Course listings are taken from the 2002-2004 Wagner College Undergraduate Bulletin. Courses added since this bulletin are partially listed in the Registrar's section of this website.
Computer Science Courses
106 Computer Competency Fundamentals. All students must demonstrate computer literacy by a successful completion of this course or by means of a test (obtaining a grade of C or better on either). This course examines the history of computers and their role in society and business. Hands-on experience using microcomputers, and networks. Fundamentals of PC operating systems, electronic mail processing, word processing, spreadsheets, database management and internet. This course may be waived if a higher-level coputer science course is taken. This is a course for non-computer-science majors. Offered fall and spring semesters.*
107 Computers: Fundamentals of Networking and Internet. This course focuses on the Internet, the world's largest computer network. Topics include: basic principles of networking, Internet specifics, Internet browsers, remote computer usage - Telnet, FTP, HTM language, and basics of JAVA programming. This is a course for non-computer-science majors. Offered fall and spring semesters.*
130 Introduction to Programming. 130 (or 132) and 142 constitute a two-semester sequence. Introduction to computer hardware, internal data representation, machine language, algorithms and object-oriented and structured programming techniques. Basic control structures such as sequencing, branching and loops, as well as basic data structures such as integers, real numbers, characters, arrays, pointers and classes are exemplified through various examples. Offered fall and spring semesters.*
132 Object-Oriented Software Development for the World-Wide-Web. Design and analysis of programs with special emphasis on Object-Oriented Programming in a GUI environment. Classes and their relationships, object building, derivation and inheritance are covered in depth using JAVA language. Class overloading, virtual functions and polymorphic techniques are addressed as well. Incorporation of Applet programs written JAVA into Web applications are discussed in depth. This course involves several hands-on programming exercises. Offered fall semester. *
142 Techniques of Programming. Continuation of 130 (or 132). Design and analysis of programs with special emphasis on Object-Oriented programming. Classes, functions, files and pointers are covered in depth. Topics such as information hiding, separate compilation, personal libraries and linking, as well as recursive techniques for control and data structures are discussed and implemented. Data encapsulation and information hiding are covered through various related projects that include using classes, their constructors and destructors. Class inheritance and derivations, class templates and overloading, virtual functions and polymorphisms are studied and examined through several hands-on projects. Prerequisite: Computer Science 130 or 132. Offered spring semester.*
212 Computer Graphics. Point and line drawing techniques, planar transformations, clipping, windowing, graphics packages, survey of graphics hardware, interactive graphics. Additional topics to be chosen from raster graphics, curves and surfaces, perspective, shading, hidden-surface elimination. Prerequisites: Computer Science 132 or 142. Offered spring semester.*
251 Data Structures. Arrays, stacks, queues, lists, trees, tries, with applications to sorting and searching. Prerequisite: Computer Science 142. Corequisite: Mathematics 230. Offered fall semester.*
252 Assembler Language. Data representation, instruction type and format, branching, stacks, subroutines, procedures, assembling, linking, and macros. Prerequisite: Computer Science 142. Offered spring semester.*
322 Database Programming and Connectivity (education course). This course in computer applications is the intermediate learning community in conjunction with Education 414: Methods and Curriculum Development for Inclusive Middle Childhood Education Grades 4-8 for students pursuing teacher preparation. This learning community integrates the various components of a middle school classroom such as literacy development, curriculum, classroom management, instructional strategies, and assessment with the techniques of designing Database Management Systems and interfacing them using Programming language JAVA for easy but controlled access from the World Wide Web. By taking these two courses simultaneously students will learn to build a Database Management System (DBMS) interfaced with the World Wide Web as part of their middle school (4-8) interdisciplinary thematic unit. Developing their DBMS in conjunction with their thematic unit will be a semester-long project on which students will work in both learning community courses in a synchronized manner. During the latter part of the second half of the semester, students will work in a middle level classroom setting during their practicum or field experience. At this time, students will have the opportunity to test out their DBMS with middle school students and evaluate the application and successful use of the DBMS that they have created. Prerequisite: Education 210, 326, 335 and admission into the teacher preparation program. Offered each semester.*
325 Theory of Computation. Mathematical foundations of computer science. Formal languages: lexical, context-free, context-sensitive, type 0. Automata: Finite, Push-down, Linear-bound Turing machines, Chomsky's hierarchy. Prerequisites: Computer Science 130 and Mathematics 230 or permission of the instructor. Offered spring semesters.
