1. Major program changes within the last five years:
CS Curriculum Changes
Regarding the curriculum revision; all courses were reviewed in order to ensure they serve the program mission, objectives and outcomes. Broadly, the CS program consists of two categories of courses. Courses in the first category cover the general education requirements. Courses in the second category include core courses, electives and a summer training or coop option.
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General Education Requirements
With respect to the general education requirements, one ICS course, ICS 309: “Computer Ethics” (2-0-2), has been developed and added to address the program’s deficiency as observed by CSAB in its 2001 visit, in addition to meet ABET’s CAC and CC2001 requirements. This raises the general education requirements’ hours from 52 credits in the current program to 54 credits in the proposed program.
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ICS Core and Elective Courses
Regarding core and elective courses, ICS courses have been classified into: introductory, intermediate and advanced courses, in line with CC2001. The sequel outlines how each category of courses is affected by the program revision.
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Introductory Courses
This category consists of a three-course sequence aimed to introduce students to the fundamentals of computer science and to develop the skills necessary to apply the conceptual knowledge in the intermediate and advanced courses. For several decades, the vast majority of institutions have used a two-course sequence to introduce students to computer science. The CC2001 Task Force is now advocating a three-course sequence to cover the growing body of computer science knowledge in a way that gives students adequate time to assimilate the material. This vindicates our strategy for the three-course sequence that we have been using for several years now.
The three introductory courses in the proposed CS program are:
ICS 102: Introduction to Computing I
ICS 201: Introduction to Computing II
ICS 202: Data Structures
This revision affects these introductory courses as follows:
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They are revised to match the corresponding courses recommended by CC2001.
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We chose to implement these courses using the programming-first object-first implementation approach, one of the six implementation options proposed by CC2001. While this coincides with the implementation approach in the current program, it has neither been formally specified nor represented.
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The titles of the current ICS 102, ICS 201 and ICS 202 are “Introduction to Computing”, “Introduction to Computer Science” and “Data Structures”, respectively.
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Intermediate Courses
Intermediate courses are all other required courses in the program. They are designed to provide a solid foundation that serves as a base for more advanced study of particular topics (using the elective courses of third category).
The CC2001 Task Force suggests four implementation strategies for the intermediate courses. The traditional approach, in which each course addresses a single topic, remains our implementation strategy as it ensures minimal reorganization of our courses.
This review process affects the intermediate courses as follows:
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Replacing COE 205 and COE 308 with one course: ICS 233 “Computer Architecture and Assembly Language” (3-3-4) to address the inflation in the number of hours dedicated to this knowledge area compared to the guidelines provided by the CC2001. This also created room for adding the Computer Ethics course. Note that the replacement of 7 credit hours (4 from COE 205 and 3 from COE 308) by 6 credit hours (4 from ICS 233 and 2 from ICS 309: Computer Ethics) has resulted in reducing the total number of credit hours from 132 to 131. It is worth mentioning that this reduction does not mean that our proposed program is lighter than the current program. It actually produces a more focused program inline with recent trends in computer science curriculum.
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Making the course ICS 381: “Principles of Artificial Intelligence” a core course in the proposed program, instead of being an elective in the current program, to address the program’s deficiency compared to the CC2001 guidelines, and to satisfy the program mission. The course title has changed from “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” to “Principles of Artificial Intelligence”.
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Reorganizing the topics covered in ICS 251 and ICS 252 (and removing them) introducing the following two new courses in order to address certain deficiencies in the current program and to meet the CC2001 curricular guidelines:
ICS 253: “Discrete Structures I”
ICS 254: “Discrete Structures II”
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Renumbering and/or renaming of the following courses:
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ICS 334: “Database Systems” has been renumbered to ICS 324: “Database Systems”. This is done since ‘2’, the second digit in the course number, is used in courses in the information management concentration area.
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ICS 313: “Fundamentals of Programming Languages” has been renumbered and renamed to ICS 410: “Programming Languages”. This is done to move the course to the senior level since it is not a prerequisite to any core course. Moving this course to the senior level shall allow students take other courses at the junior level which are important to take before they go for their Coop (ICS 351) or summer training (ICS 399).
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ICS 413: “Software Engineering” has been renumbered and renamed to SWE 311: “Principles of Software Engineering”. This course is an important prerequisite for Coop (ICS 351), Summer Training (ICS 399) and Senior Project (ICS 411). This change was the result of input from students and companies to ensure that students take one course in software engineering before taking ICS 351, ICS 399, or ICS 411.
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ICS 432: “Computer Network Systems” has been renumbered and renamed to ICS 343: “Fundamentals of Computer Networks”. This change was the result of input from students and companies to allow students take one course in net-centric computing before doing their Coop, Summer Training, or Senior Project. In addition, ‘4’, the second digit in the course number, is used in courses in the net-centric computing concentration area.
