WELCOME TO COMPUTER SCIENCE

      Information regarding the Computer Science major pertains to current students only. Prospective students should be aware that the Computer Science curriculum is currently under review.

The Field of Computer Science

      Computer Science in today's world is broad-based, fast-paced, and crucial to the advancement of businesses, the sciences, and individuals. Computer scientists are increasingly being called upon to solve problems in almost every aspect of our lives. The computer science major at Lycoming College combines a firm grounding in the fundamental principles of computer science with an appreciation for its connection to other fields.

      The field of computer science is closely allied with mathematics and other sciences and has important applications in most disciplines. This is reflected in the variety of minors or second majors chosen by computer science students at Lycoming, which include mathematics, physics, biology, music, art, religion, economics, business, and psychology. Additionally, students majoring in other fields often find a minor in computer science to be beneficial to their career plans and/or their graduate
education.

The Lycoming Computer Science Curriculum

      The Lycoming computer science curriculum includes the study of computing machines, algorithms developed for them, programs that express these algorithms, and the structures and techniques for the effective use of these technologies. A firm understanding of the issues that are central to the discipline requires a combination of hands-on experience and rigorous consideration of theoretical principles. Our curriculum is designed to provide this combination through early exposure to programming as a problem-solving tool and the careful introduction of general principles of computing, once experience has prepared students for this next step.

       The curriculum recognizes that computer science, as a discipline, is application-neutral, but acknowledges that applications form much of the basis for both the research in the field and the industry that turns our ideas into products. Lycoming therefore teaches the foundations of computer science without specific emphasis on areas of application. However, students who wish to direct their studies toward a specific application area may do so through choice of minor, a second major, summer internships, independent study, or student research.

Lycoming Students Succeed

      Lycoming computer science graduates have an outstanding record of success after college. Last year, within four months of graduation, 100% of our graduates were either in graduate school or working in career positions that depended upon their education. Over the past several years, some of our students have gone on to graduate school at institutions such as Penn State, Cornell, and the University of Vermont, while others have entered the workforce and
are employed by firms as large
as Lockheed-Martin and as
small as local manufacturers
and/or service companies.