1. Revised MS Program in Computer Science INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT October 2002

2. INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Agenda Reasons for Revision Program Requirements and Coursework Philosophy Curriculum Design Degree Plan Comparisons with MSCS Programs in North America Summary

3. October 2002 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

4. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Program Requirements and Coursework Philosophy The proposed 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

5. October 2002 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. –We adopted this philosophy: Most common and current trend Not new at KFUPM -- adopted by EE & ME Depts. 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

6. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Coursework Requirement Core Background Requirement Breadth Requirement Elective Requirement

7. October 2002 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

8. October 2002 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.

9. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Breadth Requirement (Cont.) Four core courses –These four core courses must be taken such that each course is from a different core subject area Breadth Requirement flexibility –Allowing the individual student to select four core subject areas out of five –Offering a variety of courses from the same area, as opposed to having fixed core courses that must be offered once per academic year Subject AreaCore Subject AreaCore Course Software EngineeringYesAny course SystemsYesAny course TheoryYesICS 552 or ICS 553 Net-Centric ComputingYesICS 570 or ICS 571 or ICS 572 Artificial IntelligenceYesICS 581 or ICS 583 or ICS 584 ApplicationsNoNone

10. October 2002 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 with prior ICS departmental approval. The MSCS program gives the student the freedom to have an adequate in-depth study of a certain subject area by possibly taking five courses from one area –This option is attractive for students who conduct in-depth research of a certain topic The program allows student to have a wide advanced knowledge of the discipline by taking the four elective courses from other subject areas or other departments –This option is attractive for students who their research work is multidisciplinary –This option is also attractive for students who would like to have advanced wide scope of CS topics and skills to meet these required by the industry and job market in the Kingdom

11. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Curriculum Design The curriculum of the proposed 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 Applications Modifications and update were made to courses within subject areas

12. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Curriculum Design (Cont.) Area 1: Software Engineering ICS 511Software Project Management ICS 512Software Requirement Engineering ICS 513Software Design ICS 514Software Validation, Verification, and Quality Assurance ICS 519Special Topics in Software Engineering Area 2: Systems ICS 531Advanced Operating Systems ICS 532Performance Analysis and Evaluation ICS 533Modeling and Simulation of Computer Systems ICS 535Design and Implementation of Programming languages ICS 536Architecture and Design of Computer Systems ICS 537Real Time Systems ICS 539Special Topics in Systems Area 3: Theory ICS 552Theory of Computation ICS 553Advanced Computer Algorithms ICS 554Applied Combinatorics and Graph Theory ICS 555Data Security and Encryption ICS 556Parallel Algorithms ICS 559Special Topics in Theoretical Computer Science Area 4: Net-Centric Computing ICS 570 Advanced Computer Networking ICS 571 Client Server Programming ICS 572 Distributed Computing ICS 573 High-Performance Computing ICS 575 Application Development for Internet Based Services ICS 576Concurrent and Parallel Processing ICS 579Special Topics in Net-Centric Computing CSE 550 Computer Network Design CSE 551 Computer and Network Security CSE 552 Network Management CSE 553 Fault Tolerance and Reliability in Computer Networks CSE 554Modeling and Analysis of Computer Networks CSE 555 Protocol Engineering CSE 559 Special Topics in Computer Network Design and Management Area 5: Artificial Intelligence ICS 581Advanced Artificial Intelligence ICS 582Natural Language Processing ICS 583Pattern Recognition ICS 584Automated Theorem Proving ICS 585Knowledge-Based Systems ICS 586Neural Networks ICS 589Special Topics in A.I. Area 6: Applications ICS 541Database Design and Implementation ICS 542Multimedia Computing ICS 543Advanced Computer Graphics ICS 544E-Commerce ICS 549Special Topics in Applications Subject AreaCore Course Software EngineeringAny course SystemsAny course TheoryICS 552 or ICS 553 Net-Centric ComputingICS 570 or ICS 571 or ICS 572 Artificial IntelligenceICS 581 or ICS 583 or ICS 584 ApplicationsNone

13. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Degree Plan

14. October 2002 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 Several experts in the field of CS from North America and Europe reviewed the program. Suggestions of the reviewers were taken into consideration when preparing this version of the revised program. Aside

15. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison -- Degree Requirement The proposed degree requirement is very much inline

16. October 2002 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 proposed program has adopted this philosophy.

17. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Comparison -- Curriculum and Courses The subject areas of our proposed program are inline of popular MSCS programs in North America. Core subject areas match these of most popular.

18. October 2002 INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Revised MS Program in Computer Science Summary The proposed 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.