This track allows students to focus in the ways in which technology solutions can be can developed, implemented, managed, and maintained in organizations.
Course options with computational/digital focus:
CDT 40200 Information Security taught by James Smith (FALL)
This course provides students with a practical, hands-on exposure to information security topics. This course follows the curriculum for the industry standard Security+ certification program. Students successfully completing this course will be prepared to take the Security+ certification exam. This credential is a valuable way to demonstrate knowledge of information security topics to potential employers.
Students completing this course will be prepared to address the information security issues facing managers and
leaders in any organization. The course is also an excellent starting point for those seeking a career in information
security or risk management consulting. Specific topics covered include:
Network Security
Compliance and Operational Security
Threats and Vulnerabilities
Application, Data and Host Security
Access Control and Identity Management
Cryptography
CDT 40610 Case Study - Computing-Based Entrepreneurship (CSE 40923) taught by Kevin Bowyer or other staff instructors (FALL)
The purpose of this course is to Inform, Introduce and (hopefully) Inspire you. You will become Informed about computing-based entrepreneurship case studies across a wide variety of areas: computer software, computer hardware, healthcare technologies, databases, web services, data analytics and more. You will also become Informed about different aspects of the entrepreneurship challenge. You will be Introduced to guest speakers who are, or who have been, principals in developing technology, founding companies, running companies, selecting technologies for venture capital investment, etc. As a result, you will hopefully be Inspired to consider pursuing computing-based entrepreneurship opportunity.
CDT 40620 Software Development Practices and Management taught by Mike Villano (SPRING)
The purpose of this course is to provide the student with familiarity with a variety of software development methodologies (Waterfall, Object-Oriented, Extreme and Agile) that address the complete software development life cycle. Students will form software development teams to facilitate hands-on experience in requirements gathering, best practices in coding, automated testing, the use of version control systems and basic software project management. The equivalent of one semester's experience with a programming language is required.course will cover important topics like how user needs and requirements are specified, the software development process, best practices in coding, and the use of version control systems.
CDT 44640(Summer) 40640 Data Science taught by Nitesh Chawla (SUMMER, FALL, & SPRING)
The course introduces students to the fundamentals and process of data science with an emphasis on machine learning and business use-cases. This 8 week course is presented entirely online and combines live weekly meeting sessions with asynchronous content for an immersive, engaging small-class experience. The live sessions are conveniently scheduled in the evenings to enable students to work and study during the summer months. Students enrolling in this course should have taken one or more courses or implemented one or more projects involving Python programming. Students must also have taken one or more courses in probability or statistics. Some financial aid is available for this course.
Course options without computational/digital focus (only one is allowed):
CDT 30530 Man and Machine: Humanity, Technology, and the Future taught by Jessica Baron (FALL)
Rapidly advancing technology and sociotechnical systems promise enormous rewards, but also present great risks to the future of humanity by creating a variety of social, cultural, environmental, economic, religious, and political conundrums. In this course, students will be presented with some of the most controversial ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology today and will learn about a variety of theoretical perspectives from which to analyze them. Our goal is to learn how to respond knowledgeably and productively to the sociotechnical dilemmas that confront us in government, industry, politics, education, and daily life. Because these issues cut across the conventional lines of academic training and thought, we will take a crossdisciplinary approach to studying the past, present, and future of technological innovation and the responsibilities of both the designers and users. Examples will include life extension technology, robotics, predictive policing, human enhancement, reproductive interventions, AI, cyber security, and other projects currently in development around the world.
CDT 40630 Ethical and Professional Issues (CSE 40175) taught by Kevin Bowyer or other staff instructors (FALL & SPRING)
This course seeks to develop a solid foundation for reasoning about the difficult ethical, professional, and social controversies that arise in the computing field. Emphasis is placed on identifying the appropriate legal and professional context and applying sound critical thinking skills to a problem. Topics covered include relevant professional codes of ethics, encryption/privacy/surveillance, freedom of speech, "cracking" of computer systems, development of safety-critical software, whistleblowing, and intellectual property. This course relies heavily on case study of real incidents, both historical and current.
CDT 40530 Digital Technology, Society, and Ethics (STV 20235) (NOT OFFERED AT THIS TIME)
This course will explore ethical and moral dilemmas that arise as powerful and pervasive new technologies increasingly shape how individuals understand themselves, and play important roles in weaving together new kinds of social groups. We will examine how new technological capacities have helped shape new kinds of economic organization and production (information economy), new forms of community (dispersed, virtual), and led people to new understandings of individuality and of themselves (e.g., online communities as constitutive of new self-definitions and understandings). We will work through case studies to investigate how particular new communication technologies have changed how society is organized, and changed how individuals interact with one another. We will explore ethical questions in the context of these case studies, and will ask ourselves how people can and should treat and engage one another in a rapidly transforming technical and social landscape. We will grapple with understanding information technologies as both shaping and reflecting the communities and societies in which they exist; and we will consider whether the question of how one should/can engage another person may be decided by, or embedded in the technical structure of new social media and other technical systems. We will explore how our interactions with the physical world are increasingly mediated by technologies (from games to Google glass), and think about how the ‘natural’ and the ‘artificial’ are merging together, possibly transforming what it means to be human, or to be a nation. In short, we will explore how communication systems shape societies: how social, economic, political, and cultural life is transformed as new technologies enable new modes of mediated social interaction. In a rapidly transforming world, this course will lead students to understand themselves as, and be, active, ethical contributors, capable of shaping communities of various kinds: business, social, cultural, and other