Information Technology MS
Department of Information Systems and Technology
273 Wissink Hall
507-389-2968

 

The Master of Science degree in Information Technology program of study prepares the student for a career as a computing professional, yet offers enough flexibility to allow a student to design a course of study suitable for preparation for doctoral
work in information technology. The program is designed to offer graduate level educational opportunities with an applied computing perspective. It addresses the pre–service as well as occupational and career advancement needs of baccalaureate-prepared computer technologists. The program objectives are:

1. To address the needs of Minnesota’s public and private enterprises by providing opportunities within the state of Minnesota for graduate study in applied computing area.
2. To provide a graduate degree program for practicing information technologists who have clearly defined academic needs related to professional advancement and/or specialization.
3. To offer a graduate program for baccalaureate students who want to continue their education and gain specialized knowledge and skills in any area of information technology.
4. To expand the functional role of the Department of Information Systems and Technology in service to the Mankato area and the state of Minnesota.
    

These objectives are met by a curriculum with core studies in informatics in general including software development, networking, information security, databases and research methods. The core studies provide the foundation upon which students
develop an academic program appropriate to their interests, culminating in a research experience.

Admission Requirements. In addition to meeting the general admission requirements of the College of Graduate Studies and Research, successful applicants must meet the following requirements for admission:

1. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required (contact department for specific requirements) if the applicant’s GPA is less than 3.0.
2.  Applicants must have an undergraduate degree in information technology, information systems, computer science, management information systems or a related field. Qualified students with other backgrounds may be granted provisional admission and are required to complete undergraduate courses in core areas of information technology. All students must meet all prerequisite requirements of the graduate level courses in which the student plans to enroll. Prerequisites for core courses will be considered deficiencies until satisfied.
    

For admission to the Information Technology MS Program, applicants must provide a one page statement of career interests and goals to the IT Department.

International Students. International Students must take the TOEFL exam and score at least 550. Additionally, the student’s undergraduate transcript must be verified by a credential evaluation service if it is not from a US institution. International students should visit the CGSR’s international student website for additional information.

Financial Assistance. Teaching, Lab Project and Research Assistantships requiring professional computer knowledge are available in the IS&T department and from various other departments and administrative offices. Applications are posted on the school’s Academic and Administrative Job Postings web page.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MS

(Thesis Plan – 32 credits)
(Alternate Plan Paper – 34 credits)
(Course Work Plan – 36 credits)

Required Core
Choose a minimum of 13 credits from the following:

• IT 600 Research Methods (3)
• IT 602 Research Seminar (1)
• IT 640 Advanced Database Systems (3)
• IT 641 Distributed Database Systems (3)
• IT 662 Data Communications and Networking (3)
• IT 680 Software Engineering Project (3)

Required Electives
Choose a minimum of 8 credits from any one of the following groups:

Database Technologies

• IT 540 Database Management Systems II (4)
• IT 542 Database Security, Auditing, and Disaster Recovery (4)
• IT 544 Data Mining and Warehousing (4)
• IT 583 Web Application and Human Interface Design (4)

Networking and Information Security

• IT 542 Database Security, Auditing, and Disaster Recovery (4)
• IT 550 Information Warfare (4)
• IT 560 Network and Security Protocols (4)
• IT 562 Network Administration and Programming (4)
• IT 564 Application of Wireless and Mobile Networks (4)
• IT 583 Web Application and Human Interface Design (4)

Software Development

• IT 514 Advance Object–Oriented Programming with Design Pattern (4)
• IT 580 Software Quality Assurance and Testing (4)
• IT 582 Human Computer Interaction (4)
• IT 583 Web Application and Human Interface Design (4)
• IT 584 Software Engineering (4)

Electives
Choose credits in any combination from the following or above to satisfy the total credit requirement for the Information Technology MS.
 

600–level courses from the following list:

• IT 601 Research Topics (3)
• IT 630 Advanced Artificial Intelligence (3)
• IT 631 Knowledge–Based Systems (3)
• IT 677 Individual Study (1–4)
• IT 690 Statistical Inference Packages (3)

Any other 500–level courses from the Department of Information Systems & Technology

Up to 8 credits of 5/600-level nondepartmental courses in consultation with the advisor (Max. 4 credits at 500-level from nondepartmental sources)

Required Capstone Experience

• IT 699 Thesis (3–6) (thesis option) or
• IT 694 Alternate Plan Paper (1–2) (alternate plan paper option) or
• IT 597 (1–4 credits) or
• IT 6xx (coursework option)

At least 50% of the credits required for the MS degree must be earned in courses restricted to graduate students and listed as 600-level (excluding Thesis and APP credits).

