The mission of the Information Systems program is to provide quality education in the field of information systems based on internationally recognized standards for undergraduate programs; produce information systems professionals who can deploy efficiently IT technologies and implement IT solutions according to market and society needs, particularly in the UAE and Gulf region; prepare graduates for lifelong learning and research.
The Bachelor of Science in Information Systems program has the following goals:
PEO_1. Apply acquired knowledge and skills in information systems and implement their skills in public, private, academic and international information systems functional activities.
PEO_2. Act as information systems professional leaders in performing related skills in technical, business, or ethical duties.
PEO_3. Engage in life-long learning and professional development in pursuing additional graduate degrees, professional development and self-studies.
Dr. Elfadil Abdalla (Profile)
Note: If Subject Proficiency EmSAT requirement is unmet, the following options will be accepted:
Equivalent qualifications from other educational systems are accepted, see Student Handbook for more details.
For further information, please refer to the university admissions policy.
Students are eligible for a Bachelor in Information Systems in either track after the completion of 123 credit hours, which normally takes eight semesters (not counting summer semesters). In addition, students must undertake 16 weeks of internship (at least 30 contact hours per week) which is equivalent to 3 credit hours. The minimum accumulative grade point average for graduation is 2.0.
Information systems graduates are required to meet the demands of various stakeholders including industry, commerce, education, health, and government. Information Systems graduates can undertake a variety of job positions at both the managerial and technical levels. Job opportunities may include but not limited to: Computer Systems Analysts, Information Technology Project Manager, Web/Internet Support Specialists, Database Administrator, Information Technology consultant, Computer Support Specialist, and Web Developer.
The Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems requires the completion of 120 credit hours. In addition, the student is required to complete an internship program for 16 weeks (at least 30 contact hours per week) after completing 90 credit hours. This internship experience is equivalent to three credit hours making the total completion requirements 123 credit hours.
The current Information Systems program contains two concentrations:
Each concentration consists of five courses (15 Credit Hours). The structure of the program is described below.
Graduates of the program will be able to:
PLO#1: Analyze a complex computing problem and to apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions.
PLO#2: Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the program’s discipline.
PLO#3: Communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts.
PLO#4: Recognize professional responsibilities and make informed judgements in computing practice based on legal and ethical principles.
PLO#5: Function effectively as a member or leader of a team engaged in information technology activities.
PLO#6: Support the delivery, use, and management of information systems within an information systems environment.
PLO#7: Discuss innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability practices in computing.
Following are Four-year Interactive Study Plans:
General Courses
Principles of Accounting I – ACC 200
Principles of Accounting is concerned with the provision of financial information to the different users such as external and internal users. The term accounting refers to the activities of collecting, recording, processing and communicating economic events to the users of accounting information. The course covers the recording process, adjustments, completing accounting cycle, accounting for merchandising operations and preparation of financial statements.
Introduction to Management- MGT 200
This course introduces the student to the four fundamental managerial functions i.e. planning, organizing, leading and controlling to teach them how to perform as an efficient and effective manager. The challenges faced by the contemporary managers in dealing with today’s changing business environment are discussed in detail in terms of different managerial roles and desired skills. This foundational level course will effectively prepare the students to undertake more advanced and specialized courses within the management discipline. The course provides a holistic view of management studies, and thus arouses their further interest in pursuing this discipline.
Principles of Marketing – MKT 200
The course is an introduction to marketing with an emphasis on learning to develop responsive marketing strategies that meet customer needs. The course focuses on basic marketing concepts, the role of marketing in the organization, and the role of marketing in society. Topics include market segmentation, product development, promotion, distribution, and pricing. Other topics, which will be incorporated into the course are, external environment (which will focus on integrative topics with marketing, such as economics, politics, government, and nature), marketing research, international/global marketing with relevance to cultural diversity, ethics, the impact of technology on marketing, and careers in marketing.
Program Core Courses & Internship
Introduction to Data Analytics - DAT100
The course focuses on providing students with a broad overview of the various aspects of data analytics. This course allows students to understand and apply basic data analytics techniques. Topics to be covered include data science life cycle, types of data, an overview of data engineering, data analytics, model evaluation, data visualization, decision-making, and Business Intelligence (BI).
Systems Analysis and Design – INS 305
This course introduces the phases of the system development cycle. Topics include Systems Development Methodologies, system project planning; requirement analysis phase; system design; Human-Computer Interaction Layer Design; Physical Architecture Layer Design; and implementation phase. Systems analysis and design using UML will be discussed both theoretically and in the lab. Software such as Microsoft Visio will be used in the Lab. The students work in teams to develop sustainable information system projects.
