If you peruse the course listing this semester, you may see something different; Some of your favorite Computer Systems professors are teaching a new course code, CSC. This Fall semester marks the launch of the new Computer Science program.
Some history is in order. Back when it was a 2-year college, Farmingdale offered a degree in computer science to prepare students for transfer to 4-year schools. When Farmingdale started offering a bachelor's degree in computing in the 1998 catalog, we had a single computing program called “Computing Systems Technology-Business Programming and Systems”. Over the next 20+ years, this program became the current Computer Programming and Information Systems (CPIS).
CPIS is a very broad program, covering all types of computing skills from network management to software development. While the CPIS program was developing and changing, the Computing Education landscape had settled on three different types of programs. The international professional societies for computing (the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society) have outlined three categories of programs: Computer Science, Information Technology, and Information Systems. CPIS fits into more than one of these categories while individual CPIS graduates have historically covered each of these three areas even though the program (as a whole) is more closely aligned with the IT program requirements.
In response to a periodic review by faculty at other schools, the department decided to launch a computer science program that follows the ACM/IEEE model curriculum. This curriculum is much more math and programming intensive than the CPIS program and lacks some of its flexibility. Since entering students cannot be expected to know whether they want to major in CS or CPIS, some CPIS program changes will be made to align the first year of the programs so that students can decide after taking a class or two.
The courses being offered this semester are mostly for entering students (e.g., CSC 101-Intro to Computing) and for transfer students (CSC 329 – Data Structures and Algorithms II). Current students are not out of luck, however. While transferring from CPIS to CS might require some additional time, it will be possible for students who are in the middle of their CPIS journey to apply their completed courses to the CS program. Advisement is key here—the earlier a student moves over, the less additional time will be added to their time at FSC. If you are a current CPIS program student and want to consider Computer Science, reach out to the BCS office to get an advisement appointment. Also, if you are a CPIS student who wants to stick it out, sit tight—any changes to the CPIS program will not affect your requirements. The department will continue to have a CPIS program and will continue to support our CPIS students with new electives as technology rolls on.