Prior to registering for IT 694 or IT 699, the student must satisfy the comprehensive examination requirement and must have successfully completed the core course credits. Students must be registered for a minimum of one credit of Thesis/APP for every semester that they are working on their paper.

Comprehensive Examination Requirement
The comprehensive examination will contain questions from the IT core except for IT 602. The comprehensive examination will be waived if the student obtains a 3.5 GPA in the core courses.

Graduate Certificate in Database Technology
 

This program provides the basic concepts, skills, and values for pursuing a career in computer and information science, emphasizing design and implementation of sophisticated database systems and related software.

• IT 540 Database Management Systems II (4)
• IT 640 Advanced Database Systems (3)
• IT 641 Distributed Database Processing (3)

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

IT 512 (4) Graphics
Concepts and algorithms used in computer graphics, including polygonal and curved images in both 2 and 3 dimensions, representation of solid objects, and color and illumination models.
Pre: consent of instructor

IT 514 (4) Advanced Object–Oriented Programming with Design Patterns
This course endeavors to provide the student with a solid understanding of the principles, techniques and tools involved in advanced object–oriented programming as it is practiced in enterprise industries. The successful student should have a distinct advantage in the marketplace.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 530 (4) Intelligent Systems
This course offers an overview of the field of intelligent systems. Emphasis is placed on rule–based expert systems, fuzzy rule–based systems, artificial neural networks and evolutionary computaiton. Uncertainty management in rule–based systems is covered in detail.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 532 (4) Robotics
Current practice and future directions in robotics including robot anatomy, kinematics, sensors, sensor interfacing and fusion, mobile robotics, realtime programming, vision and image processing algorithms, subsumption architecture.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 540 (4) Database Management Systems II
Extensive coverage of query processing and optimization; concurrency control and recovery, and security and integrity in centralized/distributed environments. Team–oriented projects in a heterogeneous client server environment.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 542 (4) Database Security, Auditing, and Disaster Recovery
This course provides science and study of methods of protecting data, and designing disaster recovery strategy. Secure database design, data integrity, secure architectures, secure transaction processing, information flow controls, inference controls, and auditing. Security models for relational and object–oriented databases.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 544 (4) Data Mining and Warehousing
The course offers a detailed overview of data mining and warehousing. Emphasis is placed on data mining strategies, techniques and evaluation methods. The star schema and other warehousing methods are covered. Students learn to experiment with several data mining and warehousing tools.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 550 (4) Information Warfare
The course includes information warfare principles and technologies. The key areas are: Information warfare concepts; Protocols, Authentication, and Encryption; Network attack techniques, methodologies, and tools; Network defense; Malware: trojans, worms, viruses, and malicious code; Electronic crimes and digital evidence.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 560 (4) Network and Security Protocols
Advanced coverage of data communication, networking and security protocols. Topics include: data transmission methods, error detection and recovery, flow control, routing, data throughput, security issues, and performance analysis of existing and emerging protocols for secure communication between the many points within a computer network and across the Internet.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 562 (4) Network Administration and Programming
Network and server systems administration include: domain administration; file system management; networked printers; user management; and workstation configuration. Network programming experience will be gained through programming assignments/projects in Layered Software Systems, HTTP Server, UDP (TFTP or DNS), CGI program, IPV6, RPC/SCTP.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 564 (4) Applications of Wireless and Mobile Networks
This course provides an understanding of existing and emerging mobile and wireless data networks, with an emphasis on digital data communications. Students will gain an understanding of the unique considerations that must be given to network protocols for wireless and mobile communication as well as their applications.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 580 (4) Software Quality Assurance and Testing
Topics include software quality assurance, software quality metrics, software configuration management, software verification and validation, reviews, inspections, and audits, configuration control boards and software process improvement models, black–box and white–box testing models.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 582 (4) Human Computer Interaction
Concepts and techniques for user interface design and human computer interaction. Emphasizes user–centered design, interface development techniques, and usability evaluation. Various interface devices and metaphors will be considered. Visual development environments and other development tools will be studied. Students will complete a substantial project.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 583 (4) Web Applications and User Interface Design
HTTP Protocol; Presentation abstractions; Web–markup languages; Client–side programming; Server–side programming; Web services; Web servers; Emerging technologies; Security; Standards & Standard Bodies; Techniques for web interface design; User–centered design; Visual development environments and development tools; Measure the effectiveness of interface design.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 584 (4) Software Engineering
This is a course in software engineering that introduces the student to all important aspects of the discipline. The main purpose of this course is to stimulate the engineering of a software product, from gathering requirements through implementation and maintenance. The course emphasizes a traditional development methodology. Students will be introduced to Visual Basic and Microsoft Project, but the emphasis of the course will be on principles of software engineering including project planning, requirements gathering, size and cost estimation, analysis, design, coding, testing, and implementation.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 588 (4) Rapid Application Development
In–depth understanding of low and high CASE tools and rapid application development. CASE tools will range from the traditional software development life cycle to object–oriented client/server environments. Extensive team–oriented applications will be developed using tools such as SYNON, OBSYDIAN, Power Builder, and MSSQL server.
Prerequisite: consent of instructor

