Computer Science Minor (B.Eng.) (25 credits)
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Engineering
Program credit weight: 25
Program Description
24-26 credits
This program gives students in Engineering an introduction to core computer science concepts. The Minor is open to B.Eng. and B.Sc.(Arch.) students in Engineering who have already taken ECSE 202 Introduction to Software Development., COMP 202 Foundations of Programming., or COMP 208 Computer Programming for Physical Sciences and Engineering .. This program is not open to students in the B.Eng.; Co-op in Software Engineering program. All courses in the Minor must be passed with a grade of C or better. The Minor program may be completed in 24-26 credits, of which no more than 6 credits may overlap with the primary program. Students who are interested in this Minor should consult with the Undergraduate Program CooThis program gives students in Engineering an introduction to core computer science concepts. The Minor is open to B.Eng. and B.Sc.(Arch.) students in Engineering who have already taken ECSE 202 Introduction to Software Development., COMP 202 Foundations of Programming., or COMP 208 Computer Programming for Physical Sciences and Engineering .. This program is not open to students in the B.Eng.; Co-op in Software Engineering program. All courses in the Minor must be passed with a grade of C or better. The Minor program may be completed in 24-26 credits, of which no more than 6 credits may overlap with the primary program. Students who are interested in this Minor should consult with the Undergraduate Program Coordinator in the School of Computer Science for administrative matters, and should consult with both the Minor Adviser in Computer Science and with their department adviser for approval of their course selection. Forms must be submitted and approved before the end of the drop/add period of the student's final term
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 206 | Introduction to Software Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Software Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comprehensive overview of programming in C, use of system calls and libraries, debugging and testing of code; use of developmental tools like make, version control systems. | ||
Complementary Courses (21-23 credits)
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction,recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity,establishing correctness of programs). Datastructures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists,trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps,hash tables). Recursive and non-recursivealgorithms (searching and sorting, tree andgraph traversal). Abstract data types. Objectoriented programming in Java (classes andobjects, interfaces, inheritance). Selected topics. | ||
| ECSE 250 | Fundamentals of Software Development. | 3 |
Fundamentals of Software Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Software development practices in the context of object-oriented programming. Elementary data structures such as lists, stacks and trees. Recursive and non-recursive algorithms: searching and sorting, tree and graph traversal. Asymptotic notation: Big O. Introduction to tools and practices employed in commercial software development. | ||
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 302 | Programming Languages and Paradigms. | 3 |
Programming Languages and Paradigms. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming. | ||
| COMP 303 | Software Design. | 3 |
Software Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles, mechanisms, techniques, and tools for object-oriented software design and its implementation, including encapsulation, design patterns, and unit testing. | ||
3-4 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 273 | Introduction to Computer Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Number representations, combinational and sequential digital circuits, MIPS instructions and architecture datapath and control, caches, virtual memory, interrupts and exceptions, pipelining. | ||
| ECSE 324 | Computer Organization. | 4 |
Computer Organization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic computer structures; instruction set architecture; assembly language; input/output; memory; software; processor implementation; computer arithmetic. Lab work involving assembly language level programming of single-board computers. | ||
3-4 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEE 390 | Computational Methods in Chemical Engineering. | 3 |
Computational Methods in Chemical Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Linear systems of algebraic equations, Gaussian elimination; non-linear algebraic systems: Taylor series, incremental search, bisection method, linear interpolation, Newton-Raphson's method; differentiation and integration; initial value problems: Euler's and Runge Kutta's methods, stiff equations, adaptive solvers; boundary value problems; curve fitting; numerical optimization; probability theory and stochastic simulation: Monte Carlo method. | ||
| CIVE 320 | Numerical Methods. | 4 |
Numerical Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Numerical procedures applicable to civil engineering problems: integration, differentiation, solution of initial-value problems, solving linear and non-linear systems of equations, boundary-value problems for ordinary-differential equations, and for partial-differential equations. | ||
| COMP 350 | Numerical Computing. | 3 |
Numerical Computing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Computer representation of numbers, IEEE Standard for Floating Point Representation, computer arithmetic and rounding errors. Numerical stability. Matrix computations and software systems. Polynomial interpolation. Least-squares approximation. Iterative methods for solving a nonlinear equation. Discretization methods for integration and differential equations. | ||
| ECSE 343 | Numerical Methods in Engineering. | 3 |
Numerical Methods in Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Number representation and numerical error. Symbolic vs. numerical computation. Curve fitting and interpolation. Numerical differentiation and integration. Optimization. Data science pipelines and data-driven approaches. Preliminary machine learning. Solutions of systems of linear equations and nonlinear equations. Solutions of ordinary and partial differential equations. Applications in engineering, physical simulation, CAD, machine learning and digital media. | ||
| MATH 317 | Numerical Analysis. | 3 |
Numerical Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Error analysis. Numerical solutions of equations by iteration. Interpolation. Numerical differentiation and integration. Introduction to numerical solutions of differential equations. | ||
| MECH 309 | Numerical Methods in Mechanical Engineering. | 3 |
Numerical Methods in Mechanical Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Numerical techniques for problems commonly encountered in Mechanical Engineering are presented. Chebyshev interpolation, quadrature, roots of equations in one or more variables, matrices, curve fitting, splines and ordinary differential equations. The emphasis is on the analysis and understanding of the problem rather than the details of the actual numerical program. | ||
9 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Data Structures: priority queues, balanced binary search trees, hash tables, graphs. Algorithms: topological sort, connected components, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees, bipartite matching, network flows. Algorithm design: greedy, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, randomization. Mathematicaltools: proofs of asymptotic complexity and program correctness, Master theorem. | ||
| MATH 240 | Discrete Structures. | 3 |
Discrete Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to discrete mathematics and applications. Logical reasoning and methods of proof. Elementary number theory and cryptography: prime numbers, modular equations, RSA encryption. Combinatorics: basic enumeration, combinatorial methods, recurrence equations. Graph theory: trees, cycles, planar graphs. | ||
COMP courses at the 300 level or above except COMP 396 Undergraduate Research Project., COMP 400 Project in Computer Science.
It is strongly recommended that students take COMP 251 Algorithms and Data Structures., as it is a prerequisite of many later computer science courses.