Undergraduate Catalog (tentative)

School of Informatics

The School of Informatics offers programs that study the inter-relationship of people, information and technology to prepare students for today's digital, global economy. Informatics builds solid technology skills on a traditional liberal arts foundation. As such, Informatics may be viewed as an academic bridge that connects information technology to other “cognate disciplines” such as those within hotel administration, fine arts, the humanities, business and engineering. One of the strengths of Informatics is this inter-disciplinary focus. Students who matriculate the program will be able to take advantage of a unique educational experience that integrates Informatics with another academic discipline of interest.

Accreditation

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

Undergraduate Major

Bachelor of Science in Informatics

Mission

The School of Informatics responds directly to the objectives of UNLV's Macrotheme in Informatics (www.unlv.edu/pubs/planning/macrothemes.html).

The mission of the School of Informatics is to provide an academic path for students who are interested in pursuing a career that combines computing and information technology with another academic discipline. The curriculum is inherently interdisciplinary, and recognizes that the human, information and technology dimensions of problem solving are equal contributors in advanced informatics applications areas. The School of Informatics will produce graduates that become successful and internationally competitive educators, entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders in the global information economy.

Graduates from the School of Informatics will possess the skills to apply information technology deeply and effectively in related disciplines, referred to as "cognate" areas.    These graduates will be ideally suited to achieve profound advances in these cognate areas. They will also possess general knowledge in the discipline of informatics, which will enable them with the principles and conceptual framework necessary to invigorate any discipline using advanced information technology.

Goals

The School of Informatics will accomplish its mission by achieving the following goals:

1. to achieve and sustain a world-class academic program at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Informatics
2. to prepare students for 21st century careers both integrating and applying advanced information technologies to innovate new methods, and also increase the efficiency of knowledge creation, in other disciplines
3. to provide graduates with a competitive advantage in the workplace by guiding the development of diverse skill sets to meet the complex and variegated challenges of the information technology industry.
4. to build an internationally-recognized faculty in informatics through aggressive recruiting, retention, and advancement based primarily upon the relevance, demonstrated excellence, and international recognition of their work in Informatics

Program Objectives

The following objectives will enable us to accomplish our goals and satisfy our mission:

1. to build the instructional models around the project-based education, with particular emphasis toward the interrelationships between the logical and mathematical foundations of information technology, its psychological and social dimensions, the critical interface between humans and technology, the centricity of current and future digital media, and the organizational, societal and cultural implications of what humans do with information and the technology that supports its use.
2. to selectively hire and retain faculty with a history of, or strong potential for, trans-disciplinary research and an commitment to our instructional model
3. to create learning environments and laboratories that are qualitatively compatible with the development and production environments in the most advanced technology industries
4. to maintain an objectively documented nationally competitive programs in selective high-profile/high-demand such as entertainment informatics, digital media, and information systems security
5. to become the focal point in selected research areas that directly support such critical components of the private sector in Las Vegas and Nevada as entertainment, gaming, hospitality, and security.
6. to establish close relationships with the local industry executives through advisory boards and cooperative programs.
7. to work with local industry and government to facilitate student transition into the employment market.
8. to encourage strategic research partnerships between faculty, graduate students and industry/government stakeholders

Additional information may be found on the School of Informatics Website at www.informatics.unlv.edu.

Admission to the Major

Minimum GPA: 2.75
Admission and transfer policies are described in the College of Engineering section.

School Policies

1. Students must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours in informatics courses at the 300-400 (junior-senior) level.
2. Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.75. Any course taken to satisfy the requirements of the major must be completed with a minimum grade of C.
3. Students are expected to complete the requirements for their undergraduate degree within eight years of admission to the School of Informatics . Students are allowed to continue beyond this time period only at the discretion of the Director. If a student has not taken classes for three years or more, that student satisfy program requirements of the School of Informatics in effect at the time of reactivation. Requests for deviation from requirements listed in the bulletin must be approved in writing by the Director, whose decision is final.
4. Courses that fulfill the requirements for a cognate area may also meet the general education distribution requirements.
5. Cognate area courses may not count as informatics core courses or informatics elective courses.
6. If a cognate area course is equivalent to an informatics core course, students must substitute additional informatics elective courses in place of informatics core courses, with the concurrence of the Director of the School of Informatics , to meet the 33 credit hour requirement.
7. Courses that fulfill the requirements for a bachelor's degree in informatics may also apply to a minor outside of the School of Informatics .

