Our Master of Science in Information Science degree program offers six specializations to allow you to customize your education to your specific interests and career goals.
You may elect a specialization on your application for admission. You will then follow a more stringent distribution of credits depending on your specialization. As well, some specializations have additional pre-requisites for admission and therefore you may need to complete courses above and beyond the standard 36 credit requirement.
You may select your specialization on the application for admission and may change it until the end of the term in which you are to complete 18 credits.
The Big Data Analytics specialization will provide the graduates of the MSIS degree program with the essential in-depth knowledge of technologies relevant to big data management. Coursework will cover the design and maintenance of infrastructure to efficiently store, easily access, and transfer over wide area networks, extremely large amounts of data. However, the volume and diversity of data make it extremely challenging to store, retrieve, analyze and utilize this information. As society will soon be routinely trying to use petabytes of data stored in multiple formats across different platforms, experts are needed who have the skills and knowledge to design, develop and deploy complex information systems and applications that deal with multi-terabyte data sets.
You should have an undergraduate data-structures course in addition to the standard MSIS admissions pre-requisites. While this course can be taken after admission, it would require that 13 courses rather than 12 be taken to complete the degree. In addition, you must pass a data analytics examination in order to enroll in this specialization.
Storage and distribution subsystems are fundamental components of any information system. As information moved to digital form, storage systems evolved into various forms of database systems. In the environment we call the World Wide Web, people interact with databases and information storage systems through web protocols using web-based interfaces to facilitate distribution.
The database and web systems specialization covers both fundamental concepts of modern database management systems (DBMSs) and advanced issues that typically arise in the context of large-scale-enterprise data management. Coursework is focused on developing practical skills in building and administering realistic database systems, data integration, data warehousing, and Web-based data management. Database research projects offer tremendous opportunities for students in specialties including scalable architectures for wide-area environments with heterogeneous information servers, query optimization in highly distributed databases, and wireless and mobile databases. Web systems coursework introduces current Web technologies including XML, and new distributed architectures for service provision.
You should have an undergraduate data-structures course in addition to the standard MSIS admissions pre-requisites. While this course can be taken after admission, it would require that 13 courses rather than 12 be taken to complete the degree. As well, you are encouraged to have programming experience in more than one language – C or C++ and Java are the ideal combination.
The goal of the Geoinformatics specialization is to provide students in the MSIS degree program with both the breadth and depth of knowledge in geoinformatics required for solving real-world problems. You will gain the unique knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate the design, development and deployment of complex systems and applications in a rapidly emerging geoinformatics profession. Graduates of the Geoinformatics specialization will be able to deploy and manage geoinformation systems in industry, conduct research in geotechnologies, and pursue PhD research in geoinformatics.
Human-centered computing (HCC) is concerned with the development and management of systems in which the central focus is the user. The systems should be: aware of the user, easy to use, ubiquitous, and intelligent. In the final analysis, human-centered systems improve workplace satisfaction, capitalize on information in the environment, and act on behalf of the user. Current research in HCC focuses on the building of adaptive interfaces, navigation through information spaces, social computing, and the use of virtual environments in information science. Within this specialization, you will take courses to help you to understand humans and model their preferences, interests, and knowledge; analyze explicitly and implicitly generated data; and design systems with natural and intuitive interfaces.
Providing security and assurance to information systems has emerged as one of the most daunting technological and social challenges of recent times. Major corporations and private industry are expending a great deal of resources to develop cybersecurity technology to secure their information systems. The School is pleased to meet the expected demand for professionals trained to protect information systems by offering the security specialization. This track will provide a unique education in the development, design, and deployment of secure information systems with an emphasis on networked information systems. It will produce information technology professionals with the ability to meet special security challenges (e.g., intrusion detection) posed by conventional and emerging network information systems.
Students pursuing the Security Assured Information Systems (SAIS) specialization can select key courses relevant to another discipline or area of interest. For example, students can select several courses relevant to Big Data Analytics that will also meet the requirements of the SAIS specialization. Thus, the student can complete the SAIS specialization, while also acquiring the core skillset and knowledge related to Big Data Analytics.
We’ve created “tracks” within the SAIS specialization to also prepare students to succeed in other areas and professions such as Big Data Analytics, Health Informatics, and Database and Web Systems.
Please note: the SAIS specialization will appear on your transcript, but the track will not.
INFSCI 2500 Data Structures is a pre-requisite for the Track. If not waived during the admissions review, it is a required course, but the credits will not count towards graduation.
INFSCI 2500 is a pre-requisite for the Track. If not waived during the admissions review, it is a required course, but the credits will not count towards graduation.
You should have an undergraduate data-structures course in addition to the standard MSIS admissions pre-requisites. While this course can be taken after admission, it would require that 13 courses rather than 12 be taken to complete the degree.
The Telecommunications and Distributed Systems (TDS) specialization focuses on one of the fastest growing Information Technology fields. Distributed computing involves the study of information systems in which the data and computational processing is spread over more than one computer-usually in a network. Networking is critical to efficient communication among widely distributed participants and has become the backbone of industries ranging from Telecommunications firms to healthcare systems. Thanks to the Internet and more powerful computation/communication devices, industry and society are demanding more pervasive networks, more efficient and effective information systems, and more professionals trained to design and manage these complex and vital systems.
With this specialization, you will gain the knowledge and skills to face the challenges of deploying, designing, and managing distributed applications across networked systems. Graduates will be able to design and manage client-server and peer-to-peer systems, manage network-based information systems, and design networks and systems that are secure.
You should have an undergraduate intro to Telecommunications and Networking (TELCOM 2000) course in addition to the standard MSIS admissions pre-requisites. While this course can be taken after admission, it would require that 13 courses rather than 12 be taken to complete the degree.