THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE FACULTY SENATE Senate Document Number 2997S Date of Senate Approval 3/20/97 Statement of Faculty Senate Action: APC 25: Computer Science deletions and additions; change in requirement for Major Effective Date: Fall, 1997 The catalog changes are submitted for consideration: Replacement of CSCI 126 and 351 with CSCI 107 Replacement of CSCI 254 with CSCI 255 New requirements for the Computer Science major Delete CSCI 126 Micro Software Packages 126 Micro Software Packages (3) For students without prior computer experience. An introduction to IBM PC software such as word processors, spreadsheets, database and graphics packages. Appropriate assignments for various academic majors will be given. Course offered each semester. CSCI 254 Computer Organization (3) 254 Computer Organization (3) Organization of digital computers including data representation, logic design, and architectural features needed to support high level languages. Prerequisite: CSCI 201. Course offered each semester. CSCI 351 Micro Software Tools for Programmers 351 Micro Software Tools for Programmers (3) Applications in microcomputer operating systems, spreadsheet, database, graphics, and expert system software presented at the junior/senior computer science level. (Credit will not be allowed for both 126 and 351.) Prerequisite: CSCI 202. Course offered each semester. Delete present "Required courses in the major" in the Program in Computer Systems: Required courses in the major -- 37 hours, including: CSCI 201, 202, 254, 320, 331, 333, 343, 346, 431, 462 and 9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Delete present "Required courses in the major" in the Program in Computer Systems: Required courses in the major -- 37 hours, including: CSCI 201, 202, 241, 254, 342, 343, 351, 446, 448, 462, and 9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Delete present requirements for Computer Science minor: CSCI 201, 202, 254 and 12 hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. ADD New course CSCI 107 Using Computer and Networks replacing CSCI 126 and 351 107 Using Computers and Networks (3) A survey of computer architecture, programming, and networking. Also examines the societal effects of computers and networks. Includes formal labs to develop skills in useful computer applications such as spread sheets, data bases, Internet browsers, and multimedia design tools. Course offered every semester. New course CSCI 255 Computer Organization replacing CSCI 254 255 Computer Organization (4) Organization of digital computers including data representation, logic design, and architectural features needed to support high level languages. Includes a formal laboratory section using circuit design tools. Prerequisite: CSCI 202. Course offered every Spring semester. New course descriptions for above courses with modified prerequisites, including editorial changes, one change of semester (320) and one correction of title (363) 320 Computer Architecture (3) Architectural features of modern computer architectures, including instruction set design, pipelining, memory management, and bus structures. Quantitative analysis of computer design choices. Prerequisite: CSCI 202 and 255. Course offered every fall semester. 331 Operating Systems (3) Concepts of operating systems: processes, synchronization, memory management, file systems, and security. Prerequisite: CSCI 202 and 255. Course offered every spring semester. 346 Computer Graphics (3) Programming techniques for the display of two and three dimensional objects. Rotation, translation, and scaling. Hidden line and surface elimination. Raster methods. Color theory. Animation. Prerequisite: CSCI 202 and 255. Course offered every spring semester. 361 Data Communications (3) Hardware-oriented aspects of data communications and computer networking. Transmission media, data encoding, error correction, flow control, and performance analysis. Prerequisite: CSCI 255. Course offered every even year fall semester. 363 Computer Networking (3) Software-oriented aspects of data communications and computer networking. Network interconnection, session control, application programmer interfaces, common network applications. Prerequisite: CSCI 202. Course offered every odd year fall semester. Add modified "Required courses in the major" in the Program in Computer Systems: Required courses in the major -- 41 hours, including: CSCI 107, 201, 202, 255, 320, 331, 333, 343, 346, 431, 462 and 9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Add modified "Required courses in the major" in the Program in Information Systems: Required courses in the major -- 38 hours, including: CSCI 107, 201, 202, 241, 255, 342, 343, 446, 448, 462, and 9 additional hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Add modified requirements for Computer Science minor: CSCI 107, 201, 202, 255 and 9 hours in CSCI at the 300 level or above. Editorial changes for other departmental requirement listings For Biology (p. 78) Delete last sentence of section IV -- "Required courses outside the major" in Biology: Students not familiar with microcomputers are advised to take CSCI 126. Add (replace) as last sentence of section IV: Students not familiar with microcomputers are advised to take CSCI 107. For Biology with Teacher Licensure (p. 78) Delete from section III -- "Required courses outside the major": CSCI 126 or 141; Add modified requirement: CSCI 107 or 141; For Program in Economics (p. 104) Delete from section II -- "Required courses outside the major": CSCI 126 or waiver by Economics Department; Add modified requirement: CSCI 107 or waiver by Economics Department; For Program in Monetary Economics and Finance (p. 104) Delete from section II -- "Required courses outside the major": CSCI 126 or waiver by Economics Department; Add modified requirement: CSCI 107 or waiver by Economics Department; For Program in Political Economy of Economics (p. 104) Delete from section II -- "Required courses outside the major": CSCI 126 or waiver by Economics Department; Add modified requirement: CSCI 107 or waiver by Economics Department; For Multimedia Arts and Sciences minor (p. 178) Delete from the Requirements of the Minor CSCI 254; Add modified requirement: