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Master of Science in Information Technology Course Descriptions

Cybersecurity (Area of study) Data Management and Analytics (Area of study)
Health Information Technology (Area of study) Information Assurance (Area of study)
Network Management (Area of study) Software Engineering (Area of study)

Cybersecuritytop of page

CYB-521: Foundations of Utility Cybersecurity (3 credits)
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This course introduces foundational cybersecurity concepts applied to utilities as part of critical infrastructure. Topics covered include: fundamental security concepts and nomenclature; types of utility networks and systems including information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), such as industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA); risk management concepts; the pairing of threats to defensive countermeasures; introduction to applicable standards and control frameworks; and presenting cybersecurity plans to decision makers. This course lays the foundation for the graduate certificate. It is recommended that this course be taken first.
CYB-522: Cybersecurity Risk Management in Utility Environments (3 credits)
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In this course, students will learn how to identify applicable cybersecurity risk mitigation models and apply them in an organizational context. They will develop the knowledge and skills needed to make recommendations related to the choice of risk mitigation security controls and to provide oversight for the implementation of those controls within information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems. This course will give students the tools to develop risk models that reflect the organization's unique governance structure and corporate culture. Using risk analyses that are predicated upon a holistic risk picture (business, environment, compliance, etc.) of the organization, students will learn how to articulate and defend risk allocation recommendations to accept, transfer, mitigate, or ignore risk, and to communicate cybersecurity risks to peers and senior management in both IT and OT. This course will also expose students to relevant international utility-related cybersecurity regulations, standards, and guidelines.
CYB-523: Protective Security Controls in Utility Systems and Networks (3 credits)
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In this course students will learn how to identify, develop, and apply security controls in utility information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments with a focus on protective security controls. These controls are implemented to mitigate inherent risks and reduce the chances of utility systems being compromised. Such controls include identity and access management, awareness and training, asset management, secure network architecture and segmentation, secure coding practices, personnel security, and physical security. Students will use risk-based frameworks, regulations, standards, best practices, and security control catalogs to identify and select applicable protective controls in utility environments.
CYB-524: Monitoring, Detection, Response, and Recovery in Utility Environments (3 credits)
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The students will learn methods and techniques for monitoring information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments. Along with developing an expertise in system monitoring techniques, students will learn methods for detecting compromise and develop strategies for effectively responding to and recovering from compromise. Students will learn methods and techniques such as network baselining, perimeter and internal monitoring and defense, situational awareness, intrusion detection, detecting exploits, "kill chain" management, event analysis and correlation, incident response, evidence collection and preservation, and system recovery and restoration.
CYB-525: Integrating Cybersecurity into the System Life Cycle (3 credits)
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This course focuses on integrating security into the entire system and solution life cycle. Topics include system planning, architecture, design, acquisition, development, implementation/operation, sustainment, and disposal. Students will learn the importance of ensuring that security practices are identified and integrated into utility networks and systems projects. In addition, this course will help students develop knowledge and skills needed for integrating security requirements into technology acquisitions and identifying and managing supply chain risks across life cycle. Using case studies, students will apply concepts learned throughout the program to solve real-world utility and network system security challenges.

