COURSE DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED COURSES

Structured Programming, Object-oriented Programming COM 118, COM 119

This course helps to equip students with essential skills needed for structured and object-oriented programming. At the completion of the course, students should understand fundamental programming concepts such as flow control, objects, classes, methods, procedural decomposition, inheritance, and polymorphism; be able to write simple applications using most of the capabilities of the Java programming language and apply principles of good programming practices throughout the process.

At the end of the course, students should be able to research, analyze, design, develop, and maintain functioning software systems in accord with the goals of the AUCA Software Engineering Department and the 510300 IT competency standard (OK 17, 17, 115).

Topics: Structured Programming:

1. Introduction to the Process of Software Development (6 hours)
2. Selections (9 hours)
3. Loops (12 hours)
4. Methods (9 hours)
5. Single and Multidimensional Arrays (6 hours)

Topics: Object-oriented Programming

1. Objects and Classes (9 hours)
2. Inheritance and Polymorphism (9 hours)
3. Abstract Classes and Interfaces (6 hours)
4. Exception Handling (6 hours)
5. GUI and Computer Graphics Basics (6 hours)
6. Generics and Container Classes (6 hours)
7. Working with I/O (6 hours)

Safety Management and Economics COM-120 COM-121

Safety Management for SFW is an introductory course covering the most important aspects of Software System Safety from a developer’s point of view. The 3-credit course focuses on topics of building secure, safe, and sustainable software. This course takes an in-depth look into low-level programming languages such as C, C++, and assembly, their relationship with the underlying hardware. We try to understand how design decisions of such foundational technologies, used to build core systems around us, and their relationships may influence virtual and real-world sustainability and safety.

Introduction to Software Engineering and Informatics COM-108

The IT Essentials course covers the fundamentals of computer hardware and software and advanced concepts such as security, networking, and the responsibilities of an IT professional. It is designed for students who want to pursue careers in ICT and students who want to gain practical knowledge of how a computer works. Students who complete COM-108 will be able to describe the internal components of a computer, assemble a computer system, install an operating system, and troubleshoot using system tools and diagnostic software. Students will also be able to connect to the Internet and share resources in a networked environment. New topics in this version include mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones and client-side virtualization. Expanded topics include security, networking, and troubleshooting. Hands-on lab activities are essential elements that are integrated into the curriculum. 

The inclusion of Packet Tracer supports alignment with the new CompTIA A+ certification objectives. This course helps students prepare for the CompTIA’s A+ certification, most importantly the Essentials exam.

Learning Objectives:

• Define information technology (IT) and describe the components of a personal computer
• Describe how to protect people, equipment, and the environment from accidents, damage, and contamination
• Perform a step-by-step assembly of a desktop computer
• Explain the purpose of preventive maintenance and identify the elements of the troubleshooting process
• Install and navigate an operating system
• Configure computers to connect to a network
• Upgrade or replace components of a laptop based on customer needs
• Describe the features and characteristics of mobile devices
• Install and share a printer
• Implement basic hardware and software security principles
• Apply good communications skills and demonstrate professional behavior while working with customers
• Perform preventive maintenance and basic troubleshooting
• Assess customer needs, analyze possible configurations, and provide solutions or recommendations for hardware, operating systems, networking, and security

Algorithms and data structures COM 223.1 3114

The goal of the course is to give knowledge of classic data structures and algorithms basic for both practical and theoretical parts of computer science. A brief list of data structures and algorithms studied in this course: dynamic arrays, linked lists, hash tables, binary trees, linear search, binary search. Special emphasis in the course will be done on the STL part of the C++ standard library: classes string, vector, list, set, unordered_set, map, unordered map, and standard algorithms.

Programming language and software tools of the course:
Students have to do lab works and projects using standard C++ and any compilers that support standard C++ and command-line interface.

1. Performance of algorithms. O-notation

2. Linked lists. Class list of standard library C++

3. Doubly linked lists and single linked lists.

4. Hashing. Classes unordered_set and unordered_map of standard library C++.

5. Implementation of class HashSet 

6. Binary Search Trees. Classes set and map of standard library C++ 

7. Implementation of class BinarySearchTree

8. Recursion. Backtracking

9. Sort algorithms: insertion sort, merge sort, quick sort 

10. Heap, heap sort 

11. Graphs. Breadth-first Search, depth-first search,

12. Topological sort. 

13. Weighted graphs. Shortest path.

14. Weighted graphs. Minimum spanning tree. 

15. Dynamic Programming. Longest common subsequence problem

16. Algorithms of standard library C++.

Computer Architecture COM 410 3268

The course introduces students to the topic of computer architecture and organization. Students will focus on studying the structure and design of modern central processing units. Students will learn the basics of the x86-64 and aarch64 instruction sets, the assembly languages for the platforms, and the representation of high-level language structures in the low-level languages.
At the end of the course, students should be able to research, analyze, design, develop, and maintain the software in low-level programming languages in accord with the goals of the AUCA Software Engineering Department and the 510300 IT competency standard (OK 17, 17, 115).

