Computer Science Department

Department Faculty

Jeff Humphries
John M. Hunt

Department Goals

This is an exciting time to be involved in computer science and information technology. Recent developments coupled with the promise of future advances provide strong motivation for engaging the discipline at all levels.

The department fully embraces the College purpose of educating with Christ preeminent and bringing all things captive to Him. All disciplines of study are to be engaged including the study of computation in its many forms and computer science more specifically. Every effort is made to have the students in the program relate their computer science content to their Christian worldview.

To ensure a rigorous academic standard in computer science courses, the current joint curricular guidelines of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) are used in the development of those courses and their content. The current standard implemented is that approved in 2013.

The department goals include:

1. the offering of the major in Computer Science;
2. the offering of a minor in Computer Science;
3. the offering of department courses needed by other majors to enhance those programs;

The programs offered provide a balanced consideration of theory and application within the computing sciences. Faculty are genuinely interested in working directly with students to facilitate timely progress in the development of knowledge and skills in the discipline. We invite all who have interest in computer science and related disciplines to inquire.

Teacher Certification
Computer Science Pre-MAT

Students interested in teaching computer science for grades 6-12 should complete a BA degree with a major in computer science and then enroll in the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) at Covenant College. It is recommended that the Education Minor  be completed during your undergraduate degree. Three of the courses in the Education Minor, EDU 121 Introduction to Teaching , EDU 222 Educational Psychology , and EDU 361 Education of Exceptional Children , are required for admission to the MAT. For information, see Teacher Certification under the Education  section of this catalog, or contact:

mat@covenant.edu or lindsey.fain@covenant.edu
706.419.1406
grad.covenant.edu

Department Laptop Policy

All students taking COS courses must provide their own laptop computer on which they can install course related software. They will be expected to bring this laptop, with installed software, to class, labs, and use it for assignments. The laptop must run one of the following operating systems:

• MS Windows 10 or higher
• Mac OS 10.13 or higher
• Linux

The laptop should have at least 4 Gb of RAM and 100 Gb of free disk space and a wireless network connection compatible with Covenant’s network. Most courses require the installation of the current version of Eclipse, which in turn uses the current version of Java. Some courses require the installation of software specific to the course. In general, course specific software will be available without charge.

Programs

• Computer Science

• Computer Science Minor

Courses

• COS 130 Computer Programming Methodology
• COS 131 Computing for Engineers
• COS 150 Advanced Programming Methodology
• COS 210 Discrete Structures in Computing
• COS 211 Computer Science Internship
• COS 230 Data Structures and Algorithms
• COS 260 Ethical and Professional Issues in Computing
• COS 270 Computing and the Future of Bias
• COS 299 Special Topics
• COS 300 Database Systems
• COS 311 Computer and Information Security
• COS 317 Software Security Engineering
• COS 326 Operating Systems
• COS 327 Network Programming
• COS 440 Programming Languages
• COS 450 Introduction to Computer Organization
• COS 492 Capstone Project in Computer Science