Computer Science

Computer Science at NYU Shanghai is designed to create technological leaders with a global perspective, a broad education, and the capacity to think creatively. Computer science focuses on how to design, build, and effectively use the computers and systems that we interact with every day — from the iPhones in our hands to the complex databases in our banks and hospitals and to the self-driving cars of the future.

Requirements for the Major

Students can choose to follow the academic bulletin from the year that they were admitted or a more recent academic bulletin. For example, if you were admitted to NYU Shanghai in Fall 2019, you can choose to follow the academic bulletin 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022.

2022-2023
2021-2022
2020-2021
2019-2020
2018-2019

Planning the Major

To declare the Computer Science major, students must have a final grade of C, or currently enrolled in the following courses in MATH-SHU 131 Calculus and CSCI-SHU 11 Introduction to Computer Programming (or CSCI-SHU 101 Introduction to Computer Science).

Course Schedule Course Schedule
Curriculum Worksheet Curriculum Worksheet
Study Away Pathways Study Away Pathways

Faculty Mentors

Faculty mentors are the leading faculty and experts in the major disciplines. Students can reach out to faculty mentors for specific questions about the major, and references for connecting with relevant discipline resources. If you have specific questions about specific fields of study within the major, you can search for faculty through the faculty directory.

 

Keith Ross
Keith Ross

Dean of Engineering and Computer Science

Keith Ross
Olivier Marin

Computer Science Area Head

 
Computer Science FAQs
Why should I major in Computer Science?

What knowledge and skills will students acquire by majoring in Computer Science?

The Bachelor of Science in Computer Science is a rigorous program that not only covers fundamental computer science subjects - such as object-oriented programming, computer architecture, and operating systems – but provides a wide variety of elective courses, spanning artificial intelligence, game programming, natural language processing, information visualization, security and privacy, computer networking, machine learning, and smartphone application development.

What are post-graduation and career opportunities for Computer Science students?

Computer science graduates have a myriad of career paths, including: creating information technology products of the future at large and dynamic companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple or within exciting high-tech startups throughout the world. Entrepreneurship skills combined with computer science prowess can help in creating your own high-tech startup, pursuing careers in business or finance that leverage computer science expertise, or going on to do cutting-edge research in a PhD program. Household names such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Melisa Myers, Robin Li, and Kai-Fu Lee all began in computer science."

Double Major in Computer Science Guidelines

Students need to successfully complete more than half of the courses required for the primary and secondary majors in order to declare their secondary major. No more than two courses may be double-counted between the majors.

Students matriculated in CO2022 and later will NOT be able to double major in Computer Science and Data Science. 

For students who matriculated in CO2021 and prior: 

  • If you plan to double major in Computer Science and Data Science, please note that each major must have at least 7 singly-counted courses and more than two courses may be double-counted between the majors. Please refer to the sample course plan for detailed information.
Research Opportunities

Center for Data Science and Analytics

Deans' Undergraduate Research Fund (DURF)

CS, DS, and Engineering Research Night (2021 recordings & presentation slides; 2022 presentation slides)

Bring your programming skills to professors’ ongoing research projects!

Independent Study

Does not satisfy the major elective requirement. Students majoring in computer science, data science, or engineering are permitted to work on an individual basis under the supervision of a full-time faculty member in the relevant discipline if they have maintained an overall GPA of 3.0 and a GPA of 3.5 in computer science/data science/engineering and have a study proposal that is approved by a computer science/data science/engineering professor.

Course Prerequisites

Total: 12 courses

PREREQUISITE COURSES
CSCI-SHU 101 Introduction to Computer and Data Science (ICDS)* Pre-req: CSCI-SHU 11 Intro to Computer Programming (ICP) OR CS placement exam
Choose one Statistics course from the following three:
MATH-SHU 235 Probability and Statistics* Pre-req: Calculus
MATH-SHU 233 Honors Theory of Probability Pre-req: “Honors Analysis 1” and “Linear Algebra or Honors Linear Algebra 1”
BUSF-SHU 101 Statistics for Business and Economics*  
REQUIRED MAJOR COURSES
CSCI-SHU 210 Data Structures* Pre-req: ICDS, or A- and above in ICP 
CSCI-SHU 2314 Discrete Mathematics* Pre-req: Calculus or Concurrently enroll in Calculus
CENG-SHU 202 OR CSCI-UA 201

Computer Architecture*

OR

Computer Systems Organization

Pre-req for Computer Architecture: ICDS or ICP

* ONLY in Spring semester
CSCI-SHU 220 / CS-UY 2413 / CSCI-UA 310  Algorithms*

Pre-reqs: Data Structures, and Discrete Math or Linear Algebra or Honors Linear Algebra or Honors Calculus

* ONLY in spring semester
CSCI-SHU 215 Operating Systems

Pre-reqs: Data Structures, and Computer Architecture or Computer Systems Organization

* ONLY in fall semester
CSCI-SHU 420 Senior Project*

ONLY offered in fall semester
COMPUTER SCIENCE ELECTIVES - Choose Four
Not every course listed is taught every semester, and in any given semester other courses may be offered that fulfill this requirement. Requirements may be met through equivalent courses in the Global Network with prior approval. If you find a class not on the list that you would like to count towards this requirement, please email your advisor.
CSCI-SHU 188 Computer Music Pre-req: ICP or ICDS or Interaction Lab