Data Management and Analyticstop of page

DTM-531: Advanced Database Systems (3 credits)
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This course covers advanced database management system design principles and techniques. Course topics include access methods, query processing and optimization, transaction processing, distributed databases, object-oriented and object-relational databases, semi-structured data, search engines, transaction management, advanced indexing, multidimensional data, performance evaluation, advanced structured query language (SQL), and database tuning. Students learn about the advanced object-relational features such as binary large objects (BLOBs), abstract data types, and methods. In addition, students learn about database programming including the use of triggers and stored procedures.
DTM-532: Data Warehouse Design (3 credits)
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Corporate data is used to make strategic business decisions. Business intelligence (BI) is used to present data in such a way as to help businesses survive in a competitive market. A data warehouse (DW) is a read-only analytical database that is used as the foundation for BI systems and is designed to consolidate data from the various data stores supported by an organization. This course will focus on the design and technical aspects of building a data warehouse. The topics covered will include the data warehousing life cycle, data warehouse architectures, system planning, warehouse requirements gathering, schema development, warehouse design, and other implementation issues.
DTM-533: Data Analytics (3 credits)
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Data Analytics refers to the use of analysis techniques and processes to enhance productivity and business gains. Analytics is a multidimensional discipline that uses mathematics and statistics, descriptive techniques as well as predictive models to extract and present valuable knowledge from data stores. Organizations use analytics to process business data in an effort to describe, predict, and improve business performance. In this course, students will develop the knowledge and skills needed to extract and categorize data and to identify and analyze behavioral data and patterns using methodologies and techniques tailored to meet organizational requirements. Students will learn to apply frameworks for information optimization, visual analytics, data discovery, predictive analytics, and right-time and real-time analytics.
DTM-534: Information Retrieval (3 credits)
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This course explores the theories and methods used to search and retrieve text and bibliographic information from document repositories. Information retrieval focuses on the analysis of relevance and utility of information. The course will explore data organization and representation, and information access techniques; categorization, content analysis, data structures used for unstructured data, indexing and indexes, clustering and classification methodologies; search and navigation techniques; and search engines. In this course, students will learn to use statistical and linguistic methods for automatic indexing and classification, Boolean and probabilistic approaches to indexing, query formulation, and output ranking. In addition, students will learn to develop and analyze various data filtering methods, measures of retrieval effectiveness, and retrieval methodologies.
DTM-535: Data Mining and Knowledge Management (3 credits)
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This course will serve to introduce students to data mining and knowledge management. Data mining (DM) is concerned with the discovery of "hidden" knowledge in large data sets. This knowledge represents one aspect of an organization's intellectual capital and is often expressed in the form of trends or major themes that reoccur in the data. Knowledge management (KM) systems are designed to exploit the results of data mining and facilitate the analysis and evaluation of both tangible and intangible knowledge assets. In this course students will explore data mining methods used for prediction and knowledge discovery. These methods include regression, nearest neighbor, clustering, K-means, decision trees, association rules, and neural networks. In addition, students will become familiar with the current theories, practices, tools, and techniques used to management knowledge assets.

Health Information Technology top of page

HIT-541: Foundations in Health Informatics (3 credits)
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This course combines diverse disciplines such as information technology (IT), information science, social science, management science, behavioral science, communications, and healthcare to improve the quality and safety of patient care. Informatics is "the science, the how and why, behind health IT," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The tools used in health informatics include computer systems, clinical guidelines, health nomenclature, and information and communication systems. It is applicable to various health-related domains including public health, nursing, dentistry, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and biomedical research. In this course, students will learn to collect, store, analyze, and present health-related data in a digital format and to improve health outcomes by applying informatics concepts, theories, and practices to real-world situations.
HIT-542: Clinical Informatics (3 credits)
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Clinical informatics (operational informatics) is the application of informatics and information technology to deliver healthcare services. It is the study and use of data and information technology aimed at improving the patient's ability to monitor and maintain his/her own health. The application of clinical informatics includes various aspects including clinical decision support, visual imaging, clinical documentation, healthcare provider order entry systems, system design and implementation, and user adoption issues. The data and clinical decision support used in this field are developed for and used by clinicians, patients, and caregivers. This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure the optimal functionality of present and future informatics systems by providing opportunities for them to design, build, and test clinical information systems that address real-world problems. Students will learn to identify clinical practice workflow and process issues, and to provide leadership and guidance in the definition of system and process requirements that will serve to optimize system performance and facilitate technology utilization by clinical practitioners.
HIT-543: Electronic Health Records Management (3 credits)
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Electronic health records (EHRs) capture patients' health information, such as medical history, allergies, laboratory test results, radiology images, and payment in an electronic form that enables clinicians and other providers to access and share the information across medical specialties or facilities. Electronic health records are composed of many separate systems that function together to capture, create, share, maintain, and store an accurate and complete patient health record. Students in this course will learn the various systems, applications, standards, and specifications that must be in place in order to meet the goal of true interoperability. This course prepares students to understand and use electronic records in a medical setting. It introduces students to current frameworks for the implementation and management of electronic health information using common electronic data interchange systems. Students will develop the skills and knowledge needed to address the medical, legal, sanction, and regulatory requirements of electronic health records systems.
HIT-544: Telehealth Systems (3 credits)
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Telehealth refers to the actual delivery of remote clinical services using information technology. It makes use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support off-premise clinical healthcare, patient and professional health-related education, public health management, and health administration. The technologies used in telehealth include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications. Applications of telehealth run the gamut from something as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone to a surgeon conducting remote robotic surgery at a medical institution on a different continent. Telehealth changes the location where healthcare services are routinely provided and includes preventative, maintenance, and curative features. Students in the course will develop the skills and knowledge needed to design and implement fully functional telehealth solutions.
HIT-545: Legal, Ethical, and Social Issues in Health Informatics (3 credits)
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Notwithstanding the potential for electronic health records to revolutionize healthcare, significant complex legal, ethical, and financial questions related to their use serve to impede their widespread adoption. Legal and ethical issues surrounding ownership, economics, privacy, data security, the use (or misuse) of decision support systems, and accountability as well as regulatory compliance are central to the debate surrounding health informatics. All these issues affect the requirements, design, implementation, and evolution of these systems. In this course, students will learn to develop solutions that address key legal and ethical challenges germane to health informatics.

