Course Scheduling Announcements

This page contains announcements of changes from the normal scheduling of courses.

Note that when a course substitutions needs to be made because a regularly offered course is not offered, you should choose a CS course that is at the same or higher level.

2024-2025 Academic Year

• 8/18/2024 - Even though many CS courses still have TBA for instructor, they will all run. Faculty have been hired to teach them, they are just in the process of being added. We will also have one of the tenured faculty added to each of these courses, so you have someone to communicate with in the meantime. That should be setup by the end of the first day of classes.
• 8/13/2024 - For undergrad students in the information science concentration, three of the courses that are required might show up as CS or CSS in your MySAM. These are CS 210, CS 211, and CS 331. If these show up in your MySAM as CSS, then taking the CS version will not make MySAM happy, and we'll put in a substitution for them. So, take the CS version of the course, and let your advisor know that you'll need a substitution.
• 8/9/2024 - The following courses have been changed to be offered during the second 8 weeks of the fall term - CS 401&L, CS 501, CS 602, CS 617.
• 8/1/2024 - Most CS courses for the coming year will have a face to face section and an online asynchronous section. If the online asynch section is taught by the same faculty member as the face to face section, it is very likely that the faculty member will have the face to face section available to join online synchronously and will record these for those who don't join live. This is the way most CS courses have been running, but now the online section will not have an official meeting time listed. Each faculty member can decide how they want to handle this.

2023-2024 Academic Year

• CS 600 will be offered every term (previously was fall only) so new CS MS students can take it their first term, including for those entering in the spring.
• 12/14/2023 - students in the information science concentration, for the courses CS/CSS 210, 211, 331 - make sure to register for the one that shows in your MySAM. They are cross-listed, so it is the same either way, but you need to register for whichever is listed in your MySAM (CSS 211 if it says that, CS 211 if it says that).
• 11/28/2023 - CS 302 will not be offered in the spring anymore. Students who need to take courses in the fall that require CS 302 as a prereq will be granted prereq overrides to take those courses concurrently. Students taking courses in spring 2025 will not need prereq overrides because they can take CS 302 in the fall.
• Pending potential changes to the CS major (for students who start in 2024)... Count CS 210/211/331 or CSS 210/211/331 for information science concentration (either one would be fine). To get ready to move CS to the ECET department: information science concentration - CS 101 no longer required, replace CS/CSS 331 with ECT 301; all concentrations - drop CS 499, add ECT 130, 430, 437, 438.
• 9/25/2023 - 4+1 accelerated BS+MS program for computer science is now in effect. A student in their third last semester of their BS can apply for the CS MS and take a limited number of graduate courses during their senior year in order to potentially finish the CS MS in an additional year at ISU. See here for more details: https://cs.indstate.edu/info/programs.html
• 9/22/2023 - for students in the information science concentration, when registering for the courses CS 210/211/331 or CSS 210/211/331 you should register for the one that is listed in your MySAM (for most of you, it lists CSS). If you ended up taking the CS counterpart, notify your advisor so they can submit a petition to have MySAM properly count the CS course.
• 8/3/2023 - there will be many students getting prereq errors due to some courses changing numbers. CS 202 has been changed to CS 302 (Data Structures and Algorithms), and CS 303 has been changed to CS 203 (Discrete Math and COmputing Theory). Any courses that have either of those as prereqs may give prereq errors even when you took them. If you think you are getting a prereq error for either of these even though you did take the course (and got a C or higher), let your advisor know which course you are trying to register for (and your id #, as always).

2022-2023 Academic Year

Dr. Sternfeld is retiring with his last term being Spring 2022. Steve Baker is also leaving ISU. So we will be down from 7 full time CS faculty to 5. We have plans to run a faculty search to replace one or both of them, but for 2022-2023 we need to make do with fewer full time faculty. To make the schedule work we are making the following changes.

