CS Course Guidesheet 2012-13 - Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science

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These suggested course tracks are based on undergraduate requirements from the class entering in the 2012-13 academic year. These are only suggestions, refer to the University Bulletin for the official requirements for each major.

For archived requirements refer to the University Bulletin. Select desired year in the bottom left-hand corner under, "Bulletin Archive" and then the area of study.

For more information on graduate-level requirements go here.

Please make note of Pre- or Co-requisites

Program with CS-110

Your schedule over four years may vary considerably from this sample but you must observe course prerequisites. The flowchart for required courses in CS shows which courses must precede others. Students are encouraged to vary this schedule depending on their interests and the CS advisor will be happy to discuss alternatives.

Students with AP credit for Gened courses and a strong CS background may take CS 120 and CS 140 in the first semester. Students without prior programming experience should take CS 110 in Fall and either CS 120 or CS 140 in the Spring. Please consult a CS advisor before attempting CS 120 and CS 140 together.

For students with programming experience

Year 1

Fall - 17 Credits

CS 101 - Prof Skills Ethics & CS Trends
CS 120 - Prog & Hardware Fundamentals

Introduction to the C programming language, including local and global variables, basic control structures, function calls, pointers and the stack; use of command-line C development environments and development tools such as gdb and make; assembly language connection to higher-level C; building blocks of the Von Neumann machine (ALU, registers, control unit, RAM, decoders, program counters) and the underlying basic logic elements; simple non-pipelined processor architectures. Supervised laboratory work involves programming in C and low-level languages, interfacing with hardware, and the design and simulation of small circuits and simplified microprocessors. Prerequisite MATH 225 that may be taken concurrently. Prerequisite: CS 110, CS Majors may request a waiver from the Undergraduate Director based on prior programming experience. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
MATH 224 - Differential Calculus
WRIT 111 - Inquiry and Academic Writing

WRIT 111 helps first-year students become stronger writers, speakers, and thinkers. The course treats writing as a process, emphasizes revision, and gives students practice in critical thinking and research writing, reinforcing the notion that writing conventions differ according to their rhetorical situations. Formal writing assignments include personal, civic, and academic genres. Prerequisites: first-year students only. Transfer and ESL students by approval of Writing Initiative only. 4 credits. Offered fall and spring semesters. Levels: Undergraduate

Social Science/Humanities Elective - These courses should be selected to fulfill the General Education Composition (C), Global Interdependencies (G), Pluralism (P), Aesthetics (A), Humanities (H), Social Science (N) and Physical Activity/Wellness (Y, S or B) requirements. Students who have not earned an 85 or higher in a NYS foreign language Regents exam must complete one semester of a foreign language. One Free Elective must be in Liberal Arts & Science. At most 2 credits of Physical Activity/Wellness can be counted as free elective credit.

Spring - 16 Credits

CS 140 - Prog with Obj & Data Struct

Assumes a foundation in procedural programming as covered in CS 100 or CS 110. Provides the foundations of software development using Java. Problem solving using object-oriented programming techniques is emphasized. Topics include primitive and reference data types, variables, expressions, assignment, functions/methods, parameters, selection, iteration, recursion, exception handling, generic linear data structures and maps, file types, file I/O, simple GUIs, programming to an interface, use of inheritance, javadoc documentation, and introduction to Java threads. Required laboratory provides supervised problem solving, programming using the command line as well as Eclipse or Netbeans development environments, code backup in a version control repository, debugging and JUnit testing techniques. Prerequisite: CS 110,CS Majors may request a waiver from the Undergraduate Director based on prior programming experience. Offered every semester. Prerequisite math 225 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
MATH 226 - Integration Tech & Application

This is a 2-credit course covering the calculus of transcendental & inverse functions, L’Hospital’s Rule, integral techniques, improper integrals, calculus of parametric curves, and polar coordinates. Prerequisites: Math 225 with a grade of at least a C- or consent of instructor. 2 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

Social Sciences/Humanities Elective - These courses should be selected to fulfill the General Education Composition (C), Global Interdependencies (G), Pluralism (P), Aesthetics (A), Humanities (H), Social Science (N) and Physical Activity/Wellness (Y, S or B) requirements. Students who have not earned an 85 or higher in a NYS foreign language Regents exam must complete one semester of a foreign language. One Free Elective must be in Liberal Arts & Science. At most 2 credits of Physical Activity/Wellness can be counted as free elective credit.