Information Assurance top of page

IAS-551: Foundations of Information Assurance (3 credits)
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Information assurance (IA) is concerned with protecting the reliability of information and managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information or data. It includes securing the systems and processes that house and manipulate the data as well. IA includes protection of the integrity, availability, authenticity, nonrepudiation, and confidentiality of organizational data. IA practitioners use physical, technical, and administrative controls to accomplish these tasks. These protections apply to data in transit, both physical and electronic forms as well as data at rest in various types of physical and electronic storage facilities. Information assurance as a field has grown from the practice of information security. As opposed to information security and cybersecurity, IA relates more to the business value and strategic risk management of information and related organizational systems, rather than focusing on the creation and application of security controls. In this course students will learn to defend against malicious attacks while considering corporate governance issues such as privacy, regulatory and standards compliance, auditing, business continuity, and disaster recovery as they relate to an organization's information assets.
IAS-552: Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Attacks (3 credits)
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The impact of a security breach can be devastating to any organization. Information technology (IT) practitioners must have the skills to identify and address system vulnerabilities including weaknesses related to hardware, software, interrelated systems, and personnel. In this course, students will explore current and potential threats to information assets and will develop a comprehensive awareness of prevailing trends in malicious attacks. This course will provide students with the skills and knowledge needed to secure organizational resources and to develop effective methods to detect and monitor internal and external malicious activity. Topics covered in this course include: passive and active attacks, technology audits, physical security, computer security policies, contingency planning, business impact analysis, password management, information warfare, intrusion detection, risk assessment and auditing, operational security, permissions and user rights, service patches, securing network services, and security baseline analyzers. Students will learn to identify threat vectors and to develop strategies for implementing a prioritized, risk-based approach to mitigating security.
IAS-553: Countermeasures Design and Implementation (3 credits)
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A countermeasure in computer security is any action, device, procedure, or method that can be used to mitigate a threat, vulnerability, or attack by either eliminating it, preventing it, minimizing its effect, or by discovering and reporting it so that corrective action can be taken in the future. In this course students will learn the principles of active defense. They will develop the skills and knowledge needed to design and implement multilayered (defense in depth) security strategies as well as expertise in using tools to harden and secure networks and organizational assets. Course topics include: threat vectors; data encapsulation at Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) layers 2, 3, 4, and 5; packet decoding; network firewalls; intrusion prevention; network address translation (NAT); access control lists (ACLs); virtual private networks (VPNs); virtual local area networks (VLANs); proxies; border routers; web application, and database security; securing the operating system (OS) and services; vulnerability assessment; baseline audits; forensics; logging; encryption; authentication; wireless security; and network access control and security tools.
IAS-554: Policies and Procedures Development and Implementation (3 credits)
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Information technology professionals, whether in the public or private sector, must ensure that their information systems comply with privacy and security laws, regulations, directives, and any organizational policies, procedures, and guidelines. This challenge can be a daunting task and confronts both public and private organizations alike. To meet this charge, they develop and implement security policies and procedures that explicitly define the organization's security protocols. Security policies are custom-created, dynamic standards of business conduct. While the best practices of the information security field form the basis of any security policy, each organization has unique requirements that shape policies used to manage security. Students in this course will develop the skills and knowledge needed to access the security posture of an organization and then apply the information gathered during this assessment to inform stakeholders about the challenges inherent to their unique information assurance landscape. They will learn to develop processes and define policies that achieve the targeted level of security for an organization based on the level of risk mitigation required. With respect to securing networks and systems people are often the weakest link. To address this challenge, students in this course will learn to develop policies and best practices for members of technology groups as well as for system users. Students will develop training documentation for management, technical, and user populations that exposes them to the policies and processes required to secure information technology and to align these with the business objectives of the organization.
IAS-555: Computer Forensics and Information Systems Auditing (3 credits)
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Computers are increasingly used to commit crimes and evidence of these crimes is often recorded on those computers. Computer forensics is the application of computer investigation and analysis techniques to the process of discovering and preserving potential legal evidence. Systems auditing is concerned with ensuring that adequate security controls are in place to prevent or at least discover fraud or other misuse of information technology (IT) resources. Legal evidence might be sought in a wide range of computer crimes or misuse. and students in this course will develop an understanding of forensic and auditing and will develop the skills needed for discovering and preventing theft of trade secrets, theft of or destruction of intellectual property. and fraud. They will learn how to recover deleted, encrypted, or damaged file information and to plan and execute audits of security and other related IT procedures. This course is intended to provide a foundation in computer forensics and auditing, and provide hands-on practice in applying forensic and auditing techniques.

