COMPUTING SCIENCE | 2011 Undergraduate Catalogue of Courses

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Level 1

CS 1015 - GRAND CHALLENGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr F Guerin

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Overview

The first part of the course overviews important problems in AI (for example Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and Robotics), and a number of techniques which are used to tackle these problems (for example search, neural networks, and reinforcement learning). The second part of the course looks at relevant areas of Cognitive Science, including Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience and Philosophy. Finally the course looks at the history of AI and possible future scenarios.

Structure

Four-hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment: a series of short tests in practical sessions (25%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forward (25%).

Formative Assessment

During lectures, the Personal Response System and/or other ways of student interaction will be used for formative assessment. Additionally, practical sessions will provide students with practice opportunities and formative assessment.

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 1016 - FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTING SCIENCE 1

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Professor T Norman

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Overview

Topics will include: Introduction to Programming: Object creation and interaction; Class definitions; Simple data types; Strings; Method structure; Control structures; Structured program design; Scoping; Expressions: arithmetic, conditional, string; Internal and external method calls; Sets; Boolean algebra; Propositional logic and truth tables.

Structure

Five hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 one hour tutorial, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour multiple-choice examination (50%), practical examination (30%) and continuous assessment (20%). Continuous assessment is a practical programming task.

Resit: From a new practical examination (50%); new multiple-choice examination (50%).

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 1018 - WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr B Scharlau

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course cannot be taken in a graduating curriculum with CS 1516.

Overview

Topics will include:

programming using a scripting language, including objects, methods, control structures, data types and collections;

programming for the internet, including forms, application logic, database programming, and interaction with other applications using Web 2.0 technology such as Google Maps.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forward (25%). Continuous assessment consists of programming tasks. Resits will not be available for MSc students.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 1515 - FOUNDATIONS OF COMPUTING SCIENCE 2

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr W Vasconcelos

Pre-requisites

Foundations of Computing Science 1 or basic JAVA programming skills up to the level taught in the Foundations of Computing Science 1 course.

Notes

Overview

Topics will include: Further Programming: Problem solving: top-down design; Graphical User Interfaces; Text files: reading and writing; Inheritance; Polymorphism; Static and dynamic types; Random numbers; Simulations; Event handling; Error handling; Introduction to statistics.

Structure

Five-hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour multiple-choice examination (50%), group in-course assessment (20%) and individual assessment (30%). In-course assessments involve producing a computer program for a problem and documenting it.

Resit: From a new practical examination (50%); new written examination (50%).

CS 1518 - WEB TECHNOLOGY

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr N Beacham

Pre-requisites

Familiarity with the Windows environment.

Notes

Overview

The design of Web sites is discussed and students are given opportunities to critique existing Web sites and design their own sites. The course will cover the following technologies: XHTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 one-an-a-half-hours written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%).

Resit: Candidates only resit those components (multiple-choice examination, continuous assessment) which they failed at first attempt. Multiple-choice examination at resit is 1-and-a-half hours.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 1519 - WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr J Pan

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course cannot be taken in a graduating curriculum with CS 1018.

Overview

Topics will include:

programming using a scripting language, including objects, methods, control structures, data types and collections;
programming for the internet, including forms, application logic, database programming, and interaction with other applications using Web 2.0 technology such as Google Maps.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); continuous assessment (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forward (25%). Continuous assessment consists of programming tasks.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

Level 2

CS 2008 - DATA MANAGEMENT

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr Y Sripada

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Overview

The concepts of a database and database management. Database development. Illustrations. Entity-Relationship model. Database design: logical design and the relational model. Normalisation; different normal forms. Physical design; file organisation and access; indexing. Database administration. Query by Example and SQL. Query optimisation. Practical examples using MS Access.

Client-server model. Database servers. Database access from client applications. Web-based database access through server-side scripting. Practical examples using MS Access, My SQL, Php and JDBC.

A brief overview of key concepts in distributed, object -oriented, multimedia, spatial and geo-referenced database systems.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass this course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overal combination of examination and continuous assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forwards (25%). In order to pass this course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overal combination of examination and continuous assessment.

