Program Overview

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Major in Computer Science, Computing Systems Concentration

The Computing Systems concentration provides students with the necessary tools to solve important and demanding systems problems at scale. Students will learn how to design and assess computer systems from a holistic perspective that encompasses distributed and parallel algorithms, big data, systems software, networking, compiler design, and artificial intelligence/machine learning.

Overview

Computing systems are integrated devices that input, output, process, and store data and information. Computing systems specialists are challenged to provide ever-increasing levels of performance from these systems. The Computing Systems concentration includes courses that teach students how to accomplish this goal, from storing, transporting, organizing, and extracting insights from data to expressing programs that execute in parallel and distributed environments encompassing hundreds of thousands of cores.

Learning Objectives

Upon successfully completing this program, students will be able to:

1. Design scalable systems for computational and data-intensive problems.
2. Design distributed and parallel algorithms to analyze large data sets.
3. Leverage diverse computing architectures in support of problem solutions.
4. Program accelerators/coprocessors (e.g., for deep learning).
5. Confidently pursue graduate studies or professional employment in computer systems and computer science.

Potential Occupations

In addition to the career opportunities open to all computer science graduates, the Computing Systems concentration opens career paths that include:

• Cloud applications designer
• Systems designer
• Data scientist
• Big data analyst
• Compiler designer
• Database specialist
• Supercomputing applications specialist

Requirements

A minimum grade of C (2.000) is required in CO 150 and in all CS, DSCI, MATH, STAT, and departmental Technical Elective courses which are required for graduation.

Freshman

• CO 150: College Composition (GT-CO2)
• First course from Group A, B, or C
• Department Approved Science
• 1C
• Elective

Sophomore

• CS 165: CS2--Data Structures
• CS 220: Discrete Structures and the Applications
• Select one group from the following
• Select one course from the following
• Select one course from the following
• Historical Perspectives
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Electives

Junior

• CS 314: Software Engineering
• CS 320: Algorithms--Theory and Practice
• CS 370: Operating Systems
• Two CS courses numbered 300- or above, excluding 380-399 and 480-499
• Two Technical Electives
• Advanced Writing
• Electives

Senior

• Systems Courses - select three courses from the following
• Systems Elective - select one course from the following
• Electives

Technical Electives

Select a minimum of 6 credits, of which 3 credits must be upper-division.

• Course List Code
  • Title
  • Credits
• BZ 350: Molecular and General Genetics
• BZ 360: Bioinformatics and Genomics
• CIS 320: Project Management for Information Systems
• CS 300-379
• CS 400-479
• CT 300-379 excluding CT 301
• CT 400-479
• DSCI 235: Data Wrangling
• DSCI 300-379 excluding DSCI 369
• DSCI 400-479
• ECE 452: Computer Organization and Architecture
• ENGR 422: Technology Entrepreneurship
• IDEA 300-379
• IDEA 400-479
• JTC 372: Web Design and Development
• JTC 472: Advanced Web Design and Development
• MATH 161: Calculus for Physical Scientists II (GT-MA1)
• MATH 256: Mathematics for Computational Science II
• MATH 300-379 excluding MATH 369
• MATH 400-479
• MGT 330: Creativity, Innovation, and Value Creation
• MGT 340: Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship
• MGT 420: New Venture Creation
• PHIL 410: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
• PHIL 411: Logic in Philosophy and Beyond
• PHIL 415: Logic and Scientific Method
• PSY 252: Mind, Brain, and Behavior
• PSY 352: Learning and Memory
• PSY 452: Cognitive Psychology
• PSY 454: Biological Psychology
• PSY 456: Sensation and Perception
• PSY 458: Cognitive Neuroscience
• STAT 300-379 excluding STAT 301, STAT 302A, STAT 307, STAT 315
• STAT 400-479

Program Total Credits

The program requires a minimum of 120 credits, of which at least 42 must be upper-division (300- to 400-level).