Faculty of Science

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing Studies (Information Systems) (3-year)

This Computing Studies degree programme has an all-round objective. It meets not only the general educational needs but also the specific demands of the computer industry in Hong Kong. It provides professional training and the programme is multidisciplinary and integrative. There are professional training in the programme contents that are directly usable in their career immediately after students' graduation. Students are also required to gain working experiences in the Summer Internship. It is multidisciplinary in that in addition to the foundation courses of a Computer Science major as well as the Information Systems (IS) discipline, the programme covers some business studies from organizational perspectives for IS development and some mathematics training for analytical thinking in problem solving. The programme is integrative. The programme brings in two different ingredients (IT/IS and business) provided by the three different disciplines (Computer Science, Information Systems, and Business).

Upon completion of the programme, students will be equipped with KAIS:
1.	Knowledge and skills essential to an information systems specialist including information technology (IT), IT-enabled business development, and business fundamentals;
2.	Analytical and critical thinking capabilities;
3.	Interpersonal, communication, and team skills; and
4.	Self-awareness and a whole-person concept.

The specific learning experiences designed for our students in this programme include:

1.	A solid curriculum adopted from one recommended by international information systems professional bodies;
2.	Substantial systems development opportunities (group and individual) under professors' close supervision;
3.	A specially designed summer internship programme for real life professional experience that may assist their future career development; and
4.	Guided research opportunities via an undergraduate elite programme.

The results are that the graduates (1) will be able to apply their specialized knowledge and skills to solve problems, particularly in relation to liaising with end-users, decision-makers at various levels, and their technical peers in building computer based information systems; (2) will establish a sound foundation for further advanced study, if they so wish. Students may also choose to follow a route of technical specialists in Computer Science if they so desire.

The emphasis of the programme is on information systems. In this context, information systems (as both a discipline of study and a specialized area of professional practice) are concerned with having the right information available at the right time and the right place within an organization.

As the programme aims to produce graduates capable of becoming information systems specialists, and potential employers demand a practical, applied preparation of the graduates, balancing of theory and practice becomes a critical element in the programme design. Students must have sufficient practical preparation that is built on an appropriate theoretical foundation. Therefore the design of the curriculum is for the first two years to lay a solid foundation with some development and tools learning experiences for further advanced work in the third year and to complete the honours degree with a final year project. The following are the different types of courses offered by the CS (IS) programme:

Core Courses—The core courses are the required computing studies courses containing key topics in computer science in addition to the main thrust of information systems studies. These courses can be divided into four categories: foundation, computer system oriented, application system oriented, and professional development courses. These courses are characterized by:

a)	Studying a particular language (in depth) to establish a sound foundation on programming techniques and to be used as a vehicle for constructing and experimenting with algorithms and other problem-solving models;
b)	Studying the concepts of information structure including data structures, file structures, database, and associated software including DBMS;
c)	Gaining the conceptual understanding of internal organization and functioning of computers and computer systems;
d)	Obtaining the mastery of at least one development methodology immediately practicable;
e)	Gaining the working knowledge of other methodologies preferably in concert with the view of information systems not only as technical systems which rely to an increasing extent on information technology; and
f)	Developing and experiencing the self-learning capabilities of advanced IT/IS tools.

Elective Courses—Electives are courses selected and offered to reflect the contemporary topics in the field for the student's benefit. It also takes into account the special expertise of individual members of staff currently available.

Projects—The group project provides students not only with the experience of applying the knowledge they learned to develop real life projects, but also with the very important experience of team work in software development. It is a two-semester project in Year II of the programme. The final year project is the integrating work in the programme as a whole, providing an opportunity for the student to demonstrate ability of working independently. It is a two-semester individual project in Year III of the programme.

Complementary Studies Courses (Core Requirements)—Communication, meaning written and verbal media applicable to the Hong Kong environment as well as communication in the behavioural sense, is an important part of the complementary studies. It is important not only to the success of an IS professional, but also to the well being of any individual. The English and Chinese language courses in the programme are included to help students to improve the communication skills. Furthermore, the University emphasizes greatly in the whole-person education concept. As a result, students are required to complement the major studies with an elective in the category of Values and the Meaning of Life, to take non-credit Physical Education courses, and to participate in activities planned under the programme of University Life.

Complementary Studies Courses (Distribution Requirements)—Related courses include the disciplines of mathematics and business courses. Business courses are oriented towards concepts and techniques for the understanding and the significance of cost, benefit, efficiency and effectiveness in organizational and economic terms, in the development of information systems. Mathematics courses include concepts and tools of mathematics essential to the understanding of computation, together with statistical techniques and practices that are useful and applicable to the planning and control of information systems development. Students may be advised to use an elective for additional mathematics in support of further studies in more technical courses in Computer Science. In addition, to further broaden their experience, students are allowed to choose three courses from a list of Complementary Studies courses or any other courses in which they are interested and qualified. On the other hand, students may use these three electives to further deepen their understanding of mathematics or business studies.

Summer Internship—Students after finishing their Year II studies will be required to seek internship for six to eight weeks in the summer months. The internship must be information technology (IT) or information systems (IS) related. Possible positions may come from within the University, commercial firms, government departments and non-profit making organizations. Another example is the participation in organizing and supporting some IT/IS related summer activities such as Camp and Volunteer Programmes. Summer employment in the IT/IS fields will also be acceptable. Substitutions in the form of an exchange programme, a research project, or other arrangements may be allowed, subject to the approval of the Department.

