Computer Science

Steven Carr, Chair
Main Office: B-237 Floyd Hall (Parkview Campus)
Telephone: (269) 276-3101
Fax: (269) 276-3122

Ala Al-Fuqaha
Shameek Bhattacharjee
Elise de Doncker
Alvis Fong
Ajay Gupta, Director of Graduate Programs
Jason Johnson, co-Director of Undergraduate Programs
Donna Kaminski
John Kapenga
Leszek Lilien
Colin MacCreery, co-Director of Undergraduate Programs
Wuwei Shen
Li Yang
Zijiang Yang

The Department of Computer Science offers a Bachelor of Science program and a minor for undergraduates. The department also offers a master’s program and a doctoral program for graduate students. All programs, both undergraduate and graduate, are in computer science. Also,the Statistics Department together with the computer Science Department jointly offer an undergraduate data sciences major program.

The accelerated graduate degree program gives an opportunity to undergraduate students in the Computer Science Department to complete the requirements for the master’s degree at an accelerated pace. These undergraduate students may count up to 12 (but not fewer than 6) credit hours of 5000-level CS courses taken during their undergraduate studies toward a master’s degree in computer science within 24 months after the completion of their bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Computer science is the science of abstraction. Computer scientists focus on creating a model for a problem and developing techniques for solving it using software implementations on digital computers. Computer science emphasizes the software aspects both in theory and application rather than the physical construction of computers (hardware aspects). The department offers a number of introductory programming courses which may be taken by students in other majors as well as a complete program that provides in-depth focus in computer science.

The undergraduate program described here provides education in the field of computer science to prepare graduates for careers in many kinds of work, including all aspects of software development and maintenance, database and network design and management, consulting, education, and training. Graduate work provides education in both applications and systems areas.

The CS major includes core courses in programming, systems, algorithms, databases, web technologies and software product development. Additionally, elective courses in computer science include: artificial intelligence, distributed computing, graphics, mobile applications, networking, programming languages, software engineering, theory of computing, data sciences, machine learning, and computer and information security.

Additionally, a computer science major will study mathematics and statistics, science, general education subjects, and computer engineering. Mathematics is necessary for the analysis and comparison of computer languages, machines, algorithms, and data structures.

Academic Advising

Students should make an appointment with a computer science academic advisor as early as possible, certainly within the second semester of enrollment in computer science classes. Eligibility requirements for admittance into a major or minor program are available from the computer science advisor. An advisor is available to assist in individual program planning, to recommend electives appropriate for a student’s educational objectives, to discuss employment opportunities, and to help solve academic problems. Substitutions and transfer credit must be approved by a departmental advisor. Academic advising is available, usually by appointment, through Room E-102 Floyd Hall Advising Office, (269) 276-3270. Advising appointments can be made online at http://www.ceas.wmich.edu/west.

Additional Information

General information regarding counseling and types of degrees may be found under the beginning of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences section of this catalog.

Students must satisfy prerequisites before enrolling in a course. Those who fail to earn a “C” or better grade in a prerequisite course will be denied permission to enroll in the next course - or unenrolled from that course if registration occurred prior to receiving their grade for the prerequisite course. The student will be responsible for further changes to his or her schedule and may work with the advisor to revise their schedule.

Enrollments in most 5000-level computer science classes will be restricted to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in computer science.