*ITEC 6310 3.00 Research Methods in Information Technology
This course provides a foundation in scientific inquiry applied to both practical and theoretical IT-related problems. Students formulate research questions, select appropriate research design to collect and analyze data, prepare reports, and evaluate research proposals and projects. Students must complete this course during their first year in the program.
ITEC 4010/5210 3.00 Systems Analysis and Design
The course discusses concepts, theories, and techniques for analysis, design and implementation of software systems. The focus is on distributed applications, with special emphasis on requirements gathering, modeling techniques and design trade-off analysis.
*ITEC 6110 3.00 Business Process Management and Service Oriented Architecture
This course introduces recent advances in business process management and related technology. Key topics covered include (i) the main lines of research conducted in this area of information technology, (ii) the business process management lifecycle and (iii) related methodologies, standards, applications and architectures (including the Service Oriented Architecture).
*ITEC 6120 3.00 Systems Requirements Management
This course covers advanced and emerging methods and techniques used to elicit, model, analyze, and manage software requirements. Students will also acquire skills and knowledge necessary for conducting research in the field.
*ITEC 6130 3.00 Service Oriented Computing
Discusses concepts, theories, and techniques for services and for autonomic computing. Examines architectures for Web applications based on the classic publish, find, and bind triangle. Key topics include semantics, transactions, Web service composition and the concept of self-management.
*ITEC 6140 3.00 Software Product Lines
The course discusses different aspects of Software Product Line Engineering with an emphasis on requirements and domain engineering, as well as advanced design, architecture and implementation techniques. Topics include: requirements/domain engineering for product lines, variability acquisition, modeling and analysis, architecting and designing high–variability software, advanced programming techniques for variability implementation, as well as managing the organizational and business aspects of software product line development.
*ITEC 4060/5150 3.00 Entreprise Architecture
This course examines the concept of architecture and its different meanings within Information Technology, focusing on software and enterprise architecture. The process of generating and implementing a software architecture within the systems development lifecycle is first discussed. Patterns, styles, and reference architectures are presented as tools to reuse past architectural experience. Architectural analysis and evaluation techniques are investigated. Then, various aspects of Enterprise Architecture (EA) are examined, including EA frameworks (TOGAF, Zachman), Enterprise Architecture Integration (EAI) and related technologies, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), business-to-IT alignment and IT strategy. The role of requirements analysis and management within all these processes is given special attention.
*ITEC 6160 3.00 Cloud Computing Systems
Cloud computing refers to a computation model where information technology resources, such as computer networks, servers, storage, applications, are shared and offered as services over the Internet. This course introduces service models, virtualization technologies, management tools and interfaces. Students learn advanced design issues that include provisioning, security, privacy, economies of scale, reliability and elasticity.
*ITEC 6205 3.00 Advanced Web Mining
This course explores how Web mining technology can be applied to solve problems in real–world applications, introducing advanced techniques from Web mining, information retrieval and their applications in e–commerce and Web information systems.
*ITEC 6210 3.00 Advanced Information Retrieval Systems
Introduces advanced techniques and core technologies used in information retrieval and studies the theory, design, and implementation of text–based information retrieval systems. Focuses on effectively interpreting imprecise queries and providing a high quality response to them from large text–based collections.
*ITEC 6220 3.00 Advanced Information Management
This course covers design principles and techniques of advanced
information management systems such as relational database systems and
big data platforms. Both classic data management issues and emerging
topics in big data management are discussed. Programming projects are
required.
*ITEC 6320 3.00 Information Technology and Organizational Strategy
This course examines the use of information technology (IT) for supporting organizational strategies. An organization’s long term dynamic plan drives its use of IT such as enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management systems. This course will examine the symbiotic relationship between IT and strategy.
*ITEC 6330 3.00 Designing and Building E–Business Applications
This course introduces students to advanced techniques for designing and building e-business applications, exposing students to core technologies for analyzing, designing and implementing e–business applications. Students develop an understanding of how these core technologies can be applied to solve real–world problems.
*ITEC 6340 3.00 Application and Design and Metaheuristics
This course introduces students to a broad and in-depth survey of metaheuristics for numerical and combinatorial optimization. Core considerations such as representations and objective functions are covered before key single-solution techniques (e.g. simulated annealing) and population-based techniques (e.g. evolutionary algorithms and swarm intelligence methods). Discussions include state-of the-art issues such as multi-objective optimization, large scale global optimization, and parallel implementations. Projects and discussions will focus on real-world applications.
*ITEC 6510 3.00 Applied Optimization Techniques in Information Systems
This course introduces the concept of optimal solutions. A survey of selected topics in operations research (OR) is provided emphasizing on practical applications rather than on the mathematical properties as well as on their integration into information systems. Students engage in term-long projects and conduct an in-depth study of a topic through readings and paper reviews.
*ITEC 6520 3.00 Agent-based Information Technology
This course discusses concepts, theories and techniques for agent-based applications. Examines agent-based methodologies, modeling process and modeling languages. Key topics include agent-based architectures, standards for agent-based development, designing and building an agent-based system with examples from e-health, environmental management and other application domains. Students engage in term-long implementation projects conduct an in-depth study of a topic through readings and paper reviews.
*ITEC 6710 3.00 Blockchain and Financial Technologies
This course offers an introduction to the field of financial technologies with a strong emphasis on blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies and platforms. Following a short overview of disruptive use of information technologies in the financial sector, the course proceeds with a technical introduction to blockchain platforms and networks and smart contracts. Students engage in term long projects at various levels of technical depth.
*ITEC 6970 3.00 Advanced Topics in Information Technology
This course Introduces emerging and "hot" topics in information technology discussed in the research literature. Topics will rotate annually and will focus on a specific area of interest to the instructor that is not covered in existing courses. Proposed topics include information systems security, service–oriented architecture, management of IT, web services.
*ITEC 6170 3.0 Information Visualization
This course focuses on the design, development, and study of interactive visualization techniques for the analysis, comprehension, exploration, and explanation of large collections of datasets. Topics to be covered include principles of visual perception, data and task abstractions, visual encodings of data, interaction methods, visual analytics, and evaluation techniques. Students will get hands-on experience through projects.
Elective Courses
Up to six credits of elective courses from other units may be taken in place of credits from the MAIST core, where appropriate to support students’ research or career specializations, and with permission of their supervisors and the Graduate Program Director.