IT 597 (1–12) Internship
Provides students with opportunity to utilize their training in a real–world business environment working under the guidance and direction of a faculty member. (At most 4 hours toward a major in this department.)
Prerequisite: Permanent admission to IT and consent

IT 600 (3) Research Methods
Research methodology in general and in computer science. Data and research sources. Analysis of existing research. Preliminary planning and proposals. Conceptualization, design, and interpretation of research. Good reporting.
Prerequisite: an elementary statistics course

IT 601 (3) Research Topics
Special topics in computer science research not covered in other courses. May be repeated for credit on each new topic.

IT 602 (1) Research Seminar
Students attend seminar presentations and present a research topic at one of the seminars.
Prerequisite: consent

IT 630 (3) Advanced Artificial Intelligence Systems
This course is a continuation of Artificial Intelligence (CS 530). Emphasis is placed on advanced topics and the major areas of current research within the field. Theoretical and practical issues involved with developing large–scale systems are covered.
Prerequisite: IT 530

IT 631 (3) Knowledge–Based Systems
The design of large–scale, knowledge–based systems. Emphasis on both theoretical and practical issues. Examination of alternative knowledge representation techniques and problem–solving methods used to design knowledge–based systems.
Prerequisite: IT 530

IT 640 (3) Advanced Database Systems
In–depth study of advanced topics such as object–oriented databases, intelligent database systems, parallel databases, database mining and warehousing, distributed database design and query processing, multi–database integration and interoperability, and multilevel secure systems.
Prerequisite: IT 540

IT 641 (3) Distributed Database Processing
Introduction to distributed database systems, resource allocation, homogenous vs. heterogeneous databases, schema integration, distributed concurrency control and recovery, and other topics dealing with distributed database processing.
Prerequisite: IT 540

IT 662 (3) Data Communications and Networking
This course will focus on research, design, and analysis of computer networks and data communications systems. The course will also entail detailed examination of modern communication standards, protocol systems and their implementation. Additional topics may include transmission technology, packet switching, routing, flow control, and protocols.
Prerequisite: IT 562 or 564

IT 677 (1–4) Individual Study
Problems on an individual basis.
Prerequisite: consent

IT 680 (3) Software Engineering Project
Advanced software design, analysis, and development techniques under realistic time and budget constraints. Hands–on project management techniques. Emphasis of concepts through immersion in a team project of significant size.
Prerequisite: IT 580

IT 690 (3) Statistical Inference Packages
Statistical package programs used in data collection, transformation, organization, summarization, interpretation and reporting. Statistical description and hypothesis testing with statistical inference. Interpreting outputs. Chi–square, correlation, regression, analysis of variance, nonparametrics, and other designs. Accessing and using large files (U.S. Census data, National Health Survey, etc.)
Prerequisite: a statistics course

IT 691 (1–6) In–Service in Computer Science
A course designed to upgrade the qualifications of persons on–the–job.
Prerequisite: consent

IT 694 (1–2) Alternate Plan Paper
Preparation of a master’s degree alternate plan paper under the direction of the student’s graduate advisor.
Prerequisite: consent

IT 699 (1–6) Thesis
Preparation of a master’s degree thesis under the direction of the student’s graduate advisor.
Prerequisite: consent