Department of Computer Science

1
Dr. Arthur D. Chtcherba

• Department of Computer Science
• The University of Texas-Pan American

2
UTPA Points of Excellence

• 10th largest university in Texas
• Ranked 2nd best college in U.S. for Hispanics
• Most Hispanic faculty in Texas
• Educates most Mexican-Americans in nation
• Poised to become the premiere research
  institution for South Texas Northern Mexico

3
Outline

• UTPA
• Opportunities for Computer Science Students
• Financial Assistantships
• Dept. of Computer Science _at_ UTPA
• Faculty
• My Research Interests
• Other Faculty interest
• Other Projects _at_ CS UTPA

4
University Profile

• History 1927-present
• Status Comprehensive University
• Affiliation UT System (since 1989)
• Organization Six Colleges
• Degrees 56 bachelors, 42 masters
  and 2 doctoral programs
• Enrollment 15,889 (Fall 2003)
• Serving the South
• Hidalgo County
• Rio Grande Valley
• South Texas
• Northern Mexico

5
Academic Colleges and programs

• Arts, Communication, English, History and
  Philosophy,
• Modern Languages and Literature, and Music

Accounting and Business Law, Computer
Information Systems Quantitative Methods,
Economics and Finance, and Management, Marketing
and International Business
Curriculum and Instruction, Education of
Psychology, Health and Kinesiology, and
Educational Leadership
6
Academic Colleges and programs
Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Communication
Sciences Disorders, Coordinated Program in
Dietetics, Nursing, Occupational Therapy Program,
Physician Assistant Studies, Rehabilitative
Services Program, Social Work, and Cooperative
Pharmacy Program.
Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics and
Geology, and the School of Engineering
Computer Science
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
Manufacturing Engineering, and Mechanical
Engineering.
7
Computer Science Department

• 324 Undergraduate students
• 73 Graduate students
• 12 Faculty (1 new next year)
• 3 Staff
• 86 Hispanic students
• 15 female students

8
Computer Science Degree programs

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS)
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS) as
  a broad-field major ABET/CAC Accredited must
  complete the University General Education and a
  computer science core no minor is required for
  the degree.
• Bachelor of Science (BS)
• Bachelor of Science (BS) with major in computer
  science must complete the University General
  Education, a computer science core, and the
  requirements for a related minor.

9
Computer Science Degree Programs
New Undergraduate Courses in Computer
Science October 10, 2003 CSCIUndergradCourseDescr
iptionNew10102003Approved Final Version  
Year I Foundations of Computing.
Year II Foundations of Computer Systems.
Year III Theory and Practices of Computing.
Year IV In-depth Study in Computing and
Integration (Electives).
4325 Automata, Formal Languages and Computability
3 - 0
The course presents formal computation models.
Topics include finite state machine, pushdown
state machine, Turing machine, halting problem,
definition and properties of formal grammars and
their languages as well as theory of
computability and complexity including the
complexity of optimization and approximation
problems. Prerequisite CSCI 3336 or consent of
instructor.
 
 
4327 Compiler Construction 3 - 0
Syntax analysis and semantic processing for a
block-structured language. Compilation vs.
interpretation lexical analysis based on finite
automata syntax-directed translation symbol
tables run-time storage allocation error
detection and recovery code generation and
optimization. Students are required to write a
compiler. Prerequisite CSCI 3336 or consent of
the instructor.
 
