Computer Science (CS)

A computer competency course to familiarize students with computer concepts, software applications and the implications of living in the digital age. Introduces students to computer concepts, including, but not limited to the Microsoft Windows environment, Microsoft Office Applications, hardware terminology, social media and the Internet.

In this course students explore how cybersecurity affects their digital activities every day, including school, gaming, social media, banking, shopping, and AI tools. Students examine common online threats and apply practical protections to secure their personal accounts and devices. Through demonstrations, activities, and hands-on practice, students develop skills and a mindset in threat recognition, privacy management, and digital security while exploring diverse cybersecurity career pathways in technology, policy, and business.

Students in this course are introduced to scripting for security operations. The course is a highly practical copy-run-modify model where students start by running short, provided working scripts, then progressively adapting them to new scenarios. Using a combination of various shells and programming languages combined with regular expressions, focus on SOC-style tasks such as log collection, filtering, and simple detection logic.

Hands-on approach to planning, design, and developing published web sites using HTML tags in a text editor. The class focuses on basic HTML coding using HTML 5 models. Hyperlinks, images, cascading style sheets, forms, accessibility and design principles will be covered, as well as tools such as FTP clients, accessibility checkers, and validators.

In this course, students build foundational cybersecurity skills by applying the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, availability), to protect information and systems in basic organizational scenarios. Students examine security controls, risk management, and threat landscapes while exploring core areas such network security, identity and access management, security operations, and incident response. Through structured, hands-on labs using virtual machines and real-world case studies, students practice authentication and access controls, vulnerability and patch management, endpoint and network security configuration, and the use of security policies and frameworks to protect information systems.

Design, programming, testing of scripted web pages using JavaScript for client-side applications and to call PHP-based server-side applications. Introduction to fundamental concepts of interactive web pages and server-side connectivity. Covers the Document Object Model (DOM) and programming constructs like variables, operators, functions, control structures, and exception handling. Emphasis on creating and consuming object literals and JSON objects.

Focuses on the advanced database capabilities using a current version of Microsoft Access. Topics include design, construction, and documentation of a database management system, designing reports, forms, advanced form techniques, advanced queries, customizing tables, and creating and using an application system with macros.

Plan and publish a professional, standards-based, accessible web site via a variety of tools. Complete market and user-needs analysis to best target site content and design. Create a graphical web site mock-up, then use CSS (including a framework and pre-processors), scripts, and multimedia to realize site goals. Emphasizes professional design techniques.

Introduction to the theory and practical foundations of the Windows, Linux/UNIX, and macOS desktop operating systems. Discussion of and practice with OS administration through installation, configuration, networking, security, and virtualization.

Introduction to the Linux command line and software development tools. Covers how to use the command line and build tools, including VIM, GCC/G++, make, gdb, and others. Students will gain experience with the build tools by writing and debugging relatively complex programs in both C and C++.

This course introduces students to networking architectures, models, protocols, and components. These components facilitate the connection of users, devices, applications, and data through the internet and across modern computer networks. This course, along with CS-152 and CS-153, covers the topics of the Cisco CCNA certification exam.

This course focuses on switching technologies and router operations that support small-to-medium business networks. It includes wireless local area networks (WLANs) and security concepts. This course, along with CS-151 and CS-153, covers the topics of the Cisco CCNA certification exam.

This course describes the architectures and considerations related to designing, securing, operating, and troubleshooting enterprise networks. This course covers wide area network (WAN) technologies and quality of service (QoS) mechanisms used for secure remote access. It also introduces software-defined networking, virtualization, and automation concepts that support the digitalization of networks. This course, along with CS-151 and CS-152, covers the topics of the Cisco CCNA certification exam.

Examines foundational computing subjects used in Computer Science and Information Technology. Topics include computer architecture, electronic logic, data representation, networking, algorithms and programming, which are used in successive Computer Science courses. Information about degrees in Computer Science and Information Technology is also covered.

Introduction to fundamental concepts of structured programming, including problem solving, algorithm and program design, data types, loops, control structures, subroutines, and arrays. Learn to write structured programs in a high level programming language.

Introduces fundamental concepts of object oriented programming and dynamic memory management. Covers objects, classes, pointers, dynamic memory allocation, linked lists, and program correctness, verification, and testing.

This is an extensive look at the Python programming language. It covers variables, I/O, selection and repetition structures, functions, objects, classes, and exception handling.

Students are introduced to the core skills and responsibilities of a Tier-1 Security Operations Center (SOC) analyst. Students learn how modern SOCs operate, how security data is collected and interpreted, and how analysts detect, investigate, and document suspicious activity.

