NUS Master Of Computing

NUS School of computing which has approximately 2,000 students and 200 staffs, was established in 1998. Its root is Department of Information Systems and Computer Science (DISCS) within the Faculty of Science.

The purpose of school is to produce computing talents for future work, outstanding alumni, chief executives and information architects. The school is managed by an Executive Committee, and the members of committee are from an Industry Advisory Committee.

pecialisation

Different specializations of the master program are:

[http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/cs/ Computer Science]
[http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/is/ Infocomm Security]
Information Technology Project Management (ITPM)

Area of specialisations for Master of Computing (by coursework) is provided below. According to the rule of School of Computing, Students have to pass at least 4 out of 10 of their modules from this list.

Advanced Software Engineering (CS4211)
Compiler Design (CS4212)
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CS4243)
Constraint Logic Programming (CS4216)
Principles of Program Analysis(CS5218)
Advanced Processor Architectures(CS5222)
Distributed Systems(CS5223)
Parallel and Distributed Database Systems(CS5225)
Knowledge Discovery in Databases(CS5228)
Advanced Computer Networks(CS5229) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ooiwt/cs5229/ See module's website] )
Computational Complexity(CS5230) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~sanjay/cs5230.html See module's website] )
Cryptographic Techniques and Data Security(CS5231) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~mohan/cs5231/ See module's website] )
Formal Specification and Design Techniques(CS5232) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~dongjs/ic52z5.html See module's website] )
Simulation and Modelling Techniques(CS5233) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5233/ See module's website] )
Combinatorial and Graph Algorithm(CS5234) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5234/ See module's website] )
Theory and Practice of Multimedia(CS5240) ( [http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5240/ See module's website] )

Advanced Computer Networks(CS5229)

Description

The professor is quite patient to answer the questions of students and the class is appealing and energetic.It is recommended to attend every session of the class, otherwise you will loose a lot. Some times slides just show you a figure or a graph, but it is so challenging that often most questions of the exam are from explanations. If you want to get a good grade, you have to be a powerful programmer and have a good background of math, in addition with creativity and ability of analysis. For assignments, it is recommended that you are skillful programmer in C++ or Java. Way of working with two networking tools, TCL and ns2, will be explained during the semester. The operating system you need for TCL and ns2 is Unix, so if you do not have it and do not want to install it, you should install CYGWIN on your windows machine. Furthermore, it is better that you go through proposed papers before attending the class in order to become familiar with the topics. Besides, midterm exam always will be held before recess week, both midterm and final exams are almost tough, but professor never tries ask nasty questions, so if you have full control on all explained topics, you will be successful.

Objective

The purpose of this module is studying fundamental concepts and various aspects of computer networks, such as advanced network architecture and design principles, protocol mechanisms, implementation principles and software engineering practices, network algorithmic, network simulation techniques and tools, performance analysis and measurement, and protocol specification/verification techniques.During this course, students are expected to go through relevant papers related to the subject below: • Design principles of Internet • Measuring the Internet • TCP • Modeling TCP Throughput • TFRC and DCCP • End-to-end Congestion Control and RED • Introduction to Tcl/OTcl/ns-2 • Simulation and Modeling of the Internet • Routing • Self Similarity in Ethernet

Professor

This module is taught by Prof Ooi Wei Tsang (ooiwt) http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ooiwt/Course Assessment:At the end of the module, students will be evaluated based on these criterion; midterm/quizzes, assignment, and final exam. The highest percentage of grade is dedicated to assignment (40%), after that final exam (35%) and finally midterm exam (25%).

Prerequisite

It is recommended that students have at least equivalent knowledge to CS2105 or introductory computer networking modules.

Workload

It is recommended that students spend two hours for lecture, six hours for preparation and two hours per homework.

Assignments

Assignments will be a two-person groups projects that require good knowledge of programming in C or Java and a Scripting language. Assignments are usually about these topics such as, Measurement and Analysis of Network Traffic, Simulation of TCP/AQM.