 
CSCI 4310 Design and Analysis of Algorithms 3-0
The course presents elements of the design and
analysis of computer algorithms. Topics include
in-depth study of algorithms design strategies
such as dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer,
and greedy methods algorithms for graph problems
geometric problems and other selected problems
and computational complexity. Prerequisite CSCI
3333 or consent of the instructor.
    CSCI 2344 Programming in the UNIX/Linux
Environment 3-0 The course presents the UNIX
file system, the commonly used utilities,
editors, shell programming, and scripting. It
includes instruction in software development in
the UNIX /Linux environment. In addition, a
brief overview of the internal components of the
operating system will be covered. Prerequisites
CSCI 1380 or CSCI 1387, or consent of
instructor   CSCI 3334 Systems Programming
3-0 This course covers the design and
implementation of system software. It
investigates the relationship between software
design and machine architecture. Topics include
assemblers, linkers and loaders, macro
processors, and compilers. A large project is
required. Prerequisites CSCI 2333 and CSCI
2344   CSCI 3344 UNIX/Linux Operating Systems
3-0 (NOTE Changed number from CSCI
3330) This course provides a detailed study of
operating system principles as seen in the
UNIX/Linux system kernel including
initialization, scheduling, context switching,
process management, memory management, device
management, and the file system. A student may
receive credit in only one of the courses CSCI
3344 and CSCI 4334. Prerequisites CSCI 3333 and
CSCI 3334   CSCI 4334 Operating Systems
3-0 This course provides a study of the basic
concepts of operating systems process
management, memory management, file systems,
resource allocation, and protection. A student
may receive credit in only one of the courses
CSCI 3344 and CSCI 4334. Prerequisites CSCI 3333
and CSCI 3334   CSCI 4346 Advanced Operating
Systems 3-0 This course provides a survey of
the design and implementation of distributed
operating systems, both by introducing basic
concepts and considering examples of current
systems. Topics include communication,
synchronization, processor allocation, and
distributed file systems. Prerequisites CSCI
3344 or CSCI 4334 or consent of the
instructor   CSCI 3350 Numerical Methods
3-0 This course studies the numerical solutions
to various problems occurring in engineering, the
sciences, and mathematics. These problems
include finding solutions to nonlinear equations,
solutions to linear and nonlinear systems of
equations, interpolation of data, approximation
of functions, numerical integration, and
solutions to differential equations. It also
studies the influence of data representation and
computer architecture on the choice and
development of algorithms. Equivalent course
MATH 3368 a student may receive credit in only
one course. Prerequisites MATH 1401 with a
grade of C or better CSCI 1380, CSCI 1387,
CSCI 2320 or CSCI 2325 or consent of the
instructor.   ___________   /CSCIUndergradCourseDe
scriptionsNew100102003Approved
10
Computer Science Degree Programs
New Undergraduate Courses in Computer
Science October 10, 2003 CSCIUndergradCourseDescr
iptionNew10102003Approved Final Version  
Year I Foundations of Computing Year II
Foundations of Computer Systems Year III
Theory and Practices of Computing Year
IV In-depth Study in Computing and Integration
(Electives)
Programming Languages CSCI 1380, 1381 and 2380
Computer Organization, Data Structures
Algorithms, Unix/Linux Programming Environments,
Systems Programming
Organization of Programming Languages, Internet
Programming,
Unix/Linux Operating Systems, Software
Engineering,
Computer Networks, Database Design
Implementation
Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence,
Compiler Construction,
Computer Networks Security, Parallel
Distributed Computing,
Computer Visualization, Web-based Applications
Development,
Multimedia Systems, Digital Image Processing,
Senior Project (developing a software product
a capstone course)
4325 Automata, Formal Languages and Computability
3 - 0
The course presents formal computation models.
Topics include finite state machine, pushdown
state machine, Turing machine, halting problem,
definition and properties of formal grammars and
their languages as well as theory of
computability and complexity including the
complexity of optimization and approximation
problems. Prerequisite CSCI 3336 or consent of
instructor.
 
 
4327 Compiler Construction 3 - 0
Syntax analysis and semantic processing for a
block-structured language. Compilation vs.
interpretation lexical analysis based on finite
automata syntax-directed translation symbol
tables run-time storage allocation error
detection and recovery code generation and
optimization. Students are required to write a
compiler. Prerequisite CSCI 3336 or consent of
the instructor.
 
