56 courses with the subject COMP, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
COMP 112Introduction to Data Science4
Cross-Listed as STAT 112 This course provides an introduction to the handling, analysis, and interpretation of the big datasets now routinely being collected in science, commerce, and government. Students achieve facility with a sophisticated, technical computing environment. The course aligns with techniques being used in several courses in the natural and social sciences, statistics, and mathematics. The course is intended to be accessible to all students, regardless of background. Every semester.
Topics course that introduces students to the field of computing by way of a central theme. Topics vary; offerings include Digital Humanities, Green Computing, and Social Media. Full description given in advance of registration. This course is suitable for students with little or no experience with computing, but it can serve as a starting point for the Computer Science major. Typically offered in the fall as a First Year Course.
This course introduces the field of computer science, including central concepts such as the design and implementation of algorithms and programs, testing and analyzing programs, the representation of information within the computer, and the role of abstraction and metaphor in computer science. The exploration of these central ideas will draw examples from a range of application areas including multimedia processing, turtle graphics, and text processing. Course work will use the Python programming language. Every semester.
COMP 127 or permission of instructor. Every semester. (4 Credits)
COMP 154Digital Ethics4
Cross-Listed as PHIL 225 This course looks at ethical questions connected with the internet as we know it today: an online environment where content is generated and shared through user activities such as blogging, media sharing, social networking, tagging, tweeting, virtual world gaming, wiki developing, and the like. We will start by considering debates over freedom of speech, privacy, surveillance, and intellectual property: issues that pre-exist the development of the Internet, but which because of it have taken on new dimensions. From here we will go on to take up some ethical questions arising from four different domains of activity on the social web: gaming, social networking, blog/wiki developing, and “hacktivism.” In the third part of the course, we will consider broad questions connected to the integration of the Internet with devices other than the personal computer and mobile phone and which open the prospect of a world of integrated networked systems. What are some of the impacts of such integration on our everyday ethical relations with others and on the overall quality of our lives? How does being networked affect the meaning of being human? Offered alternate years.
Cross-Listed as STAT 212 This second course in the data science curriculum emphasizes advanced data wrangling and manipulation, interactive visualization, writing functions, working with data in databases, version control, and data ethics. Through open-ended and interdisciplinary projects, students practice the constant feedback loop of asking questions of the data, manipulating the data to help answer the question, and then returning to more questions.
COMP 274Thinking Internationally About and With AI4
Cross-Listed as INTL 274 The sudden recent rise of LLM-based artificial intelligence (AI), notably but not only ChatGPT, is having deep sociocultural, political, economic, and educational effects. In this course we will think about, and with, AI in a global frame. After asking “what is AI?” and reviewing its history, we will explore AI topics including environment, labor, higher education, cognitive surrender, consciousness, personhood, recursivity, hallucination, geopolitics, warfare, alignment, existential risk, the post-Mac professions, and AI in film and literature. Rather than keep AI at a distance, we’ll work with it: carefully, skeptically, critically, together. But often we’ll avoid screens altogether. Every other year
COMP 123 ; BIOL 190 recommended Occasional, usually fall semester. (4 Credits)
COMP 321Software Testing
This course will take a hands-on approach to software testing by applying general software testing strategies to a previously written piece of software. Students will work in groups to perform static analysis on shared code, modify it, and write manual tests. Later in the semester, we will look into automated testing approaches. We will also discuss real world software failures from a testing perspective. Examples of previously written pieces of software include homework assignments from COMP 127 and COMP 128
COMP 240 or permission of instructor. Offered occsionally. (4 Credits)
COMP 361Theory of Computation4
Cross-Listed as MATH 361 This course examines the theoretical foundations of computation. It explores different mathematical models that try to formalize our informal notion of an algorithm. Models include finite automata, regular expressions, grammars, and Turing machines. The course also discusses ideas about what can and cannot be computed. In addition, the course explores the basics of complexity theory, examining broad categories of problems and their algorithms, and their efficiency. The focus is on the question of P versus NP, and the NP-complete set.
