Computer Science (CSCI)
The undergraduate programs in computer science stress fundamental principles of computational thinking, including solid theoretical underpinnings, computational methods and models for solving problems, principles for designing computing systems to meet human needs, and techniques for analyzing the effectiveness of these methods, models, and systems. They provide students with the conceptual foundation needed to stay at the front of this fast-changing field. For most courses, classroom learning is enhanced through significant faculty-directed hands-on experience, typically in the form of a regularly scheduled laboratory.
Graduates typically take entry-level positions in hardware and software systems application and design or continue their education at the graduate level.
Program Educational Objectives for the Bachelor of Science Degree
Computer Science degree graduates will be successful professionals in computer science or other fields, and will be recognized for qualities associated with their Bucknell education. Such qualities include critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. Graduates will be prepared to pursue life-long learning such as professional or advanced education.
A computer science major may be pursued under any one of three degree programs: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering (see College of Engineering ). The department also offers a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering degree jointly with the electrical engineering department (see College of Engineering ). The Bachelor of Science in computer science degree program is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. Students interested in the computer science major should consult the department concerning the choice of degree program.
Bachelor of Arts Major
The Bachelor of Arts major curriculum provides the student with an opportunity to combine the liberal arts tradition with strong preparation in computer science. It requires 8 and one-half course credits in Computer Science.
| CSCI 203 | Introduction to Computer Science I | 1 |
| CSCI 204 | Introduction to Computer Science II | 1 |
| CSCI 205 | Software Engineering and Design | 1 |
| CSCI 206 | Computer Organization and Programming | 1 |
| CSCI 208 | Programming Language Design 1 | 1 |
| CSCI 240 | Computers and Society 2 | .5 |
| CSCI 311 | Algorithms and Data Structures 1 | 1 |
| CSCI 315 | Operating Systems Design | 1 |
| CSCI 479 | Computer Science Design Project 3,4 | 1 |
| MATH 201 | Calculus I | 1 |
| MATH 202 | Calculus II | 1 |
| MATH 211 | Calculus III | 1 |
| MATH 226 | Probability and Statistics for Engineers 2 | .5 |
| MATH 241 | Discrete Structures | 1 |
| Total Credits | 13 | |
| 1 | Students may substitute one 300-level elective for either CSCI 208 or CSCI 311. |
| 2 | Half course. |
| 3 | Course addresses the writing, presentation, and information literacy requirements of the College Core Curriculum. |
| 4 | Serves as the Culminating Experience in computer science. |
The recommended sequence for the Bachelor of Arts major is as follows:
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 203 | 1 | CSCI 204 | 1 |
| MATH 201 | 1 | MATH 202 | 1 |
| Foundation Seminar | 1 | Lab Science | 1 |
| Elective | 1 | CCC5 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Sophomore | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 205 | 1 | CSCI 206 | 1 |
| MATH 211 | 1 | MATH 241 | 1 |
| CCC5 | 1 | CCC5 | 1 |
| Elective | 1 | Elective | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Junior | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 2086 | 1 | CSCI 240 | .5 |
| CSCI 315 | 1 | CSCI 3116 | 1 |
| MATH 226 | .5 | CCC5 | 1 |
| CCC5 | 1 | Elective | 1 |
| Elective | 1 | ||
| 4.5 | 3.5 | ||
| Senior | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 479 | 1 | CCC5 | 1 |
| CCC5 | 1 | CCC5 | 1 |
| CCC5 | 1 | Elective | 1 |
| Elective | 1 | Elective | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Total Credits: 32 | |||
| 5 | Must include courses to satisfy the College Core Curriculum (CCC) requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences. |
| 6 | Bachelor of Arts students may substitute a 300-level computer science elective for either CSCI 208 or CSCI 311 if they desire. |
Bachelor of Science Major
Requires 11 and one half credits.
