Revised MS Program in Computer Science INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT May 2003 Presented by: Dr. Khaled Salah

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Agenda Reasons for Revision AC Recommendations Comparison with Existing MSCS program Program Requirements and Coursework Philosophy Curriculum Design Degree Plan Feedback from Academia and Industry Comparisons with MSCS Programs in North America Addressing AC Recommendations Summary

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science AC Recommendations NO. 14/ Lack of adequate depth in the program Absence of prerequisites A minimum of subject area courses related to a thesis topic

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Reasons of Revision Rapid growth and changes in Computer Science field High demand in the Kingdom for Computer Scientists with the advanced knowledge and skills Ensuring that our MS program is inline with those programs offered at reputable universities in North America

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison with Existing MSCS Program

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Program Requirements and Coursework Philosophy The revised MSCS program is designed with the objective of providing a well-balanced breadth and depth knowledge at the graduate level, with some degree of flexibility. All students are required to complete 24-credit hours of coursework, 6-credit hours of thesis, and a seminar course. The coursework requirement is broken down into: –Core coursework requirement (Breadth Requirement) Four core courses Three philosophies exist –Elective coursework requirement Four elective courses

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Philosophies for Core Coursework Requirement I. No-Core Requirement –All courses are elective II. Fixed-Core Requirement –The program has a certain number of fixed core courses. These courses are considered as a must-have competence. III. Selective-Core Requirement –Students must complete a breadth requirement by taking three or four courses of either a list of courses or courses within a set of subject areas. The revised program has adopted a combination of fixed and selective core philosophies, with more weight on the selective core philosophy. Most common and current trend Philosophy I is too loose As for Philosophy II, we believe student should be able to pursue advanced-level studies as long as he meets Core Background Requirement + One Fixed Core. Not new at KFUPM -- adopted by EE & ME Depts.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Coursework Requirement Core Background Requirement Breadth Requirement Elective Requirement

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Core Background Requirement Any applicant must have a strong background in the following areas: –Data Structures –Computer Organization –Algorithms –Programming Languages –Database Systems –Computer Networks –Operating Systems Unsatisfactory background in any of these areas is considered a deficiency Deficiencies cannot exceed four courses

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Breadth Requirement KEY OBJECTIVE: –CS discipline is very diverse. The program must provide an advanced holistic view of the discipline for these important and popular topics, with some degree of flexibility that matches the interest of the individual student. The following steps were taken to meet this objective: –Classify courses into a number of subject areas –Identify core subject areas which are important and popular –Identify a set of courses from each core subject area that would constitute adequate representation of the area –These set of courses are the core courses.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Breadth Requirement (Cont.) Four core courses –ICS 553 is a fixed core course and must be taken by all students. TOUGH Course. –The other three core courses are selective and must be taken such that each course is from a different subject area. The qualified subject areas and their qualified core courses are shown. Breadth Requirement flexibility –Allowing the individual student to select three core subject areas out of four and have a choice in taking different core courses –Offering a variety of courses from the same area, as opposed to having fixed core courses that must be offered once per academic year

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Elective Requirement The four remaining 3-credit-hour courses are counted as elective courses. –The four electives courses must include at least two ICS courses. –Other elective courses can be taken from departments of related discipline such as COE, SE, MATH, and EE. Graduate courses from other departments are also allowed. –Students must seek ICS departmental approval prior to taking non-ICS elective courses.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Curriculum Design The curriculum of the revised MSCS program was designed with the goal of: –meeting the rapid growth and change in computing –meeting the increasing demand for highly qualified computer professionals in the Kingdom Introduction of newly subject areas such as Net-Centric Computing and Applied Computing Modifications and update were made to courses within subject areas

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Curriculum Design (Cont.)

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Degree Plan Item 3 of Academic Program states:

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Feedback from Academia and Industry Experts in the field of CS from North America and Europe reviewed the program. Experts had ties to both academia and industry. Local industry feedback. Comments were very favorable and positive in regards to selectivity and flexibility, making a better fit for both PhD and Industry paths. –Saudi Aramco –CISCO Saudi Arabia –SABIC Q u o t e s: –“… the program looks very strong and quite practical for our needs..” –“…Two specific areas of interest to us are Software Engineering and Net-Centric Computing..” –“…the program is strong, practical and offer flexibility…” –“…was impressed that it is modeled after international reputable universities and keeping up to date…” –“…find the flexibility given to the students is very positive…” –“…consider the option of completing the MS program with no thesis...”

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparisons with MSCS Programs in North America Degree Requirement Coursework Philosophy Curriculum and Courses

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison -- Degree Requirement The revised degree requirement is very much inline

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison -- Coursework Philosophy The philosophy of having selective core requirement is the most common among all. The revised program has adopted a combination of fixed and selective core philosophies, with more weight on the selective core philosophy.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison -- Curriculum and Courses The subject areas of our revised program are inline with popular MSCS programs in North America. Core subject areas match these of most popular.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Addressing AC Recommendations NO. 14/ Lack of adequate depth in the program –Core Courses 1 Fixed and 3 Selective vs. 4 Selective –Narrowed selectivity in some subject areas Net-Centric Computing –Two subject area courses are required for a thesis topic Absence of prerequisites –SWE no change –Systems no change –Theory ICS 553 is a prerequisite to ICS 554 and ICS 556 –Net-Centric Computing Already had prerequisites. ICS 570 is a prerequisite to ICS 571, ICS 572, and ICS 575 –AI ICS 581 is a prerequisite to ICS 585 and ICS 586 A minimum of subject area courses related to a thesis topic Item 7 of Academic Program states: The approved research topic of thesis must be related to a subject area in which the student had taken at least two graduate courses.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Software Engineering -- Prerequisites The listed universities have no “Traditional” depth at graduate level. The prerequisites of all the graduate courses are at 300/400 level.

May 2003 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Summary The revised MSCS program meets the requirements of: –The rapid growth, change, and high demand in the discipline –Ensuring high quality and being inline with current and most popular curriculum design and pedagogy. The program is very much comparable to those offered at highly reputable universities in North American. The program has a well-balanced requirement of breadth and depth with some degree of flexibility.