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Reviewing all intermediate courses to ensure they meet CC2001 curricular guidelines.
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As per the recent COE Program revision, COE 200 (3-3-4) has been replaced by two consecutive courses: COE 202: “Digital Logic Design” (3-0-3) and COE 203: Digital Logic Lab (0-3-1).
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Advanced/Elective Courses
The introductory courses and the intermediate courses together do not constitute a complete curriculum. Undergraduate programs will include a significant amount of additional elective material to complete the curriculum.
The purpose of the advanced/elective courses is to provide computer science students with the depth and breadth they seek, according to their desires, in order to be able to do advanced work that goes beyond the boundaries of the core. For example, computer science students must have a certain level of mathematical sophistication, familiarity with the methods of science, a sense of how computing is applied in practice, effective communication skills, and the ability to work productively in teams. In addition, students who wish to go for graduate studies have the option of either exploring these computer science areas by taking at least one course in each area, or concentrating on one area of interest by taking courses from this area, which will help identify their theses direction.
Institutions normally orient advanced courses to their areas of expertise, guided by the needs of students, the expertise of faculty members, and the needs of the wider community. During this curriculum revision, our elective courses were thoroughly revised and organized into three ‘concentration areas’:
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Net-centric Computing
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Information Management
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Intelligent Systems
Elective Courses have been grouped according to the aforementioned concentration areas, in addition to the general electives category. There is a minimum of three elective courses in each category. The intent is to encourage students to take courses in a particular area of their interest. Students are recommended to take at least two elective courses in their areas of emphasis. Having these areas of concentration has prompted changes to numbering and or titles of some courses to better reflect the area they come from as well as their content. This includes
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ICS 412: “Compiler Construction” title has been changed to ICS 412: “Compiler Construction Techniques”.
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ICS 434: “Advanced Database Systems” number has been changed to ICS 424: “Advanced Database Systems”. This is done since ‘2’, the second digit in the course number, is used in courses in the information management concentration area
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ICS 452: “Theory of Computing” number has been changed to ICS 355: “Theory of Computing”. This is done in order to add more elective courses at the junior level.
Below is a listing of elective courses, categorized by their respective area of concentration, in addition to general ICS electives category.
General ICS Electives
ICS 355 Theory of Computing
ICS 412 Compiler Construction Techniques
ICS 415 Computer Graphics
ICS 454 Principles of Cryptography
ICS 490 Special Topics I
ICS 491 Special Topics II
Information Management
ICS 424 Advanced Database Systems
ICS 426 Data Warehousing and Data Mining
SWE 423 Multimedia Systems
Net-Centric Computing
ICS 436 Systems and Network Administration
ICS 437 Distributed Systems
ICS 441 Cluster Computing
ICS 442 Computer Network Technologies
ICS 443 Network Design and Management
ICS 444 Computer and Network Security
SWE 344 Internet Protocols and Client Server Computing
SWE 444 Internet and Web Application Development
SWE 446 Selected Topics on Emerging Internet Technologies
Intelligent Systems
ICS 481 Artificial Neural Networks
ICS 482 Natural Language Processing
ICS 483 Computer Vision
ICS 484 Arabic Computing
ICS 485 Machine Learning
ICS 486 Multi-agent Systems
ICS 488 Soft Computing
2. Any significant future program improvement plans based upon recent assessments
The current BS Computer Science program was approved by the University Board in May 2006 and implemented in February 2007. The department plans to strengthen the program assessment process and continue improving the program based on the outcomes of the assessment process. Following is a list of topics that will be discussed in the ICS council meeting and with the Industrial Advisory Committee before implementing them within the program:
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Remove "ICS 309: Computing and Society" course. After introducing "IAS 212: Professional Ethics" course by the University as a required course from all students, it became apparent that the two courses have a lot of overlap. In addition, the needed skills from this course can be easily injected into the COOP course (ICS 351) and the senior project course (ICS 411). This will save 2 credit hours from the current total number of hours for both programs (COOP Option and Summer Training Option).
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Add the new Web Engineering course (SWE 363: Web Engineering and Development) that will be offered by the software engineering program into the curriculum of both programs (COOP Option and Summer Training Option). Lots of comments from COOP employers and Industry professionals emphasize the need for our students to take a formal course on web development before joining the COOP and/or the Job market. Although the current set of electives in both programs include SWE 444: Internet and Web Application Development, the prerequisite for this course is Senior Standing, which is too late for COOP, Summer Training, and even the Senior project course (ICS 411). This will add 3 credit hours from the current total number of hours for both programs.
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With the above changes, the total number of credit hours become 132 credit hours from 131 credit hours.
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