Academic Programs :: Graduate Programs

Cst 216. Information Network Security. This course introduces the concepts and terminology of information network security. It covers strategies for designing and implementing networking security and focuses on such topics as firewalls, intrusion detection, authentication and encryption, viruses, disaster prevention and recovery, and successful security policy implementation.

Cst 220. Programming Languages Principles and Practices. This course covers the notations for description of language syntax and semantics. Properties of algorithmic languages: scope of variables, binding time, subroutines and co-routines. Data abstraction, exception handling, control logic and concurrent processing. Dialects and standardization. The commonality and distinctions of the different types of programming languages (structural and algorithmic, GUI, object-oriented, etc.) will be discussed.

Cst 225. Computing Logic and Algorithms. This course covers the fundamentals of computing logic and computational algorithms, including mathematical logic, set theory, pseudo-code, induction, recursion, relations, classifications, effective computability of functions and sets in terms of Turing machines, and other computational models.

Cst 227. Data Structures. This advanced course is focuses on data structures as an essential topic in computer science. Topics include the role of data structures and their relationship to algorithms; overloading operators and overriding methods; and developing stacks, queues, hashes, linked lists, trees, sorts, and searches. Java is used throughout the course for implementation and demonstration.

Cst 230. Computer Architecture. This course introduces the architecture of computer hardware, including storage hierarchies, input-output subsystems, instruction and data level parallelism, symbolic computation, multiprocessor networks and consistency, and performance modeling. The major concepts of operating systems are also studied and the interrelationship between operating systems and architecture is analyzed.

Cst 240. Operating Systems. This course covers concepts in operating systems analysis and design. General topics of process, resource and file management are presented and analyzed against different system architecture and performance constraints. Topics include software I/O, concurrent processes, mutual exclusion, synchronization, deadlock, scheduling, memory management, and resource control.

Cst 250. Compiler Design. This course covers the concepts and methods for implementing higher-level computer language compilers. Topics include parsing, symbol table management, code emission, and code optimization.

Cst 260. Artificial Intelligence. This course covers general topics in artificial intelligence, including: heuristic problem-solving search and theorem-proving techniques, rule-based systems and application of cognition, reasoning, learning, planning, and knowledge representation through available tools. The course covers expert systems as an application example.

Cst 280. Software Engineering Methodology. This course covers concepts and methods for the architectural design of large-scale software systems. Fundamental design concepts and design notations are introduced. Several design methods are presented and compared, with examples of their use. Students participate in a group software requirements analysis and design project.

Cst 282. Information Technology Project Management. This course covers the fundamental project management principles and methodologies for managing the software development life-cycle and process models. Topics include: process metrics; software project planning; monitoring, control, and schedule mechanisms; budget estimates; risk assessment; and leadership, motivation, and team building.

Cst 283. Object-Oriented Software Development. This course covers the principles of object-oriented analysis and design, development, and programming. It discusses the relationships between object-oriented design concepts and software engineering principles, techniques of object-oriented design and programming, and the application of the object-oriented techniques.

Cst 284. Software Development and Documentation Standards. This course provides students with insights into the workings of international, industrial and other relevant standards used for software development and documentation. These standards include ISO 9000 series, CMM, and MIL-STD 498. The course covers theoretical, technical, and practical aspects of software development and documentation standards to provide students with an understanding of how the standards can be used for providing specific software development and documentation solutions.

Cst 285. Software Quality Assurance. This course covers concepts and techniques for software testing and quality assurance. Topics include: software testing at the unit; module/subsystem; system and integrated levels; automatic and manual techniques for generating and validating test data; the testing processes; static vs. dynamic analysis; functional testing; inspections; and reliability assessment.

Cst 286. Client/Server Computing. This course covers the concepts and descriptions of client/server computing. It discusses the variation and evolution of related technology. It then provides strategies for designing systems using the client/server model, emphasizing enterprise applications that increase functionality, performance, and flexibility while reducing costs.

Cst 290. Database Management Systems Design and Development. This course covers the concepts, theory and application of database management systems and its development methodology. The course introduces client/server architecture and relational DBMS and related technology, including an in-depth study of the requirements analysis, specification, design, implementation, testing, and deployment phases of the DBMS development life cycle. Students will participate in a DBMS development project.

