Program Specifics - Master of Science in Advancing Computer Science

Software development and computer science are moving in new directions, and in order to capture these movements, a modern day software developer needs to stay abreast of these changes. New algorithmic structures, code metaphors, and programming languages are being developed to capture new architectures and paradigms in software development. Advancing computer science aims to capture the fluid movement of software development and to advance the field further through the development of cutting edge research and applications.

Program Objectives

·         Students will research advancing technology topics.

·         They will develop the ability to forecast change in a technology-oriented environment.

·         They will learn how to utilize theoretical as well as applied knowledge.

·         Students will acquire a basic understanding of statistical methods for use in research and problem solving.

Some of the projects during their program of study include:

·         assess and develop applications for new code architectures such as distributed computing and neural networks;

·         integrate new programming languages into application development, focusing on the strengths of these new languages over current languages and practices in software development;

·         develop within a Context Driven Architecture (CoDA) to build applications that provide what is needed to the user when it is needed;

·         analyze and develop within a new software development paradigm, such as, but not limited to, scrum, agile, or extreme programming, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages to traditional software development.

Courses and Program Credits

All students enrolled in the Master of Science in Advancing Computer Science must complete 36 credits, including:

Technology coursework of 30 credits from ten of these courses:

MSC530 Research Methods

MSC531 Statistical Methods for Technology Research

MSC545 Forecasting Emergent Technologies

MSE540 Software Development Paradigms

MSE541 Emerging Programming Languages

MSE571 Application Testing and Metrics

MSE664 Agent Based Models

MSE669 Neural Networks

MSE678 Context Driven Architectures

MSE679 Parallel programming

MSE575 Robotics and Autonomous Agents

MSE593 Software and Simulation

Thesis coursework of 6 credits from these three courses:

MSC690 Thesis 1

MSC691 Thesis 2

MSC692 Thesis 3

Additionally, members of the co-op student will cohort to complete the following cultural development seminars to support their co-op experiences:

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Other Authorizations and Accreditation

• Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) , A CHEA.org  Accreditation Member
• Licensed by the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education http://azppse.state.az.us/
• Certified by the US Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/
• Designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security
• Network Security programs certified by the US National Security Agency's Information Assurance Courseware Evaluation program for 4011 CNSS National Standard for Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) Professionals and 4013 National Standard for System Administrators in Information Systems Security (INFOSEC)
• Programs approved for the training of veterans
• Approved by the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS) for training of foreign students http://www.ice.gov/sevis/index.htm
• Alpha Beta Kappa Honor Society
• Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Member http://www.acm.org/
• Arizona Student Chapter of SIGGRAPH http://www.siggraph.org/
• American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), Member
• Western Association of Student Employment Administrators, Member
• Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Member http://www.ieee.org/
• Arizona Veterans Association, Member
• Better Business Bureau, Member http://www.phoenix.bbb.org/
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), Member http://www.nasfaa.org/
• NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Member
• National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), member http://www.naspa.org
• The Association of College and University Housing Officers International (ACUHO-I), member http://www.acuho-i.