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Credits 3CSC 3070 : Emerging Technology Trends
Investigate new technologies and current applications. Explore when and how to apply new technologies with sensitivity to feasibility, financial viability, and overall effectiveness. Culminates in team-driven exploitation of a new technology.
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Credits 3CSC 3080 : Info Security & Protection
Explores the criticality of protecting information's availability, accuracy, authenticity, confidentiality, and integrity. Analysis of topics to include redundancy, backup and recovery, business continuity, security technologies, and controls such as audit, change management and testing.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2400 or ECE 2042
CSC 3150 : Game Development
Theory of game development, game programming, artificial intelligence, state machines, 2D/3D assets, visual communication, game mechanics, navigation meshes, path planning.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 or ECE 2620
CSC 3300 : Linear Algebra for Computing
Fields, vectors and vector spaces, linear transformations, matrices and matrix algebra, eigenvalues and eigenvectors; Structures and computations in Python for these mathematical objects; Computational applications selected from data science, machine learning, computer vision, graphics, image processing, graph algorithms, quantum computing, information retrieval and web search.
Credits
Credits 4Prerequisites
CSC 1300
CSC 3400 : Information Retrieval
Theory and practice of location, organization, and rendering of meaningful content from largely unorganized sources.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 :D- and CSC 1300 :D-
CSC 4170 : Theory of Computation
Finite automata and regular expressions; push down automata and context-free grammars; Turing machines; Church's thesis; computability; NP-completeness.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1700 :D-
CSC 4181 : Compiler Construction
Lexical and syntactical analysis; code generation; error recovery; recursive descent compilation; handling of run-time environment.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2400 or ECE 2042
CSC 4300 : Computer Graphics
Hardware and software in computer graphics; graphics programming language; input/output device handling; modeling in 3D space; development of interactive software.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 :D-
CSC 4380 : Info Visualization
The presentation of information; visual cognition, scientific visualization, illustration presentation, color theory, motion dynamics, image processing.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 :D-
CSC 4450 : Digital Forensics
In-depth study of digital evidence presentation, digital forensic techniques, and data analysis. Password cracking, encryption/decryption, volatile data extraction and network forensics of advanced forensic tools, legal and ethical issues related to forensics and security management techniques required for resiliency in today's digital workplace.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2400 or ECE 2042
CSC 4480 : Principles of Database Systems
Concepts and technology of database management systems and data modeling with an emphasis on the relational model; database querying and normalization; physical data organization. A group project to design and implement a database is a key aspect of this course.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1051 or ECE 1620) and (CSC 1300 or MAT 2600)
Corequisites
CSC 4490 : Data Warehousing & Mining
Tools and techniques, theory and practice for storage and effective use of massive data sets.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 4480 and (CSC 2300 or MAT 4310 or STAT 4310)
CSC 4500 : Artificial Intelligence
History of AI, what it is and isn't; the nature of intelligence and the question of its computer implementation; search algorithms; knowledge representation; automated deduction; machine perception techniques; machine learning; planning; problem solving.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1051 or ECE 1620
CSC 4505 : Applied Machine Learning
Introduction to machine learning through Python based projects; machine learning tools; supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms and modeling accuracy, bias, and overfitting issues.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1052 or ECE 2620) and (CSC 1300 or MAT 2600) and (CSC 2300 or MAT 4310 or STAT 4310)
CSC 4510 : Machine Learn&Theory&Evolution
The mathematical theory behind the design of software systems that adapt to new circumstances and detect and extrapolate patterns; computational complexity; neural networks; decision tree induction; genetic algorithms and genetic programming; research foundations.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1700 and (CSC 2300 or MAT 4310 or STAT 4310)
CSC 4550 : Computing for Data Science
The computing parts of the interdisciplinary subject, Data Science. Topics include: data cleaning, data wrangling, visualization, time series, machine learning fundamentals. Python or similar libraries that support managing datasets. Students will complete a major project that demonstrates an understanding of the entire data science process.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1300 or MAT 2600) and (CSC 1052 or ECE 2620)
CSC 4598 : Machine Translation
Exploration of the broad field of machine translation; automated computer systems that translate human language using statistical approaches; digital representation transformations, such as readability and sentiment analysis, spam filtering, plagiarism detection, and other natural language processing techniques; building machine translation systems using real-world data; formulating and investigating research questions in machine translation; typically includes collaboration with a non-Computer Science course on interdisciplinary, team-based student projects.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1052 or ECE 2620)
CSC 4630 : Software Dev and Systems
Operating system structures; system calls; system libraries; interprocess communication; user-interface programming environments; software utilities; software portability.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1600 :D- or CSC 2405 :D- and CSC 2053 :D-
CSC 4700 : Software Engineering
Management and production of software systems; the software life cycle; software design techniques and methodologies; participation in a team software development project.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 1052 or ECE 2620
CSC 4710 : Info Syst Project Management
Principles and techniques of information systems project management; qualitative and quantitative essentials to include project integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, human resources, communications, and risk. Practical experience managing a project with complex technology issues.
