Online Master in Computer Science (MSCS)

This course introduces the Java programming language to students with little programming experience. It begins by covering fundamental concepts such as program structure and Java syntax and continues with data types, object-oriented programming, abstract classes and interfaces, control flow, exception handling, recursion, and event-driven programming. Students will write, compile and execute programs operating on arrays of data or strings, including programs with graphical user interfaces.

Note: This is a foundational course to be taken by students who did not have the relevant background.

This course introduces the most commonly used data structures, as well as sorting algorithms, using the Java programming language. Data structures that are introduced and compared include arrays, lists, stacks, queues, trees, priority queues, and maps, such as hash tables. Relevant principles including encapsulation, interfaces and testing are presented along with the data structures, while asymptotic complexity analysis is also introduced. Students implement and test programs that use the above data structures in conjunction with algorithms such as insertion, selection, merge, and quick sort.

Note: This is a foundational course to be taken by students who did not have the relevant background.

This course will provide an intensive introduction to material on computer organization and assembly language programming. Topics include structure of stored program computers; linking and loading; assembly language programming, with an emphasis on translation of high-level language constructs; data representation and arithmetic algorithms; basics of logic design; processor design: data path, hardwired control and microprogrammed control. Students will be given assembly language programming assignments on a regular basis.

In this course, students will learn to develop complex system-level software in the C programming language while gaining an intimate understanding of the UNIX family of operating systems and their programming environment. Topics include the user/kernel interface, fundamental concepts of UNIX, user authentication, basic and advanced input/output (I/O), file systems, signals, process relationships, and interprocess communication. Fundamental concepts of software development and maintenance on UNIX systems will also be covered.

This course will provide focus on more complex data structures, and algorithm design and analysis, using one or more modern imperative language(s). Topics include advanced and/or balanced search trees; hashing; further asymptotic complexity analysis; standard algorithm design techniques; graph algorithms; complex sort algorithms; and other “classic” algorithms that serve as examples of design techniques.

The objective of this course is to give students a basic grounding in designing and implementing distributed and cloud systems, including issues in the implementation of backend services in the cloud itself. What are global consensus and Paxos, and what is their application in building cloud systems? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using distributed NoSQL stores such as Cassandra instead of relational stores such as MySQL? What are strong and weak consistency, what are the “CAP Theorem” and the “CALM Theorem,” and what are their implications for building highly available services? What is a blockchain, such as the Bitcoin blockchain, and how does it relate to issues in coordinating distributed systems? What are the roles of REST, Websockets, and stream processing in cloud applications? This course will combine hands-on experience in developing cloud services, with a firm grounding in the tools and principles for building distributed and cloud applications, including advanced architectures such as peer-to-peer and publish-subscribe. Besides cloud services, we will also be looking at cloud support for batch processing, such as the Hadoop framework, and its use with NoSQL data stores, such as Cassandra.

This course will provide focus on the use and internals of modern operating systems. Primary topics include the process concept; concurrency and how to program with threads; memory management techniques, including virtual memory and shared libraries; file system data structures; and input/output (I/O).

This course will provide an introduction to the design and querying of relational databases. Topics include relational schemas; keys and foreign key references; relational algebra (as an introduction to SQL); SQL in depth; Entity-Relationship (ER) database design; translating from ER models to relational schemas and from relational schemas to ER models; functional dependencies; and normalization.

Personal computing is now mobile and cloud-based. Disconnected mobile computing challenges many of the assumptions underlying much of today’s distributed systems. “Cloud computing” provides a powerful background computing facility for mobile devices, but also raises important issues of trust and privacy. Many of these issues arise in critical yet sensitive domains such as electronic healthcare delivery. Mobile computing applications are location-aware or context-aware; the privacy implications of these applications are profound. Mobile, and increasingly location aware, gaming systems are now one of the largest sectors of the world entertainment industry. The purpose of this course is to review the fundamentals of mobile systems and applications, and how they relate to services in the cloud. The course will review material from wireless communication, distributed systems, and security and privacy, as they pertain to the systems being studied. The course will involve programming mobile apps using a popular mobile computing platform, such as Android or iPhone, to get hands-on experience with the concepts being discussed in the class.

This course will provide students with a first strong approach of internet programming. It will give the basic knowledge on how the Internet works and how to create advanced web sites by the use of script languages, after learning the basics of HTML. In this course, the student will learn how to create a complex global site through the creation of individual working modules, providing them the interpersonal skills required in business settings such as team building and cooperation.