 
CSCI 4310 Design and Analysis of Algorithms 3-0
The course presents elements of the design and
analysis of computer algorithms. Topics include
in-depth study of algorithms design strategies
such as dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer,
and greedy methods algorithms for graph problems
geometric problems and other selected problems
and computational complexity. Prerequisite CSCI
3333 or consent of the instructor.
    CSCI 2344 Programming in the UNIX/Linux
Environment 3-0 The course presents the UNIX
file system, the commonly used utilities,
editors, shell programming, and scripting. It
includes instruction in software development in
the UNIX /Linux environment. In addition, a
brief overview of the internal components of the
operating system will be covered. Prerequisites
CSCI 1380 or CSCI 1387, or consent of
instructor   CSCI 3334 Systems Programming
3-0 This course covers the design and
implementation of system software. It
investigates the relationship between software
design and machine architecture. Topics include
assemblers, linkers and loaders, macro
processors, and compilers. A large project is
required. Prerequisites CSCI 2333 and CSCI
2344   CSCI 3344 UNIX/Linux Operating Systems
3-0 (NOTE Changed number from CSCI
3330) This course provides a detailed study of
operating system principles as seen in the
UNIX/Linux system kernel including
initialization, scheduling, context switching,
process management, memory management, device
management, and the file system. A student may
receive credit in only one of the courses CSCI
3344 and CSCI 4334. Prerequisites CSCI 3333 and
CSCI 3334   CSCI 4334 Operating Systems
3-0 This course provides a study of the basic
concepts of operating systems process
management, memory management, file systems,
resource allocation, and protection. A student
may receive credit in only one of the courses
CSCI 3344 and CSCI 4334. Prerequisites CSCI 3333
and CSCI 3334   CSCI 4346 Advanced Operating
Systems 3-0 This course provides a survey of
the design and implementation of distributed
operating systems, both by introducing basic
concepts and considering examples of current
systems. Topics include communication,
synchronization, processor allocation, and
distributed file systems. Prerequisites CSCI
3344 or CSCI 4334 or consent of the
instructor   CSCI 3350 Numerical Methods
3-0 This course studies the numerical solutions
to various problems occurring in engineering, the
sciences, and mathematics. These problems
include finding solutions to nonlinear equations,
solutions to linear and nonlinear systems of
equations, interpolation of data, approximation
of functions, numerical integration, and
solutions to differential equations. It also
studies the influence of data representation and
computer architecture on the choice and
development of algorithms. Equivalent course
MATH 3368 a student may receive credit in only
one course. Prerequisites MATH 1401 with a
grade of C or better CSCI 1380, CSCI 1387,
CSCI 2320 or CSCI 2325 or consent of the
instructor.   ___________   /CSCIUndergradCourseDe
scriptionsNew100102003Approved
11
Computer Science Degree programs

• Master of Science in Computer Science (MS)
• Master of Science in Information Technology
  (MSIT)
• Both degrees require to complete 36 semester
• hours, which include lecture and seminar courses,
• elective courses, and masters thesis or project.

12
Computer Science Degree Programs Transfer
Students

• The Computer Science Department offers a 128 hour
  
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS)
  or
• Bachelor of Science (BS) with Major in Computer
  Science (minor required)
• General Education Requirements 48 hours
• Computer Science Core Courses 27 hours
• Mathematics/Engineering 21 hours (BSCS)
• 9-11
  hours (BS)
• Communications/English 6 hours
• Lab Science 4 hours (BSCS)
• Other Electives 6-12 hours (BSCS)
• Minor 18-24 hours (BS)
• Designed Computer Science Electives 21 hours
  (BSCS)
• 
  15 hours (BS)

13
Financial Assistance

• The are several sources of undergraduate student
  aid
• employment at the university,
• placement in part-time jobs off campus,
• scholarships,
• federal and state grants and
• federal loan funds.

• State Waivers
• Early High School Graduation Scholarship
  Program
• Valedictorian Tuition Waiver
• Aid to Families with Dependent Children
  Program
• Certificate Educational Aide Exemption

• Grants
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal Supplemental Educational
  Opportunity
• Texas Public Educational Grant
• Texas Grant
• Federal Work-Study Program

• Scholarships
• Various sources from business and industry,
  including Bank of America, Boeing, Xerox,
  Wal-Mart, HEB, IBM, Microsoft,
• University Scholars Program
• Fellowships
• Tuition Waivers

• Loans
• Federal Perkins Loan
• Federal Family Educational Loan Program
• College Short-Term Loans
• Emergency Tuition and Fee Loans

