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(head)Academic Programs

 

Computer Science
Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing

Overview

Computer science is integral to current technological and cultural changes and to all fields of study. The Computer Science Program at Bard offers courses of interest to computer science, science, and nonscience majors. The program focuses on the fundamental ideas of computer science and introduces students to multiple programming languages that emphasize different programming paradigms. It offers broad coverage of theoretical, applied, and systems-oriented topics. Students have numerous opportunities to participate in hands-on courses and research projects in new laboratories devoted to cognition, robotics, and symbolic computation.

The curriculum is designed to offer many opportunities for students whose interest in computer science arises from its intersection with another discipline. Computer science has many linkages with cognitive science, electronic arts, mathematics, and physics. Students from these fields often begin with an introductory course and later return to take a more advanced computer science course that enhances skills and knowledge they will use in their Senior Project.

Requirements:

Before Moderation a student in the Computer Science Program should complete or be enrolled in Computer Science 141, 201, and 243, as well as Mathematics 141 (or the equivalents). Students are expected to follow standard divisional procedures for Moderation and to fulfill the collegewide distribution and First-Year Seminar requirements. By graduation, a student in the program must take Computer Science 301, 305, 312, and either 326 or 335, at least two other computer science courses numbered 300 or above, and complete a Senior Project.

Recent Senior Projects:

  • “An Incursion into Finite Model Theory”
  • “Bacterial Identification: Algorithms for the Selection of Primers for PCR Reactions”
  • “Determining Image Authorship: Applied Statistical Techniques of Stylometrics”
  • “Information Visualization and HCI: Novel Visualization Techniques to Increase Cognition Rates for Information-Intensive Tasks”

Courses

The following core courses are offered every year or every other year:  Computer Science 141, Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming; Computer Science 201, Data Structures; Computer Science 301, Algorithms; Computer Science 305, Design of Programming Languages; Computer Science 312, Theory of Computation; Computer Science 326, Operating Systems; Computer Science 335, Computer Networks; and Computer Science 351, Artificial Intelligence. Elective courses are offered at least once every three years or by tutorial; recent examples include Computer Science 321, Databases; Computer Science 323, Computer Graphics; and Computer Science 451, Topics in Advanced Artificial Intelligence.

Website: http://computer.bard.edu

Faculty:
Sven Anderson
Robert W. McGrail
Keith O'Hara
S. Rebecca Thomas

Staff:
Michael Rich

 
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