Undergraduate Roadmap - Suggested Curriculum Pattern (pdf file)

Degree Requirements

(tentative – the School of Informatics was approved shortly before this catalog went to press. Students should consult the School of Informatics Website for the latest information.)

Informatics – Bachelor of Science

I. General University Requirements

II. Core Informatics Courses (Required for All Cognate Areas)

III. Cognate Area Courses

.

IV. Informatics Elective Courses/Clusters (minimum of two clusters required of all students)

Informatics Clusters are selected to support the informatics degree program chosen by the student in consultation with a School of Informatics advisor and approved by the Director. Clusters may change over time and may include special topics courses.

Informatics

(Tentative course listings. Note that the School of Informatics and related degree programs were approved by the Board of Regents as this catalog was being revised. Changes from the listings below are inevitable. Please check the School's Website for the latest information.)

INF100
Intro to Informatics I - Basic Concepts
The course deals with the nature of Informatics within the information technology space. The core concept of integration of people, technology and information will be addressed. The emphasis will be on the practical dimension of Informatics, real problems, and the socio-economic situations in which they arise. A variety of Informatics tools will be presented from a variety of domains, and their implications for science, engineering, art, the humanities and society will be discussed.

INF110
Intro to Informatics II – Information Infrastructures
Basic concepts of computing and network hardware. Software architecture of information systems. Basic concepts of systems and applications programming. Fundamental programming constructs, including loops, arrays, classes, and files. General problem-solving techniques. Building secure and reliable information infrasturctures

PHIL109/114
Introduction to Formal Logic
Includes topics such as validity and soundness in deductive arguments, strength and cogency in inductive arguments, traditional/Aristotelian logic, fallacies, elementary symbolic logic.

INF200
Social Informatics
Social and behavioral foundations of informatics. Theoretical approaches to how technology is used from psychological and sociotechnical perspectives. Examples of how current and emerging technologies such as games, e-mail, and electronic commerce are affecting daily lives, social relations, work, and leisure time.

INF210
Organizational Informatics
Needs, uses, and consequences of information in organizational contexts. Topics include organizational types and characteristics, functional areas and business processes, information-based products and services, use of and redefining role of information technology, changing character of work and organizational practices, socio-technical structures, and rise and transformation of information-based industries.

INF220
Human-Computer Interaction
The analysis of human factors and the design of computer application interfaces. A survey of current best practices with an eye toward the evolutionary path of future technologies.

INF250
Web Programming
Introduction to programming on the World Wide Web. Web design, introduction to client and server-side programming, managing executable content, human factors considerations. Securing Web servers. Web security vulnerabilities and countermeasures. Browser insecurities and countermeasures. Defense-in-depth. Software and hardware Web firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems.

INF251
Systems Programming
Underlying hardware architecture for information systems. Fundamentals of administration and management of computing systems and networks and introduction to the concept of programming at the systems and network level. Designing security and reliability into systems.

INF252
Visual Programming
An introduction to rapid prototyping methodology at both the interface and back plane levels. Event-driven programming. Applications programming, with an emphasis on the Windows environment.

INF300
Digital Media
This course studies how the paradigm shift to a digital world will affect humanity. The course will consider the evolution of media arts and its underlying principles of communications. Introduction to, and comparison between, digital media for secure storage of disparate media types. Secure media management. Students will study application development paradigms in current practice.

INF310
Information and Computer Systems Security
Current information and computer systems security issues, tools and practices. Basic cryptography, operations security, personnel and administrative security. Legal issues in information, computing and networked systems. Technical aspects of information and computer systems security required for optimal decision making. Risk analysis. Risk management. Information warfare. Information economics. Privacy. Maintaining continuous operation. Incident response. Security training. Security certifications. Case studies.

INF320
Informatics Project Management
The fundamentals of project management, planning, reporting, team building, and team leadership. The project lifecycle: planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing, evaluation, and maintenance. Security risks and controls. Responding to changes in market conditions, resources, requirements, and schedules. Securing systems and processes. Security risks, risk management, and controls. Budgeting for information security, reliability and privacy.

