The field of computer science is a dynamic discipline, and its central role in modern society is widely acknowledged. It deals with the issues of representing and using knowledge, encoding and transmitting messages, and computing and communicating symbolic information. Computer scientists try to find techniques for understanding the behavior of complex systems involving the interaction of many components, for organizing volumes of data, and for coordinating the activities of multiple agents. They enunciate principles of structure and process that govern information, just as the laws of physics govern the physical universe.
Researchers create new languages to express computational processes unambiguously and succinctly.
They develop conceptual tools for analyzing and synthesizing complex symbolic systems and use new technologies to realize abstract algorithms. The theory of computation, including the analysis of algorithms and complexity, underlies studies in all of these research areas . The masters program is organized so that a student can complete the degree in one year, although students are normally expected to take two years. These courses cannot be used to satisfy the breadth requirement. Three additional courses selected from any of the breadth categories.