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Department of Computer Science and Mathematics
algorithm stepwise refinement, pseudo-code,
introduction to the object-oriented paradigm
(abstraction, objects, classes, entity and
application classes, class libraries, methods,
encapsulation, class interaction, aggregation),
inheritance, error types, simple testing and
debugging, 1-D and 2-D arrays, basic searching,
and sorting algorithms.
CSC245 Objects and Data Abstraction:
This course presents further techniques of
object oriented programming and problem
solving, with emphasis on abstraction and
data structures. Topics include: object
oriented concepts, such as, composition,
inheritance, polymorphism, information
hiding, and interfaces; basic program design
and correctness, such as, abstract data
types, preconditions and post conditions,
assertions and loop invariants, testing, basic
exception handling, and the application of
algorithm design techniques. The course
also covers: basic algorithmic analysis, time
and space tradeoffs in algorithms, big-O
notation; fundamental data structures and
applications, such as, collections, single- and
double-linked structures, stacks, queues, and
trees; performance issues for data structures;
recursion, more sorting algorithms.
Prerequisite: CSC 243: Introduction to Object
Oriented Programming.
CSC310 Algorithms and Data Structures:
This course presents the fundamental
computing algorithms and data structures,
with emphasis on design and analysis. Topics
include the asymptotic analysis of upper
and average complexity bounds, the best,
the average, and the worst, case behaviors.
Recurrence relations, sets, hashing and hash
tables, trees and binary trees (properties,
tree traversal algorithms), heaps, priority
queues, and graphs (representation, depthand
breadth-first traversals and applications,
shortest-path algorithms, transitive closure,
network flows, topological sort). The course also
covers the sorting algorithms and performance
analysis which include mergesort, quicksort
and heapsort. As well, the course details the
fundamental algorithmic strategies (divideand-conquer
approach, greedy, dynamic
programming, and backtracking). Introduction
to NP-completeness theory.
Prerequisites: CSC 245: Objects and Data Abstraction
and MTH207: Discrete Structures I.
CSC320 Computer Organization [3 cr.]
Overview of the history of the digital computer,
representation of numeric data, introduction
to digital logic, logic expressions and Boolean
functions, logic functions minimization.
Processor and system performance,
Amdahl’s law. Introduction to reconfigurable
logic and special-purpose processors.
Introduction to instruction set architecture,
and microarchitecture. Processor structures,
instruction sequencing, control flow, subroutine
call and return mechanism, structure of
machine-level programs, low level architectural
support for high-level languages. Memory
hierarchy, latency and throughput, cache
memories: operating principles, replacement
policies, multilevel cache, and cache coherency.
Register-transfer language to describe internal
operations in a computer, instruction pipelining
and instruction-level parallelism (ILP), overview
of superscalar architectures. Multicore and
multithreaded processors.
Co-requisite: CSC 245: Objects and Data
Abstraction, MTH 207: Discrete Structures I.
CSC323 Digital Systems Design [3-0, 3 cr.]
The course introduces students to the
organization, and architecture, of computer
systems. Topics include the fundamental
building blocks of digital logic (logic gates, flipflops,
counters, registers), programmable logic
devices, (logic expressions, minimization, sum of
product forms), register transfer notation, finite
state machines, physical considerations, data
representation, numeric data representation
and number bases, representation of
nonnumeric data, digital circuit modeling, HDL
(VHDL, Verilog), simulation of digital circuit
models, synthesis of digital circuits from HDL
models, and the hierarchical and modular
design of digital systems (simple data paths
and hardwired control unit realization) as well
as the introduction to embedded systems.
Prerequisite: CSC243 Introduction to Object
Oriented Programming.
CSC 326 Operating Systems:
Introduces the fundamentals of operating
systems design and implementation. Topics
include operating system components; process
scheduling; interprocess communication;
process synchronization (semaphores and
monitors); mutual exclusion problem; deadlock
handling mechanisms; concurrent execution;
multithreading; interrupt handling in a concurrent
environment; mutual exclusion; virtual memory;
page placement and replacement policies;
caching; fundamental concepts of file systems.
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