Cybersecurity, BS

Return to: Business and Enterprise

The BS degree in Information Systems was introduced in fall 2016.  Its enrollment has grown rather quickly.  It was created with the following goals:

Goal 1:  Develop a working knowledge throughout the phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle to understand the roles, responsibilities, methodologies and activities that are used to ensure the successful delivery of an information system.

Goal 2: Prepare graduates with technical competencies to:

• Understand and analyze a problem or opportunity
• Algorithmically design and demonstrate a potential solution
• Ensure a solution fulfills customer expectations
• Streamline business processes through implementation of technology
• Develop themselves professionally after graduation

Goal 3: Produce strong technical communicators who can:

• Effectively bridge the translation gap between business-oriented decision makers and technical experts by understanding the business processes of organizations along with the computing hurdles faced by technical experts
• Demonstrate a blend of managerial expertise and technical prowess
• Comfortably collaborate with others
• Effectively engage large audiences

These goals are met through a combination of traditional classroom work and hands-on, experiential learning projects.  Students collaborate on in-class projects that simulate real industry projects.  Students also collaborate to deliver IS projects to real world clients.  Finally, students often perform in internships with local companies that employ them in actual industry work.  The new ARCO in Cybersecurity will provide the same emphasis and opportunity for experiential learning.

The IS major also meets these goals with an interdisciplinary curriculum that currently requires students to take core and elective classes in IS and to elect one of three current ARCOs. The first ARCO emphasizes Business Information Systems and students follow up the core IS classes by taking most of the Business classes required by students in the other Business majors.  The second ARCO is Healthcare Information Systems, in which students take Healthcare-oriented courses. The third ARCO follows the same model with students selecting GIS classes after taking the IS core. 

The proposed ARCO would follow this template.  Students would take required core IS classes (15 credits). Students would also take 12 additional elective courses in cybersecurity and information technology (36 credits).  Details are below.