ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Description:
The fields related to Artifical Intelligence (AI) are robotics, machine learning, computer vision and cognitive sciences. Fundamental concepts and techniques of intelligent systems; representation and interpretation of knowledge on a computer; search strategies and control; active research areas and applications such as notational systems, natural language understanding, vision systems, planning algorithms, intelligent agents and expert systems will form the major areas of study for AI at large.
Major theoretical paradigms and key concepts developed in machine learning in the context of applications such as natural language and text processing, computer vision, data mining, adaptive computer systems among others are covered in detail as far as majors machine learning is concerned.
Pre-Requisites:
AI and machine learning require foundations in the area of theory of computation as well as fundamental programming. Machine learning at an advanced stage requires a lot of exposure to AI at a basic level.
Prospects:
In this area, research is the current trend. Most students look to take up cutting edge research in machine learning and its applications. Allied work in the field of robotics is also possible in which knowledge is applied to program robots. Some of the major research areas are online learning, game learning, structured prediction and astrostatics among others.
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
Description:
This course is an intersection of CS and Electronics. Therefore, a student will have to study courses like signal processing, digital logic design, microprocessors , embedded systems, real-time systems to name a few. VLSI concepts along with micro-computer systems will also be covered as a part of the course. Needless to say a large part of your coursework will consist of taking up projects and designing interfaces and systems for computers. Embedded systems constitute the most important aspect of this course.
Pre-Requisites:
Any student of this course should be well versed with the basics of digital electronics, microprocessors and other undergraduate level courses in the allied areas. These course are generally NOT covered in a typical IT course at the undergraduate level, so these students should be careful while applying.
Prospects:
The major work one can take up is becoming a hardware engineer in a company. Organizations like Samsung, NVIDIA Graphics and Intel do good industrial and R&D work in the field of computer architecture. There are also openings in other sectors where one will basically have to maintenance and testing work. Research is highly valued and in general closely collaborated with industry with various companies vying for new technological breakthroughs.
DATABASE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Description:
Broadly speaking, students wishing to major in DBMS will have to deal with text information systems, data mining and its principles and advanced database systems. The logical organization of databases is explored along with entity-relational model, design and optimization of query languages. Methods and principles of data warehousing is taken up in detail. Data cleaning and integration; descriptive and predictive mining; mining frequent, sequential, and structured patterns; clustering, outlier analysis and fraud detection; stream data, web, text, and biomedical data mining; security and privacy in data mining; research frontiers form an important part of the course regarding data mining.
Pre-Requisites:
Very obviously undergraduate level knowledge of data structures, basic object oriented programming is a must for this course.
Prospects:
The BIG DATA field is upcoming as of now. Many new companies are looking for people proficient in data mining and allied fields. Job prospects in an analytics firm are rich. Apart from this one can take up research work in the field of data mining as well. Information network analysis, web text mining, stream data mining and knowledge patterns are the most sought after research areas.
GAME DEVELOPMENT
Descripton:
This course has seen a large number of applicants from India in the recent past. The major area of concentration is Computer Graphics and animation. Game designing, creating an user interface, game mechanics and story development form an important part of the course. Certain universities offer breadth to the program by offering courses on software engineering, web technologies and operating systems. There are four broad aspects of the game development course like Immersion, Serious Games, Cognition and Infrastructure. Each of these fields will deal in great detail right from planning, modelling including even sensory simulation to engage the viewer. Students will have to develop games in their projects. A highly challenging, application oriented and interesting course awaits you in this program.
Pre-Requisites:
Students shouldn’t just take up game development purely on the basis of liking for playing games. Duh! One must be proficient at programming and moreover be CREATIVE and IMAGINATIVE to come up with new ideas for the various projects posed to you.
Prospects:
After graduation itself, students will be able to engineer next generation games. Any game development company will surely pick up students. Moreover, research in the four major areas will always continue due to the need to advance quality and content of games over the years. After all, games have advanced over the years from the era of Mario to Most Wanted.
NETWORKS AND SECURITY
Description:
This is a very diverse program covering a range of courses from operating systems, multimedia systems, communication and wireless networks to computer security. Distribution systems and a variety of other courses from the ECE department like computer architectures, broadband connections architecture as well as an exposition to a variety of operating systems. Cryptography, web technology and security and internetworking are the major areas under the computer security field. Fundamental concepts and principles of computer security, operating system and network security, secret key and public key cryptographic algorithms, hash functions, authentication, firewalls and intrusion detention systems, IPSec and VPN, wireless and web security form the core of the courses you will study.
Pre-Requisites:
The course requires the fundamentals of programming and data structures to be very strong. One must also be well versed with certain courses of electronics which will be required in the computer networks field. Knowledge on web technology will be helpful in the computer security aspect.
Prospects:
A person who has specialised in networks and security can work across various industry verticals as a testing and maintenance engineer. Basic software work will be provided. The profiles on computer networks will open doors to different type of companies itself altogether. Maintaining information security is a major aspect of running any company for which they will be on the look out for software engineers who have studied this course.
