CS Curriculum Revisions 2019-2020
This page lists proposed changes for the CS programs. 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, firming up the foundations in the CS concentration, adding a data science concentration.
- MS - new data science concentration, streamline academic concentration
- BS and MS - shift some key courses to be 4-5 hour courses, ensuring a stronger foundation for more students.
Contents
CS Curriculum Updates 2019-2020 - Summary
BS and MS Programs
- Existing concentrations revised
- New concentrations in Data Science in BS and MS
- New accelerated BS+MS program
Minors and Certificates
- New undergraduate minor in Computer Science Teaching - CS 101, CS 151, CS 260, CS 305, ECT 173. Mapping from courses to IN licensing exam
- Revision of undergraduate CS minor and Certificate in Applied Computer Science
- New (Graduate) Certificates?? Unix/Linux Administration, Web Programming, Database Administration, Algorithms, Data Science, Informatics, Software Development, Systems Development ??
New Courses
- CS 305 Computer Science Teaching Methods (part of CS Teaching minor) model syllabus
- CS 401 Programming for Data Science - undergraduate analog of existing CS 501
Revised Courses
- Name change CS 201 Programming Structures (was Computer Science I), CS 202 Data Structures and Algorithms (was Computer Science II), CS 303 Discrete Structures and Computing Theory (was Discrete Structures), CS 351 Introduction to Computer Systems (was CS 451 Computer Architecture), CS 499 Senior Design (was Senior Seminar), CS 501 Programming for Data Science I (was Programming for Data Science & Analytics I), CS 601 Programming for Data Science II (was Programming for Data Science and Analytics II)
- # of credit hours CS 303 4 hours (was 3), CS 351 5 hours (was 3), CS 456 4 hours (was 3), CS 458 5 hours (was 3), CS 499 4 hours (was 1)
- Catalog description updated for all of those courses as well
- Required courses no longer required for the BS (to make room for increase # hours in key courses above) - CS 420 Theory of Computation, CS 421 Formal Methods, CS 452 Software Engineering
BS Program
| All (26) | CS (27) | IS (24) | DS (28) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Stats - Math 241 or 341 (3) |
Math 131, 132 Calc I, II (8) |
101 Fundamentals of Computing (3) |
Math 131, 132, 231 Calc I, II, III (12) |
- Culminating Exam - must be passed before graduating, students who have not passed it will be given an incomplete for their culminating experience until passed. Content - programming questions graded all-or-nothing covering basic programming and data structures, WHAT ELSE. Sample exam and grading rubric is provided at the beginning of each term, exam is given at least once per term.
Minor and Certificate
- Minor - CS 151 (3), 201 (4), 303 (4), 351 (5)
- Certificate - CS 151 (3), 170 (3), 201 (4), 457 (3), 479 (3)
MS Programs
- Required for all concentrations - unchanged
- Bioinformatics concentration - allow either CS 500 or CS 501 (can count CS 501 in place of CS 500)
- Professional concentration - also require CS 501 Programming for Data Science I
- Academic Concentration - CS 658 Algorithms II (4), 671 Operating Systems II (5), and CS 558 Algorithms I (5), CS 556 Systems Programming (4) if CS 456/458 not taken as ISU undergrads
- Accelerated MS - 4+1 BS+MS - see above.
- Data Science Concentration - new - see below.
CS Undergraduate Majors/Minor
Other New Courses?
CS XYZ - Programming for the Sciences - check with NSM chairpersons on what they would want (something with CS 151 as a prereq, or what, is there something they would recommend their majors take?).
Overview
Note - courses that are currently part of the major that no longer would be - CS 420 Theory of Computation, CS 421 Formal Methods, CS 451 (changes to become CS 351).
Note - courses that we haven't offered in a while - CS 440 Graphics Programming, CS 463 Compilers - what should we do with them?