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

Year 2

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 220 - Arch from a Prog Perspective

The architecture and programming of computer systems. Data representation and computer arithmetic. Processor and memory organization. Assembly and machine language programming. Advanced C programming language constructs and their implementation in assembly language. Introduction to system software (assemblers, linkers, loaders, compilers). Supervised laboratory work involves programming and debugging using machine language, assembly language and C. Prerequisite: CS 120 and CS 140 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate

MATH 304 - Linear Algebra

MATH 371 - Ordinary Diff. Equations

Ordinary differential equations from quantitative and qualitative point of view including existence and uniqueness theory, first and second order equations and higher order equations, systems of first order equations, Laplace transforms, series solutions methods. MATH 371 contains the topics of MATH 324 and includes additional topics of the theory of existence and uniqueness, and systems of linear equations. The topics are studied from a more advanced mathematical viewpoint than in MATH 324. Only one of Math 324 and Math 371 can be counted towards math minor. Prerquisites: C or better in both MATH 304 and MATH 330, or consent of instructor. Every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

MATH 381 - Graph Theory

Directed and undirected graphs, trees, connectivity, Eulerian and Hamiltonian graphs, planar graphs, coloring of graphs, graph parameters, optimization and graph algorithms. Prerequisites: C or better in both MATH 304 and either MATH 314 or MATH 330, or consent of instructor. Spring only. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

Spring - 16 Credits

CS 240 - Data Struct & Algorithms

Analysis of the design, implementation, and properties of basic and advanced data structures, including lists, stacks, queues, hash tables, trees, heaps, and graphs. Design and time-space analysis of basic and advanced algorithms, including searching, sorting, insert/delete, hash table collision resolution techniques, recursive functions, balanced tree maintenance, and graph algorithms. Weekly required laboratory programming and three or more additional programming projects in C++. Practical programming techniques including C++ templates and the Standard Template Library (STL), operator overloading, C++ stream I/O, separate compilation using makefiles, debugging tools and techniques, dynamic memory management. Prerequisites: CS 120 and CS 140, and either MATH 226 (may be taken concurrently) OR MATH 230 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
CS 301 - Eth Soc & Global Issues Comput

Communications course with required writing and oral presentations. Understanding the local and global implications of computing in society, including ethical, legal, security and social issues. Developing professional skills related to computing, including effective communication and productive teamwork. Fostering an appreciation for continuing professional development. Should be taken at the same time as or before any junior-level Computer Science courses. Prerequisites: Any General Education "C" course, CS 101, and either CS 220 or CS 240. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 314 - Discrete Mathematics

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

TOTAL 16 credits

Year 3

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 375 - Design & Analysis of Algorithm

Analysis of common algorithms for processing strings, trees, graphs and networks. Comparison of sorting and searching algorithms. Algorithm design strategies: divide and conquer, dynamic, greedy, back tracking, branch and bound. Introduction to NP-completeness. Required activity includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 240, MATH 227 and MATH 314 or MATH 330, CS 301 (may be taken concurrently). (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 327 - Probability with Stat Methods

Development of probabilistic concepts in discrete and absolutely continuous cases. Classical combinatorial methods, independence, random variables, distributions, moments, transformations, conditioning, confidence intervals, estimation. Open to Watson School students only. Does not serve as a prerequisite for MATH 448 or for any actuarial science courses. Prerequisites: C- or better in MATH 227 or MATH 230, or consent of instructor. Every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate
CS 320 - Advanced Computer Architecture

Performance metrics and analysis; instruction set architecture and its implications; high-performance computer arithmetic; instruction pipelines and pipelined datapath implementation; out-of-order execution, register renaming, branch prediction and superscalar processors; caches and memory systems; memory hierarchy; the I/O subsystem; reliable storage systems; introduction to multicore and multithreaded architectures; introduction to GPUs and accelerators. Required lab includes programming projects. Prerequisite: CS 220. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate

