Curriculum

In today's dynamic and competitive economy, the ability of an organization to effectively leverage their existing and emerging information technologies is a critical success factor in gaining and sustaining a strategic advantage.

This course introduces students to important concepts and techniques needed to understand and leverage information technology within an organizational context. Students will learn the fundamentals of design and implementation of information systems in the modern organization, business process improvement through the use of information technology, organizational data modeling, project management concepts, data governance mechanisms, technology-enabled change management, among others.

Data is a valuable organizational resource. As organizations collect more and more data, it becomes increasingly important to understand basic principles of how to store and manipulate organizational data in order to successfully run business operations.

This course provides students with an introduction to the fundamental concepts, techniques and tools used in design, development and application of relational database technology in organizations. Topics include data modeling based on organizational requirements and data manipulation via structured query language tools.

This course uses structured software development methodologies to develop an understanding of the overall process of developing an information system starting with planning, analysis, design and implementation of the system. It focuses on the core set of skills that all system analysts must possess, from gathering requirements and modeling business needs, to creating blueprints for how the system should be built and assessing usability.

The course also exposes students to various graphic modeling processes such as data flow diagrams used in business process reengineering, design of user interfaces and system behaviors.

This course introduces the elements and architecture of computer and data communication networks, demonstrates the fundamental principles of computer networking and provides experience in the practical use of current networking technology. Topics in this course include: network standards, protocols (TCP/IP), network architectures, network routing and switching, local area networks, wide area networks, wireless networks and network performance and management. Students will also learn to make knowledgeable decisions pertaining to strategies and architectures for the deployment of telecommunication technologies in organizations.

This course is an introduction to the basic fundamentals of project management based on the Project Management Institute (PMI) body of knowledge. All phases of the project management cycle are covered including project initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling project status and post project lessons learned analysis.

In addition, the course introduces the ten project management knowledge areas as defined by PMI: project integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, stakeholder, risk and procurement management. Project management best practices, tools and techniques along with constraints and trade-offs in managing projects are discussed. The course has a practical component with students executing projects as part of teams.

Security of informational assets has become a keenly debated issue for organizations. Effective information security management demands a clear understanding of technical as well as socio-organizational aspects.

The purpose of this course is to prepare students to recognize the threats and vulnerabilities present in current information systems and how to plan for such risks. The course covers a broad range of topics including data classification, cryptography, network and application security, risk management, threat and vulnerability analysis, computer forensics and policies and architecture designs. Students will have the opportunity to try real security and attack tools to understand how they work and how they might be used and counteracted.

Data analytics is the process of analyzing raw data using machine learning algorithms and discovering patterns and associations in large data sets. It supports decision making by detecting patterns, devising rules, identifying new decision alternatives and making predictions. This course provides an overview of leading analytics and machine learning methods and their applications to real-world problems. It is designed to provide students with the skills needed to perform analytical tasks such as prediction and classification using both supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. Students will use available software to conduct various data analyses to detect patterns, predict future trends and help businesses make proactive, data-driven decisions. Students will also investigate the applications of a wide range of modern analytics techniques to business contexts.

More and more organizations are collecting large amounts of data, much of it unstructured. Big Data technologies can be used to store, process and analyze large amounts of data using a distributed environment. This course introduces students to the world of big data and associated technologies. The focus of the course is Apache Hadoop, which is an open-source software project that enables distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of commodity servers. The objective of this course is to provide students a foundation for understanding big data technologies and Hadoop in particular.

Topics include Hadoop system architecture, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), MapReduce programming model and design patterns and technologies surrounding Hadoop ecosystem such as Pig, Hive and Oozie. The course will also introduce big data science concepts and NoSQL database technologies.

Modern technologies have created a myriad of ways that data can be stored and communicated — and hidden. Digital forensics is the science of finding those data after the fact. This course presents an overview of the principles and practices of digital investigation and prepares students to conduct a cyber forensics investigation in an organized and systematic way. The course allows students to develop skills in collecting, seizing and analyzing suspect devices, creating forensics images, recovering deleted data from various file systems and damaged media, applying digital forensics techniques to email and other electronic communications and describing incident and intrusion response approaches, among other topics.

