This course introduces how humans can instruct computers to perform tasks and computations by writing programs using a programming language. Students will learn the structure of a program and how to write statements that contain constructs such as variables, expressions, selection and iteration to express the computation logic. Students will also learn how to use the Input/Output (I/O) library of a programming language to read from and write to files on computer disks for storage and other peripheral devices for display. Data structures to keep information in the working memory of the computer, including one called an object, will also be presented with the explanation of how they facilitate the organization of information and computation.

This course covers further concepts in object-oriented programming. It explains the basic building blocks of an object. Students learn how to apply object structure and methods to store and compute tabular information as a system of objects. The principles and reasons of structuring objects in a class hierarchy and an association will be explained. A particular class, the container class, is introduced. Students will learn how complex processing mechanisms can be programmed through the container class. These complex mechanisms are then shown to be the building blocks for Graphical User Interface and Event Management, which have become a standard approach to building native software applications.

This module introduces information systems and their roles in helping businesses to remain competitive, as well as to provide a technical foundation to appreciate the major and emerging technologies needed by business firms. It focuses on learning about the various kinds of information systems and technologies, and understanding how they are integrated in enterprise applications that can help business firms improve their organizational performances and decision making. This course adopts the viewpoint of a business professional, rather than a computing professional. Hence, students will learn how the work of managers is influenced by information technology (IT) and how to enhance the competitiveness of an organisation as an IT professional.

This course gives an overview of key information systems applications in enterprises, with a focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. It examines the silo effects in the traditional business organizations. By introducing enterprise systems, it explains how IT technologies support end-to-end business processes by integrating necessary business functions in one integrated process. It also explains key business processes in detail, which includes Procurement, Accounting and Fulfilment, using the SAP ERP system as a model. Students will also learn ERP through a business simulation game that bears the importance of integrated business process.

This course introduces students to the language (that is, protocol) adopted in the communication between a web server and client (browser), called the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP). Students will learn to write a program to talk HTTP with web servers to download web pages from the World Wide Web (WWW). By understanding the format of the web pages in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the information in the web pages can be extracted in the form of an object. Students then learn how to design traditional database and store the information of the objects using the Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) method. Students will also learn how to Create, Read, Update and Destroy (CRUD) records of a database system. A data structure, DataFrame, will be introduced so that CRUD operations on information can be performed through a programming language.

This course introduces students to the basic building blocks of developing a website that can process and present information from various forms of data sources: forms, database and web services. Students will learn how to manage a sequence of requests so that information can be presented coherently. Students will also learn how to organize and represent the information in HTML Document Object Model (DOM) through Javascript programming using CSS templates. Certain information is best presented visually, so students will learn the basic ways to visualize information through social networks, tag clouds and geo-coding.

This course provides the fundamental knowledge and skills for the students to understand modern operating systems. Students recognize how operating systems are an essential part of any computer system by learning the core functions of an operating system that includes memory management, process management, file system management and device management. Through hands-on lab practice using virtual machines on basic system management and security in Linux operating system, students are not only able to understand the benefits of operating system virtualization, but are also able to gain the basic background in system administration. Students can know how the hypervisor technology create virtual machines and manage the guest operating systems running in them. Students also learn how mobile operating systems are designed to manage the features of mobile devices.

This course introduces the concepts of networking in the protocol stack to design and implement a local area network. It explores the architecture, components, functions, protocols, and applications of the Internet and computer networks. Students learn how various network protocols run concurrently and interoperate together in the protocol stack to enable the transfer of data in the Internet. The Internet protocol stack comprises 5 layers, namely: Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, and Application. An application in a computer system uses Application protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to send data to another computer system in the network as the destination. The data is then transmitted using Transport protocols that include Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP), followed by a Network protocol which is Internet Protocol (IP) and a Data Link Protocol such as Ethernet.

This course introduces students to relational databases, data modelling and the theory of relations as applied to the representation of models of data. The aim of this course is to equip students with an understanding of database systems concepts and in particular, using and then designing both read-only and updateable relational databases. The data sublanguage SQL, covered in practical lab sessions using a database management system such as Oracle Database system, includes both SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) for the implementation of the physical database from the Logical Data Model and Data Manipulation Language (DML) for data manipulation and query. The implementation of database objects such as views, triggers and stored procedures using SQL procedural extensions to fulfill business requirements are also explored in practical lab sessions. The system administration of multi-user database systems will also be covered to address issues such as concurrency, database backup, recovery and security.