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Credits 3CSC 4730 : Human Computer Interaction
Design of the user/system interface; measurement of human-computer interaction; models of the user and user communities; design criteria for the interface; user interface management systems (UIMS); test and evaluation strategies and tools.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
(CSC 1052 :D- or ECE 2620)
CSC 4790 : Senior Projects
Capstone course centered around a semester long sofware development or research project; project planning; requirements elicitation and specification; teamwork; oral presentations required of all students.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 4700 :D-
CSC 4797 : Information Systems Capstone
A cumulative experience to complete a student's portfolio of expertise in information systems and technology. Student driven project emphasizing system integration, design and communication skills. Prerequisites: Information Systems majors or FIT certificate candidates only.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 4710 :D- and CSC 4700 :D- or DIT 2165 :D- and CSC 2500 :D- and DIT 2175 :D-
CSC 4800 : Web Application Development
Theory and design of web-based applications: stylesheets, applets, HTML, CGI programming, web server design, website design, security, multimedia representations, encryption, compression.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2053 :D-
CSC 4810 : Mobile App Development
Theory and practice of designing apps for mobile devices; interface design, platform-specific and platform-independent programming, sensor-based computing, cloud data management, security, and privacy; entrepreneurial practices for app development: ideation, business planning, and commercialization.
Credits
Credits 3CSC 4900 : Networks and Security
Organization of computer networks (eg., the internet); TCP/IP protocols; switching and routing methods; IP addressing and forwarding; TCP flow and congestion control; client-server communication; cryptography: secret-key, public-key, digital signatures; security attacks and defenses: authentication and authorization, denial of service, firewalls, VPNs.
Credits
Credits 3Prerequisites
CSC 2405
CSC 5920 : Logic
Boolean connectives and propositional logic; quantifiers and first-order logic; natural deduction, resolution and other methods of human or computer reasoning; set theory; induction; formal arithmetic.
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Credits 3CSC 5930 : Topics Computer Science
Lecture presentation of selected topics in computer science. May be repeated for credit if topics are different. Prerequisites may be imposed depending on the topics.
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Credits 3CSC 5993 : Independent Study
Reading, research and/or projects in a selected area of computer science under the direction of a member of the staff. May be repeated for credit.
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Credits 3CSC 8490 : Database Systems
Modern database systems, including relational and NoSQL systems. Emphasize practical knowledge while covering the essential theory design; query lanquages; security; transactions. Focus on both theory and practice.
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Credits 3Prerequisites
MSE 2400 : CSC:Evol Lrng Cmp Robtcs Agnts
This course explores how software designers and artificial intelligence researchers draw inspiration from biology and learning theory to design programs and robotic agents that learn and adapt to changes in their environment. No prior programming experience is required.
Credits
Credits 4SCSC 1000 : Topics in Social Sciences
Selected interdisciplinary topics of special interest in the Social Sciences.