PrincetonUniversity
Class of 2004 Sophomore Academic Handbook

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Department of Computer Science

Computer science at Princeton is undergoing a period of rapid growth and change that parallels the growth and change in the field in general. The most obvious signs of this activity are the growth in the size of the faculty, which has nearly doubled since the department was formed in 1985, the development of new courses and curricular options, and the opening of the new computer science building.

As an emerging academic discipline, computer science exposes its students to a broad variety of topics. At the same time students can learn a particular area deeply enough to become involved in "edge-of-the-art" research. The curriculum also encourages students to combine their computer science studies with interests in other areas. Many students find computer science to be an attractive alternative to traditional majors such as physics, mathematics, or one of the engineering disciplines.

The curriculum accommodates the needs of a broad range of students, from those who want to study the field within the context of a liberal arts curriculum to those who want a full technical curriculum with a firm basis in science and mathematics. Most computer science students enjoy programming and are given ample opportunity to do so within the curriculum.

One of the most attractive aspects of Princeton is the fact that students can develop a major combining depth in core technical areas with the breadth encouraged by the liberal arts degree. The computer science major offers a particularly attractive foundation for building a traditional liberal arts education with links to other disciplines. Emphasis in the major is on learning fundamental concepts of the discipline. The curriculum covers software systems, algorithms and complexity, machine architecture, computer graphics, and other core areas of computer science.

Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates work together on research and teaching. Independent work is an important part of the undergraduate curriculum in the department. It provides an excellent opportunity for students to obtain practical experience in research and development in a particular area. It also allows concentrators to work closely in research with faculty and graduate students. The following list of recent independent projects indicates the type of independent study that may be appropriate, and there is wide latitude in the choice of projects.

• Best Path Algorithm For a Car-racing Game

• Secure Online Course Registration

• Automated Zebra Identification

• Rotational and 3-Dimensional Representation of
Adjacency Matrix Multiplication

• Parallel Decoding of MPEG Streams for Large Scale Display Systems

• Displaying GPS and Mapping Information on Handheld Displays
While Maintaining Low Power Dissipation

• Shadow Maps for Cel Animation

• Social and Technical Aspects of an Aware Building

• Non-photorealistic Virtual Environments

• Selective Discarding of Wavelet Video Packets on an Active Router

• Covert Action Information Warfare

• Error Correction in DNA Computing

• Sonification of DNA Sequences

• Approximation Algorithms for the Shortest Path Problem for
Networks with Non-linear and Multiple Costs

• Parallel Implementation of Delaunay Triangulation

• Quantitative Trading Strategies

Computer science graduates have numerous career opportunities.
One of the most exciting aspects of the field is the effect that young people can have on the computer industry's future. Princeton computer science graduates have played an important role in this process in recent years. Students who successfully complete our courses and programs are well trained to work on challenging technical problems at leading-edge companies in Silicon Valley and other technological centers. Students often go on to graduate study in computer science before embarking on such careers or moving into research and teaching careers at universities and research laboratories.

Computer science is becoming very popular as an undergraduate major in preparation for careers in other fields. The major helps students develop problem-solving skills, exposes them to a variety of software and hardware systems, and introduces them to the important problems of the discipline. This preparation is valuable for a broad variety of careers because of the central role played by the computer in society. Professionals who understand computers are far more effective in their work. In the past a large amount of technical preparation was required before students could consider interesting applications; today's undergraduates are able to use computers to study important problems in other disciplines, from mathematics to medicine, molecular biology, and music.

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