Computer Science

Provides a broad coverage of topics in computer science and its applications. Investigates the capabilities of computer technology. Includes an introductory experience in programming. Also includes introductions to professional ethics and careers. Fee: Additional fee required.

Introduces students to the world of computer science through the world-wide web, focusing on the techniques of web-page creation. No programming background is required, although students will learn some programming through scripting languages. Fee: Additional fee required.

An intensive study of one programming language not covered in other courses. May be repeated for credit. Fee: Additional fee required.

Further study of the syntax and semantics of a programming language using object-oriented design methodology. Problem-solving heuristic and algorithm development will be emphasized. Fee: Additional fee required.

A required laboratory associated with COMP2220. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to the principles of developing application programs to run in a Windows environment. Development of real-world, multi-form, commercial applications taken from engineering, business, and industry will be emphasized. Fee: Additional fee required.

A required laboratory associated with COMP2260. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to systems and application programming using Python, one of the most popular and versatile computing languages. The course covers basic syntax, using external modules, data types and operators, functions and object-oriented programming. Additional topics cover applying Python to common problems such as creating applications and scripts, manipulating and visualizing data, applying machine learning techniques and using web-based resources and services. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to the basic concepts of a computer system and its architecture using the 80x86 microprocessor. This includes memory, control, and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) interactions. Instruction types, formats, and data representation are studied. Fee: Additional fee required.

Introduction to commonly used computer data structuring techniques. Topics include graphs, stacks, queues, lists, trees, sorting, searching, and memory management. Fee: Additional fee required.

A study of some areas not covered in other computing courses. May be repeated for credit. Fee: Additional fee required.

Course topics include strategies appropriate to this subject field, instructional materials and tools, curricular structure common to this subject in the secondary school. Includes opportunities for candidates to assist and teach a minimum of 20 hours. (See EDUC3130) Fee: Additional fee required.

Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the utilization of geospatial data for observation of data in a means that is not possible in written or tabular format. Spatial analysis allows questions to be considered where a primary consideration is the relationship between where different entities are located. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to application program development in a database environment with an emphasis on data structures, file organization, hierarchical network and relational data models and storage devices. Fee: Additional fee required.

A required laboratory associated with COMP3330. Fee: Additional fee required.

A study of techniques and tools used to analyze problems with an emphasis on defining the present state of a system and offering a set of alternative designs, which provide an improved system. The types of optimization criteria and tools for performing this analysis will be investigated with examples from business and engineering. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to the major concepts of operating system principles. This includes an understanding of the organization and architecture of computer systems at the register-transfer and programming levels of system description. This includes operating system concepts relating specifically to current operating system standards and a formal treatment of programming language translation and compiler concepts. Fee: Additional fee required.

A required laboratory associated with COMP3430. Fee: Additional fee required.

A continuation of COMP3430 Operating Systems I. Fee: Additional fee required.

This course introduces the concepts of cybersecurity. Topics include virtual and physical information threats, legal and ethical issues, and planning and risk assessment. Students will see how various tools and methodologies are employed in cyber defense and learn best practices for doing so. This course also introduces security roles in an organization and how to manage and maintain information security policies. Upon completion students will understand how to perform an organizational information security risk assessment and create corresponding information security policies according to industry and government standards. Fee: Additional fee required.

This course introduces students to the concepts of defense in-depth, a security industry best practice for reducing risk from cyberattacks, social engineering, phishing and malware. Topics include firewalls, backup systems, disaster recovery, and incident handling. This course will also focus on reasons for many of the classic flaws software developers implement in systems that can lead to security problems including buffer overflows, format string problems, race conditions, memory leaks, etc. Upon completion, the student will learn to plan effective information security defenses, backup systems, user security and disaster recovery procedures. Fee: Additional fee required.

An overview of the hardware, software, and techniques used in computer graphics. Topics include 2-D and 3-D transformations, clipping, windowing, display files, surface plots, and fractals. Fee: Additional fee required.

A required laboratory associated with COMP3530. Fee: Additional fee required.