Note - current major is 51-53 credit hours, including 3 credits of 300 level and 25-28 credits of 400 level. Proposal would be for 50-54 credit hours, including 9-12 credits of 300 level and 16-22 credits of 400 level. Students need 45 300-400 level credits overall to graduate. Students will normally have at least about 12 credits of 300-400 level courses as part of Foundational Studies.
Question - create a Data Mining certificate and/or minor? Would there be demand for this?
Question - electives?
Prereqs
- 101 or 151 -> CSS 210, CSS 211, CSS 311
- 151 -> 201, 303, 251, 170
- 201 -> 202, 470, 499, 457
- 202 -> 458, 456, 471, 473, 475
- 456 -> 471, 473 ??
- 351 -> 456, 469, 479
- 303 -> 457, 458
- 170 -> 479
- Math 313 -> 401, 475
- Math 231 ->
6 Semester Plan
| Term | All/Minor | CS | IS | DS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 1 | 151 | 101 | 151, Math 131 | |
| Spring 1 | 201, Math 131 | 151, CSS 210 | 201, Math 132 | |
| Fall 2 | stats, 351 | 202, Math 132, 303 | 170, CSS 211 | 202, Math 231 |
| Spring 2 | 456 | 201, 303, CSS 331 | Math 313, 401 | |
| Fall 3 | 499 | 458, 471 | 457, 479 | 457, 475 |
| Spring 3 | 470, 499 | 473 | 469 |
Course outlines and notes
Courses required for all concentrations
CS 151 Intro to CS
- First course for CS track, second course for IS track.
- Note - for the first 3 weeks, they have things to do as well that don't require unix
- Note - overall theme - make it fun, get them to spend as much time programming as possible (and enjoy it)
- Command-line:
- Manipulating files and directories: ls, cd, cp, mv, rm, mkdir, nano, cat, (stdin, stdout, stderr)
- Few extra commands: date, find, grep, ps, kill
- Changing shell to zshell
- echo and environment variables $HOME $USER
- Number Systems: binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, conversions, and ASCII/UTF-8 character encodings
- Basic Components of a Computer: CPU, RAM, Hard Disk, Motherboard, etc. Binary representation of data.
- Python3:
- Python 3 Interactive Mode, Syntax, Identifiers
- Statements and Expressions - expressions get evaluated to a single value
- Variables and Assignment
- print() - stdout, input() - stdin
- Basic Data Types and conversion: int, float, bool, str
- Data Operators and Expressions:
- Numeric Operators: Arithmetic and Comparison, round(), bit operations
- String Operators: Concatenation, Comparison, containment (in), and length (len())
- Boolean Operators: and, or, not
- Conditional Logic: if, elif, else, code blocks
- String manipulations: string casing, str.strip(), str.replace(), \n vs \r\n
- Functions: Data are nouns, Functions are verbs, defining vs calling, arguments, return values
- Collections: list, dict, reference by index or key, converting dict,keys(), dict.values(), iteration with for loop
- Loops: for and while, while is most powerful, for is syntactic sugar, collect stdin on a loop
- File I/O: read, write, append, import os.path
- Parse File Data: CSV, .split(","), .split("\n")
- Random Numbers
- Terminal Animation - sleep()
- Sets, Tuples
- System Arguments - import sys
- Can take a specification and produce code implementing it
- Python3 programming and debugging
- Understanding of primitive data types and basic Boolean logic
CS 201 Programming Structures
- Viewed as a 2-course sequence with CS 151, after CS 201 one should be a decent python programmer and have dabbled in key CS topics
- Note - overall goal - get them to spend as much time programming as needed (and enjoy it)
- Review/new - all of the python3 from CS 151, assume that the average student will have retained half of it and be able to refresh it in half as much time as the first time
- Python3 - (nearly) all keywords and operations, scripting and command-line arguments
- Python3 - all builtin functions, use of commonly used libraries (string, re, math, os.path, csv, json, tkinter)
- Algorithms - searching and sorting, demo different running times for different algorithms
- Data structures - focus on python3 data structures (lists, tuples, dictionaries) and running time for these, basic idea for how they are implemented
- Algorithms - basics of big-O, be able to make predictions of running time for larger dataset sizes
