Program

The Computer Science Program at Bard offers courses of interest to computer science, science, and nonscience majors. The program focuses on teaching fundamental ideas of computer science and introduces students to multiple programming languages that emphasize different programming paradigms. It offers balanced coverage of topics ranging from theoretical to applied.

Students interested in computer science should consider applying for the Distinguished Scientist Scholarship. This scholarship provides full tuition for students of science and includes the opportunity for summer research support.  The Financial Aid Office describes a number of additional scholarship opportunities available to Bard students.

Before undertaking an upper-college concentration and senior project in comptuer science, a student must moderate into computer science.  By the time of moderation a student in the program should have completed or be enrolled in:

• Computer Science 141, Object-Oriented Programming or Computer Science 143, Object-Oriented Programming with Robots
• Computer Science 145, Discrete Mathematics
• Computer Science 201, Data Structures
  
• Mathematics 111, Calculus I

By graduation a student in the program must take

• Computer Science 301, Algorithms
• Computer Science 305, Design of Programming Languages
• Computer Science 312, Theory of Computation
• Computer Science 326, Operating Systems or Computer Science 335, Computer Networks
• two or more computer science courses numbered 300 or above
• a Senior Project

Students in the Computer Science Program are expected to follow the standard divisional procedure for Moderation, and to fulfill the collegewide distribution and First-Year Seminar requirements.

Students of mathematics and computer science very often have similar interests and share a number of courses.  Recent research project titles in this area include:

• Arrays, Rook Circuits, and Minimal Hamiltonian Graphs
• Chip-firing games
• The Game of Life on a torus

The Biology Program provides courses for students interested in computational biology and ecology.  Most often these students apply concepts from algorithms, data base design, and computer modeling to the understanding of biological systems.  A sample of recent research project titles includes:

• Bacterial Identification: Algorithms for the Selection of Primers for PCR Reactions
• Deriving Phylogenetic Trees from Non-Coding DNA

Computers and the computational metaphor have affected many different disciplines, including genetics, cognitive science, law, music, and the visual arts.  Interdisciplinary programs combine computer science and with another area of interest

The Science, Technology, and Society Program (STS) aims to foster a critical community engaged in understanding science and its relation to society, and to promote contact among students across different fields and divisions. Students in STS are encouraged to have a practical 'hands-on' technological, artistic, or a policy component to their education, preferably in collective projects in their junior year. Programs of study that combine computer science might, for example, focus on ethical, legal, or sociological aspects of computer technology.