CS Masters Courses

The Computer Science courses and their catalog descriptions are listed in numerical order below. We provide this online copy of the course descriptions as a service to our students and prospective students. For the official listing of courses, please consult the current Armstrong catalog.

CSCI 5100G OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING 3-0-3
An advanced study of the object-oriented paradigm for software development. Topics include abstract data types, classes, contracts, design patterns, inheritance, polymorphism, OO languages, and design methods. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3321 (Software Engineering) or equivalent.

CSCI 5210G HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING 3-0-3
High performance software development for modern hardware. Optimization techniques at the algorithm, architecture, and processor levels. Introduction to practical vector, multi-threaded, and parallel computing concepts. Programming required. Essential background for this course is covered in CSCI 2490 (C++) and CSCI 3341 (Operating Systems) or equivalents.

CSCI 5220G DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKS 3-0-3
Introduction to data communications and networking. Topics include communications media, codes, data transmission, multiplexing, protocols, and layered networks. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3202 (Organization and Architecture) or equivalent.

CSCI 5322G ADVANCED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING 3-0-3
Advanced software engineering principles, including software processes and methodologies, CASE tools, software metrics, software quality assurance, reusability and reengineering, and future trends. Major project encompassing some or all of these concepts. Essential back-ground material for this course is covered in CSCI 3321 (Software Engineering) and CSCI 3720 (Database Systems).

CSCI 5342G ADVANCED OPERATING SYSTEMS 3-0-3
Case studies of UNIX(tm) and/or similar operating systems. Elementary knowledge of C/C++ required. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3341 (Operating Systems) or equivalent.  

CSCI 5343G SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING UNDER UNIX 3-0-3
UNIX(tm) system programming techniques in C. Topics include I/O forking, pipes, signals, interrupts software tools, macros, and conditional compilation, passing values to the compiler, lint, symbolic debugging, source code control, and libraries. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2490 (C++) and CSCI 3341 (Operating Systems), or equivalents.  

CSCI 5350G COMPILER THEORY 3-0-3
Programming language translation and basic compiler implementation techniques, formal grammars and languages, specification of syntax and semantics, lexical analysis, parsing, and semantic processing. A major project encompassing some or all of these concepts. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3330 (Comparative Languages) and CSCI 3510 (Theory of Computation), or equivalent.  

CSCI 5360G EMBEDDED SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING 3-0-3
Developing applications for embedded microprocessors including virtual machine architectures, data communications, time critical I/O, cross compiling, and debugging techniques. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3202 (Organization and Architecture) or equivalent.  

CSCI 5370G HANDHELD AND UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING 3-0-3
Survey of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and ubiquitous computing hardware, operating systems, virtual machines, and APIs. Development of PDA applications, cross compiling and hardware emulation, PDA GUI design, infra-red and wireless data communications, and desktop conduit development. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3202 (Organization and Architecture) or equivalent.  

CSCI 5410G ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS 3-0-3
Advanced techniques for designing and analyzing efficient algorithms for combinational, algebraic, and numbertheoretic problems. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2410 (Data Structures) or equivalent.  

CSCI 5520G RAPID JAVA DEVELOPMENT 3-0-3
Study of rapid application development techniques for producing software with minimum coding. Includes component-based software development, JavaBeans, event delegation model, model-view approach, and Swing components. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2410 (Data Structures) or equivalent.  

CSCI 5610G NUMERICAL ANALYSIS 3-0-3
Introductory numerical analysis and scientific computation. Topics include computer arithmetic, numerical error, polynomial interpolation, systems of linear equations, iterative methods for nonlinear equations, least squares approximation, and numerical integration. Essential background material for this course is covered in MATH 2072 (Calculus II) and CSCI 1301 (Introduction to Programming), or equivalents. 

CSCI 5700G COMPUTER SECURITY 3-0-3
Key concepts and algorithms involved in cryptography and computer security. Includes intrusion detection, firewalls, and digital signatures. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 5220U or CSCI 5220G (Computer Networks) or CSCI 5410U or CSCI 5410G (Algorithms) or equivalent.

CSCI 5720G ADVANCED DATABASE SYSTEMS 3-0-3
Survey of database systems, query processing and optimization, transactions, currency control, security, XML, Web data, and Internet commerce. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3720 (Database Systems) or equivalent.

CSCI 5735G DATA MINING 3-0-3
Study of data mining functionalities including characterization and discrimination, classification and prediction, cluster analysis, association analysis, outlier analysis, evolution analysis; data mining system architectures; data mining query languages; and OLAP technology for data mining. Multiple projects encompassing a number of the discussed concepts. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3720 (Database Systems) or equivalent.