Sandwich Mode Option—Students who are interested in gaining extended work experience in information technology (IT) or information systems (IS) related fields prior to their graduation may apply to take a one-year leave of absence after completion of Year II of study for the reason of gaining work experience. As a general guideline, students whose cumulative GPA after completing Year II Semester 1 (with year courses excluded) is 2.5 or above are eligible to apply for the one-year leave; and no more than 30 per cent of the group of students in the Department completing Year II each year will be approved for such an option. Students shall return to full-time study to complete the final year of their programme after the one-year leave of absence. For IS students, those taking this option will be considered to have fulfilled the Summer Internship requirement.

The programme is a three year full-time programme composed of 64 per cent Computing Studies courses, 15 per cent supporting courses of Mathematics and Business and 21 per cent in the Complementary Studies area. The curriculum structure can be viewed as follows:

Computing Studies Courses		60 units
	Foundation	12 units
	Computer Systems Oriented	6 units
	Applications Systems Oriented	15 units
	Professional Development	6 units
	Projects	6 units
	Electives Courses	15 units

Complementary Studies Courses		36 units
	Core Requirements
	Language Courses	9 units
	Physical Education Courses	0 unit
	University Life Courses	0 unit
	Values and the Meaning of Life Course	3 units
	Distribution Requirements
	Mathematics	6 units
	Accounting/Business/Economics	9 units
	Free elective courses	9 units

Requirements

Major Required Courses				48 units
	COMP	1000*	Supplementary Computer Programming Laboratory	0 unit
	COMP	1020	Introduction to Information Systems	1 unit
	COMP	1150	Object Oriented Programming	3 units
	COMP	1160	Database Management	3 units
	COMP	1180	Structured Programming	3 units
	COMP	1210	Data Structures & Algorithms	3 units
	COMP	1320	Computer Organization	3 units
	COMP	2010	Structured Systems Analysis & Design	3 units
	COMP	2020	Object Oriented Systems Analysis & Design	3 units
	COMP	2031-2	Group Project I & II	3 units
	COMP	2040	Applied Information Systems Laboratory I	1 unit
	COMP	2050	Applied Information Systems Laboratory II	1 unit
	COMP	2320	Operating Systems	3 units
	COMP	2330	Data Communications & Networking	3 units
	COMP	2550	Internship	0 unit
	COMP	3450	Information Systems Theory & Methodology	3 units
	COMP	3460	Information Systems Management	3 units
	COMP	3490	Information Systems Professional Practices	3 units
	COMP	3551-2	Final Year Project	6 units
	MATH	1000**	Supplementary Mathematics (Calculus & Linear Algebra)	0 unit

Major Elective Courses				12 units
	COMP	3040	Internet & the World Wide Web	3 units
	COMP	3045	Advanced Algorithm Design, Analysis & Implementation	3 units
	COMP	3050	Distributed Computing Systems	3 units
	COMP	3060	Digital Media Computing	3 units
	COMP	3070	Digital Media Communications	3 units
	COMP	3080	Computer Graphics	3 units
	COMP	3090	Introduction to Web Intelligence	3 units
	COMP	3110	Data Mining & Knowledge Discovery	3 units
	COMP	3120	Intelligent Systems	3 units
	COMP	3130	Information Retrieval & Search Engine	3 units
	COMP	3140	Computer & Network Security	3 units
	COMP	3150	E-technology Architectures, Tools & Applications	3 units
	COMP	3160	Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition	3 units
	COMP	3170	Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning	3 units
	COMP	3180	Theory of Computation	3 units
	COMP	3190	Principle of Programming Language	3 units
	COMP	3210	Computer Architecture	3 units
	COMP	3220	Database System Implementation	3 units
	COMP	3230	Advanced Software Engineering	3 units
	COMP	3240	Advanced Topics in Networking & Digital Media	3 units
	COMP	3250	Advanced Topics in Theoretical Computer Science	3 units
	COMP	3620	Human-Computer Interaction	3 units
	COMP	3670	Mobile Computing	3 units
	COMP	3710	Electronic Transformation in Business	3 units
	COMP	3720	Business Intelligence & Decision Support	3 units
	COMP	3740	Information Systems Evaluation & Policy	3 units
	COMP	3790	Advanced Algorithm Design, Analysis & Implementation	3 units
	COMP	3820	Information Systems Security & Auditing	3 units
	COMP	3830	Health Information Technology	3 units
	COMP	3840	Medical Image Processing & Applications	3 units
	COMP	3860	Clinical Decision Support & Information Systems	3 units

Complementary Studies Courses				36 units
	Core Requirements
	LANG	1480	University Chinese	3 units
	LANG	1491-2	English I & II	6 units
	U.L.	1121-2	University Life	0 unit
	Physical Education Courses			0 unit
	Values and the Meaning of Life Course			3 units
	Distribution Requirements
	ACCT	1710	Introduction to Financial Accounting	3 units
	BUS	1630	The World of Business	3 units
	MATH	1130	Discrete Structures	3 units
	STAT	1210	Probability & Statistics	3 units
	Economics or Business Elective Courses			3 units
	Free elective courses#			9 units
				──────
				96 units

*	Students with grade D or above in A-Level Computer Studies are not required to take this course.
**	Students with grade D or above in A-Level Pure Mathematics are not required to take this course.
#	MATH 1140 Computational Mathematics is the prerequisite for some of the Level III major elective courses. Students may take this course as a free elective course.