| CSCI 203 | Introduction to Computer Science I | 1 |
| CSCI 204 | Introduction to Computer Science II | 1 |
| CSCI 205 | Software Engineering and Design | 1 |
| CSCI 206 | Computer Organization and Programming | 1 |
| CSCI 208 | Programming Language Design | 1 |
| CSCI 240 | Computers and Society 7 | .5 |
| CSCI 311 | Algorithms and Data Structures | 1 |
| CSCI 315 | Operating Systems Design | 1 |
| CSCI 341 | Theory of Computation | 1 |
| CSCI 479 | Computer Science Design Project 8,9 | 1 |
| Two 300-level or above computer science electives 9 | 2 | |
| MATH 201 | Calculus I | 1 |
| MATH 202 | Calculus II | 1 |
| MATH 211 | Calculus III | 1 |
| MATH 226 | Probability and Statistics for Engineers 7 | .5 |
| MATH 241 | Discrete Structures | 1 |
| PHYS 211 | Classical and Modern Physics | 1 |
| PHYS 212 | Classical and Modern Physics | 1 |
| PHYS 235 | Applied Electronics | 1 |
| Science course | 1 | |
| Total Credits | 20 | |
| 7 | Half course. |
| 8 | Serves as a Culminating Experience in computer science. |
| 9 | At most one credit for any combination of CSCI 376 Computer Science Honors Thesis and CSCI 378 Individual Study in Computer Science may count toward this requirement. |
The recommended sequence for the Bachelor of Science major is as follows:
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 203 | 1 | CSCI 204 | 1 |
| MATH 201 | 1 | MATH 202 | 1 |
| Foundation Seminar | 1 | Lab Science | 1 |
| Elective | 1 | CCC11 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Sophomore | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 205 | 1 | CSCI 206 | 1 |
| MATH 211 | 1 | MATH 241 | 1 |
| PHYS 211 | 1 | PHYS 212 | 1 |
| CCC11 | 1 | CCC11 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Junior | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 208 | 1 | CSCI 24010 | .5 |
| CSCI 315 | 1 | CSCI 311 | 1 |
| MATH 22610 | .5 | PHYS 235 | 1 |
| CCC11 | 1 | Computer Science Elective13 | 1 |
| CCC11 | 1 | ||
| 3.5 | 4.5 | ||
| Senior | |||
| First Semester | Credits | Second Semester | Credits |
| CSCI 341 | 1 | Computer Science Elective13 | 1 |
| CSCI 47912,13 | 1 | CCC11 | 1 |
| CCC11 | 1 | CCC11 | 1 |
| CCC11 | 1 | Elective | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | ||
| Total Credits: 32 | |||
| 10 | Half course. |
| 11 | Must include courses to satisfy the College Core Curriculum (CCC) requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences. |
| 12 | Serves as a Culminating Experience in computer science. |
| 13 | At most one credit for any CSCI 376 Computer Science Honors Thesis and CSCI 378 Individual Study in Computer Science may count toward this requirement. |
Computer Science Minor
The minor in computer science requires five computer science courses.
If a student’s first computer science course is CSCI 203 Introduction to Computer Science I, then the four additional courses are:
| CSCI 204 | Introduction to Computer Science II | 1 |
| CSCI 206 | Computer Organization and Programming | 1 |
| Select two of the following: | 2 | |
| Software Engineering and Design | ||
| Programming Language Design | ||
300- and 400-level computer science courses | ||
If a student’s first computer science course is CSCI 185 Computing and Interpreting Computations then the four additional courses are:
| CSCI 203 | Introduction to Computer Science I | 1 |
| CSCI 204 | Introduction to Computer Science II | 1 |
| CSCI 206 | Computer Organization and Programming | 1 |
| Select one of the following: | 1 | |
| Software Engineering and Design | ||
| Programming Language Design | ||
300- and 400-level computer science courses | ||
Courses
CSCI 185. Computing and Interpreting Computations. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:1
Course includes a study of the history of computation. Instruction in programming in BASIC and Excel provides tools for solving problems. Working in small groups, students write short reports describing solutions of case studies.
CSCI 1NT. Computer Science Non-traditional Study. .5 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies
Nontraditional study in computer science. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 203. Introduction to Computer Science I. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Overview of computing that explores relationships between computer organization, various programming approaches, limits to computing, and computing in society. Students solve computational problems using Python.
CSCI 204. Introduction to Computer Science II. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Introduction to data structures and algorithms using an object-oriented approach. Topics include software-engineering principles, object-oriented programming, recursion, basic data structures, algorithm analysis, and team programming. Prerequisite: CSCI 203 or permission of the instructor. Corequisite: MATH 201 or equivalent.
CSCI 205. Software Engineering and Design. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Fundamentals of software design and software engineering. Students will participate in large-scale, team-based software development project. Prerequisite: CSCI 204 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 206. Computer Organization and Programming. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:3
Concepts of software and hardware. Software: instruction set design, assembly language and assemblers. Hardware: processor organization, memory hierarchy, interfacing processors and I/O devices. Prerequisite: CSCI 204 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 208. Programming Language Design. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Study of modern programming language paradigms (procedural, functional, logic, object-oriented). Introduction to the design and implementation of programming languages including syntax, semantics, data types and structures, control structures, run-time environments. Prerequisites: CSCI 205 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 240. Computers and Society. .5 Credits.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:2
The place of the computer in modern society. An in-depth study of the societal, ethical, and legal issues of computing. Historical as well as futurists' views of computing and technology. Public perception of computers and computer scientists and how that influences the role of the computer scientist as a professional. Course work includes oral and written presentations. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing.
CSCI 278. Computer Science Individual Study. .5-1 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:Varies; Repeatable
Independent study or project in computer science. Prerequisite: one of the following: CSCI 185, CSCI 203, CSCI 204, CSCI 205, CSCI 206, CSCI 208, CSCI 240, or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 2NT. Computer Science Non-traditional Study. .5-2 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies
Nontraditional study in computer science. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 305. Introduction to Database. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Relational database design methodologies, evaluation techniques, programming, and query languages. Introduction to database systems design, performance, and object-oriented databases. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing and CSCI 206.