Formative Assessment

During lectures, student interaction will be used for formative assessment. Additionally, practical sessions will provide students with practice opportunies and formative assessment.

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 2009 - THE ELECTRONIC SOCIETY

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr F Guerin

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Overview

What is the electronic society? What are the human factors involved in engaging in the electronic society? What is the impact of the electronic society on organisations? What impact do E-Technologies have on society? An overview of infrastructure. An introduction to issues: Legal & ethical, security, privacy, intellectual property, software failure, digital divide. Case studies from E-Commerce, E-Health, E-Science and E-Governance. These case studies will address, for example, how organisations must change to best utilise emerging technologies, issues of security and privacy in the use of patient data, and the importance of standards in E-Science.

Structure

Three hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass this course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forwards (25%). In order to pass this course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment.

Formative Assessment

Tutorial sessions will provide students with practice opportunities and presentations and debates where feedback from staff will be given.

Feedback

Feedback for in-course summative assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during tutorial sessions.

CS 2011 - ALGORITHMIC PROBLEM SOLVING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr N Oren

Pre-requisites

CS 1512

Notes

Overview

This course identifies fundamental data structures and algorithms as the basic building blocks of software systems, and provides experience of their implementation and application using the Java programming language. Introduction to Design of algorithms. Recursion and simple analysis of recursive methods. Data Types & Abstraction. Use of the Java Collection Framework. Stacks, Queues, Deques and Lists. Hash tables. Trees. Search Trees. Heaps. Sets. Algorithmic paradigms and their applications. Implementation issues and efficiency measures.

Structure

12 week course - 2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial and 1 one-hour practical per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%) and in course assessments (50%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overall combinations of examination and in-course assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); 25% carried forward from the weight adjusted original in-course assessments. Candidates must obtain a pass mark in the exam and the overall combination of exam and in-course assessment.

CS 2012 - ADVANCED WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr N Oren

Pre-requisites

CS 1018 or CS 1516

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course cannot be taken in a graduating curriculum with CS 2512.

Overview

Syllabus:

advanced programming using a scripting language, including top-down design, reading and writing to files, inheritance and other relationships between classes, event handling, error handling, testing, data structures and algorithmic structures

advanced programming for the internet, including searching, security, and plug-ins.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessments (100%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8).

Resit: Candidates will be able to resubmit the in course assessment, which will be capped at CAS 9.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 2506 - HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Prof C Mellish

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Overview

The need to consider usability, task analysis, contextual design, query techniques and focus groups, information architecture, types of interfaces, prototyping, analytical usability evaluation, evaluation of safety-critical systems, user testing, universal access, cross-cultural design and internationalisation, psychology of HCI, technical writing. Extra advanced topics may vary from year to year.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

Formative Assessment

Practical sessions will provide students with practice opportunities and formative assessment. The assessed coursework involves most of the students working in groups and learning as a result of the interactions that take place.

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 2508 - INTELLIGENT HARDWARE AND ROBOTICS

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

CS 2007

Co-requisites

Notes

Overview

Simple C Programming: data types, variables, operators and expressions, control structures (branching, looping, iteration), procedures and functions, input/output, arrays.

Data Representation: bits, binary representation of integers and floating point numbers, character codes, Boolean algebra.

Register Level Machine: main functional parts of a computer - CPU, memory, I/O, buses; architecture of a simple CPU: registers, ALU, control unit; fetch/execute cycle, structure of instructions, instruction decoding; reference to binary machine code.

Assembly Language Programming: relationship of symbolic instructions and memory addressing modes to the register level architecture; examples of simple assembly language programs.

Execution of C Programs on the Register Level Machine.

Interaction of programs and the outside world.

I/O: transmission modes (serial/parallel), interrupts.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

Formative Assessment

Weekly formative exercises.

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

CS 2512 - ADVANCED WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: TBC

Pre-requisites

CS 1516

Co-requisites

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course cannot be taken in a graduating curriculum with CS 2012.

Overview

Syllabus:

advanced programming using a scripting language, including top-down design, reading and writing to files, inheritance and other relationships between classes, event handling, error handling, testing, data structures and algorithmic structures.

advanced programming for the internet, including searching, security, and plug-ins.