Network Managementtop of page

NET-561: Designing Large-Scale Systems: Routing, Switching, and Broadband (3 credits)
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This course explores the local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), broadband technologies, and network protocols needed to design and implement converged switched networks in an enterprise environment. In this course, students are introduced to integrated network services and learn how to select the appropriate systems and technologies to meet the technical requirements of large complex networks. Students learn how to implement and configure common network protocols and how to apply network design best practices, access control methodologies, and basic security frameworks. In addition, students will learn how to detect, troubleshoot, and correct common enterprise network implementation issues.
NET-562: Wireless and Mobile Networks (3 credits)
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Wireless networking is a framework for using radio signals to transmit data between various devices and systems. A mobile network or cellular network is a wireless network designed to use radio signals for data over a wide geographic area. Telecommunications companies have installed cellular voice and data networks over most of the populated areas of the planet thus allowing mobile phones and other wireless devices to be connected to the public switched telephone network and public internet from almost anywhere on the globe. In this course students will explore the design and implementation of wireless and mobile networks. Topics covered include: Bluetooth, induction wireless, infrared wireless (IrDA), ultra wideband (UWB), microwave, Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS), FSO (free space optics), Wi-Fi, WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), satellite, cellular networks, Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), 3G and 4G (third and fourth generation mobile network), wireless and mobile security, global area networks (GAN), and sensor networks.
NET-563: Pervasive and Cloud Computing (3 credits)
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The goal of pervasive computing, which combines network technologies with wireless computing, voice recognition, internet capability, and artificial intelligence, is to create an environment where the connectivity of devices is embedded in such a way that it is unobtrusive and always active. Pervasive computing goes beyond the realm of personal computers or the internet. At its core is the notion that almost any device, be it clothing or tools or appliances or a body or a toothbrush, can be embedded with chips that connect the device to a vast network of other devices. Cloud computing, on the other hand, focuses on the use of shared resources to achieve computational coherence and economies of scale. Similar to utility computing and edge computing, cloud computing has at its core the management of a converged infrastructure and shared services. In this course students will explore the various computing models, operational frameworks, and technologies that are used to implement pervasive and cloud systems. Topics will include: personal area network (PAN), distributed computing, grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, cloud characteristics, cloud service models, cloud deployment models (public, private, hybrid, federated, reservoir), architectures, cloud security, and fog computing (federated cloud).
NET-564: Large-Scale Network Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (3 credits)
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Network operations centers (NOC) are the command and control hubs used to manage network resources in large networks. NOC personnel are concerned with the operation, administration, and maintenance of these systems. Operation pertains to keeping the network up and running efficiently. This includes monitoring the network to identify and resolve issues as soon as possible. Administration involves keeping track of resources in the network and how they are allocated. It includes all the day-to-day detail work needed to control the network. Maintenance is concerned with performing repairs and upgrades as well as corrective and preventive measures to make the managed network operate more efficiently. In this course, students will develop the knowledge and skills in network management to allow them to control, plan, allocate, deploy, coordinate, and monitor network resources. Topics include network planning, frequency allocation, predetermined traffic routing to support load balancing, cryptographic key distribution authorization, configuration management, fault management, security management, performance management, bandwidth management, route analytics, and accounting management.
NET-565: Network Security (3 credits)
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This course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to implement and manage the security measures required to protect computer resources from unauthorized access or attack. This course focuses on the design and implementation of network security and is designed to provide students with the technical expertise needed to protect enterprise information and computing assets connected to the internet. Topics include: threat vectors; encapsulation at Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers 2, 3, 4, and 5; packet decoding; static filters; stateful filters; stateful inspection; intrusion detection and prevention; Network Address Translation (NAT); access control lists (ACLs); virtual private networks (VPNs); proxies; border routers; firewall rule bases; web application and database firewalls; securing the operating system (OS) and services; firewall assessment; vulnerability assessment; baseline audits; forensics; logging; encryption; authentication; wireless; and network access control and security tools.