Cst 291. Information/Data Modeling*. This course provides a basic level of understanding of the information/data modeling methodology, including information systems, RDBMS, ERD, modeling languages, naming and definition, normalization, and information modeling methodologies. Student will participate in an information modeling project. *Prerequisite: Cst 290.

Cst 292. Management Information Systems. This course covers the role of information systems in organizations and how they relate to organizational objectives and organizational structure. Basic concepts are introduced, including the systems point of view and organization, information flows, and the nature of information systems.

Cst 295. Decision Support Systems. This course provides an overview of the concepts and methods for decision-making processes. It stresses design, implementation and evaluation of the computer-based Decision Support Systems (DSS). The course examines the information requirements of an organization in different information needs at the operational, administrative, strategic, and organizational levels, and discusses the design and implementation of a comprehensive DDS.

Cst 296. Strategic Planning for Information Systems. This course covers strategies for developing and implementing an effective information management system. Topics include: database systems organization, creation, and maintenance; evaluation criteria; and standardization of database systems.

CJ 200. Criminal Justice System. This graduate course provides the student with an overview of the criminal justice system in America. As such it is a foundation course for the master's degree. The main topics include the criminal justice process and the Rule of Law, the police, the courts system, and the corrections system. Also included is an overview of the juvenile justice system and criminological theory, as well as the role of incarceration both as a punishment and as a preventative measure aimed at protecting society.

CJ 205. Juvenile Justice. This graduate course provides students with an overview of the theoretical and historical foundations of juvenile justice. Topics include: diverse theories of juvenile offense; incidence statistics and trends; and the role of police, the courts, and corrections in processing offenders. Neglected and at-risk youth, juvenile victimization, juvenile detention, certification of offenders as adults, probation and parole, the death penalty applied to minors, and students' rights and school crime also are covered.

CJ 210. Criminal Law. This graduate course introduces students to the fundamentals of criminal law in the United States. Topics include the nature and history of criminal law, criminal liability, the concept of crime, the legal and social dimensions of crimes against persons and crimes against property. The administration of justice, punishment, and sentencing are discussed in the context their function in society and the influence of society on their function.

CJ 215. Corrections. This graduate course provides an overview of corrections in America. Topics include the history of correctional thought and practice, punishment and prevention, the law of corrections, the correctional client, jails and short-term detention, probation, community corrections, prison and long-term incarceration, corrections for juvenile and women offenders, race and ethnicity, and the death penalty.

CJ 220. Criminal Justice Ethics. This graduate course focuses on ethics and morality in relation to crime, law, and justice. The course emphasizes the role of society in defining what is moral and just. Topics include how ethics and morals affect our understanding of issues in criminal justice, how crime and justice are linked to ethics and morality. Theories of crime based on free will, determinism, relativism, self-interest, and psycho-social development are covered.

CJ 225. Law Enforcement. This graduate course provides an overview of law enforcement in America. Topics include the changing nature of crime, the history and evolution of law enforcement in America, freedom and justice, criminal and civil offenses, roles and responsibilities of law officers, investigation processing, interviewing, searching and arresting, protecting the rights of citizens, facing the national drug problem, victimization, the courts, and other elements of the criminal justice system.

CJ 230. Criminology. This graduate course introduces the study of criminal behavior from is historical origins to the present day. It addresses the classical, neoclassical, biological, psychological, and sociological theories of the causes of criminal behavior and society's responses. Topics include an overview of criminology as a social science, patterns of crime and crime statistics, research methods and theory-building, crimes against property and persons, positivism, ecological and social disorganization theory, subcultural theory, conflict theory, and social control and social learning theory.

CJ 240. Criminal Justice Management. This graduate course provides coverage of effective management practices in the criminal justice system. Topics include managing in justice-centered organizations, human resources management, responsibility and authority, staff development, ethical practices, evidence-based best practices, and community relations.

CJ 250. Criminalistics. This graduate course provides an overview of criminalistics (forensic science). It discusses crime scenes, physical evidence, organic and inorganic analyses, forensic technology, arson and explosions, serology, fingerprints, firearms, computer forensics, and the future of criminalistics.

