Computers are increasingly fundamental to our highly technical society, including the most innovative and significant advances in medicine, science, education, business, industry, and government. They have become essential to the engineering and scientific fields which produce the technological breakthroughs at which we marvel on a seemingly daily basis. They enable us to improve the quality of our lives and to dramatically increase our productivity. The study of information structure and processing in all its forms has increased and broadened as the computer has permeated our lives. Understanding how computers work, what they can do, and the possibilities out there in the future is what a degree in computer and information science is all about.
Computer science is the study of how computers work and how to create computing applications.
Information Systems is the study of what computers can do, how they can be applied, and how to architect practical computing solutions in business enviornments. The computer science program of study offered through the College of Science and Technology is designed to provide a solid foundation for students with goals spanning the wide range of interests in the field. The department also offers introductory courses in computer literacy including the impact computers have on society and introductory courses in problem solving and programming. Computer science majors complete a core of 13 departmental courses, plus two courses in math and two in science. Two of the departmental courses are electives chosen from areas such as computer graphics, networking, databases, user interface design, automata and languages.