Information for Future Students

Worried about a career in Computing? Access this ACM site to hear industry and business talk about the current status and the future of computing careers.

Our students say:

"I get more attention from the TAs here because the lab sizes are small."

"The profs are helpful, and they enjoy going over things I don't understand."

"The labs are a great atmosphere to get to know other students, they help you get through when the going gets tough."

"Start your programming assignments early. They are real challenges and they always take a lot longer to do than you think they will!"

"If you can, get yourself a PC so you can do work at home, too. It is a big advantage to have personal access on computers to work from home."

"Once I got to know the people in my class, the TAs and the profs, I felt a lot more confident and more comfortable working in the department."

Mentor/Student Liaison

Our Department is the first at Brock to employ a mentor, to proactively serve the needs of our students, especially students in their first university-level programming course. The primary functions are to advise and tutor students who are struggling and need more assistance than the teaching assistants are able to provide in labs. In addition, the mentor encourages students when the going gets tough and gives advice when needed. Contact:
coscmentor@brocku.ca

Considering Computer Science? Whether you're looking for information about the field, or just browsing through, we'll do our best to show you what Computer Science at Brock has to offer.

Information on admission to Brock can be obtained from the Registrar's Office: Admissions.

Questions?

Check out our FAQ to see some of the questions prospective students ask most frequently about

CS@Brock . If you have a question that isn't answered there, or elsewhere on this page, we encourage you to
e-mail us, or phone 905-688-5550 ext. 3513 with your query.

Don't understand the terminology? Our glossary contains explanations of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. Throughout these pages, many words are linked directly to the glossary for a fast definition. Use your browser's "BACK" button to return from the glossary to the page you were at, or click on "Students" to return to this page.

What do we offer?
Computer Science at Brock provides courses leading to honours and pass BSc degrees in single major programs and BSc and BA honours degrees in combined major programs. The honours program consists of two streams: software engineering and intelligent systems. There is also a cross-disciplinary program in Computing and Business.

Program Planning
A Program planner is provided to help you see at a glance what courses you'll need for each particular degree program. The planner links you to each of our course descriptions, and each of those is connected to the

CS@Brock "official" course description contained in the Brock University Undergraduate Calendar.

Where is Brock?
Brock University is located on the southern border of the "Garden City" of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; a city with about 130,000 residents situated on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Just a 20 minute drive from Niagara Falls and the U.S. border, you'll enjoy all the conveniences of a big city complemented by small-town friendliness.

Brock's own Centre for the Arts attracts national and international entertainers; there are symphonies and rock concerts, live theatre, vintage and international films, art exhibitions, shops and fine restaurants, nightclubs and cafés. You can hike the Bruce Trail, tour Niagara wineries, cheer on the Brock team at the world-famous Royal
Canadian Henley rowing course, or enjoy the annual Grape and Wine Festival.

Where is the Department?
We're located in J-Block of the Mackenzie Chown Complex. Or easier, if you look at this map, we're the eastern-most part of Mackenzie Chown building (#4), south of #6. We look out onto the traffic circle just off Glenridge Avenue!

What's on Campus?
In spite of the construction of several new facilities, Brock remains a fairly compact campus where you can easily walk from one class to another in less than 10 minutes. Ample parking is available on site, surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds that invite a stroll in the sun.

Connecting with fellow students is easy, given the great number of athletic teams, student associations and clubs in which you can participate. (Check out the Computer Science Club!) Isaac's pub in the Alumni Student Centre, is a favourite hangout, especially with the nearby food court and video arcade. Two general stores are well-stocked with all the incidentals you'll need. Brock's Physical Education complex is home to a new indoor rowing facility and 50-metre swimming pool, and is well-equipped to meet just about any fitness interest.

What about computing resources?
Seven computer labs housing Pentium PC's are available for all Brock students to use, with a wide variety of installed software. Every Brock student is granted an e-mail account and, with Internet access in every lab, you can connect with the world.

A campus-wide fibre optic network links all the University's academic computing facilities. The department's computers form an integral part of this resource. Most computers on campus can be accessed from microcomputers in any of the laboratories.

The Computer Science department maintains 4 labs dedicated to Computer Science majors:

Lab J310 uses dual boot (Windows / Linux) Dell Pentium 4, 2.8 MHZ work stations with 17 inch flat panel screens.
Lab D205 contains 48 HP Pentium 4 work stations with 15 inch flat panel displays.
Lab J301 has Dell Pentium 4 wosk stations with 15 inch flat panel monitors.
A laboratory of Silicon Graphics O2 UNIX work stations (J327) is served by a 16 CPU Silicon Graphics Origin 2000 server.

Students may connect their own laptops to the Internet through wireless access points both in the department and throughout the University. 24 hour/7 day access privileges are available for students who need to work in the labs outside of normal operating hours.

Students also have access to computer graphics software (Bryce, Poser, SoftImage), database software (ORACLE, Access) as well as JCreator, Visual Studio.NET and MS Office.