A study of digital data communication in computer networks. The problems, rationales, and possible solutions for various communication protocols will be discussed as well as OSI model and various network protocols. Fee: Additional fee required.

A continuation of COMP3630 Networks and Data Communications I. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to both the technical components of information security as well as security management. Coverage will include inspection and protection of information assets, detection of and reaction to threats to information assets, and examination of pre- and post-incident procedures, technical and managerial responses, and an overview of the information security planning and staffing functions. Students will also have hands-on experience in selected information security technologies through lab sessions. Fee: Additional fee required.

Presentation of possible topics for the senior software development or research project. Discussion of the style of the written paper and oral presentation. Methods of collecting background information and data will be presented. Attendance at senior seminar presentations is required. Fee: Additional fee required.

The goal of Artificial intelligence is to enable a computer to learn, plan, and solve problems autonomously. Concepts and techniques involved in artificial intelligence including goal-directed searching, constraint satisfaction, fuzzy logic, pattern recognition, evolutionary computation, and genetic algorithms. Fee: Additional fee required.

An introduction to basic artificial intelligence concepts that are widely used in modern computer systems using bioinformatics as examples. These concepts include learning theory, supervised and unsupervised learning, machine learning applications, association rules, clustering, classification and data mining applications. Fee: Additional fee required.

The concept of Big Data refers to massive amounts of data, both structured and unstructured, on which the processing capabilities of traditional data management tools are inadequate. This course investigates storage and analysis methods and associated tools which enable users to extract knowledge from voluminous data. Fee: Additional fee required.

A formal treatment of programming language translation and compiler concepts. Emphasis is on parsing algorithms, translation specifications and development of machine-independent code. Fee: Additional fee required.

This course is designed to train students to function in the role of a "White Hat" or ethical hacker for an organization. Students are exposed to the inner workings of cyberattacks from a White Hat perspective: how malware is built and propagated to the use of the Dark Web. It will also cover web-application specific topics such as Denial of Service, SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks and how to defeat them. This course will also address a number of advanced topics such as cellular, Internet of Things and mobile technologies and their security, system vulnerabilities and penetration testing of corporate networks/systems. Students will also learn how to employ honeypots/honeynets to deceive and/or thwart attackers. Fee: Additional fee required.

This course will introduce techniques to discover whether an information network is or has been under attack and steps to remediate and recover from the attack. Students will learn how to apply machine learning techniques and monitoring tools to detect the presence of an attack and steps to mitigate loss of data. This course will also discuss the steps necessary to determine the extent of and reporting requirements for data breaches and loss. Students are introduced to both international and U.S. cyber laws including reporting compliance. This course will also cover various agencies for dealing with cybercrime and how to assist law enforcement in prosecuting perpetrators of cybercrime. Fee: Additional fee required.

An application of the computer programming and system development concepts, principles, and practices to a comprehensive systems development project. The student may work individually or as part of a team in the development of a significant software project. Fee: Additional fee required.

A medium level algorithmic class to introduce various categories of algorithms, formal specification and verification, and algorithmic schemas for specific problems. The algorithm topics include divide and conquer, backtracking, dynamic programming, string processing, graph algorithms, geometric algorithms, fast arithmetic algorithms, genetic programming, and NP completeness and approximation. Fee: Additional fee required.

As we lose the ability to speed up computers by making processors faster, we must instead investigate how to achieve performance gains by utilizing the multiple processors that are available on most common computers. Students will learn and apply concurrent programming methods using both central processing units (CPUs) and graphic processing units (GPUs), as well as algorithmic decisions that influence performance gains through parallelization. Fee: Additional fee required.

Involves the participation of the student with a faculty member in an individual investigative project. May be repeated for up to 4 credits. Fee: Additional fee required.

Required of and limited to senior students. The seminar involves the written and oral presentation of the research project completed in COMP4680 or 4970. In addition, the student is required to complete a written subject examination in the field of Computer Science, e.g. ETS Major Field Test for Computer Science. Must be taken at NNU. Fee: Additional fee required.