The B.S. program in Computer Science is intended to integrate technical computer science requirements with institutional requirements, including general education requirements, and electives to prepare the students for a career in the computer field and for further study in computer science.
The program core requirements cover the areas of computer programming concepts and languages, computer theory, algorithms, data structures, and computer architectures. Within the core courses, emphasis is placed on analysis and design work. Laboratory experiences apply the course material and reinforce the application of theory to practice. The advanced electives provide depth of experience in particular areas in computer science.
The required mathematics courses ensure that students possess the needed mathematical tools and sophistication, and provide a medium of communication with other scientists and engineers. Each student must complete a concentration, a designated body of courses in an application area of computer science. The concentration will provide the student with in-depth knowledge in a field beside computer science, allow the student to integrate the computer science theory and practice with the concentration area knowledge, and furnish the student with an application area of expertise upon graduation.
Written communication skills are acquired and enhanced through the required completion of the general education English courses. These skills are practiced and applied to computer science in many of the advanced courses, which require written papers or oral presentations or the completion of a group programming project.
Every student is required to complete the Group Software Project, at the end of the student's program of study. In this project, students are divided into teams, and a software system is completed from generating a response to an RFP through delivering the system and documentation and training the users. Student teams must manage themselves, and meet all required milestones, which include extensive written proposals and documentation, oral presentations by all team members, and system demonstrations. Students must apply what they have learned in the computer science program in a realistic, although abbreviated, format.
A graduate of the B.S. program should be able to analyze the requirements for a new system, propose and analyze alternate designs, implement the system, test the performance of the system for efficiency and correctness, and function as an active member or leader of a team. These are skills that an organization hiring a graduate will expect, and that a graduate will use immediately. But the field of computer science encompasses more than computer programming, and so must the education of the students. Students are presented with the theoretical basis of computer science, as it is currently constituted, and introduced to experimental computer science. It is these skills that a graduate will need to remain active in the future in the rapidly changing field of computer science.