Business Intelligence – INS 402
This course provides an introduction to the concepts of and business intelligence (BI). It explores how business problems can be solved effectively by using operational data to create data warehouses and then applying data mining tools and analytics to gain new insights into organizational operations. In particular, students learn effective modeling techniques (dimensional modeling), foundations and technologies for the Decision-Making process, the ETL process, Business Performance Management, an overview of Data Mining, and analytical modeling (descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive). Students will learn to exploit the demonstrated topics to extract business intelligence and convey them to stakeholders.
Information Systems Strategy & Acquisition – INS 404
In this course, students learn how information technology (IT) enables organizations to conduct business in radically different and more effective ways. The course defines high-level IT infrastructure and Information Systems (IS) that support the operational and strategic needs of organizations. The focus is on developing an understanding of current and emerging issues related to the impact of Information systems inside the organizations. Students learn a framework that allows IS leaders to assess existing IT infrastructures and emerging technologies and understand the challenges related to the sustainability of organizations.
Information Systems Project – INS 405
This course aims to give students the opportunity to work collaboratively in teams between 2 and 4 students to investigate a problem by making use of information technology knowledge, techniques, and methodologies acquired in the previous semesters to provide a suitable solution to an IT problem. The course also aims to enhance communication skills, both oral and written as well as ethical issues involved. A faculty member is assigned to each team to supervise and evaluate in part their work.
Information Systems Internship – INS 408
The internship familiarizes students with actual working environments. It gives students the opportunity to integrate their knowledge and skills learned in the course by applying them to real-world problems encountered in business and industry. The internship also gives the student a feeling of what is involved in working on actual information technology problems and developing communication and teamwork skills as well as addressing ethical and professional issues applicable to computing practice.
Introductory Programming – INT100
This course provides knowledge and skills in problem-solving and introductory programming using Java programming language. Topics cover the problem-solving process; data types; variables, constants, scope, and memory locations; basic input/output; selection and repetition control structures; arrays and strings; and user-defined methods.
Calculus for Information Technology – INT101
This course covers the essential mathematical topics that students specializing in information technology need. Topics covered are plane analytic geometry; matrices and determinants; solution of a system of linear equations; real functions limits, continuity, differentiation and applications; integration and applications; and graphing.
Object Oriented Programming – INT201
The primary objective of this course is to introduce the concepts of object-oriented programming: classes, objects, system and user-defined methods, inheritance, polymorphism, and composition. The course also covers recursive algorithms and exception handling. This course is not meant as a comprehensive introduction to all Java concepts such as applets and socket programming.
Discrete Mathematics - INT202
This course introduces Discrete Mathematics skills to Information Technology, Information Systems, and Computer Engineering, and BSDA students. These skills enhance their ability to both analyze and describe mathematically many of the algorithms and data structure performance characteristics. Topics covered include propositional logic, predicate logic, inference, mathematical induction & other proof techniques, counting, sets, functions, recursion, relations, graphs, and trees.
Fundamentals of Data Communications and Networking – INT205
Introduction to computer networks and the Internet: Components of data communication, data flow, data communication system, network criteria, types of connections, topologies, transmission media, parallel and serial transmission, network types, protocol and standards, protocol layers, and the OSI model. Physical layer: Data and Signals, Nyquist Bit Rate, and Shannon Capacity. Data Link Layer: Error detection and correction, multiple access, MAC addressing, switches, ARP, MAC Frame (IEEE 802.3 protocol), Wired LAN Ethernet, and WLAN (IEEE 802.11 protocol). Network Layer: Network Devices, Virtual circuits, routers, IP Addresses, subnetting, IP protocols and routing algorithms, NAT, IP header format, ARP, and DHCP. Transport layer: UDP, TCP, and congestion control. Application layer: HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, DNS, and peer-to-peer applications.
Fundamentals of Web Systems – INT206
This course introduces the fundamentals of client Web systems technologies to students. Topics covered include: XHTML, CSS, XML, and JavaScript, Students will apply this knowledge to generate essential web components like basic browser controls (buttons, links, and menus), forms, and frames.
Operating Systems – INT301
This course covers the principles and concepts of modern operating systems. Topics include operating system services; operating systems structures; operating system processes: threads, synchronization, CPU scheduling, deadlocks; memory management: main memory, virtual memory; storage management: storage structures, file-system interface, and file-system implementation; and operating protection and security.