Structure

Four hours per week: 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessments (100%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8).

Resit: Candidates will be able to resubmit the in course assessment, which will be capped at CAS 9.

Formative Assessment

Feedback

Formative feedback for in-course assessments will be provided in written form. Additionally, formative feedback on performance will be provided informally during practical sessions.

Level 3

CS 3008 - OPERATING SYSTEMS

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2508

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.>/li>
Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: knowledge of common data-structures and algorithms; experience of the C programming language.

Overview

Introduction and historical overview: from batch systems to distributed OS. I/O system structures: i/o bus, interrupts, DMA. OS structure and services: system calls, system programs, virtual machines. Processes and threads: scheduling, operation, co-operation and communication. Synchronisation, semaphores and deadlock handling. Memory management: logical and physical address spaces, swapping, segmentation and paging. File systems, directory structure, and storage allocation. Protection and security. Comparing and contrasting examples and case studies from UNIX, Solaris 2, and MS-DOS.

Structure

12 week course - 2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour laboratory session per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination paper (75%) and in-course assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and in-course assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); carried forward from original in-course assessment (25%). Candidates must obtain pass mark in the examination and in the overall combination of exam and in-course assessment.

CS 3015 - SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

Credit Points: 30
Course Coordinator: Dr E Compatangelo

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2008, CS 2506

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course runs for the entire session and is only available to students registered for Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science.

Overview

Introduction to software engineering – software development paradigms, software lifecycle, the Unified Paradigm.
Project management issues – team organisation, time and cost estimation, risk analysis. Software modelling and coding issues - The Unified Modelling Language (UML); Computer-Aided Software Engineering.
Software analysis and design issues - requirements elicitation, developing a system specification through use cases, architectural design, detailed design, design patterns.
Software implementation and quality issues - testing strategies and methods; quality assurance and management; software verification and validation; software documentation and maintenance.

Structure

24 week course – 3 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour individual practical per week during first half-session; 1 one-hour group practical per week during second half-session.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 1.5 hour written examination (25%) and two software engineering project deliverables (25% and 50% respectively, 75% in total). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overall combination of examination project work(with the above weights).

Resit: One 1.5 hour written examination (25%) and software engineering project deliverables (75%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and project deliverables (with the above weights).

CS 3017 - ADAPTIVE INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr A Siddharthan

Pre-requisites

CS 2506 and CS 2007 or CS2509.

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: familiarity with basic algorithmic problem solving and human-computer interaction.

Overview

Adaptive Hypermedia

User modelling.

Content-based and collaborative filtering.

Group modelling.

Affective and persuasive computing.

Conversational interfaces, Speech interfaces.

Application domains (eg personalized news, personalized e-learning, personalized digital tv, personalized e-commerce, personalized in health-care).

Usability aspects of adaptive systems (scrutability, believability, privacy).

Designing and evaluating adaptive systems.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour supervised practical per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the exam and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights). There is no opportunity to repeat the continuous assessment; the mark obtained at the first attempt will be carried forward to resit.

CS 3018 - INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS ENGINEERING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

Credit Points: 30
Course Coordinator: Dr E Compatangelo

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2008, CS 2506

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

This course runs for the entire session and is only available to students registered for Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science.

Overview

Introduction to software engineering - software development paradigms, software lifecycle, prototyping.
The Unified Modelling Language (UML).

Project management issues - team organisation, software measurement and metrics, cost estimation, risk analysis.
Systems analysis and design - requirements elicitation, interviewing, system modelling, functional vs non-functional requirements, developing a system specification, object libraries, design patterns.
Computer-aided software engineering.

Implementation and integration methods.

Software testing - testing strategies and methods, quality assurance and management, verification and validation.
Software documentation and maintenance.