Software Engineeringtop of page

SWT-571: Software Design and Architecture (3 credits)
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This course provides students with a solid foundation in software engineering and develops their knowledge and skills related to contemporary software development processes, methods, and practices. The goal of this course is to develop the student's ability to understand, design, develop, and implement complex programs using current architectural frameworks and design methodologies. In this course students will develop the expertise to reason about programs of moderate size. Topics include the software development life cycle, requirements engineering, modeling, software testing, and quality assurance. Additional topics, include: design patterns, modularity, code reuse, application program interface (API) design, assertions, invariants, separation of concerns, programming patterns, debugging, profiling, asynchronous programming, event-driven programming, metaprogramming, and graphical user interfaces (GUI). Students in the course will work in teams to develop fairly large projects that include a project plan, formal specifications, design artifacts, program documentation, and a fully functional software system.
SWT-572: Software Modeling and Analysis (3 credits)
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This course focuses on software development models that are used to develop, validate, verify, and analyze software systems. Students will develop knowledge and skills in software verification and validation as well as expertise in data and process modeling. Various software modeling frameworks will be covered in this course and students will learn to apply them to the design and development of software artifacts. They will learn to use software verification tools and techniques to ensure that a software system has been built according to the requirements and design specifications defined in the model. Students will also use software validation frameworks to test whether the software actually meets the user's needs and that the initial specifications were correct. Topics in this course include development life-cycle models, modeling languages, software design templates, system documentation, software verification frameworks, and software validation methodologies.
SWT-573: Secure Software Design and Development (3 credits)
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Software security is concerned with ensuring that software processes are designed to prevent data and computing resources from becoming lost, unreliable, altered, inaccessible, or corrupt. In this course, students will learn how to identify, categorize, and prioritize the information and other resources used by software systems and to develop security requirements for the processes that access the data. Students will learn to develop strategies that mitigate security vulnerabilities caused by either nonconformance to software requirements or omissions caused by incorrect requirements. In this course, students will learn to perform software security evaluations; establish security requirements; develop guidelines for security that are applied during the software design, operations, and maintenance processes; evaluate security requirements during software reviews and audits; develop a configuration and process management policy that addresses corrective action for existing software; monitor software modifications to ensure that any changes do not unintentionally create security violations or software vulnerabilities; and develop plans for the physical security of the software.
SWT-574: Software Product Development and Quality Management (3 credits)
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The software development process focuses on software production concerns and not the technical issues related to software development such as the selection and use of software tools. This process exists to support the management of software development and is generally more focused on addressing business concerns associated with managing software. In this course students will learn about software development processes and will acquire the knowledge and skills required to manage the development of large, complex software projects. Students will learn to apply product development life-cycle methodologies and to develop strategies for managing product introduction, growth, maturity, and decline phases. In addition, students will learn about various quality management processes including requirements, testing, configuration, change, defect, risk, improvement, safety, and release management. Project planning, monitoring, and control as they apply to software development and management will also be covered in this course.
SWT-575: Software Systems Integration (3 credits)
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This course is concerned with combining individually tested software components into an integrated whole. Software is considered integrated when individual components are combined to form subsystems or when subsystems are joined to form products. Integration can be implemented as a discrete step near the completion of the software development life cycle or incrementally as software components and subsystems are developed. In this course, students will learn various software system integration strategies and frameworks. Students will explore the role of application programming interfaces (API), core assets and product lines, interface languages, wrappers, middleware, and system generators. In addition, students will explore barriers and risks associated with software system integration including component granularity and variability, complexity, risk, and cost.