CSCI 311. Algorithms and Data Structures. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:1
Introduction to the algorithms and data structures used in implementing abstract data types including priority queues, dictionaries, and graphs. Includes complexity analysis of various implementations. Prerequisites: MATH 241 and CSCI 205 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 315. Operating Systems Design. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Introduction to operating system design including processor management, scheduling, memory management, resource allocation, file systems, and concurrency. Prerequisite: CSCI 206.
CSCI 320. Computer Architecture. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Use hardware description language to describe and design digital systems. Processor design, pipelining, cache and storage systems. Instruction and thread level parallelism, speculation, branch prediction. Prerequisite: CSCI 206 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 321. Mobile Systems Development. 1 Credit.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3
Covers the software design and development process of a mobile applications developer. The course uses smartphones and tablets as the programming platform. Prerequisite: CSCI 205.
CSCI 331. Compiler Optimization. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
Project based introduction to compiler optimization for theoretical and practical issues such as run-time, memory usage, code robustness, and security. Prerequisite: CSCI 208.
CSCI 334. Graphs, their Algorithms, and Software Engineering. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
An introduction to graph theory including: degree sequence, paths, cycles, trees, directed graphs and graph polynomials. Group projects on visualization of algorithms using a modern software engineering methodology. Prerequisite: CSCI 205.
CSCI 335. Web Information Retrieval. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Introduction to information retrieval. Topics include retrieval models, evaluations, text properties, indexing, query operations, user interfaces, and web search. Prerequisites: CSCI 206 and junior standing.
CSCI 341. Theory of Computation. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:1
Finite automata, regular sets, pushdown automata, context-free grammars. Turing machines, recursive functions and undecidability. Prerequisite: MATH 241 or MATH 280.
CSCI 349. Introduction to Data Mining. 1 Credit.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3
Data preprocessing, statistical modeling, basic machine learning algorithms for mining large datasets. Topics include association analysis, frequent pattern mining, classification, and clustering. Prerequisites: CSCI 311 and MATH 226.
CSCI 350. Introduction to Analysis of Algorithm. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Selected topics in algorithm design, analysis, and application. Possible topics include network flows, graphs, string processing, randomized algorithms, parallel algorithms, optimization, and NP-completeness. Prerequisite: CSCI 311.
CSCI 362. Computer and Network Security. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
Fundamental principles of computer and network security. Topics include cryptology, privacy, secure programming, authentication, assurance, intrusion detection, and practical experience on networking Linux computers. Concurrent prerequisite: must have already taken or currently taking CSCI 315.
CSCI 363. Computer Networks. 1 Credit.
Offered Alternating Spring Semester; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Principles and design of networked computing systems and application programs. Topics include reliable communications medium access control, routing, transport, congestion control and networked applications. Prerequisite: CSCI 315.
CSCI 367. Computer Graphics. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3,Other:2
Topics in graphics hardware and software. Input devices and output displays and graphics processor architecture. Application packages, general purpose graphics packages, and algorithms. Use of color and software for two- and three-dimensional graphics. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing; CSCI 204 or permission of the instructor.
CSCI 376. Computer Science Honors Thesis. .5-1 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
Independent work on computer science honors thesis. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 378. Individual Study in Computer Science. .5-1 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
Independent study in computer science. Recent areas include graph algorithms, computer security, distributed computing, graphics, programming languages, software engineering, web retrieval. Prerequisites: junior standing and permission of the instructor.
CSCI 379. Topics in Computer Science. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3,Other:2; Repeatable
Current topics of interest. Course may/may not require laboratory depending upon the topic. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 3NT. Computer Science Non-traditional Study. .5-4 Credits.
Offered Fall, Spring, Summer; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:3
Non-traditional study course in computer science. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 475. Senior Design I. .5 Credits.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:2; Repeatable
A recognized software engineering methodology will be used with all phases of a senior design project. Written work will include a technical report about the project, a feasibility report, and a requirements specification document. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
CSCI 476. Senior Design II. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:1.5
Students will undertake several cycles of delivery, including (for each cycle), a design document, an implementation of the product, testing, and feedback. Students will produce a technical manual and a user’s manual for the final version. Class presentations of the design versions and implementations will be given to obtain feedback. There will be a public presentation of the final product and design process. Prerequisites: CSCI 475 and permission of the instructor.
CSCI 479. Computer Science Design Project. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Students in teams use software engineering methodology to design and implement a semester-long project. Written reports and oral presentations are required. Prerequisites: CSCI 205 and senior standing in the College of Arts and Sciences and permission of the instructor.
Faculty
Professors: Gary Haggard, Xiannong Meng, Maurice F. Aburdene
Associate Professors: Stephen M. Guattery (Chair), Daniel C. Hyde, Luiz Felipe Perrone, Lea D. Wittie, Richard J. Zaccone
Assistant Professors: Brian R. King, Alan Marchiori, Evan M. Peck, Benoit Razet
Visiting Assistant Professor: Minhaz F. Zibran