MATH 236 ; and one of: MATH 135 or MATH 137 or MATH 237 ; and one of: COMP 120 or COMP 123 or COMP 127 or COMP 128 ; or permission of instructor. Every spring. (4 Credits)
COMP 127 or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
COMP 440Collective Intelligence4
This course introduces the theory and practice of data science applied to online communities such as Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter. Students will read and discuss recent academic research papers that analyze behavior on these websites and use computational simulation, machine learning, and data-mining techniques to analyze massive behavioral datasets in areas such as recommender systems, natural language processing, and tagging systems. This course counts as the capstone.
COMP 123 AND a 300-level MATH course (MATH 365 or MATH 379 are likely the most helpful). MATH 279 is also quite relevant. Every other fall. (4 Credits)
COMP 123 , MATH 236 , MATH 279 and one of: COMP 221 , MATH 354 / STAT 354 , MATH 375 , or MATH 379 . Offered odd-numbered spring semesters. (4 Credits)
COMP 221 or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 Credits)
COMP 484Introduction to Artificial Intelligence4
An introduction to the basic principles and techniques of artificial intelligence. Topics will include specific AI techniques, a range of application areas, and connections between AI and other areas of study (i.e., philosophy, psychology). Techniques may include heuristic search, automated reasoning, machine learning, deliberative planning and behavior-based agent control. Application areas include robotics, games, knowledge representation, and natural language processing. This course involves programming in Python; students should have a basic familiarity with Python or be prepared to learn Python during the course. This course counts as the capstone.
Closely supervised individual (or very small group) study with a faculty member in which a student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of computer science not available through the regular offerings. S/SD/N grading option only.
Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
COMP 602Tutorial2
Closely supervised individual (or very small group) study with a faculty member in which a student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of computer science not available through the regular offerings.
Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
COMP 603Tutorial3
Closely supervised individual (or very small group) study with a faculty member in which a student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of computer science not available through the regular offerings.
Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
COMP 604Tutorial4
Closely supervised individual (or very small group) study with a faculty member in which a student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of computer science not available through the regular offerings.
Permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
COMP 611Independent Project1
Individual project including library research, conferences with instructor, oral and written reports on independent work in computer science. Subject matter may complement but not duplicate material covered in regular courses.
Arrangements must be made with a department member prior to registration and permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (1 Credits)
COMP 612Independent Project2
Individual project including library research, conferences with instructor, oral and written reports on independent work in computer science. Subject matter may complement but not duplicate material covered in regular courses.
Arrangements must be made with a department member prior to registration and permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (2 Credits)
COMP 613Independent Project3
Individual project including library research, conferences with instructor, oral and written reports on independent work in computer science. Subject matter may complement but not duplicate material covered in regular courses.
Arrangements must be made with a department member prior to registration and permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (3 Credits)
COMP 614Independent Project4
Individual project including library research, conferences with instructor, oral and written reports on independent work in computer science. Subject matter may complement but not duplicate material covered in regular courses.
Arrangements must be made with a department member prior to registration and permission of instructor and department chair. Every semester. (4 Credits)
COMP 621Internship1
Internships are offered only as S/SD/N grading option.
Available to junior and senior students with declared majors in computer science. Arrangements must be made prior to registration. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (1 Credits)
COMP 622Internship2
Internships are offered only as S/SD/N grading option.
Available to junior and senior students with declared majors in computer science. Arrangements must be made prior to registration. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (2 Credits)
COMP 623Internship3
Internships are offered only as S/SD/N grading option.
Available to junior and senior students with declared majors in computer science. Arrangements must be made prior to registration. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (3 Credits)
COMP 624Internship4
Internships are offered only as S/SD/N grading option.
Available to junior and senior students with declared majors in computer science. Arrangements must be made prior to registration. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office. Every semester. (4 Credits)
COMP 631Preceptorship1
Work in assisting faculty in the planning and teaching of a course.