Exam

The midterm and final exams are both open-book. They require hard studying and in-depth understanding of topics. Exams are nearly tough and completely form papers but not exactly the same.

Level of Difficulty

Future Usage

Related Modules

Cryptographic Techniques and Data Security(CS5231)

Description

The professor is kind and sincere and always tries to create cheerful atmosphere for students during lecture. This module contains two projects, and both do not need advanced programming. Projects have to be done individually, they are simple but they need good power of analyzing. This module dose not have any midterm exam and final open book(?) exam is almost simple. Pay special attention to the explanation of professor on each slide. Sometimes he tells something that you will not find in book or slides. Also pay enough consideration to guest lecture, since there is at least one question from that session in exam. Reference of this module is ....(?) , slides are exactly the same as book, so it is enough just go through slides to get a good grade. Powerful analysis of computer attacks and deep understanding of way of working of security algorithms need during this module. At the end of the term, students have to be able to propose and canalize security algorithms.It is recommended that students have a modest background of cryptography and computer security. At the end of each chapter, there are some questions. Your ability to answer these questions is representing your depth of understanding.

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition module (CS4243)

Description

During Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition module (CS4243), DR SIM MONG CHENG teaches the basic concepts and fundamental ideas of computer vision. This module does not cover detailed information about computer vision, instead tries to give good view of basic knowledge in this field for enthusiastic students.

Each session, professor gives some practical problem examples and during the class he tries to solve them using vision and pattern recognition concepts and techniques. This method helps students to understand these concepts and techniques, and practical usage of this course in real world.Below, is the list of modules that are suggested to pass before this course in order to have a better understanding of this module:

• MA1101R Linear Algebra or MA1506 • MA1505/1505C Calculus • ST2131 Statistics • CS1102 Data Structures and Algorithms

In addition, it is recommended that students have good programming ability especially with C, basic knowledge about data structures like trees, lists and graphs, basic algorithms such as sort and search, greedy algorithms, and dynamic programming.

Students are asked to do four assignments. They can use laboratory assigned to this module if they do not have personal computer or softwares necessary for assignments. These assignments help them to learn the techniques and tools needed for image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition. 20% of mark is assigned to assignments.

Below is the list of some previous semesters’ projects:

• Face Tracking with a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera (Nov 2007) • Robust Text Reading (Nov 2007) • Chess Vision (Nov 2007) • Active Color Compensation (Nov 2007) • GPU-based Image Registration (Nov 2006) • Object Tracking in Video (Nov 2006) • Online Object Recognition (Nov 2006) • Rain Removal in Video (Nov 2005) • Reverse Video (Nov 2005)

Final exam covers all concepts discussed during the course, and students have to realize the course conceptually if they want to get a good grade. Thirty percent (30%) of overall marks belongs to final exams. In addition, students have to pass twenty percent (20%) midterm exam too. Exams are open book.

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition modules may be helpful in all fields related to detect and recognize images and pictures.

imulation and Modeling Techniques (CS5233)

Description

Working with a system in real world in order to gain experiments, and test a system may cause some difficulties as a result of factors such as limitations, scale of the system and risk of implementation in real world before stabilizing. Consequently, testing the system in virtual environment like computer system is easier than test it in real world.

Simulation and Modeling Techniques (CS5233) gives information about techniques such as simulation model design, model execution and model analysis. Using these techniques, students are able to simulate different real systems on their computer. Professor Gary Tan teaches working knowledge of these techniques to make students able to simulate and study complex systems and model these systems using simulation tools like Simpack. In addition, concepts like parallel and distributed simulations and high level architecture are taught during CS5233 module. Topics discussed in this class include:

• Introduction to Simulation • Concepts in Discrete-event simulation (DES) • Components of DES • Random Number Generation • Input Data Modeling • Verification and Validation • Output Analysis • Model Design • Parallel and Distributed Simulation • High Level Architecture

In order to get a better understanding of the syllabus, it is recommended to pass a course on probability and statistics; in addition, to do assignments and project good programming skill in C, C++ or Java is needed. It is obvious that having knowledge of simulation will be helpful as well.

