Department of Computer Science

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Location: Griffin Hall 400
Telephone: 859-572-6930
Email Address: cs@nku.edu
Web Address: http://cs.nku.edu
Department Chair: Maureen Doyle
Associate Chair: Marius Truta
Program Director(s):

Undergraduate Applied Software Engineering Director: Samuel Cho
Undergraduate Computer Information Technology Director: Anthony Tsetse
Undergraduate Computer Science Director: Richard Fox
Undergraduate Cybersecurity Director: James Walden
Undergraduate Data Science Director: Maureen Doyle
Cybersecurity Certificate Director: James Walden
Software Development Certificate Director: Richard Fox

Other Key Personnel:

Senior Operations Coordinator: Sue Murphy-Angel
Academic Coordinator: Christa Witt
Academic Specialist: Monique Walker

Full-Time Faculty: Seth Adjei, Shahid Al Noor, Alina Campan, Nicholas Caporusso, Ankur Chattopadhyay, Samuel Cho, Scot Cunningham, Maureen Doyle, Richard Fox, Charles Frank, Wei Hao, Yi Hu, Rasib Khan, Awad Moussa, Gary Newell, Kenneth Roth, Emily Taylor, Bradford Thomas, Cynthia Thomas, Marius Truta, Anthony Tsetse, James Walden, Hongmei Wang, Jeff Ward, Gail Wells, Junxiu Zhou.

Thinking about the discipline: We offer five undergraduate majors: applied software engineering, computer information technology, computer science, cybersecurity and data science; six undergraduate minors: computer forensics, computer information technology, computer science, data science, geographic information systems, and information security; and two undergraduate certificates: cybersecurity and software development. By majoring in one of the computing fields, a student gets a behind-the-scenes look at the digital world, moving from being a user of information technology to being a creator and/or administrator. Students with degrees in applied software engineering are prepared to become software engineers with a focus on state-of-the-art design and development practices utilized in the industry; students with degrees in computer information technology often run large networks, serve as system administrators, or implement and maintain complex websites; students with degrees in computer science often become software engineers, producing computationally grounded applications, or pursue graduate degrees in computer science; students with degrees in data science often use software to model and visualize information; students with degrees in cybersecurity are prepared for careers as security analysts.

Special opportunities for our students: Students in the computing majors have many opportunities to engage with projects and activities outside the classroom. Each fall, NKU sends teams of computer science majors to the regional Association for Computing Machinery programming competition. Each spring it sends a team of majors to the regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Students interested in research work can work on projects with faculty members in a variety of areas, from web security to data mining. These student researchers often travel to conferences to present their work. Many students defray college costs through co-ops and internships, and they can receive credit for this work in their major.  Placement testing information for mathematics courses can be obtained from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (Mathematics-Education-Psychology Center 401). Credit for prior learning is also available for a selected set of introductory courses offered by the Department of Computer Science via an equivalency exam. For more information, please contact Testing Services office.

Special admission requirements: There are no specific admission requirements for the programs in this department.

Special graduation requirements: Students must earn a grade of C- or better in each course that counts as part of a major or minor for all programs offered by the department. Placement testing is available for some computer information technology, computer science and informatics courses.

You should also know: More information is available from the College of Informatics advising center (Griffin Hall 404).

Programs

• Applied Software Engineering, B.S.
• Computer Information Technology, B.S.
• Computer Science, B.S.
• Cybersecurity, B.S.
• Data Science, B.S.

• Computer Forensics Minor
• Computer Information Technology Minor
• Computer Science Minor
• Data Science Minor
• Geographic Information Systems Minor
• Information Security Minor

• Cybersecurity Certificate
• Software Development Certificate

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