14
Financial Assistantships

• Scholarships from
• Xerox,
• Boeing,
• Microsoft,
• Bank of America,
• Wal-Mart,
• HEB,
• Alumni,
• 10 Teaching assistantships
• 5 Research assistantships
• Internships
• Computer industries including IBM, Xerox,
  Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Gateway, SBC, Time
  Warner,
• Defense industries, including Boeing, Raytheon,
  Lockheed-Martin, NASA,

15
Computer Science DepartmentEmployment for Our
Graduates

• Computer industries including IBM, Xerox,
  Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Hewlett
  Packard, SYSCO,
• Communications industries including ATT, SBC,
  Lucent Technologies, Time Warner, MCI, WorldCom,
  Motorola, One Touch Systems,
• Defense industries, including Boeing, Raytheon,
  Lockheed-Martin, Texas Instruments, General
  Motors,
• Banking industries, including Texas State Bank,
  Wells Fargo, International Back of Commerce, Lone
  Star National Bank

16
Computer Science DepartmentEmployment for Our
Graduates

• Financial institutions including USAA, Merrill
  Lynch,
• Government agencies including USDA, Army, Air
  Force, Navy, CIA, FBI, NASA,
• Airlines industries including American Airlines,
  United Airlines,
• Packaging delivery industries including FedEx,
  UPS,
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing industries including
  Johnson Johnson,
• Oil industries including Exxon-Mobil, Texaco,
  Chevron, Shell,
• Other industries including Wal-Mart, HEB,

17
Employment Positions with Average Salary with
Bonus at Entry Level for CS GraduatesCOMPUTERWORL
D 14th Annual Salary Survey, 2003
Job Competency and Skill Set

• Basic Programming Skills, C, C, Java, Visual
  Basic,
• Systems Programming, Operating Systems
• Internet Programming, Programming in Unix/Linux
  Environment
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Database Management Systems Oracle, Sybase, DBL,
  ,
• Database Design, Development, Administrator,
• Information Security and Assurance
• E-commerce and Information Networking
• Software Testing, Verification and Certification
• Processes Automation
• Finance, Accounting, Economic, Marketing and
  Management
• Technical Writing Skills, Group Communications
  Skills,

18
Employment Positions with Average Salary with
Bonus at Entry Level for CS Graduates COMPUTERWORL
D 14th Annual Salary Survey, 2003

• Network Administrator (52,7354,277)
• E-commerce Network Administrator (58,7415,446)
• Information Security Specialist (62,0134,268)
• System analyst/Administrator (57,7665,194)
• Senior System Programmer (63,7325,293)
• Senior Programmer (54,383 5,039)
• Senior Programmer/Analyst (61,8035,049)
• Programmer/Analyst (51,6234,663)
• Database Analyst (60,9194,800)

http//www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/
story/0,10801,49353,00.html
19
Computer Science DepartmentEmployment/Position/Sa
laryfor Our Graduates

• IBM, Software Engineer, 92,000
• IBM, Software Engineer, 70,000
• Intel, Engineer, 68,000
• Xerox, Technical Support, 60,000
• Motorola, Programmer Analyst, 56,000
• Exxon-Mobil, Engineer, 65,000
• Exxon-Mobil, Software Engineer, 58,000
• CIA, Officer, 58,000
• SYSCO, Sales, 70,000

20
University of Texas Pan AmericanCollege of
Science and Engineering School of Engineering
and Computer Science Computer Science Department

• Prof. Peter A. Ng, Chair
• Prof. Richard Fowler, Graduate Director
• Prof. Pearl Brazier, Undergraduate Coordinator
• Prof. John Abraham, MSIT Coordinator
• Ms. Lucy Martinez, Staff
• Mr. David Kirtley, System Administrator

21
Computer Science DepartmentFaculty

• Peter A. Ng, PhD, Professor
• Richard Fowler, PhD, Professor
• Wendy Lawrence-Fowler, PhD, Professor
• John Abraham, PhD, Professor
• Pearl Brazier, MS and ABD, Associate Professor
• Zhixiang Chen, PhD, Associate Professor
• Xiaodong Wu, PhD, Assistant Professor
• Arthur Chtcherba, PhD, Assistant Professor
• Ping-Sing Tsai, PhD, Assistant Professor
• Xusheng Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor
• David Egle, MS and ABD, Lecturer
• Gustavo Dietrich, MS, Lecturer

