Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing Studies (Information Systems)
 

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:

 
1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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.
   
7. 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 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 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 3820 Information Systems Security & Audit 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.
 
 
 
©2011 Hong Kong Baptist University
Source: Calendar/Bulletin 2011-2012
Last modified: August 2011