CSCI 5820G MACHINE LEARNING 3-0-3
Pattern matching and classification with an emphasis on developing applications using diverse machine learning methods, including decision trees, neural networks, clustering, and hidden Markov models. Includes a major project encompassing some or all of these concepts. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2410 (Data Structures) or equivalent.

CSCI 5825G ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 3-0-3
An introduction to machine intelligence, problem solving paradigms, search in state spaces, inference methods, expert systems, game trees, natural language understanding, intelligent agents, multi-agent systems, robotics, and logic and theorem proving. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 3330 (Comparative languages) or equivalent.

CSCI 5830G COMPUTER GRAPHICS 3-0-3
Introduction to computer graphics programming. Topics include graphics programming standards, two- and three-dimensional rendering pipelines, geometric models (including primitives, fonts, curves, and surfaces), affine transformations, orthogonal and perspective views, shading and lighting models, images and texture mapping, interactions and animations. Major project encompassing some or all of these concepts. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2410 (Data Structures) or equivalent.

CSCI 5835G GRAPHICS Rendering Principles 3-0-3
Fundamentals of rendering algorithms, modern graphics architectures, and the mapping between the two. Detailed discussion of color, transformation, rasterization, lighting, texture mapping, shading, shadowing, and blending algorithms. Review of non real-time as well as non photo-realistic methods. Multiple projects encompassing a number of the discussed approaches. Essential background material for this course is covered in CSCI 2490 (C++) and MATH 2160 (Discrete Structure) or equivalent.

CSCI 6100 TECHNICAL WRITING 3-0-3
Issues of technical writing and effective presentation of computer science. Preparation of documents, papers, books, and computer programs. Includes a term paper and presentation.

CSCI 6999 Independent Study V-V-(1-3)
In-depth study of a specific issue in computer science that is not presented through regular courses. Essential background material for this course is determined by instructor.

CSCI 7200 REAL-TIME SYSTEM CONCEPTS AND IMPLEMENTATION 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 3341 (Operating Systems) or equivalent
Principles, reviews, and uses of real-time systems in robotics, manufacturing, and multimedia applications.

CSCI 7300 COMPUTER NETWORKS 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 5220U or CSIC 5220G (Data Communications and Networks) or equivalent
Fundamentals of computer networks. Includes topologies, routing, congestion control, multimedia, protocols, and management.

CSCI 7320 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 3321 (Software Engineering) or equivalent
Process of developing software systems. Includes the development and assessment of processes, their instantiation in product development, and techniques relating to quality assurance.

CSCI 7400 TRANSACTION PROCESSING 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 3341 (Operating System) and either CSCI 5220U or CSCI 5220G (Data Communications and Networks), or equivalents
Study of technology supporting large scale distributed computing on the Internet, especially e-commerce. Includes the transaction abstraction, queuing and workflow, fault tolerance, distributed transactions, recovery algorithms, and data replication.

CSCI 7500 MOBILE COMPUTING 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 5370 (Handheld) or CSCI 5220U or CSCI 5220G Data Communications and (Networks) or equivalent
Fundamentals of mobile computing. Includes mobile IP, TCP over wireless networks, cellular networks, impact of mobility on distributed algorithms, location management, and security.

CSCI 7600 COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 3321 (Software Engineering) or equivalent
Study of computer-based systems that support group work. Investigation of the World Wide Web, work flow systems, video conferencing, and virtual reality plus related languages and protocols.

CSCI 7830 CURRENT TRENDS IN COMPUTER GRAPHICS 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 5830U or CSCI 5830G (Computer Graphics) or equivalent
Computer image synthesis and interactive computer graphics applications focusing on state-of-the-art algorithms and techniques.

CSCI 7835 IMAGE PROCESSING 3-0-3
Prerequisite: CSCI 5410 or equivalent
In-depth study of digital image fundamentals and digital image processing including image enhancement techniques in both spatial and frequency domains; image restoration, compression, and segmentation; representation, description, and object recognition; color and morphological image processing.

CSCI 8100 SPECIAL TOPICS 3-0-3
Topics of current interest in computing.

CSCI 8200 MASTER’S PROJECT V-V-(1-6)
Comprehensive project involving the synthesis of existing knowledge and the application of it to a current problem in computer science. Oral and written presentation of the project to the public is required. Graded on an S or U basis.

CSCI 8210 THESIS V-V (1-6)
A scientific investigation of a selected problem in computer science resulting in a written and orally-defended thesis. Graded on an S or U basis.