This course will provide an intensive introduction to material on computer organization and assembly language programming. Topics include structure of stored program computers; linking and loading; assembly language programming, with an emphasis on translation of high-level language constructs; data representation and arithmetic algorithms; basics of logic design; processor design: data path, hardwired control and microprogrammed control. Students will be given assembly language programming assignments on a regular basis.

The objective of this course is to give students a basic grounding in designing and implementing distributed and cloud systems, including issues in the implementation of backend services in the cloud itself. What are global consensus and Paxos, and what is their application in building cloud systems? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using distributed NoSQL stores such as Cassandra instead of relational stores such as MySQL? What are strong and weak consistency, what are the “CAP Theorem” and the “CALM Theorem,” and what are their implications for building highly available services? What is a blockchain, such as the Bitcoin blockchain, and how does it relate to issues in coordinating distributed systems? What are the roles of REST, Websockets, and stream processing in cloud applications? This course will combine hands-on experience in developing cloud services, with a firm grounding in the tools and principles for building distributed and cloud applications, including advanced architectures such as peer-to-peer and publish-subscribe. Besides cloud services, we will also be looking at cloud support for batch processing, such as the Hadoop framework, and its use with NoSQL data stores, such as Cassandra.

This course will provide focus on more complex data structures, and algorithm design and analysis, using one or more modern imperative language(s). Topics include advanced and/or balanced search trees; hashing; further asymptotic complexity analysis; standard algorithm design techniques; graph algorithms; complex sort algorithms; and other “classic” algorithms that serve as examples of design techniques.

In this course, students will learn to develop complex system-level software in the C programming language while gaining an intimate understanding of the UNIX family of operating systems and their programming environment. Topics include the user/kernel interface, fundamental concepts of UNIX, user authentication, basic and advanced input/output (I/O), file systems, signals, process relationships, and interprocess communication. Fundamental concepts of software development and maintenance on UNIX systems will also be covered.

This course will provide focus on the use and internals of modern operating systems. Primary topics include the process concept; concurrency and how to program with threads; memory management techniques, including virtual memory and shared libraries; file system data structures; and input/output (I/O).

This course will provide an introduction to the design and querying of relational databases. Topics include relational schemas; keys and foreign key references; relational algebra (as an introduction to SQL); SQL in depth; Entity-Relationship (ER) database design; translating from ER models to relational schemas and from relational schemas to ER models; functional dependencies; and normalization.

Personal computing is now mobile and cloud-based. Disconnected mobile computing challenges many of the assumptions underlying much of today’s distributed systems. “Cloud computing” provides a powerful background computing facility for mobile devices, but also raises important issues of trust and privacy. Many of these issues arise in critical yet sensitive domains such as electronic healthcare delivery. Mobile computing applications are location-aware or context-aware; the privacy implications of these applications are profound. Mobile, and increasingly location aware, gaming systems are now one of the largest sectors of the world entertainment industry. The purpose of this course is to review the fundamentals of mobile systems and applications, and how they relate to services in the cloud. The course will review material from wireless communication, distributed systems, and security and privacy, as they pertain to the systems being studied. The course will involve programming mobile apps using a popular mobile computing platform, such as Android or iPhone, to get hands-on experience with the concepts being discussed in the class.

This course will provide students with a first strong approach of internet programming. It will give the basic knowledge on how the Internet works and how to create advanced web sites by the use of script languages, after learning the basics of HTML. In this course, the student will learn how to create a complex global site through the creation of individual working modules, providing them the interpersonal skills required in business settings such as team building and cooperation.

In software problem areas that require exploratory development efforts, those with complex requirements and high levels of change, agile software development practices are highly effective when deployed in a collaborative, people-centered organizational culture. This course examines agile methods, including Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Lean, Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development Method and Feature-Driven Development to understand how rapid realization of software occurs most effectively. The ability of agile development teams to rapidly develop high quality, customer-valued software is examined and contrasted with teams following more traditional methodologies that emphasize planning and documentation. Students will learn agile development principles and techniques covering the entire software development process from problem conception through development, testing and deployment, and will be able to effectively participate in and manage agile software developments as a result of their successfully completing this course. Case studies and software development projects are used throughout.

This is an introduction to Human Computer Interaction (HCI). It covers basic concepts, principles, and frameworks in HCI; models of interaction; and design guidelines and methodologies. The course includes extensive readings and reports, as well as work on projects involving interface design and development.