CS5233 contains three assignments. During the first assignment, which is the easiest one, students will learn how to use a simulation tool to simulate a simple system. In the second assignment; that is not as easy as the previous one, students have to simulate a complex system using the concepts and modeling techniques. For the third assignment, students have to do a survey on the subjects that are determined by professor, write a paper and present it in the class. Ten percent (10%), twenty five percent (25%), and ten percent (10%) are the portion of these assignments in the overall mark respectively. Final exam assigns fifty (50%) percent of overall mark, and to get a good grade students have to understand all concepts and topics discussed in the class.

Making class active, professor assign five percent (5%) marks to active participation in the class. The main text books introduced by professor as reference books are:

• Discrete-Event System Simulation, by J. Banks, J. Carson, B. Nelson, D.Nicol, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2001. (http://www.bcnn.net) • Parallel and Distributed Simulation Systems, by R.M. Fujimoto, John Wiley, 2000.

Formal Specification and Design Techniques (CS5232)

Description

Almost all Complex computer systems need to design and model before entering implementation and development phase; that is, all aspects of the system including functional and operational features and attributes have to be determined by system designers and analysts. Today variety of modeling languages, tools and techniques are used to propose clear and accurate view of future systems to whom responsible for implementing and developing a system.In Formal Specification and Design Techniques (CS5232) students will learn one of the system designing techniques. This technique is based on mathematics and logics. They will also learn how to model a system in design and modeling phase using mathematical and logical specification techniques. Z/Object Z is used as a notation to specify all aspect of a system; in addition, CSP/Timed -CSP and their integration notation is taught to make students able to design and specify features of real-time distributed and concurrent reactive systems. The different kinds of systems that will be covered during this course are:

• object-oriented systems
• interactive systems
• real-time distributed systems
• concurrent reactive systems

Professor Dr. DONG, Jin Song teaches this module (PhD, University of Queensland, Australia). During each session a lot of examples are proposed, and concepts of formal specification techniques, Z/Object Z notation and CSP/Timed-CSP notations are explained using these examples. Interactive environment of the class give a chance to students to discuss and clarify subjects brought in class.

Usually in the first sessions the brief explanation of set theory is taught following by the concepts and notations of the Z/Object Z. Focus of this module is on Z/Object Z, but the subject of two or three last sessions of the modules concentrate on Time-CSP that is used to model real-time distributed and concurrent systems. Even though, the Time-CSP allots not too many sessions to itself, doing final project and getting good grade in this module depends on the understanding of this concept completely. At the end, some concepts and notations of the UML is introduced either.It will be good to pass Discrete Structures (CS1231) or Logic and Formal Systems (CS3234) modules as prerequisites before taking this module. They can provide you a good background that could be helpful to understand and clarify the idea of CS5232 module.

Students are assessed by final exam and a final project, each of them allots 60% and 40% of the total mark respectively. The subject of the project is usually modeling a real system, game or etc. Students have to model these system using concepts and notations learned during this course and at the end of the semester they have to give their documentation to professor. Project does not include any presentation or implementation and you only need to give a paper at the end. This module has no assignment and midterm then students should study themselves during the semester if they like to gain good result at the end of the course. Complete understanding of examples and concepts that are presented during the course and practicing on the notations will be enough to get a good grade.
As a result, this module can be helpful if you are going to continue to work as a system analyst or designer in the future. It gives a good view of system modeling and how different parts of the system relate together and interact to internal part or external environment.

This module would be useful for students want to work as a system analyst or designer in the future. It gives a good view of system modeling and how different parts of the system relate to each other and interact to internal part or external environment.