Students in this course are provided a technical introduction to the identification, collection, and analysis of digital logs within a Security Operations Center (SOC) framework. Students will develop fundamental skills in analyzing raw data from diverse sources, including Windows Event Logs, Linux Syslog, web servers, and network telemetry.

Explores creating dynamic and interactive websites via the use of a current content management systems (CMS). Includes installation of CMS/database, working with templates, creating efficient site navigation, enhancing sites using components, modules, plugins, and extensions, including shopping cart utilities and the creation of custom themes.

This course is an overview of foundational cloud computing concepts and practices. Topics include compute, storage, connectivity, security, and automation on cloud provider platforms. This course covers the topics of the CompTIA Cloud+ certification exam.

Students develop foundational skills in vulnerability management aligned with modern security operations practices. Students build and maintain asset inventories, plan and execute vulnerability assessments across on-premises and cloud environments, and analyze and validate scan findings using risk-based methods. Students prioritize remediation using CVSS scoring, exploit availability, and contextual factors such as asset criticality and business impact, and recommend risk treatment strategies communicated in language appropriate for both technical teams and organizational leadership. Students apply vulnerability management skills and produce reporting that supports real-world security operations workflows.

Introduces how high-level software runs on a computer system. Covers C programming and the assembly that C code becomes. Presents the fundamentals of computer architecture and how instructions and data are represented at the machine level. Provides experience analyzing compiled code to build necessary skills for future work in cybersecurity, operating systems, compilers, and other CS topics involving low-level computation.

Students develop the foundational skills required for entry-level operations within a Security Operations Center (SOC), focusing specifically on the incident response lifecycle. Using a vendor-neutral approach grounded NIST 800-61 framework, students move from initial detection and triage through containment, eradication, and recovery. In this course students analyze common attack vectors, perform initial forensic preservation, and practice professional incident documentation.

Building on CS-212, this course covers advanced enterprise digital forensics for modern SOCs. Students rapidly collect and analyze live data from endpoints, cloud systems, and security telemetry. Emphasis is on remote triage, EDR/XDR investigation, and scoping blast radius to support active incident response and prepare for SOC analyst roles.

Addresses professional and interpersonal skills needed by technicians who support and manage hardware and software information systems. Customer service skills; troubleshooting; helpdesk operation; product needs analysis, evaluation, purchase, and installation; technical documentation and training.

An in-depth course in computer hardware. Covers operational concepts, identification, installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of power supplies, motherboards, microprocessors, memory modules, disk drives, optical drives, and expansion cards. This course, in conjunction with CS-228, covers the topics of the CompTIA A+ certification exam.

An in-depth course in operating system maintenance and troubleshooting. Covers configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of desktop and mobile operating systems, the fundamentals of cloud computing, and client network configuration and troubleshooting. This course, in conjunction with CS-227, covers the topics on the CompTIA A+ certification exam.

In this hands-on course, students learn how major cybersecurity frameworks directly support real-world Security Operations Center (SOC) workflows. By connecting strategic governance models such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO/IEC 27001 with tactical operational models like MITRE ATT&CK, students examine how organizational policy shapes daily monitoring, detection engineering, and alert triage. Working within pre-configured virtual machine environments and open-source SIEM tools (such as Wazuh or Security Onion), students analyze log data, identify actionable security events, and confidently distinguish them from normal business operations. Responsible AI practices are integrated throughout the course as students use AI-assisted tools for SIEM query generation and log summarization while documenting verification steps for accuracy, completeness, and data privacy. By the end of the course, students will be able to triage alerts, map technical findings to relevant framework controls, and produce clear, actionable escalation tickets and handoff reports for Tier 2 analysts and other operational stakeholders.

In-depth exploration of creating dynamic front-end website designs using modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks, including jQuery. Topics covered include shortcut DOM techniques, updated looping techniques, creating animation effects, and building AJAX applications using data from provided code as well as web APIs (Google, YouTube, Imgur).

Begin exploring the power of server-side JavaScript using Node.JS, NPM, and Express. Students will: use server-side JavaScript to implement common packages and bundle their own applications for consumer use; build custom web server applications to respond directly to HTTP requests; create, query, and manage NoSQL databases; and create views to combine user requests, database data, and static content into responsive, data-driven web applications.

Use PHP and MySQL to develop dynamic web sites for use on the Internet. Develop web sites ranging from simple online information forms to complex online applications. Introduce programming fundamentals including variables, control structures, functions and objects. Applications developed use MySQL as the backend database and will explore database connectivity, querying, and security.

