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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Master of Computer Science

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

Overview

Prepare for a new career with $100 off Coursera Plus
Gear up for jobs in high-demand fields: data analytics, digital marketing, and more.

Deepen your knowledge and boost your career with a degree from a top-5 Computer Science graduate program in the U.S.

The degree program is designed to be flexible and fast — you can earn your Master’s with 100% online courses in as little as 12 months, while applying your learning immediately to your job.

The Online MCS program requires 32 credit hours of graduate coursework, completed through eight graduate-level courses. The MCS requires that four of these eight courses are chosen from four different core areas of computer science, and that three of these eight courses are at the advanced graduate level (500-level). The Online MCS currently offers coursework in the core areas of artificial intelligence, databases, interactive computing, software engineering, scientific computing, and high-performance computing.

Syllabus

Build expertise and career skills in the most important computer science topics. Courses and projects cover subjects like:

Architecture, Compilers, and Parallel Computing

Learn parallel programming and how to achieve peak performance from multi-core CPU and many-core GPU architectures. Master languages, compilers, and libraries that are suited for various parallel applications and platforms.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Build your knowledge of the fundamental statistical models and numerical optimizations of machine learning, including deep learning, with applications in computer vision, natural language processing and intelligent user interaction.

Database and Information Systems

Learn the basics of database systems as well as data mining methods for extracting insight from structured datasets (e.g. for a sales recommendation system) as well as unstructured data (e.g. from natural language text).

Formal Methods, Programming Languages, and Software Engineering

Discover the fundamentals of software engineering, including function-based and object-oriented methods for analysis and design. Learn to manage a large software project from specification through implementation, testing, and maintenance. You‘ll also learn to manage large enterprise-level codebases.

Graphics, Visualization, and Interactive Computing

Learn the fundamentals of interactive computing that promote synergy between the computer and its user. The Data Visualization course, for example, shows how to present and manipulate data to communicate understanding and insight to the public.

Systems and Networking

Learn how to network computers into distributed systems and build a cloud computing platform or an Internet of Things. Understand how to create applications that utilize cloud resources with programming projects that utilize Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Scientific Computing

Discover the fundamentals of numerical analysis, and how it’s applied to scientific and engineering simulations, with applications ranging from creating video game worlds to virtual medicine.

When you graduate, you’ll be able to:

  • Apply mathematical foundations, algorithmic principles, and computer science theory to real-word problems
  • Analyze a problem and identify the computing requirements appropriate to its solution
  • Design, implement, and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or program
  • Apply design and development principles to construct software systems of varying complexity

Courses

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