Description

Information Representation, Search and Management Cluster:

GACS-7101/3 ADVANCED DATA STRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS FOR APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE (Le3) This course examines methods for designing efficient data structures and algorithms such as signature trees, suffix trees, compressed transitive closures, and the algorithms for tree inclusion, tree matching, linear-time suffix tree construction, as well as arc consistency problem. Other topics include problems in specialized databases such as Web and Document, DNA and Deductive Databases.
Prerequisites: Consent of Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

 GACS-7102/3 WEB AND DOCUMENT DATABASES (Le3) In this course students gain a good understanding and knowledge of research issues associated with two types and databases.  In particular, students will study basic theoretic issues of web and document databases: system architectures, data storage and data retrieval.  Another specific methodology related to DNA databases will also be discussed.
Prerequisites: Consent of Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

 GACS-7103/3 SEMANTIC WEB (Le3) This course examines current issues related to the next generation of the World Wide Web: the Semantic Web that is intended to convert the Web into a more practical globally linked database. Topics comprise document markup languages, access privileges, business rules, and processing models for managing data. A typical project involves the design and implementation of an application for managing semi-structured data using XML technologies.
Prerequisites: Consent of Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7104/3 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SECURITY AND PRIVACY (Le3) This course provides students an understanding of theoretical and practical aspects of security and privacy and opens them up to the current research challenges in this area. Topics include classical cryptography, symmetric encryption, public key cryptography, key distribution mechanisms, digital signature, entity and message authentication, access control, multimedia security and digital right management, secret sharing, physical security, privacy preserving techniques such as data aggregation, perturbation, k-anonymity and l-diversity.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

Intelligent Systems Cluster:

GACS-7201/3 BIOMETRICS (Le3) Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of a person based on his/her physiological or behavioral characteristics. With the increased integration of computers and Internet into our everyday lives, to protect sensitive and personal data becomes more important and challenging. This course focuses on the design of various biometric systems based on fingerprints, voice, face, hand geometry, palmprint, iris, retina, and other modalities. Multimodal biometric systems that use two or more of the above characteristics are studied. This course also examines biometric system performance and the issues related to the security and privacy aspects of these systems.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7202/3 GRANULAR COMPUTING: FOUNDATIONS AND APPLICATIONS (Le3) This course examines granular computing as a framework of theories, methodologies, techniques, and tools that make use of information granules in the process of problem solving. Granular computing has a significant impact on the design and implementation of intelligent systems. Emphasis is placed on the study of the theory of rough and fuzzy sets. Applications of these theories are also explored. This course also examines social issues that arise from application of these theories in selected domains. 
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7203/3 PATTERN RECOGNITION (Le3) This course gives students an overview of classification techniques. It covers methods from linear classifiers to nonparametric techniques. Feature generation, selection, and extraction techniques are examined. Both supervised and unsupervised learning methods are discussed.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7204/3 MULITMEDIA COMPUTING AND APPLICATIONS (Le3) This course provides graduate students an in-depth knowledge of various computational techniques and tools used in multimedia research (images, videos, speech, graphics and documents). The course covers the following topics:  fundamentals of multimedia signal processing, multimedia compression, wireless multimedia, multimedia summarization, content-based multimedia retrieval, multimedia surveillance and security, and current issues and trends in multimedia research. The objective of this course is to prepare students to understand the theoretical foundation of multimedia computing, and to apply computational tools such as Matlab, Intel OpenCV, etc., to the processing and analysis of multimedia data.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7205/3 DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING (Le3) This course provides students a detailed overview of Digital Image Processing and its applications.  Image processing has found applications in many areas from medical imaging to computer graphics. This course covers the fundamental concepts of visual perception and image acquisition, basic techniques of image manipulation, segmentation and coding, and a preliminary understanding of Computer Vision.  With successful completion of the course, students will be able to perform image manipulations and analysis in many different fields.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Department Graduate Program Committee Chair or Instructor.

Systems Development Cluster:

GACS-7301/3 IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT OF PEER-TO-PEER SYSTEMS (Le3) This course is divided into two parts. First half of the course examines the foundations, implementation, and characteristics of various peer-to-peer systems (both research and production). Topics discussed will include the formation, structure, maintenance, purpose, and function of peer-to-peer systems, as well as their commonalities and differences. The second half of the course examines the social issues that arise from the manner in which peer-to-peer systems are structured and used. The issues examined in this half include: copyright-related issues such as the Napster and Grokster decisions; anonymity and privacy, with respect to systems such as Tor; and security-related issues.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7302/3 GLOBAL SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT (Le3) This course identifies and addresses the social, organizational and technical issues in managing global software projects. Its topics include communications and coordination in a distributed environment; critical success factors; global project management framework; generic design (void of nationalities) and local design (with target culture); and evaluation criteria of the perceived effectiveness of various global project management strategies. The course incorporates both theory and practice, including case studies from international software development companies. Students are expected to participate in research to enrich the course material.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7303/3 ADVANCED TOPICS IN SOFTWARE DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE (Le3) This course considers problems and issues in the development of enterprise-level software systems. Topics may include software architectures, model driven development, development methodologies, design patterns, frameworks, coding practices, etc.  During the semester students are required to work on the design and/or implementation of a complex multi-tiered system.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7304/3 COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR SOCIETY (Le3) This course provides students a broad understanding of how the computer systems are used in various societal domains such as human communication, education, homeland security, health and medicine, government, business, and transportation. The focus of the course is on study of the frameworks, models and algorithms used in these systems and on to expose students with the areas where improvement can be done. Students are required to undertake a course-end project to identify the potential research problems in a particular application area and investigate their innovative scientific solutions in order to have a greater impact on society. 
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7305/3 GRADUATE PROJECT (P) The intent of this course is to allow a student to choose an area of specialization and to work on a state-of-the-are project in that area. Suitable projects may include, for example, the implementation and evaluation of new algorithms or the use of modern technologies for novel applications. Completion of the course requires a written report and an oral presentation. The specific details of the report are determined in consultation with the project advisor, but must include a survey of relevant literature, a description and evaluation pertinent to the student's work, and details of software authored by the student. 
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor. 
Restrictions: Open only to course-based stream students. 
Restrictions: Students must complete two semesters in the ACS program before they can take the project course.

GACS-7401/3 CURRENT TOPICS IN COMPUTING (Le3) This course is a combination of readings, discussions, hands-on projects, and oral presentations that explore current topics in the field of computer science.  During the semester students may be required to work on the design and/or implementation of systems, participate in discussions, and present seminars on chosen topics.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

GACS-7500 GRADUATE THESIS (P) Graduate thesis research. Detailed exploration of an area of applied computer science chosen for thesis research.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor.

EXPERIMENTAL COURSE:

GACS-7306 APPLIED PARALLEL PROGRAMMING (Le3) This course focusses on parallel and distributed computing in high-performance scientific application, using the parallel execution model, a generalization of the traditional single threaded paradigm.  The course covers multi-core processors, concurrency, parallel execution, latency, communication and coordination among processes, message passing, shared-memory models, optimization techniques, parallel algorithms, decomposition strategies, system architecture, and performance analysis and tuning. Using the language C/C++, students gain hands-on experience writing scalable parallel applications for Graphics Processing Units.
Prerequisites: Consent of the Graduate Studies Committee Chair or Instructor..
Restrictions (ineligible students): Students who have taken ACS-4306 will not be eligible to take GACS-7306 for ACS degree credit.