Topics Covered

1. The modern computer architectures and organization
2. The x86-64 and ARM64 assembly languages
3. Representation of high-level language structures in low-level assembly languages
4. Acceleration with SIMD instructions
5. System emulation

Operating Systems COM 341.1 3325

The course introduces students to the fundamentals of operating systems design and implementation. Topics include an overview of the components of an operating system, synchronization, implementation of processes, scheduling algorithms, memory management, and file systems. This course is designed for Software Engineering majors and minors.

1. Processes
   Scheduling
   Inter-process Communication
2. Memory Management
   Segmentation
   Virtual Memory Management
   Page Replacement Algorithms
   Swapping
3. File Systems
   File System Implementation
   Protection Mechanisms
4. Input & Output
   Principles of I/O Hardware & Software
   Deadlocks
   RAM Disks
   Disks
   Terminals

System Programming COM 392 (Formerly COM 451.1 – Parallel & Distributed Programming)

As CPU speeds began to exceed 3.5 GHz, further CPU speed increases started to reach a limit. As a result, computer manufacturers began building machines with multiple CPUs. Techniques for programming these multi-core machines were soon developed. In this same time frame, graphical processing units (GPUs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and other types of heterogeneous computing technologies and integrated circuits also emerged. Heterogeneous computing provides efficient ways of addressing specific types of computing needs. Today, most modern computing and
especially server-side or cloud computing is distributed across heterogeneous computing machines. The modern software engineer who is interested in fast and efficient [cloud-based] computing must appreciate when and how to use such technologies. This course provides an introduction and
grounding on these topics with a special focus on:

1. CPU multithreading,
2. GPU programming, and
3. running cloud-based computation-intense algorithms using both multithreading and GPU processing.

AIMS AND OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students will:

1. be able to write a multi-threaded C/C++ program that
   makes use of multiple CPU cores
2. be able to write a program that makes use of tens of
   thousands of GPU processing cores, and taking
   advantage of different types of GPU memory
3. be able to reason about how to design a program that
   solves computation-intense problems regardless of
   programming language used

Computer Graphics COM 391 4954

The course teaches students the fundamentals of computer graphics through a process of developing a 3-D engine in a series of laboratory tasks throughout the course.
Students will study how to work with graphics accelerators with the help of the OpenGL ES API to deliver rich 3-D computer-generated images, animations, or interactive applications. As a result, students should be able to research and analyze the functioning of a complex real-time computational system, improve their skills using programming languages for software design and development in accord with the goals of the AUCA Software Engineering Department and the 510300 IT competency standard (including competency elements OK 1–7, 1–7, 1–15).

Topics Covered

1. Introduction, Brief History, Dev. Environment, First Program (6 hours)
2. Vectors, Matrices, Scene Graph, Camera (6 hours)
3. Geometry, Buffer Objects, GPU Pipeline (6 hours)
4. Materials, Shading, GLSL (6 hours)
5. Lambert, Phong, Blinn-Phong Shading (3 hours)
6. Texturing and Mapping (6 hours)
7. Procedural Geometry (3 hours)
8. Particle Systems, Rendering Optimizations (6 hours)
9. Real-time Graphics in Games, Building a Game with your Engine (6 hours)

Software Engineering I, II COM 421, 430

The course introduces students to software engineering, teaching each of the individual steps of the software life cycle: requirements, design, coding, testing, and software delivery. The course covers estimating man-months to complete a project and writing project proposals. Along with the theory, students will go through all the stages of software development on their own projects.
This is a two-semester course designed for Software Engineering majors and minors. The course introduces students to software engineering, providing information on key processes.

Topics Covered

1. Software engineering concepts
2. Software development methodologies
3. Agile software development
4. Requirements engineering
5. System design and modeling
6. System implementation
7. Software testing
8. Software evolution
9. Project management
10. Dependability and security

Senior Project Preparation I  II COM 431.1 COM 433

All students majoring in Software Engineering are required to complete a 2 semester-long Senior Project/Thesis in their senior year. A Senior Project/Thesis represents a student’s capstone experience in the discipline. Students completing a double major in another field are encouraged to propose interdisciplinary projects of their choosing.

By the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• Knowledge and understanding 
• identify a research, development, business topic and development question is within the software engineering domain  
• understand the use of a development method for planning a research, development or business application project  
• understand the current practice within the software engineering domain and the way in which practical problems and academic research may be related
• Skills and abilities
• formulate a research, development question relevant in the software engineering domain  
• systematically solve a research, development problem relevant in the software engineering domain  
• apply a research, development method for solving a problem relevant to the topic  
• combine theories, models and/or methods relevant to the topic  
• plan and conduct a research, development project and document this in a written report  
• integrate knowledge in a systematic and critical way in order to achieve and present knowledge relevant to the software engineering domain  
• communicate this knowledge in an academic environment, i.e. to present the research results to an academic audience
• Judgment and approach
• understand the software engineering domain and the research areas relevant to this domain  
• reflect on the importance of how research can be communicated in an academic environment  
• use the knowledge from this course as a basis for entering the research community within the software engineering domain.

Course content

The course involves an application development or investigation of a relevant problem in the Software Engineering domain. The problem is identified by the students and should have practical and/or theoretical relevance for the SE domain. Students work individually or in pairs preferably within a company setting in which the problem they address is investigated. The investigation should be documented in the form of a written report.