Knowledge acquisition; elements of knowledge modelling; introduction to knowledge base management systems; designing knowledge-based software.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) during the first 12 weeks, 1 one-hour tutorial (to be arranged) per week for the duration of the course, and 1 two-hour supervised practical (to be arranged) per week for the first 12 weeks of the course and 1 one-hour project supervision meeting (to be arranged) for the duration of the course.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 1.5 hour written examination (25%). Individually-marked group project (75%). In order to pass the course, the candidate must obtain a pass mark (CAS >8) both in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and project (with the above weights).

Resit: One 1.5 hour written resit examination (25%). The nature of the course means that there is no opportunity to resubmit the project; original mark carried forward. In order to pass the course at resit and to get credits, the candidate must obtain a pass mark of (CAS >8) both in the resit examination and in the overall combination of examination and project (with the above weights).

CS 3019 - KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr J Pan

Pre-requisites

CS 2007 or CS 2509

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: familiarity with a procedural programming language.

Overview

Knowledge representation: propositional logic, description logics, ontology, rules, uncertainty and vagueness.

Knowledge reasoning: description logics-based and rule-based systems, tableaux (completion) algorithm for description logics, forward chaining and backward chaining for rules.

Knowledge engineering: expertise identification, capture, evaluations, reusability.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) and 1 two-hour supervised practical (to be arranged) per week.

Assessment

CS 3020 - ROBOTICS AND LEARNING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr G Coghill

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2508

Notes

(i) Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator. (ii) Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: familiarity with a procedural programming language, and some experience in basic robotics.

Overview

Animal behaviour: neuroscientific, psychological, and ethological bases; examples of bio-robots. Robot architectures: subsumption, schema-based, and others.
Knowledge representation for robots: short-term behavioural memory, long-term cognitive maps.
Hybrid deliberative/reactive architectures.
Perception: bilogical and psychological insights, robot sensors, integrating action and perception.
Overview of Machine Learning techniques used in robotics.
Reinforcement learning and its application (eg learning to walk, learning to push, learning to shoot a ball into a goal).
Social behaviour and organization (eg robotic football teams).
Planning: motivation; STRIPS; non-linear planning.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) and 1 two-hour supervised practical (to be arragend) per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights). There is no opportunity to repeat in-course practical work; the mark obtained at the first attempt will be carried forward to resit.

CS 3021 - COMMUNICATION OF COMPUTING

Credit Points: 20
Course Coordinator: Dr J F Masthoff

Pre-requisites

CS 2506

Notes

(i) Restricted to students registered for Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science. (ii) Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator. (iii) Disclosure Scotland checking to be undertaken for Child Protection purposes for any students getting access to minors.

Overview

Effective communication skills: audience awareness, body language, influencing the audience, interacting with the audience, cross-cultural communication.

Multimedia communication: blogs (web logs/online journals), newsletters, podcasting (method for sending files to users automatically, mostly used for audio files), interactive media, wikis (websites allowing users to add and edit content collectively).

Mentoring: the mentoring process, the mentoring relationship, boundary issues, questioning techniques, goal setting, mentoring students with special needs, dealing with students who present challenges (eg quiet students, sad students, angry students, students lacking motiviation), referral, group dynamics, managing groups.

Creative problem solving: Brainstorming, analytical creativity, idea selection.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, to introduce the course and reflect on its outcomes

6 three-hour workshops during the year, delivered in a highly interactive fashion (eg using role playing and case studies)

1 one-hour mentoring session per week during the year, in which a pair of students mentor a small group of Level 1 students registered for a computing science course (typically CS 1014 and CS 1512).

1 two-hour action learning set per two weeks during the year, in which students in a small group discuss the problems/issues they encounter in the mentoring, facilitated by a member of staff. A small amount of time will also be dedicated to briefing mentors about the activities to be undertaken in the next weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (100%) consisting of an oral presentation to a lay audience (10%), a multimedia communication (45%) and an assessment of the mentoring activity (45%). For the assessment of the mentoring activity, students will keep a reflective journal on the mentoring during the year, and will write an essay on a case study from their mentoring experience (eg, what they were trying to achieve in a particular mentoring activity, how they prepared for it, how effective it was) illustrated with extracts from their reflective journal.

Resit: 1 continuous assessment (100%) consisting of a multimedia communication for a lay audience and tutorial material for supporting novice computer scientists.

