Close Menu

Required Core Courses for MSCS and MCS Students

There are three categories of core courses: Programming, Systems, and Theory. As part of satisfying coursework requirements, Master of Science in CS (MSCS) and Master of CS (MCS) students both must take at least one course in Programming and at least one in Systems. MCS students must take at least one course in Theory; MSCS students must take at least two courses in Theory.

A number of courses can be used simultaneously as core courses and specialization courses by MCS students who choose a specialization. Below, these specializations are marked CI (Computational Intelligence), CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems), DB (Database Systems), DCC (Distributed and Cloud Computing), ISA (Information Security and Assurance), NC (Networking and Communications), and SE (Software Engineering).

Note: Only courses taken from the IIT CS department can be used as core courses; CS courses transferred from other universities can be used only as electives.

Programming Core Courses

CS 511 Topics in Computer Graphics
CS 512 Computer Vision (CI)
CS 525 Advanced Database Organization (DB) (ISA)
CS 540 Syntactic Analysis of Programming Languages
CS 541 Topics in Compiler Construction
CS 546 Parallel and Distributed Processing
CS 551 Operating System Design and Implementation
CS 553 Cloud Computing (CPS, DB, DCC)

Systems Core Courses

CS 542 Computer Networks I: Fundamentals (NC)
CS 544 Computer Networks II: Network Services (NC)
CS 547 Wireless Networking (NC)
CS 550 Advanced Operating Systems (DCC)
CS 555 Analytic Models and Simulation of Computer Systems
CS 570 Advanced Computer Architecture
CS 586 Software Systems Architectures (SE)

Theory Core Courses

CS 530 Theory of Computation
CS 533 Computational Geometry
CS 535 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
CS 536 Science of Programming (SE)
CS 538 Combinatorial Optimization
CS 539 Game Theory: Algorithms and Applications

Last Modified 10/1/2013: CS 546 no longer in DB specialization 2012-12-28: Computer Networking and Telecommunications specialization renamed Networking and Communications; Information Systems specialization renamed Database Systems.