Course Flowcharts 

A concentration should be selected in the second semester of your sophomore year. Below are the Course Flowchart from School of Engineering for academic year 2017-2018.

Note that this is a revision of Distributed Systems & Networking.

For each concentration, electives not in the pre-approved list require approval.

Overview of Concentrations

Software Engineering:

“Software Engineering is the study and application of engineering [principles] to the design, development and maintenance of software”. Wikipedia

Foci of software engineering are to develop quality software, to meet project deadlines and budget parameters, to ensure that software is built systematically following rigorously developed requirements and design specifications. There are subdisciplines as well: requirements engineering, software design, construction, testing, maintenance, configuration management, software quality management. CSC-SEG elective credits must have a strong design and implementation component to the coursework. New and emerging opportunities include app development, digital media, mobile devices, entertainment software design, and gaming.

Suggested LSU MINORS: Information Technology Management; AVATAR Digital Media – TECH; Robotics

Cloud Computing and Networking:

Cloud computing can be viewed broadly as a virtual server residing physically in a distant place. Cloud computing is a current approach whose goal is to separate services and permit developers to access various components (services) into an agile (quickly created and modifiable) customizable application which may actually consist of many sub-systems integrated together.

Those services may be residing on multiple computers and possibly different computer platforms. So cloud computing is perhaps better defined as a system which utilizes multiple computers distributed, connected in real-time, and running softwares which collaborate to provide some work (service) to a customer (the user). Businesses are rapidly adopting the cloud computing IT model not only for its efficiency, but for cost-savings related to renting computer services as opposed to traditional investment and depreciation in hardwires. Additional benefits are related to unlimited scalability and on-demand flexibility, as well as redundancy, reliability and security.  Cloud computing is therefore a specialized form of distributed computing.

Suggested LSU MINORS: eCommerce; Mathematics

Data Science and Analytics:

The field of data science and analytics incorporates techniques and theories from diverse areas such as mathematics, biology, statistics, data warehousing, and artificial intelligence to name but a few. As a result of the “digital age”, vast amounts of data are available for extracting actionable intelligence. Therefore, the area of data science and analytics encompasses all requirements including constraints for data management which culminates in the elicitation of knowledge to support human decision making.

When datasets are extremely large and require uncommon software tools to record, manage and process the data, the term “Big Data” is used. Big Data is a specified area of data science and analytics.

All types of companies and organizations employ data scientists for various reasons, including identifying consumer trends, military code breaking, making processes more efficient, and even analyzing the probabilities that one sports team may beat another.

Suggested LSU MINORS: Information Technology Management; eCommerce; Mathematics

Computer Science and 2nd Discipline:

The concentration permits a 15-hour study area outside of computer science. The restricted area facilitates overlapping curricula for dual majors. Student may select an official LSU minor or customize a study plan following the guidelines:

  • Courses must be all from one department (there may be exceptions)
  • Courses must build upon one another
  • Courses must be characteristic of what a major would take
  • At least 2 courses at the upper-level and usually the 4000-level
  • You must see an advisor to obtain written approval of your plan of study for a Second Discipline area.

If Information Systems and Decision Sciences (ISDS) discipline is chosen as the Second Discipline, note the following:

  • ISDS requires ISDS 1100 as a prerequisite to some courses and our CSC 1100 cannot be substituted at this time for this course.
  • Courses on the Second Discipline Plan of Study must be from ISDS 3100 and above not including ISDS 3107.
  • ISDS will allow IE 3302 to substitute as the statistics course ISDS 2000. For upper-level ISDS courses requiring ISDS 2001, ISDS 2001 should be taken as the required prerequisite.
  • Note that the computer science department will not accept ISDS 2000 and ISDS 2001 as a substitute for IE 3302. Do make sure that you avoid courses for which computer science students will not receive credit.

Suggested LSU MINORS: Business Administration (BADM); AVATAR Digital Media - ART; Electrical Engineering; English (technical writing); Information Technology Management; ;  Mathematics;  Personal Finance; Philosophy.