CS 3022 / CS 3522 / CS 3922 - BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF IT (SHORT PLACEMENT)

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr B Scharlau

Pre-requisites

Students should have completed their second-year Computing programme.

Notes

Restricted to students registered for Honours and Joint-Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science.

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any student wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Projects associated with the client firm need to be approved by the course organiser.

Overview

The content and practical skills gained by the student will vary depending upon the nature of the placement.

Structure

Weekly email reports from the student. Where possible a site visit by the supervisor will also take place.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (100%) consisting of an oral presentation in the form of a presentation to the department (15%), and a final report of approximately 3,500 words (85%).

Resits are not normally allowed for this course.

Formative Assessment

Students will get formative feedback during work from their colleagues and supervisor. They may also get feedback based on the email reports.

Feedback

Students will supply weekly email updates to the course organiser explaining their current work, what work is to be done in the next week, and any problems, which have arisen so that the organiser can suggest possible solutions, or intervene if necessary.

CS 3514 - ENTERPRISE COMPUTING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr B Scharlau

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2008, CS 2506

Co-requisites

CS 3015

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: knowledge of database principles; intermediate-level experience of at least one programming language; principles of systems analysis and design.

This course aims to provide suitable credit for work experience in any one term of the year with an industrial, business or public sector organization. You are expected to find your own placement. If you’re interested, then you need to have everything in place to receive credit for your work, before you actually start work, so be sure to speak to the course organiser well in advance of any placement starting.

Overview

This course aims to provide a modern introduction to business computing, centred on the concept of an enterprise data model. Students will learn how to design and implement enterprise data models, and will gain practical skills in using modern RAD tools to rapidly develop business applications that exploit an enterprise model. Business-to-business transactions will also be examined, wherein standard interfaces are established between multiple organisations' models and applications using XML-based technologies.

Structure

12 week course – 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and in-course assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and in-course assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); carried forward from original assessment (25%). Candidates must obtain a pass in the exam, and in the overall combination of exam and in-course assessment.

CS 3517 - DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS AND SECURITY

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr M Kollingbaum

Pre-requisites

CS 2007, CS 2008

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: intermediate level Java programming experience; knowledge of database principles including SQL.

Overview

Introduction to Distributed Systems.
Programming with Distributed Objects: Java RMI; Object Serialization; Managing Multiple Threads of Control; Security Policies; Multi-Tier Client-Server Systems.
Programming with Distributed Data Sources: Transactions and Concurrency Control; Distributed Transactions; Replication; Fault-Tolerant Systems.
Security in Distributed Systems: Authentication, Digital Signatures and Certificates, SSL, Firewalls.
Standard Application Protocols (HTTP, TELNET, FTP); Transport Layer; Network Layer and Routing.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour supervised practical per week.

Assessment

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights). There is no opportunity to repeat in-course practical work; the mark obtained at the first attempt will be carried forward to resit.

CS 3518 - LANGUAGES AND COMPUTABILITY

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr K Van Deemter

Pre-requisites

CS 2007 or CS 2509

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: knowledge of basic concepts of formal languages and logic.

Overview

Imperative languages and their associated automata: Regular languages and Finite state automata (FSA), Context-free languages and Pushdown Automata (PDA), Non-context-free languages and linear-bounded automata (LBA), Turing Machines (TM), nondeterministic Turing Machines.

Functional languages: Haskell idioms, Haskell polymorphic types, recursion, Haskell higher-order functions, lazy evaluation, infinite sets.

