Caulfield campus
Course code: 0366
Course leader: Ms Sita Ramakrishnan
The course is offered to those who have an existing tertiary qualification in computing or data processing or equivalent work experience and who wish to further their knowledge of computing. It requires the study of eight semester-length subjects. Completion of the course with a high level of achievement may be counted as completion of a masters preliminary program.
The course aims to present the state of the art in commercial computing and address specialised areas in depth by coursework. On completion of the course, graduates should be able to contribute at a higher level to the work at their place of employment, increase their contribution to the profession, and perhaps continue to further advanced study and research in the field.
The course is normally offered as a two-year part-time course conducted over four consecutive academic semesters, or as a one-year full-time course conducted over two consecutive academic semesters.
The normal entry requirement is a recognised degree or graduate qualification in computing or a related discipline.
Consideration may be given to an applicant who has a relevant diploma plus work experience, or who has relevant professional qualifications and experience and is occupying a high-level position in industry. Applicants without a formal computing qualification but with substantial industry experience, may also qualify for admission.
In 1998 the course fee is $8000 or $1000 per subject.
A student will be required to complete eight coursework subjects. The major streams of study available are information technology, programming, distributed systems, systems programming and object-oriented software engineering. A student may major in a particular area by choice of appropriate subjects, or obtain a general knowledge of advanced computing.
A summary of the intent of each of the major streams is presented below. Note that the streams are given for guidance only, and each student follows an individual course of study.
This stream studies the storage and retrieval of information with particular emphasis on databases. The major topic areas are the structuring of data, data models and database architecture, with emphasis on relational DBMS; end-user facilities including database query languages; database administration including the role of data dictionary/directory systems and distributed databases; future directions of data models and database architectures and facilities; deductive and object-oriented database systems.
The aim of this stream is to present the state-of-the-art in the programming area. The major topic areas include a review of the latest programming techniques with emphasis on using advanced abstraction concepts; current trends, such as logic programming, object-oriented programming, syntax-directed programming, and rule-based programming; techniques used to control large software development.
The major aim of this stream is to develop an understanding of the impact of data communication and distributed systems on systems design. The major topic areas include packetswitching, digital data and local area networks; communication protocols; distributed systems.
The major aim of this stream is to develop an understanding of the programming function at the operating systems services level and an appreciation of the conflicting demands for finite resources that must be resolved in a systems programming environment. The major topic areas include software architecture, interlanguage communication, communicating sequential processes and the management of risk and system security.
The major aim of this stream is to develop an understanding of object-oriented methods and techniques for building large-scale software systems.