Spring - 16 Credits

CS 350 - Operating Systems

Introduction to the design and implementation of operating systems: hardware/software interface; processes and threads; CPU scheduling; virtual memory; memory management; concurrency, race conditions, deadlocks, and synchronization; file and storage systems; input/output; protection and security; virtualization and hypervisors; multi-processor operating systems. Required lab includes programming exercises and presentations. Prerequisites: CS 220 and CS 240 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Prerequisite (May be taken concurrently.): CS 301. Offered every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate
CS 373 - Automata Theory & Formal Lg.

Theory and application of automata and the languages they recognize. Regular languages, finite-state automata, regular expressions, context-free languages, normal forms, pushdown automata, context-sensitive languages, linear bounded automata, Turing machines, computability, transducers. Application of concepts. Required activity includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 140 and either MATH 314 or MATH 330 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate

Free Elective

Year 4

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 471 - Programming Languages

Introduction to the design and implementation of programming languages: linguistic features for expressing algorithms; formal syntax specification; introduction to language semantics and parsing; declarative programming (functional and goal-driven); scripting languages; imperative programming (procedural and object-oriented); comparative design and implementation issues across languages and paradigms. Assignments emphasize languages such as Prolog, Haskell, Python, and Ruby. Required lab includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 373 and 375 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate

Computer Science Elective

Free Elective

Spring - 14 Credits

Computer Science Elective

Free Elective

Free Elective (Physical Activity/Wellness)

Undergraduate Computer Science Program (with CS 110)

For students with limited programming experience

Students without prior programming experience should take CS 110 in Fall and either CS 120 or CS 140 in the Spring—visit the CS advisor before attempting CS 120 and CS 140 together. (CS 110 counts as a free elective)

Year 1

Fall - 17 Credits

CS 101 - Prof Skills Ethics & CS Trends
CS 110 - Pgming Concepts&Applic

An introductory course for students with little or no programming experience. Basic control flow, data types, simple data structures and functions using a scripting language. Developing code using an integrated environment. The basics of directories, files and file types, including text files. Simple examples of the applications enabled by a modern, platform-independent scripting language such as GUIs, event handling, and database access. This course is open to all students who have not taken any other CS courses (with the exception of CS 105) and under these conditions, can count as free-elective credit for CS majors. Offered every semester. Prerequisite (May be taken concurrently. ): Math 225. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 224 - Differential Calculus
WRIT 111 - Inquiry and Academic Writing

WRIT 111 helps first-year students become stronger writers, speakers, and thinkers. The course treats writing as a process, emphasizes revision, and gives students practice in critical thinking and research writing, reinforcing the notion that writing conventions differ according to their rhetorical situations. Formal writing assignments include personal, civic, and academic genres. Prerequisites: first-year students only. Transfer and ESL students by approval of Writing Initiative only. 4 credits. Offered fall and spring semesters. Levels: Undergraduate

Spring - 16 Credits

CS 120 - Prog & Hardware Fundamentals

Introduction to the C programming language, including local and global variables, basic control structures, function calls, pointers and the stack; use of command-line C development environments and development tools such as gdb and make; assembly language connection to higher-level C; building blocks of the Von Neumann machine (ALU, registers, control unit, RAM, decoders, program counters) and the underlying basic logic elements; simple non-pipelined processor architectures. Supervised laboratory work involves programming in C and low-level languages, interfacing with hardware, and the design and simulation of small circuits and simplified microprocessors. Prerequisite MATH 225 that may be taken concurrently. Prerequisite: CS 110, CS Majors may request a waiver from the Undergraduate Director based on prior programming experience. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
MATH 226 - Integration Tech & Application

This is a 2-credit course covering the calculus of transcendental & inverse functions, L’Hospital’s Rule, integral techniques, improper integrals, calculus of parametric curves, and polar coordinates. Prerequisites: Math 225 with a grade of at least a C- or consent of instructor. 2 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