CSCI 255; For Program in Political Economy of Political Science (p. 192) Delete from section II -- "Required courses outside the major": CSCI 126; Add modified requirement: CSCI 107; Impact Statement Impact of deletion of CSCI 126 to non-CSCI degree requirements Three departments list CSCI 126 as a requirement or suggested elective in their major programs. Students pursuing the Biology major are "advised to take CSCI 126" while students in the program in Biology with Teacher License are required to take either CSCI 126 or 141. Tracks within the Economics and Political Science also major require CSCI 126. We believe that replacing the requirements for CSCI 126 with CSCI 107 would be appropriate in these programs. Impact of deletion of CSCI 254 to non-CSCI degree requirements The minor in Multimedia Arts and Sciences list CSCI 254 within a selection of electives from which students are required to take 12 credit hours. CSCI 255 could replace 254 in this list. Impact of change in CSCI degree requirements The total number of required hours in the Computer Systems track will increase by four. This is necessary to meet the requirement of the CSAB that an accredited Computer Science program include one and one-third years (or 40.667 credit hours) of Computer Science. Even with this increase, the number of hours required by this program is still four less than the number of hours required by UNCA's ACS-accredited Chemistry major. The number of required hours in the Information Systems track and the Computer Science minor will increase by one. Impact of changes on staffing requirements CSCI 107 will replace CSCI 126, Micro-computer Applications, CSCI 351, Software Tools for Programmers, and the popular Using the Internet CSCI 173 special topics course that we have taught the last two years. All of these courses have been taught with three hours of combined lab and lecture sessions each week. Presently the combined enrollments of CSCI 126, 173, and 351 is about 200 students each term. We envision that each semester CSCI 107 will require two day-time lecture sections and one evening lecture section along with about ten lab sections. Compared to the 126/173/351 combination, addition staffing of about three faculty contact hours per semester will be required for the new course. Presently, the majority of the 126/173/351 sections are taught by adjuncts. Clearly, UNCA will still need to employ adjuncts to teach CSCI 107, most likely in its lab sessions. In the last three academic years, 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1995-96, we have taught CSCI 254 each semester to an average of 52 students per year. In order to teach CSCI 255, the new lab-based version of the course, we are proposing to adopt the large lecture/small lab model used by many other science departments. The best models for our proposed staffing are BIOL 210, Principles of Animal Biology, and BIOL 211, Principles of Plant Biology. Each of these Sophomore-level major lab courses is taught once per year with 3 hours of lectures attended by about 60 students and three separate labs attended by about 20 students each. The increase in faculty contact hour allocated to our Computer Organization course will be greater than the increase in credit hours; however we believe that this "loss" is more than justified by the improvements made to student learning. Rationale Rationale for CSCI 107, the new computer survey course We are propose the new computer survey course for two reasons. First, we believe that an introductory survey course in computer science would be valuable for many college students. For several years, our primary non-major computer course has been CSCI 126, a micro-computer applications course. While students learn many valuable skills in CSCI 126, they do not become truly computer literate because many important areas of computation, such as artificial intelligence and computer networking, that do not fall into the micro-computer focus of 126. Second, the initial course for our majors is presently CSCI 201, an introductory programming course. While students learn quite a bit about the foundations of programming in 201, they do not receive the broad survey of our field found in many other first-year college courses. We'd like to start off our students with this broad knowledge. While CSCI 126 and 173 have introduced many UNCA students to computers and networking, the combined lab/lecture format of the courses has tended to emphasize computer skills over basic computer knowledge. Graduates of UNCA should know a bit about the basic organization of personal computers and international networks and should know enough about programming to recognize the absurdity of the popular computer movies being produced in Hollywood these days. The formal lab sessions of CSCI 107 will give students many of the basic computer skills needed to succeed in college. On completion of CSCI 107, a student will know how to print a well-formatted paper, design a spread sheet, and create an Internet home page with audio and images. Rationale for CSCI 255, the lab-based computer organization course Presently there are no Computer Science courses in our major with formal labs. This gives us an unfortunate distinction as both a UNCA science department and an undergraduate computer science department. We are the only UNCA science major with no required laboratories in the major. In the Fall 96 semester Wayne Lang is taught a special topics course (CSCI 274) with is the equivalent of our present CSCI 254, Computer Organization, augmented with a formal lab section. The addition of the lab has had a great impact in CSCI 254. A far greater number of the students are "on target" with the course material, student frustration is lower, and student comprehension and morale is higher. Rationale for Computer Science degree requirement changes The modification of the degree requirements of the Computer Systems track of the Computer Science major will allow the department to fulfil the requirements of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB). A growing number of liberal arts colleges in the Carolinas, e.g., Furman University, meet the CSAB requirements and, if UNCA wishes to have a viable Computer Science major, so must we.