This course will provide introduction of the relevant concepts, issues and practices in this diverse field including a brief history of data / information visualization; principles of visual literacy; an overview of contemporary systems and techniques used in information visualization; common applications of information visualization; and considerations in analyzing and evaluating applications in information visualization.

The course covers an overview of the hypermedia/interactive multimedia technology through working with various hypermedia/interactive multimedia tools and applying them in developing interactive multimedia-based applications.

This course covers the conceptual frameworks and applied methodologies for user-centered design and user experience research. Emphasis is placed on learning and practicing a variety of usability research methods/techniques such as scenario development, user profiling, tasks analysis, contextual inquiry, card sorting, usability tests, log data analysis, expert inspection and heuristic evaluation.

This course emphasized the importance of information hiding and how to use abstraction in good program design. Students will be able to estimate algorithms growth rates and describe it using big O notation. Various Sorting and searching techniques including Hashing will be studied and their performances compared. Similarly, various data structures their representations, traversal, and application will be studied and compared. These data structures include at least: lists, stacks, queues, trees, and graphs.

The course topics will include: History of games, Game design, logic, interface and interaction. Game engines, platforms and development methodologies, Games industries and their future. The course will offer the students the opportunity to design, develop, and create creative games. Students will have the technical knowledge to successfully contribute to games production industry, as well as have a deeper understanding of games – enabling them to create truly innovative designs.

Characteristics of the database approach. Database concepts and architecture; Data models, schemas and instances; Program data independence, Database languages and interfaces. Data models for database systems; The E-R DM, Relational DM and Relational Algebra. Relational model constraints; Domain, key, and integrity constraints. SQL-relational DB language; Data definition, queries, update statements, and views in SQL. Database design; functional dependencies, Normal forms. Introduction to OO databases.