INF350
Network Design and Implementation
History and evolution of modern digital networks. Introduction to network principles, protocols, and current network technology at both the hardware and software levels. Design and administration of network servers and workstations including account administration, resource allocation and optimization, and service management. Strategies for designing and maintaining robust and secure networks. LAN, WAN, MAN, wireless and mobile network technologies. Access controls.

INF351
Network Security/Forensics
Introduction to the key tools and technologies used to secure modern networks. Network vulnerabilities and defenses. Vulnerability assessment and remediation. Implementing information and network security policies. Firewall design. Intrusion detection and prevention systems. The use and abuse of network security appliances. Wireless network security.  

INF355
Auditing Information Systems
Fundamental techniques to efficiently and effectively perform and evaluate audits of information systems. Assessing the control and security of virtually any type of computer information system. Implications of recent legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act on affected organizations. Auditing standards and frameworks.

INF360
Advanced Information Infrastructure
Intellectual property, copyrights and patents. Proprietary and open-source software development environments. (Bridging) digital divides. The role of public policy and legislation in sustaining information infrastructures. Public vs. private interests. Proposed architectures and their projected impact on society.

INF361
Enterprise Software Architecture
The discipline of software architecture and its role in the enterprise. High-level vs. foundational design. The art of abstracting information from complex systems. Component integration. The role of continuous feedback loops in systems design and integration. Decision support systems. System level fault-tolerance and fault-handling. Architectural classes: processing elements, data elements and connecting elements. Designing security and reliability into software. Implementation issues.

INF362
Distributed Systems and Collaborative Computing
Distributed processing, content and context management. The notions of access, location, concurrency, mobility and scaling transparencies. Service layers. Internet, LAN, WAN, MAN, and mobile network carriers. Protocol layers. TCP/IP. Data encapsulation and embedded protocols. The nature of collaboration. Computer-assisted cooperative work. Collaborative software and groupware.

INF370
Database Systems Administration
Relational and object-oriented database management systems. Database structures. Uniqueness and referential constraints. Database query languages. Database applications. Security and privacy implications. Access controls. Auditing databases.

INF371
Data Warehousing and Mining
The evolution of transaction processing to decision support systems. Knowledge discovery. Data mining tools: statistics, databases, pattern recognition, visualization, modeling. Data warehousing and database consolidation. Methodologies: modeling, segmentation, summarization, information customization and personalization, data cleaning, data hiding. Online analytical processing. Security and privacy implications.

INF372
Data Analysis/Quality Assurance
The role of standards, processes and procedures in the systematic evaluation of software. Compliance testing and monitoring. Process standards, controls and audits. Product evaluation. Version control. Base-lining software. Documentation, design and code standards. Procedures for configuration management, conformance testing and reporting, remediation, testing. Auditing procedures for processes and products. Security, validation and verification.

INF380
Advanced Digital Media
Distributed multimedia information systems. Multimedia formats, compression, and bandwidth requirements. Real-time multimedia delivery and viewing. Steganography and digital watermarking. Integration into distributed databases over heterogeneous operating systems and networks. Data integration, composition and fusion. Communication protocols. Asynchronous transfer mode delivery, quality-of-service, and IPv6. Authoring tools. Representative applications, e.g., online news, distance education, gaming, interactive multimedia, participatory systems.

INF381
Advanced Graphics and Animation
2-d and 3-d transformations. Parallel and perspective projections. Shading, light sources and shading. Raytracing, radiosity. Wireframing and texturing. Curve and surface estimation. Animation, scripting; voice, sound and video streaming. Representative applications.

INF382
Computer Vision and Acoustics
Video and audio recording technologies. Video/sound synchronization. Review of audio/video protocols and formats such as MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC, AIFFF, WAV, Dolby digital, G.7-9 voice encoding, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H-264. Video object planes.

INF400
Advanced Topics in Informatics
Varied topics. Emphasis is on new developments and research in informatics. May be repeated for credit when topics vary with permission of advisor and Director.

INF499
Informatics Professional Internship
Students gain professional work experience in an industry or research organization setting, using skills and knowledge acquired in informatics course work.