CS Curriculum Revisions 2019-2020

Below are proposed revisions to the CS BS and MS degrees. A few guiding principals...

• BS - widen the split between the computing science and information science concentrations - making the IS concentration more doable/attractive to more students, and firming up the foundations in the CS concentration.
• BS - shift to more 4 hour courses
• MS - new DS concentration, streamline academic concentration

Undergraduate Degree - CS BS

Note that the current major includes 10 courses required of all majors, 5 additional courses required for information science, 3 CS courses required of computing science, and 2 math courses required for computing science.

Required for all CS Majors

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 151 Intro to Programming, CS 470 Programming Languages
• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 203 (4) Intro to Theory of Computation (revised CS 303)
  • CS 351 (5) Intro to Systems (revised 451)
  • CS 499 (2+2) Senior Design (revised 499), students take last two semester
• New requirements
  • CS 260 Object-Oriented Programming
  • MATH 241 or 341 Statistics
  • Pass Comprehensive Exam
• Total - 25 credits

Course sequencing for starting in the fall

• Fall 1 - CS 151
• Spring 1 - CS 260, CS 203
• Fall 2 - CS 351, MATH 241/341
• Spring 2 -
• Fall 3 - CS 499, CS 470
• Spring 3 - CS 499

Information Science Concentration

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 170 Web Programming, CS 469 Unix/Linux Administration and Networking, CS 479 Web Programming II
• New requirements
  • CS 101 Fundamentals of Computing, CSS 211 Intro to Computer Security, CSS 331 Files and Database Systems, CSS 210 Intro to Networking
  • 6 credits of electives in CS courses
• Total - 27 credits

Course sequencing for starting in the fall

• Fall 1 - CS 101
• Spring 1 - CS 170, CSS 210
• Fall 2 - CSS 211, CSS 331
• Spring 2 - CS 469
• Fall 3 - CS 479
• Spring 3 -

Computing Science Concentration

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 201 (4) Computer Science I, CS 202 (4) Computer Science II, MATH 131 (4) Calculus I, MATH (4) 132 Calculus II
• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 458 (5) Algorithms and Theory of Computation (revised 458)
  • CS 456 (4) Systems Programming (revised 456)
• New requirements
  • Math 313 Elementary Linear Algebra
• Total - 28 credits

Course sequencing for starting in the fall

• Fall 1 -
• Spring 1 - MATH 131, CS 201
• Fall 2 - MATH 132, CS 202
• Spring 2 - CS 456, MATH 313
• Fall 3 - CS 458
• Spring 3 -

Data Science

New concentration

• Current courses - CS 457 Database Processing, CS 475 Aritificial Intelligence, MATH 313 Elementary Linear Algebra, MATH 131 (4) Calculus I, MATH 132 (4) Calculus II
• New courses - CS 401 Programming for Data Science I, MATH 403 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science and Analytics, MATH 440 Statistics for Data Science & Analytics
• Total - 26 credits

No Longer Required

Courses that are no longer required in any concentration. Can be banked if we don't plan to offer, or offered as electives

• CS 452 Software Engineering, CS 471 Operating Systems, CS 420 Theory of Computation, CS 421 Formal Methods, CS 473 Computer Networks
• Total - 5 courses, 15 credits

Graduate Degree - CS MS

Current requirements are at - [1]

Required for all CS Majors

• Retain from current requirements
  • Culminating Experience - CS 685, 695, 699 (or BIO options for bioinformatics concentration)
• New Requirement
  • Pass Comprehensive Exam

Possible change - require two semesters of 685/695/699 so they can actually get something done? How would that work?

Academic Concentration

• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 658 Algorithms II (5) (revised 658), and don't offer CS 620
  • CS 671 Systems II (5) (revised 671), and don't offer 673 or 670
  • No longer require third systems/theory course
• New Requirements
  • CS 558 (4) Algorithms and Theory of Computation - required if 458 not taken as undergrad
  • CS 556 (4) Systems Programming - required if 456 not taken as undergrad

Professional Concentration

• Retain from current requirements - just about everything
• New requirements
  • CS 501 - required

Bioinformatics Concentration

• Retain from current requirements - just about everything
• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 500 Programming Fundamentals - instead require CS 500 or CS 501 Programming for Data Science & Analytics I

Data Science - New Concentration

• Required Coursework
  • CS 501 Programming for Data Science & Analytics I
  • CS 557 Database Processing (if 457 not taken as undergrad)
  • CS 575 Artificial Intelligence (if 475 not taken as undergrad)
  • CS 601 Programming for Data Science & Analytics II
  • CS 617 Databases, Data Mining, and Big Data
  • MATH 503 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science and Analytics
  • MATH 540 Statistics for Data Science & Analytics

This is 7 required courses. Adding the 3 credit culminating experience then gives 8 courses, and 3 courses of 600-level electives (need all 3 to be 600 level so the total is 18 credits of 600 level).

Note - other course proposed from last year that might be worthwhile - DATA 640 Data Visualization and Presentation.

Teaching Schedule

When these changes are in effect (2020-2021), the CS teaching schedule could be ...

• Fall and Spring (52) - 101, 151, 151, 151, 170, 201 (4), 202 (4), 203 (4), 256, 256, 260, 351 (5), 499 (2), 500, 401/501, 685/695/699
• Fall (30) - 479, CSS 210, CSS 331, 458 (4), 457, 470, 671 (5), 600, 603/611, 617
• Spring (30) - 469, CSS 211, 456 (4), 475, 658 (5), 601, 602/610, 618/619, 609
• Total - 52*2+30+30 - 164 credit hours,

And taught by ...

• Abhyankar - fall CSS 210, 603/611, 470, 256 | spring 256, 256, CSS 211, 602/610
• Baker - fall 457, 479, 351(5) | spring 351(5), 456(4), 469
• Exoo - fall 617, 401/501, 671(5) | spring 475, 601, 401/501
• Kinne - fall 151, GH 101 | spring 151, BD4ISU
• Rafiey - fall 458(4), 600, 256 | spring 658(5), 618/619
• Sternfeld - fall 500, 499(2), 170, 203(4) | spring 203(4), 500, 609, 499(2)
• New CS Faculty Member - fall 202(4), 685, CSS 331 | spring 202(4), 685, 170
• Boulware - fall 260 | spring 260
• May - fall 101, 201(4) | spring 101, 201(4)
• GAs - fall 151, 151, 260 | spring 151, 151, 260
• not offered with current staffing - [420], [473], [452], [421], [471]

Note - this assumes that Math is able to offer MATH 403/503, 440/540