Database Management Systems- INT302
This course is designed to give a theoretical and practical background in database techniques. It covers database concepts, data models, data dictionary, entity-relationship (ER) and enhanced entity relationship (EER) diagrams, and the relational data model, converting an E-R model to a relational model, Structured Query Language (SQL), normalization, and physical database design. Oracle software is used in the Lab.
Fundamentals of Information Security – INT303
This course aims at introducing fundamental security concepts to students. Main security threats and related countermeasures are presented. students will learn the importance of protecting information stored on computer systems from unauthorized access. topics covered include cryptography, authentication, access control, database security, malicious software, denial of service, network security, security management, and risk assessment, security controls, plans, and procedures, and legal and ethical aspects of information security.
Computer Ethics and Professional Practices – INT306
This course will examine the ethical issues that arise in the use of computers, and the responsibilities of those who work with computers, either as computer science professionals or as end users. Topics covered include legal, social, and ethical issues surrounding computer technology and its use; privacy; intellectual property rights and copyright laws; information technology code of ethics; issues of privacy and confidentiality; risks of using computers; and computer crime: computer viruses, hacking, phishing & pharming, scams, etc.
Information Technology Project Management – INT307
This course covers the characteristics of IT Project management, initiating an IT project; project planning; defining and managing project scope, structuring a project, project schedule and budget, managing project risk, project communication, tracking, and reporting, IT project quality management, ethics and professional practices, entrepreneurship and innovation, sustainability, and project implementation.
Big Data Analytics & Technologies – INT323
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the techniques, tools, and technologies used for big data analytics using appropriate programming languages. Topics covered in this course include statistical evaluation of data, clustering techniques, linear regression, logistic regression, classification methods, MapReduce, Apache Hadoop, Pig, Hive, Hbase, and NoSQL.
Artificial Intelligence - INT430
This course is designed to introduce the theory and techniques of AI to students. The course covers knowledge representation schemes; heuristic search techniques; inferencing; machine learning; intelligent agents, and robots; AI techniques used in computer vision, natural language understanding, and speech recognition; and ethical, economic, and social issues arising from the adoption of AI. The PROLOG language is also covered to enable students to represent, manipulate, and reason with knowledge.
Project Management Concentration Courses
Enterprise Systems – INS 308
Enterprise Systems (ES) provide a technology platform that enables organizations to integrate and coordinate their business processes. They provide a single system that is central to the organization and ensure that information can be shared across all functional levels and management hierarchies. Among the ES software is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which is used by companies to coordinate information in every area of business. This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the theoretical and practical issues related to the application of ES within organizations. Example software will be used to illustrate how Enterprise Systems work.
IT Resource Management – INS 406
This course discusses the responsibilities of an IT manager, roles of IT Management, and IT governance in an organization. The focus is on current/emerging issues in creating and coordinating the key activities necessary to manage the day-to-day operations of the IS function, and coordinating the skills and organizational IS infrastructure. The course typically combines lecture and cases. There are individual & team written assignments and formal presentations. Students are expected to use business terminology to derive an IS organization leverages technology across the firm. Students are encouraged to understand the issues from the perspective of senior IS managers.
IT Services and Operations Management – INS 411
In this course, students learn how organizations can deliver value and maintain an acceptable level of competency using standardized processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are neither technology-specific nor organization-specific. This course provides a detailed, modular introduction to the concepts, terms, definitions, benefits, objectives, and relationships within core IT service management processes and functions. The focus is on developing an understanding on these topics according to the industry’s best practice framework.
Project Planning, Scheduling and Cost Control – INS 412
Most failures of projects are related to either schedule delays, or cost overrun or both. A balanced cost and time management is in the core of project management, and successful projects will need extensive attention to budget performance, which is strongly coupled to schedule. This course will explore recent methods and techniques which integrate technical, schedule, and cost objectives to enhance control on projects and ensure their success and timely termination. The course will allow students to get deep understanding of the many factors that affect project time and cost performance, and teaches them how to employ best practices, well known templates, methods and techniques to observe and control them.
Project Quality and Risk Management – INS 413
In this course, students learn how to identify potential future problems in a project, and plan for effective mitigation or avoidance techniques that can lead to greater success in IS projects. This course provides a detailed examination of scheduling, cost, quality, and risk management processes using advanced tools and techniques. This course will introduce students to analytical and mathematical models to enable them to measure and evaluate risks and quality related to IS projects.