CJ 255. Criminal Courts System. This graduate course addresses the history and development of the criminal courts in America. Topics include comparison of state and federal courts, federal procedures, basic rights and liberties of all U.S. citizens – including victims and the accused. In addition, the roles of judges, prosecuting attorneys, defense counsel, police, and probation officers and other court-related personnel in the criminal court process are covered in detail.

CJ 275. Criminal Justice Policy. This advanced graduate course in criminal justice examines the public policy process in the U.S. as it relates to crime and criminal justice. Topics include the public policy process; the role of scientific inquiry in the development of public policy; and trends in public policy, crime, and criminal justice.

Mgt 200. Business Basics. A practical overview of basic principles of business management, covering topics in the areas of marketing, sales, finance, accounting, business law, organizational behavior, contracting, and procurement.

Mgt 201. Communication and Soft Skills. Communications model: sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, feedback, the medium, the message. Barriers to communications. Verbal vs. nonverbal communications. Formal vs. informal communications. Writing reports. Making presentations. Conducting meetings. Practical exercises in effective communication. Dealing effectively with colleagues, supervisors, team members, and customers.

Mgt 202. Business Law and Ethics. Commercial law at the national, state (provincial), and municipal levels. Forms of organizational structure (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation). Taxes. Occupational safety and health. Labor regulations. Ethics.

Mgt 210. Quantitative Methods for Decision-making. An overview of basic quantitative skills needed to make effective management decisions. Topics covered include displaying and summarizing data, random variables and probability distributions, sampling, statistical inference, regression analysis, forecasting, statistical quality control, risk analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, decision trees, and linear and integer optimization modeling. Requires Microsoft Excel®.

Mgt 215. Operations, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management. This course covers the set of activities that creates goods and services through the transformation of inputs into outputs. OM is one of the three major functions of any organization (manufacturing or service), the other two being financing/accounting and marketing.

Mgt 220. Information Technology. An introduction to the role of information technology in contemporary organizations. A review of the history of computers, the evolution of management information systems, the employment of computers in contemporary organizations, and basic information on software development. Hands-on exercises in using the Internet and creating web pages.

Mgt 222. e-Commerce. This course provides students with insights into the workings of e-Commerce today. It provides an understanding of the business and technical underpinnings of e-Commerce, and explains how specific business units fit into the global (e-Business) picture. The course also facilitates/triggers meaningful, creative thinking, and discussion to benefit students and their organizations.

Mgt 230. Leadership and Organization. A review of the history of management thought. The role of vision, leadership, and values in organizations. Teams and team-building. Conflict management. Organizational design.

Mgt 231. Organizational Behavior. Theories of human behavior. Organizations and the organizational context. Organizational design. Small group behavior vs. large group behavior. Motivating employees in organizations. Human resource management issues. Evaluating performance. Setting salaries.

Mgt 240. Marketing and Sales. An overview of the key functions of marketing: pricing, promotion, distribution channels, and product definition. The market research function. An understanding of who customers are (both internal and external) and how to define their needs and wants. Sales strategies.

Mgt 245. Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation. This course offers a comprehensive overview of technological entrepreneurship by examining the link between entrepreneurship, creativity, invention and innovation. It addresses both theory and practice. In order to see what it takes to be successful, it looks at several current high tech businesses that began as start-ups in the recent past and became successful.

Mgt 246. Engineering Management. The course examines the technological, social, economic, systems, and professional aspects of engineering. It lays out the wide variety of sub-disciplines that fall under the rubric of “engineering” and focuses on the fact that in the final analysis, engineering is a practical undertaking that employs technology to solve problems. In market economies, the primary driving force behind engineering is to make money for businesses and individuals. Thus the course demonstrates the link between engineering and business.

Mgt 250. Project Management. This course addresses the central role of project management today. Topics include a review of the project life-cycle; techniques in the areas of cost management, scheduling, and resource allocation; identifying and managing project requirements; and an overview of project management software.

Mgt 251. Planning and Control*. An in-depth examination of scheduling and cost management issues. Work breakdown structure construction. Scheduling with PERT/CPM, Gantt charts, milestone charts. Parametric and bottom-up cost estimation. Use of the S-curve for cost control. Life-cycle cost estimating. Integrated cost/schedule control using the earned value technique. *Prerequisite: Mgt 250.