Ethical hacking or penetration testing is the act of breaking into a system with the permission and legal consent of the organization or individual who owns and operates the system, with the purpose of identifying vulnerabilities to strengthen the organization's security.

This course introduces students to the principles and techniques of the cybersecurity practice known as penetration testing and covers various tools and methods commonly used to compromise and control access to information systems. As part of this course, students will conduct hands-on penetration tests in a controlled lab environment, discover how system vulnerabilities can be exploited and learn how to avoid such problems in order to better secure organizational data and systems.

Cloud computing services (whereby distributed resources are rented, rather than owned) are being adopted across a variety of organizations yet many security challenges exist. This course introduces students to various cloud computing architectures and delivery models followed by a review of the security and privacy issues related to various types of cloud computing environments. The course covers aspects related to cloud security design, implementation, architecture, operations, controls and compliance with regulatory frameworks for both cloud platforms and infrastructure security and cloud application security.

Protecting organizational assets against increased numbers of cybersecurity threats is of critical importance in all modern organizations. Having a cybersecurity plan and a governance structure in place for dealing with cybersecurity risks is a more successful strategy than recovering organizational systems after a cyberattack has occurred. This course introduces students to risk management approaches for identifying, analyzing and responding to cybersecurity risks, governance mechanisms, human resource security and business continuity. This course provides students with necessary skills required to formulate and implement a cybersecurity plan.

Special topics courses vary and are used to introduce students to new topics in the Information technology field.

Internships are a valuable experiential learning tool where students engage in work with an organization on an approved topic. Students will write a comprehensive report based on their learning experience along with weekly logs and a managerial evaluation. The report will be evaluated and graded by the instructor.

Students will work on proposing, developing and implementing a comprehensive project based on concepts learned during their program. A project is a form of research aimed at creating or contributing new knowledge in a discipline or, an applied study that combines a specific topic with actual problems or issues within a setting.

This course provides an introduction to the field of business analytics, which is defined as the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, exploratory and predictive models and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions. Topics include implementation of successful analytics platforms, big and little data, predictive analytics, social media analytics, mobile analytics and data visualization. Students use industry standard tools in practical projects.

This course explores strategic information technology management issues associated with doing business in digital times. It provides a framework to understand how information technology strategy aligns with business strategy and focuses on developing an understanding of the key information requirements for developing information technology strategy and systems architecture. Students are encouraged to think and behave strategically with respect to exploiting leading-edge technologies and deliver the right business value with information technology. The course will focus on digital technology trends transforming how business is done, information management and architecture, e-business models and strategies, mobile commerce, social networking, engagement and social metrics and business process innovation.

This course introduces the principles and procedures related to the design and management of data warehouse (DW) and business intelligence (BI) systems. The DW is the central data repository that is used for decision-support. BI refers to the analytical applications that users can interact with in making sense of the data. The course focuses on the data warehousing process including requirement collection, data warehouse architectures, dimensional modeling, extracting, transforming and loading strategies and creation of data marts. The course also uses data warehousing as a platform for BI applications, such as reporting, dashboards and online analytical processing (OLAP). By completing this course, students should understand the technologies used for decision-support and possess valuable analytical skills.

More and more organizations are collecting large amounts of data, much of it unstructured. Big data technologies can be used to store, process and analyze large amounts of data using a distributed environment. This course introduces students to the world of big data and associated technologies. The focus of the course is Apache Hadoop, which is an open source software project that enables distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of commodity servers. The objective of this course is to provide students a foundation for understanding big data technologies and Hadoop in particular. Topics include Hadoop system architecture, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), MapReduce programming model and design patterns and technologies surrounding Hadoop ecosystem such as Pig, Hive and Oozie. The course will also introduce big data science concepts and NoSQL database technologies.

Special topics courses vary and are used to introduce students to new topics in the Information Technology field.