- Running time - algorithms with log, linear, n log(n), quadratic, cubic, exponential growth - and demonstrate different running time behavior of them
- I/O with different data formats and number systems
CS 303 Discrete Structures / Intro Theory
- Logic - De Morgan's law, boolean operations, truth tables, inclusion-exclusion principle
- base systems
- algebra / logarithmic / exponential growth
- Big O, formal and informal definitions of important complexity class (L, P, NP, PSPACE, EXP)
- Concept of a general-purpose computer (maybe TM, maybe VN), Church-Turing thesis
- Proofs - line/geometry/propositional logic, contradiction, induction (weak and strong)
- pattern matching (maybe don't call it DFA's/NFA's/RE's)
- grammars - look at grammar for some programming language (e.g., subset of C) as an example, basic terms and concepts
- Counting - permutations, combinations, binomial theorem, pigeonhole principle
- Discrete probability - definitions, basic theorems/formula, conditional probability, independence, expectation, linearity of expectation
- "Big ideas" - Monty Hall, 100 prisoners problem, probabilistic method
- Number theory - modular arithmetic (division, exponentiation, Euclid's algorithm, inverses), sieve of Eratosthenes, primes, RSA as a big goal
- Graph theory - basic terminology, basic properties, matchings, Hall's marriage theorem, some algorithm or few
CS 351 Intro to Systems
- C
- Assembly language - small subset of something real, or something artificial. Should include key concepts, doing coding in whatever language is chosen.
- Circuit fundamentals - logic gates, decoders, encoders, multiplexors, ROMs, universal gates, adders, flip-flops, latches, Karnaugh Maps, counters, bit pattern detectors, incrementers, multipliers, etc.
- Architecture - CPU design/organization, instruction set, RTL, registers, microcode, pipelining.
- Architecture - memory design/organization including cache, virtual memory, segmentation, paging.
- Architecture - I/O units, buses, interrupts.
- Architecture - parallel / multi-core considerations.
- Linux - more in depth use of the shell, etc.
- Linux - system calls, including using them to make programs
CS 470 Programming Languages
- Design choices in programming languages - terms, pros/cons, examples, history of programming languages
- Functional programming, including reasonable sized programming assignments
- Object-oriented programming - review, including laundry list of terms and such
- Concurrent programming - in particular how programming language design plays a role
- What else? Logic programming?
- Do some interesting programs in the top-10 tiobe languages (currently - java, C, python, C++, C#, visual basic .net, javascript, php, sql, objective-c)?
CS 499 Senior Design
- prereq - senior standing, CS 201, 203, 251
- 2 credits/term, taken for two terms
- First term - reasonable sized project involving whatever is hot at the moment. Currently - using a cloud-based system to do a website, app, DB, and have them work together.
- Second term - job search and interview prep - job search, resume, cover letter, interview questions, portfolio, personal website, git, presentation skills
CS Concentration
CS 202 Data Structures and Alg
- C programming - nearly all keywords, operations. All C data types (and use to review binary, decimal, octal, hex, two's complement, floating point, add in long, int, short char, C strings). I/O with different data formats and number systems.
- Memory organization - text, data, heap, stack, malloc, free, pointer arithmetic
- Unix and debugging - gdb, grep, sed, awk, find, compiler options, makefiles, unix regular expressions, reading manual and manual organization, pipes, I/O redirection
- Basic data structures - start with Python3 data structures and do them in C (and compare run times).
- Other basic data structures - linked list, stack, queue, heap, sorted array, unsorted array, binary search tree - do code for all either in class or as assignments (an A student should have done code for all of these).
- More data structures - some collection of "other" data structures - balanced binary tree, B tree, skip list, trie, etc.