343 A Comparative Study of Contemporary Operating Systems. The material covered in the course will include in a comparative study, the features of UNIX, Windows 2000, XP, Linux and other current operating systems. Their respective environments and their accommodations of programming and networking related issues will be studied at length. Available file systems, tools utilities, as well as debuggers and other supporting tools are discussed on a comparative basis. Prerequisites: Computer Science 130 or 132. It is recommended that this course be completed in the Sophomore or Junior year.*
345 Database Systems. The material covered in the course will include: organization, storage and retrieval of large bodies or relatively uniform or structured data, it's physical storage, and useful data structure techniques for common database operations. The main part of the course covers the main models of data - the relational model, the network model and the hierarchical model. Emphasis is on the relational model. Current Database Management Systems Overview, as well as SQL Basics and Standards are covered as well. Prequisite: Computer Science 251. Offered fall semester.*
Information Systems Courses
352 Computer Networks, Network Programming and Distributed Applications. This course focuses on design and implementation of network-distributed systems. Topics include: basic principles of networking, network topology and protocols, client/server applications using state machines and communication protocol techniques, and network programming utilizing JAVA facilities (socket interface, IDL and remote method invocations) security. Prerequisite: Computer Science 251. Offered spring semester.*
353 Computer Networks, LAN and WAN Technologies and Techniques. This course will examine the issues facing Local and Wide Area Network designers and administrators. While some of the technologies will be explored, most time will be spent investigating the techniques necessary to make them work. Students will become familiar with real networks exhibiting the decisions and problems inherent in modern LANs and WANs. Prerequisite: Computer Science 142. Offered fall semester.*
397 Information Systems Experience Work-study at an approved computer science facility under the supervision of a faculty member. Offered fall and spring semesters.
400 Senior Reflective Tutorial Students complete a field experience at an approved information systems facility or they execute a theoretical research project. An undergraduate thesis is presented. Prerequisites: Computer Science 251, 252. Offered and spring (with Information Systems 550, capstone course) semesters.
453 Operating Systems. History of operating systems; console operation, batch mode, multiprogramming, timesharing, and real-time systems. File management, job scheduling, memory management, device management, processes, semaphores and concurrent programming, virtual machines, and computer networks. Prerequisites: Mathematics 121 or 124 and Computer Science 251, 252. Offered fall semester.*
497 Information Systems Experience. Work-study at an approved information systems facility under the supervision of a faculty member. Offered fall and spring semesters.
522 Database Programming and Connectivity. This course focuses on current database programming techniques and methodologies. Topics include: Database Management Systems Overview, SQL, Basics and Standards, Relational Database Primer, Database Drivers Features and Availability, ODBC, JDBC, Database Connectivity Application Programming Interface, Interfacing Databases by Applications Generating Database Queries in SQL, Integrating the Techniques of Database Programming and Interfacing into the WWW. Prerequisite: Computer Science 142. Offered fall semester.*
550 Electronic Commerce. Capstone course. This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of the electronic commerce environment and key issues involved in its implementation. Students are going to learn how to build the front-end, middleware, and back-end components that drive electronic commerce. Prerequisites: Information Systems 522 or permission of instructor. Offered spring semester.*
591 Special Topics. Topics selected according to student interest. This course will provide students with an opportunity to study a particular area related to computers that may not be provided in the regular offerings, or to continue their study beyond an existing course offering. Prerequisite: permission of the department. Offered periodically; consult department chair.
593 Independent Study. An opportunity for an advanced student to work independently, under the direction of a faculty member, on some topic not included in the regular offerings. Prerequisite: permission of the department.
595 Seminar. Attendance is required at every meeting; at least one paper must be presented by each student. This course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the department. Prerequisites: junior standing and permission of the department. Offered periodically; consult department chair.
* A nonrefundable laboratory fee is required.
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