Internships are a valuable experiential learning tool where students engage in work with an organization on an approved topic. Students will write a comprehensive report based on their learning experience along with weekly logs and a managerial evaluation. The report will be evaluated and graded by the instructor.

Students will work on proposing, developing and implementing a comprehensive project based on concepts learned during their program. A project is a form of research aimed at creating or contributing new knowledge in a discipline or, an applied study that combines a specific topic with actual problems or issues within a setting.

This course explores strategic information technology management issues associated with doing business in digital times. It provides a framework to understand how information technology strategy aligns with business strategy and focuses on developing an understanding of the key information requirements for developing an information technology strategy and systems architecture. Students are encouraged to think and behave strategically with respect to exploiting leading-edge technologies and deliver the right business value with information technology. The course will focus on digital technology trends transforming how business is done, information management and architecture, e-business models and strategies, mobile commerce, social networking, engagement and social metrics and business process innovation.

The current trend towards computerizing the healthcare industry through interoperable electronic health records (EHR) is creating very exciting opportunities for IT and business professionals in a diverse range of organizations including hospitals, IT firms (EHR vendors), government departments and health funds. This course is designed to introduce students to the various aspects of information management in healthcare organizations. Students will also gain a solid understanding of the healthcare field and how advanced information technologies can be used to reduce costs and improve the healthcare system overall. At the same time, the course focuses on unintended consequences resulting from deployment of advanced technologies in the healthcare field including user responses and usability considerations. Privacy and security laws in HIPAA will also be discussed.

Integration of information and processes is one of the biggest challenges faced by organizations today. Enterprise systems attempt to integrate all departments and functions across an organization onto a single computer system that can serve every department’s particular needs for up-to-date and accurate data. These systems dictate a standard data format across the entire organization, they are modular and multifunctional. This course examines various types of enterprise systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, supply chain management systems (SCM), customer relationship management systems (CRM) and knowledge management systems (KM) that support and enhance business activities. It provides an overview of the managerial and technical issues in selection and implementation of enterprise systems and technologies.

Organizations entrust a large portion of their budget to people who lead and manage IT infrastructure and operations. The ability to respond dynamically to changing business requirements is paramount for IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) organizations. Virtualization, IT modernization and real-time infrastructure architecture are increasingly essential to this agility. This class will balance hands-on interaction with infrastructure technologies and equipment as well as applications of technologies and services. Other topics include enterprise architecture and governance, cloud computing, enterprise-wide efficiency, green computing.

Organizations must structure themselves to deal with emerging technologies and making the right decisions, at the right time, can be critical to determining whether the organization succeeds or fails. This course provides students with a basic understanding of emerging technologies as they relate to innovation and information systems in organizations and the management strategies required to understand, leverage and benefit from these technologies. Students will identify current, real technologies that are emerging or about to emerge into the mainstream, investigate those technologies and ones from recent history, from a number of perspectives, to look at the impact of technologies on systems, business operations and corporate and technology strategy. They will study the impact, benefits and downsides of standards as they relate to information technology and delve into how those standards, and other factors, might affect the timing for implementation of emerging technologies in organizations.

Special topics courses vary and are used to introduce students to new topics in the Information Technology field.

Internships are a valuable experiential learning tool where students engage in work with an organization on an approved topic. Students will write a comprehensive report based on their learning experience along with weekly logs and a managerial evaluation. The report will be evaluated and graded by the instructor.

Students will work on proposing, developing and implementing a comprehensive project based on concepts learned during their program. A project is a form of research aimed at creating or contributing new knowledge in a discipline or, an applied study that combines a specific topic with actual problems or issues within a setting.

As machines are getting more sophisticated, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) takes prominent center stage. AI focuses on building and managing intelligent machines that can learn from experience, solve problems, perform human-like tasks and mimic cognitive human functions. This course focuses on important concepts, principles and techniques applied in the AI domain. Students will gain expertise in topics such as computer problem-solving, knowledge representation, cognitive computing, speech/face recognition, natural language processing and robotics among others.