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.

Open question - prerequisite structure. Things that required 201 now require 260 and/or 303/451?

Required for all CS Majors

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 151 (3) Intro to Programming, CS 470 (4) Programming Languages
• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 303 (4) - currently Discrete Structures, change to Intro to Theory of Computation ("theory lite")
  • CS 451 (4) - currently Architecture, change to Intro to Systems ("systems lite"), Change # to be 351?
  • CS 499 (4) - currently Senior Seminar, change to Senior Design, have students take it their last two semesters
• New requirements
  • CS 260 (3) Object-Oriented Programming
  • Pass Qualifying Exam
• Total - = 22 credits of CS

Information Science Concentration

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 170 (4) Web Programming, CS 469 (4) Unix/Linux Administration and Networking, CS 479 (4) 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
• Total - 24 credits of CS

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 (4) - currently Algorithms, becomes Algorithms and Theory of Computation
  • CS 456 (4) Systems Programming - becomes 4 credit hours
• New requirements
  • Additional mathematics - choose 6 credits from - MATH 241 Principles of Statistics, MATH 313 Elementary Linear Algebra, MATH 341 Probability and Statistics, MATH 252 Programming in Mathematics
• Total - 16 credits of CS, 8+6 = 14 credits of math

Data Science

New concentration

• Retain from current requirements
  • CS 457 Database Processing, CS 475 Artificial Intelligence, MATH 131 Calculus I, MATH 132 Calculus II
• New requirements
  • MATH 313 Elementary Linear Algebra, MATH 341 Probability and Statistics
  • CS 401 Programming for Data Science I (need to create 400 level version)
• What else?
  • Could also use, but would need to create the 400 level version and confirm with Math group and department chairperson
    • MATH 403/503 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science and Analytics, MATH 440/540 Statistics for Data Science and Analytics
  • Something else new?
• Total - 9 credits of CS, 8+6 = 14 credits of math

No Longer Required

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

• 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 Qualifying Exam

Academic Concentration

• Modifications of current requirements
  • CS 658 Algorithms II - just require this, don't offer CS 620, make this 4-5 hours?
  • CS 671 Operating Systems II - just require this, don't offer CS 673, rename 671 to be Systems II (or something), make this 4-5 hours?
  • No longer require third systems/theory course
• New Requirements
  • CS 558 (4) - required if 458 not taken as undergrad, 4 credits like 458 will be?
  • CS 556 (4) - required if 456 not taken as undergrad, 4 credits like 456 will be?

Anything else?

Professional 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

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
  • CS 575 Artificial Intelligence
  • 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.