• Part time lecturers - increase the number of courses taught by part time lecturers.
• Canceling a few courses - the following courses would normally be offered but will not be for the upcoming academic year - CS 305 Computer Science Teaching Methods, CS 452/552 Software Engineering, CS 619 Trends in Computer Science, CS 658 Algorithms II, CS 671 Operating Systems II. If your concentration requires any of these courses, please consult your advisor to decide on substitutions.

Changes made after the schedule was originally released...

• 11/13/2022 - CS 151 Introduction to Computer Science - now has a prereq of B- in CS 101 or passing the CS 151 placement test. For more, see https://cs.indstate.edu/wiki/index.php/FAQ#CS_101_versus_CS_151
• 10/28/2022 - CS 303 Discrete Math and Computing Theory - prereq is being updated to be just CS 151, so CS 303 can be taken along with CS 201 after CS 151. This will be official for next academic year, and for spring 2023 we will do prereq overrides to allow students to register. If you want to wait to take CS 303 until when you originally had it planned, that is okay too.
• 9/23/2022 - Due to a staffing shortage this year, we are canceling the following for the spring term - CS 256 Structured Design and CS 602 Mobile and Cloud Computing. If you need to take either of these, be in touch with your advisor to discuss your options.
• 9/23/2022 - Math will be offering MATH 503 Linear Algebra and Modeling after all in the spring, so data science students who have not taken it should take it. If it is not possible to fit it into your schedule, check with your advisor.
• 8/1/2022 - A course CS 510 Fast Track Into to Programming has been added to the fall and spring schedule. This is meant for those with little to no previous programming experience, those who want a refresher before taking other CS courses, or those looking to get ready to apply for the CS MS. See CS 510.
• 5/20/2022 - It appears that the math department will not be offering MATH 503 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science and MATH 540 Statistics for Data Science during the next academic year. This is required for the data science concentration. If you are completing the data science concentration you should take CS 600 to use this as a replacement for the course.
• 4/11/2022 - Changing CS 417 Machine Learning to be in the spring rather than the fall. A section of CS 459 Topics in CS: Big Data / Data Mining is being added to the fall schedule (should show up within a day or so). The prereq for that will be CS 401 and can be used in place of CS 417 if you cannot take CS 417 in the spring; write to the your advisor to ask to be granted an override to register for the course.
• 4/11/2022 - CS 473/573 Computer Networks in the fall has been changed to be a synchronous online course with meeting day/time of Tuesday 6-8pm.

2021-2022 Academic Year

Lab sections - New this year, the following courses have required lab sections - CS 401, 456, 457, 458. These are required as co-requisites regardless of what your MySAM says (i.e., your MySAM does not list CS 456L as a requirement, but you need to register for it to take CS 456). These extra lab sections can count as electives of substitutions for those who need 400 level CS credits.

Credit hours - A few courses have had their number of credit hours: CS 303 is not 4 hours, CS 499 is now 2 hours. If your catalog year was for the smaller number of hours, then the additional hour can be counted towards electives or substitutions.

Courses not offered - In order to offer required courses in the revised BS and MS programs every year, the following courses will not be offered for the foreseeable future: CS 420/520 Theory of Computation, CS 421/521 Formal Methods. Current students who have this listed as required should consult with your advisor to decide on substitutions. After substitutions are decided, your advisor will submit a petition so the substituted courses will show up in your MySAM (for undergrads) or plan of study (for grads).

Courses not offered - Due to staffing changes this year, the following courses that are required in the CS MS data science concentration are not being offered: Math 503 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science, Math 540 Statistics for Data Science. Consult your advisor to decide on courses to substitute for these. We expect these courses to be offered again in the next academic year.

Courses online - CS programs are now offered completely online. For each required course in any of the CS programs, it will be offered at least once per year online. Most courses are offered in hybrid fashion - a combined section that has face to face students in the classroom, online synchronous students participating via Zoom or Teams, and asynchronous online students watching recordings and scheduling meetings as needed. Some courses are offered with a single asynchronous online section where all students participate asynchronously.

Help lab online - The CS help lab (aka the Unix Lab) is now available completely online. Lab assistants with hours during the day are in the help lab and also available online. There are normally evening hours that are available online only. For more, see Labs and Office Hours