Chomsky hierarchy and computability: Turing decidability, Turing recognisability, injections, surjections and bijections, Cantor's diagonal argument, the halting problem, the Church-Turing Thesis.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

CS 3519 - E-BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr E Compatangelo

Pre-requisites

CS 2506

Notes

Overview

Entrepreneurial Aspects:
Finding the idea: identifying market niches and discontinuities, gaps, and unaddressed needs/issues inside them
Shaping the idea: devising a possible solution, evaluating its feasibility, assessing risks
Protecting the idea: patents, copyright, trademarks, civil liability
Creating a business around the idea: types of business, contractual obligations, devising a business plan
Financing the idea: funding sources, cash flow, financial issues, tax issues
Promoting the idea: presenting, showcasing, advertising, influencing
Further legal issues: tax issues, contracts, digital signature and computer contracts, and case studies

Structure

3 two-hour lectures and two hours tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-and-a-half-hour written examination on legal aspects (50%) and continuous assessment on business aspects (50%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-and-a-half-hour written examination on legal aspects (50%); continuous assessment mark carried forwards (50%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

CS 3520 - ENTERPRISE COMPUTING AND SECURITY

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr B Scharlau

Pre-requisites

CS 2008

Notes

Overview

Syllabus:

a) principles of business computing including customer relationship management, supply chain management, data warehousing and online analytical processing, enterprise resource planning and business information systems.

b) security issues in computing including authentication, cryptography, secure signatures and threat analysis.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) and 1 two-hour practical (to be arranged) per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment mark carried forward (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights).

CS 3523 - AI FOR COMPUTER GAMES

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr M Collinson

Pre-requisites

CS 2506, CS 3019

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: knowledge of basic concepts of AI and HCI.

Overview

Overview of AI Game Techniques.
Movement Algorithms: Steering Behaviours, Predicting Physics, Motor Control.
Pathfinding: Depth First, A*, Mapping, Team Problems.
Decision Making: Decision Trees, State Machines, Fuzzy Logic, Markov Systems, Goal Oriented Behaviour, Scripting.
Tactical and Strategic AI: Waypoint Tactics, Tactical Analyses, Tactical Pathfinding, Coordinated Action.
Learning: Reinforcement Learning, Neural Networks.
Board Games: Game Theory, Minimaxing, Opening Books and Other Set Plays.
Execution Management: Scheduling, Anytime, Algorithms, Event Managers.
Game case studies: Shooters, Sports, Driving, Real-time Strategy, Turn-Based Strategy Games.
Search: depth first; breadth first, heuristic.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two hour written examination (50%) and continuous assessment (50%)

Resit: 1 two hour written examination (50%) and continuous assessment (50%).

Level 4

CS 4024 - GRAPHICS

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: TBC

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

Restricted to students registered for Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science.
Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator. This course will not run in 2011/12.

Overview

Two-dimensional graphics: lines, polygons, coordinate systems, clipping; raster techniques; polygon filling; anti-aliasing; bit-planes; colour models. Three-dimensional graphics: coordinate systems; homogeneous transformations (rotating, translating, scaling), perspective; surface models; hidden line and surface removal; lighting models, shading, shadows, textures, ray tracing.
Object-oriented techniques: scene graphs; behaviours; interpolators; collision detection.

Graphics hardware: input/output (including virtual reality) devices; stereographics; animation and interaction techniques.
Applications of computer graphics will be considered (eg. CAD, molecular graphics, scientific visualisation, entertainment).

Structure

12 week course - 2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour practical session per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and in-course assessment (25%).

CS 4025 - NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr K van Deemter

Pre-requisites

CS 3019

Notes

Restricted to students registered for Honours degree programmes offered by Computing Science.

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Overview

Formal linguistic models of English: word categories, sentence constituents, phrase-structure grammar rules, features. Modelling syntactic phenemena.

Parsing: shift-reduce parsers, chart parsers, handling ambiguity, definate clause grammars.

Semantics and pragmatics: meaning representations, reference, speech acts.
Generation: Content determination, sentence planning, and realisation.
Applications: grammar checking, machine translation, database interfaces, report generation, dictation.

Speech: Hidden Markov Models, statistical langauge models, speech synthesis.

Structure

12 week course - 2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour practical session per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and in-course assessment (25%).

CS 4027 - PEER-TO-PEER AND AGENT-BASED COMPUTING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr W Vasconcelos

Pre-requisites

CS 3517

Notes

To be taken as part of the taught BSc undergraduate programme.

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: good Java programming skills; knowledge of distributed systems concepts and design.