Year 2

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 140 - Prog with Obj & Data Struct

Assumes a foundation in procedural programming as covered in CS 100 or CS 110. Provides the foundations of software development using Java. Problem solving using object-oriented programming techniques is emphasized. Topics include primitive and reference data types, variables, expressions, assignment, functions/methods, parameters, selection, iteration, recursion, exception handling, generic linear data structures and maps, file types, file I/O, simple GUIs, programming to an interface, use of inheritance, javadoc documentation, and introduction to Java threads. Required laboratory provides supervised problem solving, programming using the command line as well as Eclipse or Netbeans development environments, code backup in a version control repository, debugging and JUnit testing techniques. Prerequisite: CS 110,CS Majors may request a waiver from the Undergraduate Director based on prior programming experience. Offered every semester. Prerequisite math 225 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate

MATH 304 - Linear Algebra

MATH 371 - Ordinary Diff. Equations

Ordinary differential equations from quantitative and qualitative point of view including existence and uniqueness theory, first and second order equations and higher order equations, systems of first order equations, Laplace transforms, series solutions methods. MATH 371 contains the topics of MATH 324 and includes additional topics of the theory of existence and uniqueness, and systems of linear equations. The topics are studied from a more advanced mathematical viewpoint than in MATH 324. Only one of Math 324 and Math 371 can be counted towards math minor. Prerquisites: C or better in both MATH 304 and MATH 330, or consent of instructor. Every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

MATH 381 - Graph Theory

Directed and undirected graphs, trees, connectivity, Eulerian and Hamiltonian graphs, planar graphs, coloring of graphs, graph parameters, optimization and graph algorithms. Prerequisites: C or better in both MATH 304 and either MATH 314 or MATH 330, or consent of instructor. Spring only. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

Spring - 16 Credits

CS 240 - Data Struct & Algorithms

Analysis of the design, implementation, and properties of basic and advanced data structures, including lists, stacks, queues, hash tables, trees, heaps, and graphs. Design and time-space analysis of basic and advanced algorithms, including searching, sorting, insert/delete, hash table collision resolution techniques, recursive functions, balanced tree maintenance, and graph algorithms. Weekly required laboratory programming and three or more additional programming projects in C++. Practical programming techniques including C++ templates and the Standard Template Library (STL), operator overloading, C++ stream I/O, separate compilation using makefiles, debugging tools and techniques, dynamic memory management. Prerequisites: CS 120 and CS 140, and either MATH 226 (may be taken concurrently) OR MATH 230 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
CS 301 - Eth Soc & Global Issues Comput

Communications course with required writing and oral presentations. Understanding the local and global implications of computing in society, including ethical, legal, security and social issues. Developing professional skills related to computing, including effective communication and productive teamwork. Fostering an appreciation for continuing professional development. Should be taken at the same time as or before any junior-level Computer Science courses. Prerequisites: Any General Education "C" course, CS 101, and either CS 220 or CS 240. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 314 - Discrete Mathematics

Science - Must have a science sequence and one other L course, see Bulletin for details.

Year 3

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 220 - Arch from a Prog Perspective

The architecture and programming of computer systems. Data representation and computer arithmetic. Processor and memory organization. Assembly and machine language programming. Advanced C programming language constructs and their implementation in assembly language. Introduction to system software (assemblers, linkers, loaders, compilers). Supervised laboratory work involves programming and debugging using machine language, assembly language and C. Prerequisite: CS 120 and CS 140 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
CS 375 - Design & Analysis of Algorithm

Analysis of common algorithms for processing strings, trees, graphs and networks. Comparison of sorting and searching algorithms. Algorithm design strategies: divide and conquer, dynamic, greedy, back tracking, branch and bound. Introduction to NP-completeness. Required activity includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 240, MATH 227 and MATH 314 or MATH 330, CS 301 (may be taken concurrently). (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 327 - Probability with Stat Methods