- Other basic data structures - unsorted versus sorted array, heap, stack, queue, binary search tree. Can do all on paper, do code for some in class and as assignments.
- Search and sorting - linear and binary search, selection and insertion sort, mergesort, heapsort, quicksort - code for all in class and as assignments
- Asymptotic analysis and running time - big O/Omega/Theta, little o/omega, definitions, basic proofs, polynomials / exponentials / logarithms, recursion trees
- Graphs - terminology, adjacency matrix, adjacency list, basic algorithms (BFS, DFS, shortest path, minimum spanning tree) - do all algorithms on the board, code for some in class, running time for all
- Classes and objects in C++ - data abstraction and encapsulation, defining classes, creating objects, inheritance, protection, virtual functions and polymorphism
- The Standard Template Library
- Comparison of C++ and other OO Languages (Java, Python, etc.)
CS 456 Systems
- Version control: Make, RCS, Git
- File system I/O - open/close/read/write, printf/scanf, opendir/closedir/readdir/stat
- Disk organization - inodes, superblocks, etc.
- Local interprocess communication: signals, socketpairs, shared memory.
- Fork and execve: how shells work.
- Regular expressions (review!)
- Condensed introduction to x64 assembly language.
- How assemblers work.
- Structure of ELF files -- use of tools like objdump, readelf, nm, od.
- Lex/flex and yacc/bison examples starting with a simple calculator and then a simple programming language (something on the level of Dartmouth BASIC).
CS 458 Algorithms and Theory of Computation
- Some things that are listed under CS 202
- String matching algorithms
- Graph algorithms - BFS, DFS, connected components, shortest path, MST. Others?
- Linear programming
- Dynamic programming
- Sorting algorithms - quadratic time, merge sort, quick sort, heap sort. Others?
- NP-complete / optimization problems - definitions and reductions, a few example problems
- NP-complete / optimization problems - approximation algorithms, hardness of approximation
- NP-complete / optimization problems - brute force / backtracking / CSP
- Models of computation - DFA, NFA, CFG, PDA, TM, NTM - definitions and basic properties, normal forms, equivalences, pumping lemmas.
- Complexity classes - definitions, basic properties, example problems, undecidability, diagonalization, reductions.
CS 471 Operating Systems
- Review - functions every citizen should know, basic data structures in C
- Device Management, typically focusing on storage devices and filesystems
- ext2 file system in detail
- Other filesystems at a high level
- Process/Thread Management
- Single CPU execution - time slicing, scheduling
- Multi-core execution
- Shared data - semaphores, other mechanisms, synchronization issues, race conditions
- Memory Management
- Memory organization, virtual memory, pages, page faults, CPU cache
- Other Topics, as time allows
CS 473 Networking
- History and Operation of Packet Networks and Switched Networks
- Layered Protocols: TCP/IP and (maybe) OSI.
- Socket programming - TCP/UDP - in C.
- Example higher level protocols examined in some detail (e.g., SMTP or HTTP).
- Encryption and the four horsemen of the apocalypse: symmetric block ciphers, cryptographic hashing functions, public key cryptosystems, and cryptographic random number generation. Discussion of SHA, AES, RSA, TLS.
IS Concentration
CS 101 Fundamentals of Computing
- Somewhat closely parallel AP CS Principles (it happens to work out to what we'd want to do)
- basic understanding of how computers work
- basics of programming
- how information is stored and transferred between computers
- do’s and don’ts of security
- basic understanding of concepts of computational complexity and artificial intelligence
CS 170 Web Programming I
- Client-server relationship and front-end back-end architecture
- Editors, multi-file projects, code linters, and workflow
- The JavaScript event loop and asynchrony
- The JavaScript prototype and the `this` keyword
- EcmaScript latest additions
- Regular expressions
- Intro to PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
- Separation of concerns and ideal abstraction
- Build tools and test suites
- Simple back-end in NodeJS
CSS 210 Intro Security
CSS 211 Intro Networking
CSS 311 Files and DB
CS 457 Databases
- Database Models
- Relational Algebra
- SQL - A reasonably comprehensive introduction to SQL. SQLite is a very good, easy to use, vehicle for this part of the course.