Overview

Introduction to peer-to-peer computing and motivation. Basic peer-to-peer algorithms and models: Centralised Directory, Flooded Request and Document Routing. Peer-to-Peer topologies. Case studies. Issues: Scalability, Anonymity/Privacy, Security, Performance, Reliability. Peer-to-peer technologies: Gnutalla, Freenet and JXTA. Introduction to intelligent software agents and multi-agent systems. Motivations. Case studies. Basic concepts of software agents and multi-agent systems. Theories of agency, agent architectures and agent-oriented programming languages. Agent communication languages and protocols, including standards. Agent programming platforms. Negotiation and co-ordination mechanisms. Eletronic institutions. Auctions and voting. Tuple spaces programming for agent communication and coordination. Distributed problem-solving.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) and 1 two-hour practical (to be arranged) each week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%).

CS 4029 - SEMANTIC WEB ENGINEERING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr J Pan

Pre-requisites

CS 3019

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Non-graduating students would require the following background/experience: basic concepts of knowledge representation and reasoning.

Overview

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a major part of many people's lives. We use it for communication, work, school, entertainment, and more. The Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information and services on the web is defined, amking it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content. The goal of the course is to introduce advanced techniques for Web 1.0 (XML and XML Schema), Web 2.0 (AJAX, tagging abd mashups) and Web 3.0 (RDF, OWL and microformats). It also covers some knowledge representation techniques, such as those related to ontologies.

It should be noted that this course is not about HTML and CSS, which are covered by CS 1513 (Web Technology). However, the students are expected to work on Practical 0 (on HTML authoring) before the course starts.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour supervised practical per week.

Assessment

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%). In order to pass the course, candidates must obtain a pass mark (CAS > 8) in the examination and in the overall combination of examination and continuous assessment (with the above weights). There is no opportunity to repeat in-course practical work; the mark obtained at the first attempt will be carried forward to resit.

CS 4031 - DATA MINING AND VISUALIZATION

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr S Sripada

Pre-requisites

CS 2008, CS 2506, CS 2007 or CS 2509

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Only available to senior honours students in the Computing Science discipline and Erasmus students.

Overview

Data Mining: basic statistics, advanced data analysis techniques such as trend detectors, pattern detectors, qualitative models, basic data mining techniques such as classification and clustering.

Visualization: information visualisation (basic concepts, advanced techniques such as treemaps); supporting user variation (abilities, knowledge, preferences).

Applications to real world problems: for example, medical decision support, supporting analysis of genome data.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour practical per week. Also, guest seminars from people other than the main lecturer.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-and-a-half-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%).

CS 4032 - MOBILE COMPUTING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr B Scharlau

Pre-requisites

CS 3514, CS 3515

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Only available to senior honours students in the Computing Science discipline and Erasmus students.

Overview

Syllabus:
a) handset development environment
b) application development and testing
c) networking applications
d) bluetooth integration
e) location based services
f) storage of data

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (to be arranged) and 1 two-hour practical (to be arranged) per week. Also, guest seminars from people other than the main lecturer.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%); continuous assessment (25%).

CS 4033 - BIO-COMPUTING

Credit Points: 15
Course Coordinator: Dr G M Coghill

Pre-requisites

CS 3019

Notes

Available only to Final Year Honours students in the Department of Computing Science.

Overview

A selection of topics spanning a range of Biological Applications of Computing Science under the following headings:

Bioinformatics (eg Outline of Molecular biology, sequence alignment, protein folding)

Model-based Technology (eg Qualitative and Fuzzy Qualitative reasoning applied to Systems Biology)

Nature Inspired Computing (eg focussing on Artificial Immune Systems and their application in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology).

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 two-hour practical per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (75%) and continuous assessment (25%).

Resit: None.

CS 4092 - SINGLE HONOURS ERASMUS COMPUTING PROJECT (E2)

Credit Points: 90
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

Available only to Erasmus students registered for Computing Science and that can be assimilated to our Final year Single Honours students.

Notes

Assistive technology may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any Erasmus students wishing to discuss this further should contact the Departmental Disability Coordinator prior to arrival.

Overview

Ths student will undertake a project under the supervision of teaching staff in the department. The project will require creativity, analytical and practical skills. A major component of the project is its presentation, both written and oral.

