DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE — REQUIREMENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Preparatory Work

Any student who intends to take a computer science course at or below CS 110 (Introduction to Computer Programming) must furnish proof to the department that he or she is prepared for that course. This proof must be a suitable score on the Mathematics Diagnostic Test. However, the diagnostic test will be waived for students who have successfully completed MA 140, Calculus I, at UMass Boston or its equivalent elsewhere.

Majors

To earn a BA degree in computer science, a student who declared a major before Fall 2002 must take:

MATH 140, MATH 141 and MATH 260
CS 110, CS 210, CS 240, CS 241, CS 310, CS 320 and CS 420
One theoretical elective and two applied electives, chosen from lists maintained and periodically revised by the department. At least one of the applied electives must be at the 400 level or above.
CS 260 or one additional elective

For students declaring a major in Fall 2002 or later, CS 450 is required, CSIT 115 may be taken in place of CS 110, and one of the two applied electives must be either CS 444 or CS 451, which will be the capstone course for the major.

Students pursuing a major in the department must take a minimum of four upper division courses (at the 300 level or above) in their major at UMass Boston. Each major is strongly advised to seek advice pertinent to his or her situation from an advisor in the department. A hold is placed on each student’s registration during Advanced Registration until the student has spoken to an advisor. Majors who wish to take courses in Management Science and Information Systems (in the College of Management) should consult the department before enrolling.

The Bachelor of Science Degree

To earn a BS degree in computer science, a student who declared a major before Fall 2002 must:

Fulfill the requirements for the BA degree, as indicated above
Take six courses in the sciences outside the Department. Those courses must be appropriate for majors in those departments offering the courses and must include PHYSIC 113 and PHYSIC 114. In addition, one laboratory course is required. One of the six science courses may also qualify as the laboratory course (for example, CHEM 103 counts as a laboratory course, but PHYSIC 113 does not); also CS 444 may be counted as a laboratory course.

For students declaring a major Fall, 2002 or later, the following changes in major requirements are in effect.

CS-IT 115 may be taken in place of CS 110.
The number of required science courses is reduced from 6 to 3, which must include PHYSIC 113 and 114 with labs.
CS 410 (the capstone course), 444, 450, 451, 485, and MATH 345 are required.

Instead of one theoretical and two applied electives, students must take two CS electives.

Students who declared their major in Fall 2002 may replace CS 485 with an additional computer science elective.

Honors

To graduate with Honors, a computer science major must:

maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher,
achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the major,
successfully complete CS 498 (Honors), including an oral defense of the thesis.

The Honors thesis and defense will be judged by a three-person committee consisting of the thesis advisor and two other faculty members whose background is relevant to the project. Membership of the committee must be approved by the Computer Science chair or undergraduate program director. All members of the Honors committee must be present at the defense and must unanimously agree on conferral of Honors. Honors theses will be published by the Department as Technical Reports.

Certificates in Computer Science

See the “Computer Science Programs” section of this publication for information on certificates in computer science.