22
Arthur D. Chtcherba

• Education
• Ph.D., Computer Science, University of New
  Mexico, (Albuquerque, NM) 2003
• M.S., Computer Science and Applied Mathematics,
  State University of New York, (Albany, NY) 1998
• B.S., Computer Science and Applied Mathematics,
  State University of New York, (Albany, NY) 1996
• A.S., Computer Science, Fulton-Montgomery
  Community College, (Johnstown, NY) 1995
• H.S., Programming, Higher Technical School,
  (Vilnius, Lithuania) 1992

23
Work Experience

• Assistant Professor (2003 Present)University
  of Texas Pan American
• Visiting Assistant Professor (2002-2003)
  University of Wyoming
• Research Assistant (1999-2002) University of New
  Mexico Albuquerque, NM
• Teaching (1998) State Univ. of NY, Albany, NY
• Research Assistant (1997-1998) State University
  of New York, Albany, NY
• Software Developer (1991-92) Celi Inc., Lithuania

24
Interests

• Symbolic Computation
• Algebraic Algorithms
• Computational Chemistry (docking problem)
• Computational biology
• Computational Algebra
• Computer Logic
• Automated theorem proving
• Numerical methods
• Computational Geometry

25
What is Symbolic Computation ?

• The area of Symbolic and Algebraic Computation
  (SAC), also known as Computer Algebra (CA) in
  some circles, aims to automate mathematical
  computations of all sorts.
• The resulting computer systems, experimental and
  commercial, are powerful tools for scientists,
  engineers, and educators.
• SAC research usually combines mathematics with
  advanced computing techniques.

26
Symbolic Computation

• Deals with mathematical computations on numbers,
  symbols, expressions, and formulas, in an exact
  manner, as opposed to numeric computation that
  deals only with floating-point numbers (and
  therefore approximations). 
• Typical operations include
• logical reasoning,
• automated theorem proving,
• computations for artificial intelligence,
• symbolic mathematical computations,

27
Application Areas

• Kinematics
• Chemistry
• Computational biology
• Robotics
• Computer Vision
• Solid / CAD / Geometric Modeling
• Geometric Reasoning
• Computation of solutions of systems of equations

28
System of Equations

• System of linear equations
• a1,1 x1 a1,2 x2 a1,3 x3 a1,n xn 0
• a2,1 x2 a2,2 x2 a2,3 x3 a2,n xn 0
• an,1 x1 an,2 x2 an,3 x3 an,n xn 0
• Polynomial equations (non-linear)
• x3 3x y z2 x2 y3 z 5 0
• x y2 y z 7 x2 0
• z6 x y z 6 x z 1 0

29
Geometric Representation
Linear
Non-Linear
30
Kissing Circles Theorem
What is the radius of inner circle ?
B

• Tangent(CirleA,CircleB)
• Tangent(CirleA,CircleC)
• Tangent(CirleA,CircleS)
• Tangent(CirleB,CircleC)
• Tangent(CirleB,CircleS)
• Tangent(CirleC,CircleS)

