This course uses microeconomic analysis to examine economic relationships among countries. Issues addressed include why nations trade, the distributional effects of trade, economic growth, factor mobility, and protectionism. Also included are discussions of the special trade-related problems of developing countries and of the history of the international trading system.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 35 students. Fall and Spring semesters.  Professor Knudsen.

Health care poses many pressing questions: Why do we spend so much on health care?  Does this spending actually produce better health?  How do health care institutions function?  What is the appropriate role of government? How are we to judge the efficiency and equity of health care policy?  By applying economic analysis to health, health care, and health care markets, health economics provides insight into these questions.

Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

Independent reading.

Fall and spring semesters.

This course addresses the design and analysis of computer algorithms. Topics include: set algorithms such as sorting and searching, graph algorithms, string algorithms, and matrix algorithms. Algorithm design paradigms, including the divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, and greedy paradigms, will be emphasized. The course will end with a discussion of the theory of NP-completeness and its implications.

Requisite:  COSC 112 and COSC 211.  Fall semester.  Professor Gardner.

This course continues the exploration of data structures and algorithms that is begun in COSC 201. Topics include balanced search trees, amortized algorithms, graph data structures and algorithms, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming algorithms, NP completeness, and case studies in algorithm design.

Requisite: COSC 112 and 201. Fall semester.  Professor TBA.

An introduction to the ideas and techniques that allow computers to perform intelligently. The course will discuss methods of adversarial game playing and of solving general problems using heuristic search.  It will also discuss the design of agents that learn either from experience or from a provided dataset. The course will cover both theoretical aspects of AI and practical considerations such as noisy sensor readings. Three class meetings per week.  Offered in alternate years.

Requisite: COSC 112. Fall semester.  Professor TBA.

The main purpose of a programming language is to provide a natural way to express algorithms and computational structures. The meaning of “natural” here is controversial and has produced several distinct language paradigms; furthermore the languages themselves have shaped our understanding of the nature of computation and of human thought processes. We will explore some of these paradigms and discuss the major ideas underlying language design. Several languages will be introduced to illustrate ideas developed in the course.

This course will examine the principles and design choices involved in creating general purpose computer systems.  Topics will include instruction set architectures, virtual memory, caching, allocators and garbage collectors, threads and synchronization, file systems, virtual machines, and distributed systems.  Projects will involve the implementation and use of these capabilities and abstractions. 

Students who have taken COSC 161 may also take this course.  Students who have taken COSC 261 may not take this course.