Mgt 252. Project Finance and Budgeting*. Projects as businesses and project managers as CEOs. Finance and investment tools for selecting projects. Developing charts of accounts for organizing financial data. Using financial metrics to improve project decision making. Creating, implementing, and monitoring project budgets. Capital budgeting techniques. Real option approach to making go/no go decisions on projects. *Prerequisite: Mgt 250.

Mgt 253. Risk and Quality Management. Risk identification, risk impact analysis, risk response planning. Mitigating risk. Risk management techniques, such as Monte Carlo simulation. Defining quality. Total quality management (TQM). Quality control. The ISO 9000 perspective on quality.

Mgt 254. Contracts and Procurement. Pre-award and post-award phases. Contracting modalities: firm fixed-price, cost plus, cost plus fixed fee, cost plus award fee, cost plus incentive fee, time and materials. The bid process. RFPs, RFQs, and IFBs. The statement of work (SOW). Resolving disputes.

Mgt 258. International Project Management. Acquaints students with key global issues facing project workers at home and abroad and gives them the skills to operate more effectively in today's international environment.

Mgt 259. Project Management Applications. A practical course examining current best practice tools and techniques to manage real world projects. In this course, students work on self-study modules dealing with project management issues in important areas, including establishing project offices, managing needs and requirements, using e-commerce on projects, and developing team skills on projects.

Mgt 261. Data Communications. Data transmission. Transmission media. Data encoding. The data communication interface. Data link control. Multiplexing.

Mgt 270. Principles of Public Sector Management. The role of government in society. Public vs. private sector management. Fiduciary responsibilities in government. The central role of ethics. Public vs. private goods. Accountability in the public sector. How governments operate.

Mgt 271. Structure and Function of Government. Different approaches to governance at the national, state (provincial), and municipal levels. Articulating, adjudicating, and enforcing government policies. The legal system and the role of the courts. The chief executive in government vs. the legislature. Operating in a fishbowl environment.

Mgt 272. The Budget Process*. Appropriation, obligation, and commitment of funds. Zero-based budgeting. Mathematics of budgeting. The budget/fiscal year cycle. Audits. Cost control. Budgets and the procurement process. The role of different players in the budgeting process. *Prerequisite: Mgt 271.

Mgt 274. Legal System. How laws are created, promulgated, and enforced. Criminal vs. commercial vs. tort law. Personal property, real property, and intellectual property. National vs. local laws. The importance of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights.

Mgt 279. Management of Major Programs*. An overview of tools, processes, and regulations governing the management of large complex programs: the program life-cycle, establishing and running a program office, contracting and procurement issues, regulations on large systems acquisitions, implementing earned value management, coordinating work efforts among subcontractors, the link between the budget cycle and the program cycle, managing a project portfolio. *Prerequisite: Mgt 250.

Mgt 280. Finance Budget Processes. Capital budgeting techniques: present value analysis, internal rate of return, pay back period analysis. Raising capital. Venture capital. Capital markets. Financial decision-making. CAPM vs. APT. Financial risk.

Mgt 281. Accounting. Bookkeeping basics. Financial statement analysis: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements. Depreciation of capital. Taxes. Role of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Auditing. Managerial accounting. Hands-on examples of employing accounting techniques with spreadsheets.

Mgt 285. Economics. An overview of micro-economic and macro-economic principles, including: law of scarcity, competition, division of labor, fiscal policy, government intervention, and international trade.

Mgt 298. Directed Readings and Research. This course consists of supervised readings and research projects focusing on a specific area of management. It is open to graduate students in the MS and MBA programs, who are majoring in project management, acquisition management, IT project management, public administration, telecommunications management, or general business management.

Mgt 299. Seminar: Business Policy. The MBA capstone course, conducted as a seminar. Students apply their business knowledge by analyzing a number of case studies. Also, students review current thinking on strategic management and carry out a strategic planning analysis. An principal goal of this course is for students to demonstrate that they can integrate the knowledge they gained in their MBA course studies.