- Database design: logical design, physical design, security design.
- Database design: ER diagrams, normal forms, functional dependencies, transitive closure, etc.
- Transactions: query processing, ACID, logging, indexing, hashing, B+ trees, joins.
- SQL - More advanced features (PL/SQL functions, triggers, etc.)
- NOSQL: discuss a subset of the following (whatever’s hot)
- XML
- Mongodb
- Redis
- levelDB
- DataFrames - Python/pandas
- Cassandra
- many more possibilities
CS 469 Unix/Linux Administration and Networking
- Wild-cards and regular expressions
- Files and directories:
- The file-system tree, path traversal, links
- Unix permissions and ACLs
- The FHS standard: where things go in the file-system
- Bash scripting
- Invocation and startup, job control
- Command lists, pipelines, redirection
- Positional parameters and special variables, data types, the environment
- Functions, variable scope
- Conditionals and loops
- Bash built-ins: read, printf, alias, etc
- The core-utilities: sed, col, grep, tr, basename, dirname, etc.
- Processes and threads:
- Attributes of processes: understanding ps,top, etc output
- /proc filesystem
- Signals
- Resource limits
- Memory layout: security issues: buffer overflows, ASLR
- Libraries
- The boot process: boot loaders, the kernel, init, runlevels, init scripts
- Disks: Block devices, partitioning, making file-systems, mounting/unmounting them, checking them, configuring fstab
- Swap and virtual memory
- RAID: levels, MD devices and mdadm
- Basic MySQL administration: DB and user administration and backing up/archiving databases
- Common Administrative tasks:
- User/group administration
- Log files, accounting files and reporting
- Quotas
- Networking:
- SSH and related tools for key generation and management, scp, rsync
- Various networking terms / OSI model
- SSL/TLS certificates (openssl), creating signed certificates, setting up a CA purpose of certs, anatomy of a cert
- IPv4 networking: Packets, Ethernet, ARP, DNS, CIDR, basic routing
- The Linux Firewall (iptables) (time permitting)
CS 479 Web Programming II
- Review of CS170 concepts:
- Basic HTML: basic formatting, lists, tables
- Extensive HTML forms review
- Basic CSS: selectors, box model, colors, fonts
- JavaScript/ECMAScript review: basic data-types, variables and scope, functions, conditionals, loops.
- The DOM, document and window objects, events and the event object
- PHP Scripting:
- Output
- Data-types and scoping
- Super-Globals: $_GET, $_POST, etc.
- Language features: functions, conditionals, loops: while, for, foreach
- MySQL/MariaDB:
- Databases and tables
- Data-types
- SQL syntax: creating table, insert, update, delete and select
- The PHP Mysqli interface (switch to PDO?)
- simple vs. prepared statements
- Security, escaping strings, input validation, etc
- AJAX: Asynchronous client/server pages via XMLHttpRequest and JSON encoded data.
- HTTP authentication schemes including HTTP auth, PHP sessions, creating long lived sessions using sessions cookies coupled with a user and sessions tables, password hashing, SSL/TLS security
- WebSockets (time permitting)
DS Concentration
Common to all CS majors
- CS 151 Intro to CS, 201 Programming Structures, 303 Discrete Structures / Intro Theory, 351 Intro to Systems, 470 Programming Languages, 499 Senior Design
- Math 241 Principles of Stats or 341 Prob and Stats
Required for DS concentration
- CS 202 - see CS concentration
- CS 457 - see IS concentration
- CS 475 AI
- CS 401 Programming for Data Science and Anal I
- Math 131 Calc I, 132 Calc II, 313 Linear Algebra
- Math 403 Stats for Data Science [assuming prereqs work out] - once this course is created. In the meantime, substitute Math 252 on the proposal?