A
S
C
Eliminate A(ax,ay), B(bx,by), C(cx,cy) and
S(sx,sy)
31
Stewart Platform

• Used for
• flight simulators
• medical operations
• precision robots
• etc

32
Example Pappus Theorem
Geometric Setting
S (0,0), T ( tx,0), U (ux,0)
Is there any relationship between points P,Q,R ?
33
Pappus theorem relating P,Q,R
Collinear(P,Q,R) qx ry px qy qx py px ry
rx qy rx py
ux tx ry py qy (ux - tx)
Degenerate Cases
py qy ry 0 ? ay by cy 0
ux tx ? U Tux 0 ? U Stx 0 ? T S
34
Pascals mystic hexagon
Eliminate P,Q,R
tx (ay cx cy ux - cx uy - cy ax)2(by tx ax by
ay bx)3(-tx by2 ux ay uy cx by2 ux ay uy
cx2-ux cy2 ay bx2 uy cy2 ay bx2 ax uy by2 cy
ax2 cx uy - by2 ux cy ax2 uy-by2 ux2 cy ay cx
by2 ux2 cy ay ax-by2 cx2 ay ax uyby ux2 cy ay2
cx-by cy2 ax2 bx uy-by ux ay2 uy cx2-by cy ax2
uy2 cxby ay2 bx cx2 uy-by ux2 cy ay2 bx-by ay bx
cx2 uy2by ay bx cy2 ux2by ux cy2 ax2 uyby cy
ax2 uy2 bxby ay ax cx2 uy2-by ux2 cy2 ay axux
cy ay2 bx2 uycy ay bx2 uy2 cx-cy bx2 ay ax
uy2-cy ay2 bx2 uy cxtx by2 ux cy ax uy-tx by2 ux
cy ay axtx by cy uy2 cx ax-tx by ux cy2 ax uytx
by cy2 ax bx uytx by ux ay2 cx uy-tx by ay2 bx
cx uytx by cy2 ay ax ux-tx by cy ax uy2 bxtx
by2 ay ax uy cxtx by2 ay cx cy ux-tx by2 cx cy
ax uy-tx by cy2 ay ux bxtx by ay bx uy2 cxtx by
ay2 bx cy ux-tx by cx ay2 cy ux-tx by ay ax uy2
cxtx cy bx ay uy2 ax-tx cy2 ay bx ax uytx ux
cy2 ay bx uy-tx cy ay bx uy2 cx-tx ux cy bx ay2
uytx cy ay2 bx cx uy)
35
Pascals mystic hexagon
C
B
A
R
Q
P
U
T
S
Generalized Pappus Configuration
Pascals Mystic Hexagon
36
Faculty research interests

• Dr. Peter Ng (New Faculty)
• Document processing retrieval and management
• Database and information-based management
• Software and process engineering
• Knowledge-based systems

• Dr. Richard Fowler
• Information visualization
• Scientific visualization
• Interactive systems
• Human computer interaction
• Hypertext
• Information search and retrieval

• Dr. Zhixiang Chen
• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
• Data mining
• Information retrieval
• Web mining and intelligent web search
• Database and information systems

• Dr. Xiaodong Wu (New Faculty)
• Algorithm design analysis and implementation
• Computational geometry
• Computer-aided medical surgery and diagnosis
• Biomedical image analysis
• Bioinformatics and Data mining

37
Faculty research interests

• Dr. Wendy Lawrence-Fowler
• Software engineering
• Hypertext and hypermedia
• Pervasive information systems
• Databases

• Dr. Ping-Sing Tsai (New Faculty)
• Multi-media computing
• Computer vision
• Pattern recognition
• Data compression
• Video/image analysis
• Video/image

• Dr. Xusheng Wang (New Faculty)
• Computer graphics
• Virtual reality
• Real-time simulations
• Information visualization
• E-commerce web-based applications

38
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Computer Facility

• NCR Teradata Massively Parallel Computer
• Dells multiple processors
• Sun Microsystems Laboratories
• PC Laboratories
• Oracle and Microsoft SQL Laboratories

39
More Research Activities in Computer Science
KNOWLEDGE LEVERAGE TRANSFER Computing and
Information Technology Center (CITeC)
Director Professor Richard Fowler Associate
Director Professor Zhixiang Chen The University
of Texas-Pan American
40

THE COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTER

• CITEC s mission is to advance knowledge and
  support industry growth in all aspects of
  computing, information, and telecommunication
  technologies, focusing on the Lower Rio Grande
  Valley and Texas.
• CITeCs goals are two-fold including both
  education and research. Educational activities
  focus on the creation of a technologically
  literate workforce to satisfy the existing
  educational needs for IT professionals.
• CITeCs research agenda focus is on basic and
  applied research and development in
  telecommunication and information technologies

• The center contributes to economic expansion by
  providing a pool of highly trained IT
  professionals which can be drawn upon by
  companies starting up, expanding, or relocating
  to the region.

41
Conclusion

• Computer Science
• Carrier in Technology
• High Salaries
• Almost 100 placement
• UTPA
• Local
• Provides Financial Assistance
• CS Department _at_ UTPA
• Various interesting projects and research
• Internships
• Scholarships
• New Faculty