Mgt 310. Analytical Techniques in Research. This course covers the principal techniques employed in conducting social science research. Topics include the design of experiments, survey research, measures of association, parametric statistics, nonparametric statistics, trend analysis, and contingency table analysis. Students will read scholarly articles employing these techniques to better understand how they are used in practice. (6 credit-hours)

Mgt 320. Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge and Research. This course is an overview of knowledge, knowledge acquisition, and the research process. The focus will be the link between research, theory, and practice. Topics include the nature of scientific revolutions, epistemology, and phenomenology. Students will review seminal thinkers such as Kuhn and Popper.

Mgt 350. Management as a Behavioral Science. Management theory has roots in the behavior sciences, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics. This course will examine the contributions of the behavior sciences to management and vice versa. A special focus will be attempts to design organizations based on behavioral science principles. (6 credit-hours)

Mgt 355. Evolution of Management Thought. This course provides an in-depth review of managerial thought and practice throughout history. Topics include an investigation of how management thinking has reflected changing social, economic, cultural, and political circumstances organizations have faced. Theories of management will be studied from the times of Lao Tzu to the present.

Mgt 358. Current Issues in Management. This course provides a critical review of managerial issues facing organizations today. Students will prepare papers analyzing these issues and their consequences. Special attention is directed toward various aspects of the concept of the managerial process and the roles of businesses in society.

Mgt 359. Managing Modern Business Operations. This course surveys fundamental principles and issues in managing the modern business operation. Topics include managing quality, risks, capacity, processes, personnel, supply-chain, technology, forecasting, and aggregate planning. The theory of constraints and techniques of time-boxed and critical-chain scheduling also are covered. The key concepts of the value chain and competitive strategies are integrated throughout the course.

Mgt 360. International Management. The focus of this course is the behaviors and functions required for successful business management in today’s challenging global environment. Topics covered include: globalism, social responsibility and ethics, cultural styles, cross-cultural communication, negotiations, international alliances, control systems for global operations, international organizations, cultural shock, diversity, global labor relations, leadership and motivation in a multicultural context.

Mgt 365. Economic and Financial Theory. Economic and financial theories are at the foundation of modern management and business administration. This course will cover advanced topics in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and finance that affect domestic and international firms. Students will compare and contrast the original works of Nobel Prize winners in economics in addition to current interpretations.

Mgt 366. Leadership and Ethics. This course presents a review of the history of management thought regarding leadership and ethics. Topics include the role of vision, the varying characteristics of leaders, and organizational values. The importance of managerial ethics will be addressed, informed by varying contexts of diverse cultures versus Western ideals.

Mgt 368. Business-Government Relations. Businesses operate with considerable autonomy but within the constraints of federal, state, and local government laws and regulations. Many businesses look to government as a major customer for their goods and services. This course focuses on the complex relationships between businesses and governments, including a review of the legal environment and major trends in law and policy.

Mgt 395. Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. This advanced course reviews the essentials of entrepreneurship, building on the fundamental concepts of technology and innovation. Topics covered include: developing entrepreneurial ideas, market opportunity analysis and marketing planning, financial planning and financing, logistics and supply-chain, patents and trademarks, and distribution strategies. The business cycle, the product life cycle, technology diffusion, and waves of creative destruction of studied in detail.

Mgt 398. Directed Research and Readings. This doctoral level research and reading course is provided for students who have specific interests to be pursued as an independent study, with the permission and support of a faculty member. This course may be repeated. (3-9 credit-hours)

Mgt 399. Advanced Research Methods. This course provides an in-depth examination of advanced techniques that may be useful in conducting dissertation research, including factor analysis, discriminant analysis, multidimensional scaling, MANOVA, sampling theory, and experimental design. (6 credit-hours)

Mgt 420. Special Topics in Research. This course focuses on the individual student’s area of concentration, their chosen research problems, and issues related to preparing the dissertation. Topics include the craft of dissertation writing, defining and controlling the scope of problem statements, conducting effective and efficient research, and selecting research analytical methods that are reliable and valid. This course may be repeated. (3-9 credit-hours)

Mgt 498. Directed Readings and Research. This dissertation-research course is provided for students to continue their dissertation proposal research that began with Mgt 420. This course may be repeated.

Mgt 499. Dissertation Research. This course is limited to students who have received approval of their dissertation proposal and been promoted to the status of doctoral candidate. The product of this independent work is a dissertation that is thorough, succinct, well-reasoned, professionally presented, and defensible. This course may be repeated. (3-9 credit-hours)