Students will complete the stack by exploring a user-interface framework to create interactive, reusable, data-connected web components using React, JSX, and a variety of React Frameworks. Students will complete a MERN (MongoDb, Express, React, Node) portfolio application.

Covers the fundamentals of the Linux operating system. Topics include: system architecture, installation, command line and file system. This course covers the topics of the Linux LPIC-1 Exam 101 certification.

Covers the fundamentals of installing, configuring, troubleshooting, and supporting the macOS operating system. Topics include: installation and setup, user accounts, file systems, data management, applications, network configuration, network services, peripherals, startup and troubleshooting. This course covers the topics of the Apple macOS Support Essentials certification exam.

Covers the fundamentals of installing, configuring, troubleshooting, and supporting the Windows operating system. Topics include: installation, managing disks and file systems, file access security, users, profiles and policies, groups, security, backup, remote access, printing, and troubleshooting. This course covers the topics of the Microsoft Configuring Windows Devices certification exam.

Serving as the capstone for the Security Operations program, this course immerses students in the high-stakes environment of advanced incident response and Security Operations Center (SOC) engineering. Moving beyond individual alert triage, students act as Tier 2/Tier 3 responders and incident commanders to orchestrate the defense of a simulated enterprise network under active, multi-stage attack. Synthesizing forensic techniques, threat intelligence, and governance frameworks from previous and concurrent coursework, students will focus on proactive threat hunting, designing automated response playbooks (SOAR), managing war-room communications, and executing complex containment strategies. The course culminates in a multi-day, live-fire simulation where students must seamlessly integrate detection engineering, forensic timeline reconstruction, and executive reporting to stop an advanced persistent threat.

Students will be introduced to discrete structures and techniques for computing. The course, which is the first in the two-term sequence, aims to convey the skills in discrete mathematics that are used in the study and practice of computer science. Topics include: Sets; Graphs and trees; Functions: properties, recursive definitions, solving recurrences; Relations: properties, equivalence, partial order; Proof techniques: inductive proof; Counting techniques and discrete probability.

Continuation of the introduction to discrete structures and techniques for computing started in CS-250/MTH-231. The course, which is the second in the two-term sequence, aims to convey the skills in discrete mathematics that are used in the study and practice of computer science. Topics include: Logic: propositional calculus, first-order predicate calculus; Formal reasoning: natural deduction, resolution; Applications to program correctness and automatic reasoning; Introduction to algebraic structures in computing.

Covers common data structures used for the storage and manipulation of data, as well as data abstraction, sorting algorithms, and algorithm analysis. Data structures include linked lists, stacks, queues, binary trees, btrees, hash tables, and graphs.

Focuses on design of a relational database management systems (RDMS). Topics will include database development using the a) requirement, b) design, c) implementation model, database theory from flat table design to relational systems, entity-relationship models, one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships, referential integrity, normalization of tables, database programming and querying with SQL, and database security. Although other platforms may be demonstrated, the majority of work will be done with MySQL Server.

Covers the fundamentals of installing, configuring, troubleshooting, and supporting the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and network infrastructure. Topics include: installation, Active Directory, data storage, resource access, security, monitoring, and disaster recovery. This course introduces the topics of the Microsoft Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server certification exam.

Cooperative work experience. This course provides supervised work experience to supplement the academic classroom environment. Work examples include user support, work with computer applications or programming languages, installation or management PC computer systems, and developing websites. May be repeated for up to 9 credits. Required: Student Petition.

This course provides an introduction to the core security skills needed for monitoring, detecting, investigating, analyzing and responding to security events, thus protecting systems and organizations from cybersecurity risks, threats and vulnerabilities. This course covers the topics of the Cisco CyberOps Associate certification exam.

Continued coverage of network services and administration using Microsoft Windows Server. Topics include: IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, DNS, DHCP, IPAM, network protection, and remote access. This course covers the topics of the Microsoft Networking with Windows Server certification exam.

The capstone course for the Computer & Network Administration AAS. Provides the opportunity to combine the discrete information learned from program classes together towards the completion of an enterprise-level computer project. Focus can also be placed on researching, practicing, and obtaining an industry-standard certification credential. Emphasis will be placed on project planning, timeline management, creation of training documentation, and oral presentation of completed works. Required: Student Petition.

Provides the opportunity to function in a production design environment, work cooperatively with students from other focus areas, and research emerging website technologies. Emphasis will be placed on client interaction, project teams, and accountability, as well as the development of a professional portfolio web site or completion of a research project in an emerging web-related technology.