Structure

Self-directed work, 1 hour weekly meetings; initial introductory discussion to establish workplan.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4093 - SINGLE HONOURS ERASMUS COMPUTING PROJECT (E3)

Credit Points: 60
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

Available only to Erasmus students registered for Computing Science and that can be assimilated to our Final year Single Honours students.

Notes

Overview

The student will undertake a project under the supervision of teaching staff in the department. The project will require creativity, analytical and practical skills. A major component of the project is its presentation, both written and oral.

Structure

Self-directed work, 1 hour weekly meetings; initial introductory discussion to establish workplan.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4524 - PROFESSIONAL TOPICS IN COMPUTING

Credit Points: 10
Course Coordinator: TBC

Pre-requisites

CS 3015

Notes

Restricted to Final Year Single Honours students in Computing Science.

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any students wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disbaility Co-ordinator.

Overview

Ethics: the individual, organisational and societal context of computing systems; deployment of technical knowledge and skills with a concern for the public good. Legal Issues: UK legal system, contract law liabilities, company and employment law, data protection, computer misuse, intellectual property rights.
Public policy issues: digital signatures, restrictions on encryption, IT monopolies.
Safety/mission critical software: impact of failure on users; liability; risk analysis.
Professional Bodies: structure, function, restriction of title, licence to practise, code of ethics/conduct/practice.
Career: Career options; entrepreneurship; rights and duties of an employee.
Aspects of effective communication: written and verbal communication skills.

Structure

8 week course - 2 one-hour lectures, 1 two-hour practical session per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 1.5 hour examination (75%) and in-course assessment consisting of: 4000 word essay/report (20%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4525 - JOINT HONOURS COMPUTING PROJECT

Credit Points: 30
Course Coordinator: Dr F Guerin

Pre-requisites

Restricted to Final Year Joint Honours students in Computing Science.

Notes

Overview

The student will undertake a project under the supervision of teaching staff in Computing Science. The project will require creativity, analytical and practical skills. A major component of the project is its presentation, both written and oral.

Structure

15 week project course - weekly meetings with project supervisor.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4526 - SINGLE HONOURS COMPUTING PROJECT

Credit Points: 50
Course Coordinator: Dr F Guerin

Pre-requisites

Restricted to Final Year Single Honours students in Computing Science.

Notes

Assistive technologies may be required for any student who is unable to use a standard keyboard/mouse/computer monitor. Any student wishing to discuss this further should contact the School Disability Co-ordinator.

Overview

Structure

15 week project course - weekly meetings with project supervisor.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4593 - SINGLE HONOURS ERASMUS COMPUTING PROJECT (E4)

Credit Points: 60
Course Coordinator: Dr F Guerin

Pre-requisites

Available only to Erasmus students registered for Computing Science and that can be assimilated to our Final year Single Honours students.

Notes

Overview

Structure

Self-directed work, 1 hour weekly meetings; initial introductory discussion to establish workplan.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4901 - SINGLE HONOURS ERASMUS COMPUTING PROJECT (E1)

Credit Points: 120
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

Available only to Erasmus students registered for Computing Science and that can be assimilated to our Final year Single Honours students.

Notes

Overview

Structure

Self-directed work, 1 hour weekly meetings; initial introductory discussion to establish workplan.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 4993 - SINGLE HONOURS ERASMUS COMPUTING PROJECT (E5)

Credit Points: 60
Course Coordinator: Dr J R Lishman

Pre-requisites

Available only to Erasmus students registered for Computing Science and that can be assimilated to our Final year Single Honours students.

Notes

Overview

Structure

Self-directed work, 1 hour weekly meetings; initial introductory discussion to establish workplan.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Report and documentation (95%), oral presentation (5%).

CS 50IP - BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF IT

Credit Points: 120
Course Coordinator: Dr K van Deemter

Pre-requisites

Acceptance into Senior Honours and permission of Head of Computing Science. Availability of placement.

Overview

Work experience in an industrial, business, or public sector organisation.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Written report (75%), viva (15%) and seminar (10%).