New Computer Science (CS) Major

Curriculum overview

The curriculum is designed with software design theory and practice as the foundation of the program. This subject area includes software architecture and design, program design, algorithm analysis, and software metrics. Second, each computer science major shall be required to minor in another discipline. This provides opportunities for each CS major to apply their CS theory and practice to an application domain. Finally, software engineering principles will be applied on a range of project sizes, giving students an opportunity to experience software engineering from an individual and team perspective.

CS program principles

The CS curriculum has been designed based on the following principles:

• Use software design and quality assurance as the umbrella (core) subject areas.

In this curriculum, the software design subject area includes software architecture and design, program design, algorithm development and analysis, and software metrics. Software assurance includes validation and verification activities (e.g., inspection, review, unit test).

• Combine theory, practice, and computing literacy in every course.

Give broad-based scientific and theoretical training needed as a foundation for a rewarding and successful career. This includes covering fundamental conceptual material that transcends current technology and exposing students to the best of current practice.

• Structure assignments and use software tools based on the pedagogical needs associated with the progression of CS course topics.

Assignments in first year courses will be very small, typically taking a student 1-3 hours to complete. Repetition will be used to reinforce fundamentals. Software tools used during the first year will be narrow in scope and usefulness.

Assignments in the second year will typically take a student 2-8 hours to complete and will build on first year fundamentals. Many of the assignments will be part of a semester long project that will result in a small to medium size software application built through a scaffolding approach. During the second year, a software design tool will be utilized (along with the tools used in the first year).

In the third and fourth years, assignments will consist of semester-long projects that require a few person-weeks to a few person-months to complete. Tools used in the last two years will include a modern software development environment and some server-based tools.

CS major requirements

A student must successfully complete the following courses to earn a major in computer science.

As long as the combined enrollment of 3rd and 4th year CS majors is 30 or less, junior and senior CS majors will be combined into the four courses that are offered biyearly (once every two years). When the 3rd and 4th year CS majors exceed 30 students, the four biyearly courses listed above will be taught yearly.

The content of the 445 and 446 courses are to be determined. Computer science topics that are candidates for these two courses include graphics and visual computing, human-computer interaction, information management, intelligent systems, net-centric computing, and programming languages.

The 475 course will be taken by every CS major in the spring term of their fourth year. This course will provide each student with an opportunity to learn and experience technologies not discussed as part of the major. The focus of this course will be technologies relevant to the students' immediate plans after graduation, whether this is employment or graduate school.

Initially, the two-semester research/capstone project courses (395/6 and 495/6) start in the 3rd year spring semester and conclude in the 4th year fall semester. After these project courses have been taught and assessed a few times, it is possible that these courses may be moved to the fall and spring semesters of the 4th year.

CS major support requirements

A student must successfully complete the following to earn a major in computer science.

The reason for requiring a CS major to minor in another program is that studies have shown that computer science graduates are more competitive in the job market when they have a significant domain of knowledge outside of computer science. This will benefit CS majors whether they decide to work in industry or go to graduate school. For example, students going to graduate school for computer science will be advised to minor in mathematics.

Bachelor of Arts in CS plus Masters in CS or computer engineering

Le Moyne College (LMC) is finalizing an agreement with the LC Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS) at Syracuse University. This agreement will allow Le Moyne students to earn a bachelors degree from LMC and a masters degree from LCS. For LMC computer science majors, you would earn a BA in CS and an MS in either computer science or computer engineering. As of September, 2007, the draft agreement states:

In order to continue in the program, students need a 3.0 cumulative GPA, as well as a 3.0 GPA in their science, math, engineering and computing courses. These students will be considered pre-admitted to any master's program in LCS, however they will still need to complete the online application during their senior year. GRE examination and letters of reference requirements will be waived for these students.

While many liberal arts colleges have agreements with engineering schools, those agreements, typically called 3+2 programs, allows a student to earn two bachelors - one from the liberal arts college and one from the engineering school. Another advantage this program has over traditional 3+2 programs is that the student, while at LMC during their first four years, pays LMC tuition even though they may be taking undergraduate engineering courses at LCS.

As of September 2007, the draft agreement is still being reviewed by LMC and LCS. However, all indications are that this program will start in fall 2008.