COMPUTER SCIENCES
Program code: 0418
INTRODUCTION
The Computer Science Department (College of Science) offers a graduate program that leads to the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science. The program features a thesis and a non-thesis option. The thesis option requires a successful completion of a thesis, and the non-thesis option requires the completion of a project and passing a comprehensive examination. The graduate program in Computer Science places equal emphasis on fundamentals and practical aspects of Computer Science. Current research interests of the faculty include algorithms, artificial intelligence, security, database systems, networks and distributed systems, and software engineering. The aim of this program is to prepare students for industrial and research careers.
According to the University Council decision dated 4/2/2007, Thesis students admitted with effect from September 2007 are exempted from the comprehensive examination.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
31 (34) TOTAL COURSE CREDITS (non-thesis option in parenthesis)
10 (4) ) COMPULSORY (credits in parenthesis)
0418-590 Research Seminar in Computer Science (1)
0418-593 Project (Non-Thesis option only) (3)
0418-597 Thesis (Thesis option only) (0)
0418-598 Thesis (Thesis option only) (0)
2000-599 Thesis (Thesis option only) (9)
21 (30) CORE COURSES
Group A: Theory (3-6 credits)
0418-512 Automata and Formal Languages (3)
0418-513 Theory of Complexity (3)
0418-516 Graph Theory(3)
0418-521 Programming Paradigms (3)
0418-553 Information Theory (3)
Group B: Systems and Security (3-12 credits)
0418-522 Distributed Systems (3)
0418-525 Operating Systems (3)
0418-526 Advanced Computer Networks (3)
0418-551 Introduction to Cryptography (3)
0418-561 Systems & Network Security (3)
0418-562 Software Security (3)
0418-563 Data Protection and Privacy (3)
Group C: Artificial Intelligence (3-12 credits )
0418-524 Expert Systems (3)
0418-541 Advanced Artificial Intelligence (3)
0418-552 Data Mining (3)
0418-566 Machine Learning (3)
0418-567 Algorithms for Optimization (3)
Group D: Applications and Special Topics (0-12 credits)
0418-515 Program Specification & Verification (3)
0418-523 Advanced Databases (3)
0418-527 Interconnection Networks (3)
0418-534 Parallel Computing (3)
0418-543 Advanced Numerical Computing (3)
0418-544 Software Engineering (3)
0418-547 Modeling and Computer Simulation
0418-564 Computational Biology (3)
0418-565 Computational Medicine (3)
0418-580 Topics in Computer Science (3)
Group E: Free Electives (0-6 credits)
Students may study up to 6 credit hours from the 400 level undergraduate courses offered by Computer Science Department, or any 400/500 level courses offered by other Departments at Kuwait University with the approval of the Program Director.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
0418-512: AUTOMATA AND FORMAL LANGUAGES
CR: 3
The classes of regular, context-free, context-sensitive, and recursively enumerable languages. Characterization by grammars. Deterministic and non-deterministic automata, pumping lemmas. Undecidable problems. Algebraic and decidability properties of the language classes.
0418-513: THEORY OF COMPLEXITY
CR: 3
Algorithm, Turing machines, computability. Complexity measures based on formal models, time and space, complexity. Tractable and intractable problems. Algorithm design techniques and analysis of the resulting algorithms. Complexity cases. P-NP problem, examples of NP-complete problems. Complexity of parallel computations.
0418-515: PROGRAM SPECIFICATION AND VERIFICATION
CR: 3
Total and partial correctness; pre and post conditions, verification rules, predicate transformers. Modal and temporal logic. Algebraic specifications, heterogeneous algebras, equations and conditional equations. Structured specifications, specification languages.
0418-516: GRAPH THEORY
CR: 3
The course covers the following topics: directed and undirected graphs, properties of graphs, graphs and subgraphs, trees, connectivity of graphs, Euler and Hamiltonian paths/cycles, Ramsey’s theorem, matching, coloring, independent sets and cliques, planar graphs, and networks.
0418-521: PROGRAMMING PARADIGMS
CR: 3
Features of imperative (procedural) programming languages, impacts of von Neumann computer architecture. Object-oriented programming paradigm, objects, classes, inheritance. Concepts of functional programming and LISP, functionals in programming. Concepts of logic programming and PROLOG.
0418-522: DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS
CR: 3
Introduction to distributed systems: hardware and software concepts. Communication in distributed systems. Language support. Processing Concepts. Synchronization scheduling and resource allocation. Distributed transaction processing.
0418-523: ADVANCED DATABASES
CR: 3
New data modelling concepts. Advanced transactions models. Conventional and parallel query processing. Database extensions (temporal databases). Data mining concepts.
0418-524: EXPERT SYSTEMS
CR: 3
Structure of Expert System. Classification of Experts Systems and main application areas. Basic cycle of work. Principles of Knowledge Engineering. Probability computations for Expert Systems. Reasoning under certainty and inexact reasoning. Fuzzy logic. Rete algorithm. Data structures for Expert Systems. Designing and developing Expert Systems with shells. CLIPS shell. Life cycles for Expert Systems.
0418-525: OPERATING SYSTEMS
CR: 3
Modern Operating systems design and construction techniques. Concurrent programming, operating system Kernels, correctness, transaction processing, synchronization problems, fault tolerance, deadlocks, distributed system structures ,distributed file systems and distributed coordination, protection and security, network operating systems, comparative structure of different kinds of operating systems, and other research topics.
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
0418-526: ADVANCED COMPUTER
NETWORKS
CR: 3
Local area and wide-area networks, Internet protocols, TCP/IP, advanced topics in computer networking cellular and wireless, mobile communication systems and mobility management, ad hoc networks, sensor networks satellite networks, mobile IP, Bluetooth, network security and reliability.