E-Business Management Concentration Courses
IS Audit and Control – INS 403
Information technology today represents a critical component of business operations. Almost every part of the business depends on information technology. This means that the function of information systems auditing is important. This course aims to explore the nature of information systems auditing and how information systems audits are undertaken. The gained knowledge allows students to evaluate controls over the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information systems data processed and maintained in a business corporation information technology environment. Students also will be able to learn about audit planning, audit reporting, and audit evidence.
Biomedical Informatics- INS 416
In the course of Biomedical informatics, students will learn the fundamental concepts and standards involved in the successful implementation of eHealth systems. These systems rely on various communication and information technology systems to improve health care delivery by facilitating greater access to services and more efficient communication practices. Topics covered will include Biomedical Informatics, Policies and Standards in Biomedical Informatics, Evaluation of Biomedical and Health Information Resources, Electronic Health Record Systems, Management of Information in Health Care Organizations, Telehealth, Wireless Technology in Patient Monitoring, Patient Monitoring Systems, Information Retrieval and evidence-based practices, Clinical Decision-Support Systems, Computers in Health Care Education, and emerging technologies and future of informatics in biomedicine.
E-Marketing – INS 422
The course describes common strategies for the marketing of goods and services via the Internet range from public relations and corporate communications to advertising and electronic commerce. Students will be able to master E-Marketing Research, use of the Internet for marketing segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning. Students investigate and evaluate various marketing and communication strategies and tactics for the World Wide Web.
E-Commerce – INT424
This course aims to expose students to the theory and practice of e-commerce. Topics covered are an introduction to e-commerce, e-commerce technology infrastructure, revenue models, marketing on the web, business-to-business online strategies, social networking, mobile commerce, legal and ethical issues, web server hardware and software, e-commerce commercial software, e-commerce security, payment systems, planning for e-commerce business, and dashboarding and business data visualization.
Web Technologies – INT322
The aim of this course is to teach building web applications using java and other related technologies. Topics discussed include web application structure; Applets; Servlets; Java Server Pages; tags and function libraries; filters; WebSockets; Spring Model View Controller Framework; RESTful and Simple Object Access Protocol web services; Java Persistence Application Programming Interface; Hibernate Object-Relational Mapping; Mapping Entities to Tables; Spring Framework Repositories; Spring Security; Using Authorization Tags and Annotations, and Securing RESTful Web Services with OAuth. Students will have hands-on experience in using Java web application technologies in the lab.
Elective Courses
Business Process Management – INS 307
The course introduces the methods and techniques required to analyze, design, implement, automate, and evaluate business processes. Structured along the phases of the Business Process Management (BPM) life cycle, students learn to analyze organizational performance from a process perspective, redesign processes using value-focused techniques, design workflows and implement them in BPM systems, simulate new process design to ensure continual improvements within organizations. The course leads students from process discovery through conceptual and technical process design through the implementation of workflows to improve organizational capabilities.
Selected Topics in Information Systems – INS 407
This course aims to introduce students to new developments in the area of information systems not specifically covered in the curriculum and in which a faculty member has developed interest and proficiency. The intention is to provide a rapid response to current trends and to widen students’ knowledge in different areas of IS. The specific content of the course will depend on the particular area taught at the time.
Cloud Computing – INT309
This course aims to introduce students to the theory and practice of cloud computing. Topics include parallel and distributed systems; deployment and service models; cloud infrastructure; applications and paradigms; resource virtualization; resources management and scheduling; networking support; cloud storage systems; cloud security, and sustainability in a cloud environment.
User Interface Design– INT313
This course introduces students to the concepts, methods, theories and guidelines of user interface design (UID). Topics covered include usability measures, usability motivations, and universal usability; interface design; design case studies; evaluation and the user experience; interaction styles; design issues; response time; and information search.
Advanced Database Design and Implementation – INT423
This course builds on top of the first Database Management Systems (DBMS) course by introducing advanced database concepts to allow students to effectively design and implement a database. The course revisits Structured Query Language (SQL) in a deeper, more practical approach, with a focus on its Programming Language (PL)/SQL extension. The student will learn object-oriented database design, and how to manage multi-user databases with respect to concurrency, recovery, and query optimization. Students also will be exposed to distributed database systems.
Mobile Applications – INT429
This course provides an introduction to mobile software development for those with Java programming experience. Students will learn to build mobile applications for phones and tablets using Android Studio and Java. Students will learn the steps necessary to set up an Android development and testing environment; an overview of Android Studio; Android architecture; and the design and implementation of Android applications and user interfaces using the Android Studio environment.