CS 1723/1721 Overview

CS 1723 and CS 1721 comprise the second required course for the Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science. The first course (CS 1713/1711) and this course provide a programming and problem-solving foundation for the rest of the degree. The first course introduces the basic concepts of computer science and programming, while this course introduces elementary data structures (such as stacks, queues, lists, trees) and further develops important concepts (such as recursion, sorting, and searching).

These courses are offered using Java. Java is an object-oriented language that allows execution of programs independent of platform. Java's clean design and many features make it an ideal vehicle for introducing state-of-the-art software techniques at an early stage.

The specific objectives for CS 1723/1721 are:

• Students should be able to use and implement fundamental data structures including stacks, queues, priority queues, lists, trees and hash tables.
• Students should be able to use object-oriented design to develop and implement computer-based solutions to problems.
• Students should be able to develop software by using and extending existing classes as well as designing new classes.
• Students should learn about object-oriented design features of Java including interfaces and inheritance.
• Students should learn to implement search and sorting algorithms including quick sort, heap sort and hashing.
• Students should learn to use recursion to solve problems.
• Students should be able to do a Big-Oh analysis for their implementations of basic data structures and algorithms.