BS in DS from Math
Note - Math is considering adding a BS in DS. What they are thinking is the following.
- Math 131 Calc I, 132 Calc II, 313 Elementary Lin Alg, 241 Principles of Stats, 252 Programming in Math, 341 Prob and Stats, 342 [what was the name?], 403 Stats for Data Science
- CS 151 Intro to CS (in python), 201 Programming Structures (in python), 401 Programming for Data Science (python and R), 457 Database
- Math 320 Discrete Math or CS 303 Discrete Structures
- Bus 180 Business Information Tools
- OSCM 310 Data driven decision making
- OSCM 320 Problem solving with spreadsheets
- Capstone - Math 494
CS MS Major
Required for all Majors
Culminating experience - one of the following -
- CS 699 - Computer Science Internship (0-3)
- CS 685 - Software Project (3-6)
- CS 695 - Computer Science Research (3-6)
- BIO 692 - Research in Biology (1-10) (bioinformatics concentration only)
- BIO 699 - Master’s Thesis (6) (bioinformatics concentration only)
Pass Comprehensive Exam
Note - an incomplete will be given for culminating experience if insufficient work to be complete, normally given 1 additional term to complete.
Academic Concentration
- CS 658 Algorithms II (5)
- CS 671 Systems II (5)
- CS 558 Algorithms and Theory of Computation (5) - required if 458 not taken as undergrad
- CS 556 Systems Programming (4) - required if 456 not taken as undergrad
Note - courses that are currently part of the concentration that would no longer be - CS 620 Theory of Computation II, CS 621 Discrete Structures II, CS 670 Concurrent Programming, CS 673 Networking II
Professional Concentration
- Retain current requirements - CS 500, CS 600, 1 course from 602-609, 1 course from 610-618, 1 additional course 602-618
- CS 501 Programming for Data Science & Analytics I - now required
Bioinformatics Concentration
- Retain everything from current requirements
- Allow CS 500 or CS 501 to count
Data Science - New Concentration
Admissions
To declare the data science concentration, students must demonstrate competency (through coursework/transcript or otherwise) in the following - basic programming and data structures, multivariate calculus, matrix algebra. To be prepared for the DS MS, an undergraduate at ISU should complete the following - CS 151 Intro to Computer Science, CS 260 Object Oriented Programming, MATH 131/132/231 Calculus I/II/III, MATH 313 Elementary Linear Algebra.
Curriculum
- CS 501 Programming for Data Science & Analytics I (3)
- CS 557 Database Processing (3) (if 457 not taken as undergrad)
- CS 575 Artificial Intelligence (3) (if 475 not taken as undergrad)
- CS 601 Programming for Data Science & Analytics II (3)
- CS 617 Databases, Data Mining, and Big Data (3)
- MATH 503 Linear Algebra and Modeling for Data Science and Analytics (3)
- MATH 540 Statistics for Data Science & Analytics (3)
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 - update CS 617 curriculum and name, 617 python, 501 python
Electives approved by advisor.
Note - 503 - remove diff eq, towards regression and progression, gradient (since no calc III)
Accelerated 4+1 BS+MS
An accelerated MS program is a chance for an ISU undergrad to finish the BS and MS in 4+1 years. The university-wide policies are - policies. An example program is - accelerated Math MS
- Students must have 3.0 GPA and have completed 80% of their required credits by the start of their 4th year.
- Students must finish their BS with 3.0 GPA.
- Can take up to 9 credits of 500 level courses and 6 credits of 600 level courses in final year of BS. Up to 9 credits of 500 level can count for both BS and MS. Note that 600 level courses don't count towards being full time for financial aid.
Graduate Certificate
Should we?
Teaching Schedule
Note - this section is out of date and needs to be updated.
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
