Computer Science

Department Head 

Associate Professor Xia

Associate Professor Tao (Assistant Head, Fall)

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