Global Arc

An introduction to computer architecture and organization. Instruction set design; basic processor implementation techniques; performance measurement; caches and virtual memory; pipelined processor design; design trade-offs among cost, performance, and complexity. Two 90-minute classes, one self-scheduled hardware laboratory. Prerequisites: COS 217.

Offered in the fall, juniors are provided with an opportunity to concentrate on a "state-of-the-art" project in computer science. Topics may be selected from suggestions by faculty members or proposed by the student. B.S.E. candidates only.

Offered in the spring, juniors are provided with an opportunity to concentrate on a "state-of-the-art" project in computer science. Topics may be selected from suggestions by faculty members or proposed by the student. B.S.E. candidates only.

This course covers the design and implementation of distributed systems. Students will gain an understanding of the principles and techniques behind the design of modern, reliable, and high-performance distributed systems. Topics include server design, network programming, naming, concurrency and locking, consistency models and techniques, security, and fault tolerance. Modern techniques and systems employed at some of the largest Internet sites (e.g., Google, Facebook, Amazon) will also be covered. Through programming assignments, students will gain practical experience designing, implementing, and debugging real distributed systems.

Design and analysis of efficient data structures and algorithms. General techniques for building and analyzing algorithms. Introduction to NP-completeness. Two 90-minute lectures. Prerequisites: 226 and 240 or instructor's permission.

Computers have made it possible to collect vast amounts of data from a wide variety of sources. It is not always clear, however, how to use the data, and how to extract useful information from them. This problem is faced in a tremendous range of social, economic and scientific applications. The focus will be on some of the most useful approaches to the problem of analyzing large complex data sets, exploring both theoretical foundations and practical applications. Students will gain experience analyzing several types of data, including text, images, and biological data. Two 90-minute lectures. Prereq: MAT 202 and COS 126 or equivalent.

The principles underlying the generation and display of graphical pictures by computer. Hardware and software systems for graphics. Topics include: hidden surface and hidden line elimination, line drawing, shading, half-toning, user interfaces for graphical input, and graphic system organization. Two 90-minute lectures. Prerequisites: 217 and 226.

An introduction to the concepts of 2D and 3D computer vision. Topics include low-level image processing methods such as filtering and edge detection; segmentation and clustering; optical flow and tracking; shape reconstruction from stereo, motion, texture, and shading. Throughout the course, there will also be examination of aspects of human vision and perception that guide and inspire computer vision techniques. Prerequisites: 217 and 226. Two 90-minute lectures.

Security issues in computing, communications, and electronic commerce. Goals and vulnerabilities; legal and ethical issues; basic cryptology; private and authenticated communication; electronic commerce; software security; viruses and other malicious code; operating system protection; trusted systems design; network security; firewalls; policy, administration and procedures; auditing; physical security; disaster recovery; reliability; content protection; privacy. Prerequisites: 217 and 226. Two 90-minute lectures.

An introduction to modern cryptography with an emphasis on fundamental ideas. The course will survey both the basic information and complexity-theoretic concepts as well as their (often surprising and counter-intuitive) applications. Among the topics covered will be private key and public key encryption schemes, digital signatures, pseudorandom generators and functions, chosen ciphertext security; and time permitting, some advanced topics such as zero knowledge proofs, secret sharing, private information retrieval, and quantum cryptography. Prerequisites: 226 or permission of instructor. Two 90-minute lectures.