CSCI-SHU 213 /

CS-UY 3083

 Databases* Pre-req: Data Structure
CSCI-SHU 308 Computer Networking Pre-req: ICDS
CENG-SHU 350 Embedded Computer Systems Pre-reqs: "Computer Architecture or Digital Logic" and "ICP or ICDS"
CSCI-SHU 360 Machine Learning* Pre-reqs: "ICP" and "Calculus/Honors Calculus" and "Probability and Statistics or Theory of Probability or Analysis I"

CSCI-SHU 410 /

CS-UY 4513

 Software Engineering Pre-req: ICDS
BUSF-SHU 326 Big Data and Accounting Analytics Pre-reqs: "Principles of Financial Accounting and ICDS" or with Instructor Permission
BUSF-SHU 310 Data Science for Social and Information Networks Pre-reqs: ICP and Calculus/Honors Calculus
CENG-SHU 201 Digital Logic

Pre-req: ICP or ICDS or Interaction Lab

* ONLY in fall semester
CSCI-SHU 235 Information Visualization Pre-req: Data Structures
INTM-SHU 230-002 Topics in Computation & Data: Generative Language Pre-req: ICP or Interaction Lab or Communications Lab
INTM-SHU 231 Developing Web  
CSCI-SHU 222 Game Programming Pre-reqs: Data Structures or Data Structures and Algorithms or ICDS with Department Consent
CSCI-SHU 402 Advanced Algorithms  

CSCI-SHU 372 /

CS-UY 4613

 Artificial Intelligence  

CSCI-SHU 323 /

CSCI-UA 480

 Computer Graphics  

CENG-SHU 304 /

CS-UY 3923

 Computer Security  
CSCI-UA 201

Computer Systems Organization (if not taken as a major required course)

  
CSCI-SHU 271 Computer Vision  
CSCI-UA 480 iOS Application Development Pre-req: ICDS - B grade or higher recommended
CSCI-SHU 378 Introduction to Cryptography  
CSCI-UA 480 /CSCI-SHU 376 Natural Language Processing*  
CS-UY 3933 Network Security  

CENG-SHU 303 /

CSCI-UA 480

 Parallel and Distributed Computing  
     

CSCI-SHU 358 /

CSCI-UA 453

 Theory of Computation  

CSCI-SHU 310 /

CS-UY 3393

 UNIX System Programming

 
BUSF-SHU 200E Network Analytics Pre-req: ICP, Calculus, and Statistics 
CSCI-SHU 254 Distributed Systems* Pre-req: Data Structures and Operating Systems
CSCI-SHU 240  Introduction to Optimization and Mathematical Programming Pre-req: ICP; AND Calculus or Honor Calculus ; AND Prob and Stats or Stats for Bus and Econ or Theory of Probability 
CSCI-SHU 311 Functional Programming* Pre-req: Data Structures and Discrete Math
CSCI-SHU 375 Reinforcement Learning* Pre-req: Machine Learning and Theory of Probability; Or instructor's permission

 

Top

Python vs Java
  1. In Shanghai, there are three course sequence ICP, ICS, Data Structures (all taught in Python)
  2. At NYU CAS, there are the same three course sequence but teach ICS and Data Structures in Java.
  3. At Tandon, their three-course sequence is ICP, Data Structure, Object Oriented Programming. ICP and Data Structures is taught in Python,  OOP in Java.  

As an NYU Shanghai CS and Data Science major, students can take ICS or Data Structures in Python or Java. However:

  • If you are a DS major, we highly recommend you take both ICS and Data Structures in Python. Python is by far the most prominent language in data science, and several of our upper-level DS courses are taught in Python. But if it is difficult to get into a Python class, then you can take these courses in Java. 
  • For CS majors, either Java or Python is fine. But you should be warned that if you take ICS in Java and then return to NYU Shanghai, you’ll be taking Data Structures in Python, and may be at a disadvantage to those who took ICS in Python. 
  • All students should be warned that if they take  ICS  in Python, and then take Data Structures in NY in Java, they may be at a disadvantage since this would be their first course using Java, whereas most NY students will already have had ICS in Java. 
Senior Project

Please note that, starting in 2022-2023, CSCI-SHU 420 Computer Science Senior Project will ONLY be offered in the Fall. The Senior Project course won't be offered in the Spring Semester.

Check out the Fall 2022 CS/DS Senior Project Info Session Recording and CS/DS senior project from the previous classes!

1. What is the structure of the CS Senior Capstone course?

The goal of this class is to complete a concrete CS project from start to finish. You can either solve a research problem or try to tackle a real-world problem. You need to design a valid method/approach to solve the problem, build a solution using your method, and assess the quality of your solution. You may either work alone or form a team of at most 3 students.

2. What are the requirements of the capstone project?

At the end of the project, you must prepare a written technical report and a presentation. The final project report must be structured as a typical technical paper and will include four main sections:

  • Motivation, problem definition
  • Related literature and existing approaches
  • Proposed solution and details of implementation
  • Results, conclusion, and directions for improvement

3. What should students prepare in advance to get ready for the capstone?

  • Choose a research topic that NYU faculty have submitted or come up with a valuable topic of your own.
  • Contact a faculty supervisor whose area of expertise matches the field of your topic, and start preparing as early as possible.

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