Computer Science
Faculty
Associate Professor Xia, Head; Associate Professors Liew, Pfaffmann; Assistant Professor Sadovnik
Computer science is the study of algorithms and their implementations. This field of study is quite recent-almost all of the computer scientists who ever lived are still alive. Its growth has been explosive, especially in subfields such as networks, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce.
The main emphasis of the curriculum is software engineering: a systematic approach to the development of medium-to-large programs. One aspect of this approach is the separation of principles from technology. Students learn underlying concepts in lecture sections and learn technical details-such as programming languages and operating systems-in laboratory sections. Students have opportunities for team projects as well as independent study and research.
Lafayette’s fiber-optic networked campus provides computing resources to support course work, research, and personal projects. Many students gain additional experience by working part-time for the Information Technology Services department.
Computer Science Courses