Development of probabilistic concepts in discrete and absolutely continuous cases. Classical combinatorial methods, independence, random variables, distributions, moments, transformations, conditioning, confidence intervals, estimation. Open to Watson School students only. Does not serve as a prerequisite for MATH 448 or for any actuarial science courses. Prerequisites: C- or better in MATH 227 or MATH 230, or consent of instructor. Every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate

Spring - 14 Credits

CS 320 - Advanced Computer Architecture

Performance metrics and analysis; instruction set architecture and its implications; high-performance computer arithmetic; instruction pipelines and pipelined datapath implementation; out-of-order execution, register renaming, branch prediction and superscalar processors; caches and memory systems; memory hierarchy; the I/O subsystem; reliable storage systems; introduction to multicore and multithreaded architectures; introduction to GPUs and accelerators. Required lab includes programming projects. Prerequisite: CS 220. Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate
CS 350 - Operating Systems

Introduction to the design and implementation of operating systems: hardware/software interface; processes and threads; CPU scheduling; virtual memory; memory management; concurrency, race conditions, deadlocks, and synchronization; file and storage systems; input/output; protection and security; virtualization and hypervisors; multi-processor operating systems. Required lab includes programming exercises and presentations. Prerequisites: CS 220 and CS 240 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Prerequisite (May be taken concurrently.): CS 301. Offered every semester. 4 credits. Levels: Undergraduate
CS 373 - Automata Theory & Formal Lg.

Theory and application of automata and the languages they recognize. Regular languages, finite-state automata, regular expressions, context-free languages, normal forms, pushdown automata, context-sensitive languages, linear bounded automata, Turing machines, computability, transducers. Application of concepts. Required activity includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 140 and either MATH 314 or MATH 330 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate

Year 4

Fall - 16 Credits

CS 471 - Programming Languages

Introduction to the design and implementation of programming languages: linguistic features for expressing algorithms; formal syntax specification; introduction to language semantics and parsing; declarative programming (functional and goal-driven); scripting languages; imperative programming (procedural and object-oriented); comparative design and implementation issues across languages and paradigms. Assignments emphasize languages such as Prolog, Haskell, Python, and Ruby. Required lab includes student presentations. Prerequisites: CS 373 and 375 (All prerequisites must have a grade of C- or better). Offered every semester. 4 credits Levels: Undergraduate

Computer Science Elective

Free Elective

Spring - 14 Credits

Computer Science Elective

Free Elective

Free Elective (Physical Activity/Wellness)

Supplemental information

The following information supplements that provided in the University Bulletin. It applies to students who matriculated Fall 2016 or after.

All required Computer Science courses, except CS 101, are offered every semester. The minimum grade in a required Computer Science course must be at least a C- to be allowed to take any Computer Science course, for which it is a prerequisite.

Calculus Topics are broken down as follows:

MATH 224 - Differential Calculus
MATH 225 - Integral Calculus
MATH 226 - Integration Tech & Application

This is a 2-credit course covering the calculus of transcendental & inverse functions, L’Hospital’s Rule, integral techniques, improper integrals, calculus of parametric curves, and polar coordinates. Prerequisites: Math 225 with a grade of at least a C- or consent of instructor. 2 credits. Levels: Undergraduate
MATH 227 - Infinite Series

Humanities/Social Science – May be filled by courses offered by the Division of Humanities, the Division of Social Sciences, the Psychology Department and HDEV courses offered by the College of Community and Public Affairs. Many of the courses taken to meet the General Education requirements will fulfill the Humanities/Social Science requirement.

Mathematics - Students who are strong in math are encouraged to take MATH 330 (Number Systems) instead of MATH 314 (Discrete Mathematics). Students with a strong math background may take MATH 381 (Graph Theory) as their Math elective. The following Binghamton University course can be substituted for MATH 327: MATH 448 (Introduction to Probability and Statistics II).

Free Electives – May be filled by extra courses from any of the areas listed above, SOM courses, or additional Computer Science courses. A maximum of 2 HWS credits may be counted as Free Elective credits. At least four of these credits must be in humanities, social sciences, arts and other disciplines (excluding computer science) that provide breadth of background. CS 110 counts as a free elective.