2008 Woodie Awards
Computer Science curriculum changes
Frank Riccobono
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: Campus News
Students registering for fall computer science classes discovered that the department is rolling out some course changes. This decision was made after a thorough review of the courses the department offers. The department is currently phasing out two courses.
The first course to be phased out is CS 335, Computational Structures. This course is being phased out because much of the material is already covered in another course in discrete mathematics for cryptography. The department will be offering a new course, CS 347, Software Development Process in the spring. This course incorporates software engineering material from CS 551 and CS 552, as well as material in security engineering. The department felt that students could benefit from getting this material earlier in their curriculum. According to Duggan, "It incorporates some of the most successful parts of the CS 551/CS 552 courses that [Prof. Bernstein] created."
The other course being phased out is CS 494 Compiler Design. This is because much of the material is already covered in courses in the theory of computation and systems programming. The department suggests that students take the systems programming course instead, CS 392. As an alternate option students may take a concurrent programming course that the department is planning to start offering.
The existing theory of computation course remains, but it is being renumbered and renamed to CS 334, Automata and Computation.
The removal of CS 335 is only one of several changes to the standard Computer Science study plan. Students who attended the Advising Fair on March 28 first learned of the more significant changes from Professor Larry Bernstein.
In addition to replacing two of the required courses for the major, the CS department has changed the recommended sequence of some of the remaining core courses. This will allow students to gain a better foundation for later courses. For example the database course, CS 442, is being offered in the fall semester instead of the spring semester, so that it can become a prerequisite for the Web programming course, CS 546. This provides the Web programming course the time needed to teach advanced material on AJAX and REST that it has not had, until now, to teach. The operating systems course, CS 492, is being offered in the spring rather than the fall semester to give students time to take the course in systems programming, CS 392. In addition to covering much of the material of the compilers course, the department has been told by students that CS 392 is very useful preparation for the operating systems course. The full changes to the recommended study plan can be found of the Computer Science Department website which can be found at http://www.cs.stevens.edu
The changes for courses are voluntary. Students need only amend their study plans by substituting CS 347 for CS 335, and substituting CS 392 or CS 511 for CS 494. While some students are concerned about how these changes affect them, the department asserts that with these changes the Computer Science curriculum will better prepare students for later courses and their future careers.
The first course to be phased out is CS 335, Computational Structures. This course is being phased out because much of the material is already covered in another course in discrete mathematics for cryptography. The department will be offering a new course, CS 347, Software Development Process in the spring. This course incorporates software engineering material from CS 551 and CS 552, as well as material in security engineering. The department felt that students could benefit from getting this material earlier in their curriculum. According to Duggan, "It incorporates some of the most successful parts of the CS 551/CS 552 courses that [Prof. Bernstein] created."
The other course being phased out is CS 494 Compiler Design. This is because much of the material is already covered in courses in the theory of computation and systems programming. The department suggests that students take the systems programming course instead, CS 392. As an alternate option students may take a concurrent programming course that the department is planning to start offering.
The existing theory of computation course remains, but it is being renumbered and renamed to CS 334, Automata and Computation.
The removal of CS 335 is only one of several changes to the standard Computer Science study plan. Students who attended the Advising Fair on March 28 first learned of the more significant changes from Professor Larry Bernstein.
In addition to replacing two of the required courses for the major, the CS department has changed the recommended sequence of some of the remaining core courses. This will allow students to gain a better foundation for later courses. For example the database course, CS 442, is being offered in the fall semester instead of the spring semester, so that it can become a prerequisite for the Web programming course, CS 546. This provides the Web programming course the time needed to teach advanced material on AJAX and REST that it has not had, until now, to teach. The operating systems course, CS 492, is being offered in the spring rather than the fall semester to give students time to take the course in systems programming, CS 392. In addition to covering much of the material of the compilers course, the department has been told by students that CS 392 is very useful preparation for the operating systems course. The full changes to the recommended study plan can be found of the Computer Science Department website which can be found at http://www.cs.stevens.edu
The changes for courses are voluntary. Students need only amend their study plans by substituting CS 347 for CS 335, and substituting CS 392 or CS 511 for CS 494. While some students are concerned about how these changes affect them, the department asserts that with these changes the Computer Science curriculum will better prepare students for later courses and their future careers.
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