0418-527: INTERCONNECTION
NETWORKS
CR: 3
This course discusses the topological properties of interconnection networks, comparing different interconnection networks topologies, broadcasting and routing on some well-known inter-connection networks, fault tolerant broadcasting and routing on some well-known interconnection networks, Hamiltonian cycles and Gray codes, and some problems in interconnection networks.
0418-534: PARALLEL COMPUTING CR: 3 Sequential and Parallel programs. A descriptive view at sequential and concurrent program execution. Parallel processing models and terminology. Architecture classifications. Communication topologies. Performance measures. Principles of organizing parallel algorithms and examples. Concurrent programming languages.
0418-541: ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
CR: 3
Mathematical logic, resolution techniques and automated theorem proving. Problem solving methodology. Computational systems for problem solving. Sequential and parallel inference machines. Quasi-chaotic models of computations: Genetic algorithms. Game playing. Machine learning. Natural language processing: syntactic processing, semantic analysis. Selected application of AI.
0418-543: ADVANCED NUMERICAL COMPUTING
CR: 3
Fitting of data, B-spline representations, calculating with B-splines, knot insertion algorithms, curve fitting with splines, surface fitting, mesh data methods, scattered data methods. Transforms and filtration of data, Fourier transforms, convolution and correlation, sampling interpolation, deconvolution problem, reconstruction from projections, discrete projections, iterative image reconstruction. Data fitting with fractals, fractal image, fractal dimension, attractor, compression with quadtree, fractal image coding.
0418-544: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
CR: 3
Models, notations, the process for software requirement identification, representation, validation, and analysis. Software design process and its models, design state assessment and quality assurance, design verification. Systematic testing of software systems and verification. Measurement and prediction of software reliability. Software project management.
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
0418-547: MODELLING AND COMPUTER SIMULATION CR: 3
Basic concepts of modelling, performance metrics, workload selection, data representation. Time-based vs. discrete-event simulation. Simulation of a single server system. Model validation and verification techniques. Random number generators, random variate generation, commonly used distributions. Simulation model analysis, initial transients, confidence intervals, output data analysis. Case studies.
0418-551: INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGRAPHY
CR: 3
The course starts with some examples of classical cipher systems such as affine cipher, substitution cipher, etc. Next, we study some modern symmetric and asymmetric cipher systems and their security. Chaos-based cipher systems are also introduced. The Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol is discussed. Digital signatures, hash functions and message authentication codes which are important tools for authentication and data integrity are also presented.
0418-552 : DATA MINING
CR: 3
Basic concepts, data preprocessing; Association rules, Classification and Prediction; Cluster analysis; Evaluation Techniques; Specialized Techniques.
0418-553 : INFORMATION THEORY
CR: 3
Introduction to Algebra, Entropy, Linear codes, Cyclic codes, BCH codes, Hamming code, Huffman codes, Lempel-Ziv codes, Shannon–Fano codes, Channel capacity, Mutual information, Binary symmetric channel, Gaussian channel.
0418-561: SYSTEM & NETWORK SECURITY
CR: 3 This course introduces a wide range of security problems in software, systems, and networks. Main topics include principles of systems and network security; classical and modern threat models in computing systems; security in operating systems, browsers, and at the IP stack, transport layer security; defensive methods; and security analysis.
0418-562: SOFTWARE SECURITY
CR: 3 The course provides a deep insight into state-of the- art security problems facing design, construction, and maintenance of software systems. Main concepts include vulnerability analysis and detection through static and dynamic analysis, information flow analysis, trusted computing base, sandboxing, and return-oriented programming.
0418-563: DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY CR: 3
This is an advanced graduate course that utilizes presents the theoretical foundations for privacy protection in database. The course will include advanced applied theoretical topics such as homomorphism, design of encrypted databases, encrypted queries, data anonymity systems considerations, and privacy in the cloud.
0418-564: COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY CR: 3
Main topics include central dogma in biology, bioinformatics databases and sequence alignment, phylogenetic trees & clustering techniques, molecular dynamics simulations and applications, hidden markov models, affine transformations and modeling molecular aggregation.
0418-565: COMPUTATIONAL MEDICINE CR: 3
Main topics include an overview of computational medicine & medical informatics, electronic health records and health systems, designing scalable software systems for health, algorithm development for diabetes pumps, and computational molecular docking and drug design.
0418-566: MACHINE LEARNING
CR: 3
The course covers the basic concepts and techniques of Machine Learning from both theoretical and practical perspective. The material includes decision trees, artificial neural networks, deep learning, Bayesian learning, instance-based learning and reinforcement learning
0418-567: ALGORITHMS FOR OPTIMIZATION
CR: 3
Methods and algorithms for developing systems and software to solve single and multiple objective optimization problems. Methods include backtracking, direct search, and gradient-based methods.
0418-580: TOPICS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE CR: 3
Special topics not covered in other courses, may be repeated for credit under different subtitles.
0418-590: RESEARCH SEMINAR IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
CR: 1
The aim of the research seminar is to allow the M.Sc. candidate to gain experience in preparing and presenting his/her research work.
0418-593: PROJECT
CR: 3
The student undertakes an independent project on a research topic of theoretical and/or experimental focus under the supervision of a faculty member listed in the supervisory list of the College of Graduate Studies. The objective is to provide the student with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge gained throughout the course of study in a practical problem. The student must document the project in a scientific report following standard research writing guidelines and give a public presentation to the project examination committee.
0418-597: THESIS
CR: 0
0418-598: THESIS
CR: 0
2000-599: THESIS
CR: 9