POSTGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS Postgraduate Course Descriptions
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING ClVL 511 Simulation i n Civil Engineering [3-0-0:3]
Use of computer simulation in the analysis of civil engineering systems with emphasis on the simulation of stochastic water resource systems. Background COMP 102, MATH 241 and MATH 243 (or MATH 244)
ClVL 512 Finite Element Methods [3-0-0:3]
FEM formulation; variational and Galerkin principles for continuum; element technol- ogy; numerical integration scheme; solution of large systems of linear equations;
Postgraduate Course Descriptions
applications to structural mechanics; fluid flow and heat transfer problems. Exclusion:
MECH 593
ClVL 513 Numerical Methods for Civil Engineers [300:3]
Finite difference (FD); method of characteristics (MOC); mixed FD and MOC; upwinding;
problem of discretisation; equivalent differential equations; accuracy, stability, consist- ency and convergence; emphasis on fluids, structures and geotechnical problems.
ClVL 521 Advanced Reinforced Concrete [3-0-0:3]
Up-to-date treatment of reinforced concrete theory and practice; includes ultimate limit state design for bending, shear, torsion, combined bending and compression, service- ability requirements, plates and slab, art of detailing. Background: ClVL 231 and CIVL 232
ClVL 522 Advanced Prestressed Concrete [3-0-0:3]
Basic conceds. desian for serviceabilitv and time dependent analysis, ultimate strength limit states,' anchorage zones, statically indeterminate structures, two-way slabs, compression and tension members.
ClVL 523 Behaviour and Design of Steel Structures [3-0-0:3]
Provides a solid understanding of theory and design of steel structures; includes design philosophies, basic member design, plate girders, beam-columns, connections, semi- rigid frames, stability, plastic design, design optimisation of steel frameworks. Back- ground: ClVL 232 and ClVL 335
ClVL 524 Advanced Concrete Technology [2-0-1:3]
High strength concrete, high-workability concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, shrinkage- compensating concrete, structural lightweight concrete, concrete bond properties, concrete fracture behaviour and modelling. Background: ClVL 11 1 and CIVL 112 Exclusion: ClVL 323
ClVL 531 Structural Analysis and Design of Tall Buildings [3-W:3]
Integrated treatment of analytical methods and technical aspects in design of tall building structures; includes stuctural modelling, frames, shear walls, outriggerbraced systems, core-walls, tubular structures, and special topics.
ClVL 532 Structural Dynamics [3-0-0:3]
Basics, lumped mass systems with various degrees of freedom, energy methods, modal analysis, frequency domain, numerical methods, continuous systems, earthquake engineering, wind loading and aerodynamic effects on buildings.
ClVL 533 Advanced Mechanics of Materials [3-0-0:3]
Analysis of stress and strain; elastic and inelastic behaviour of materials; formulation of BVP; beam on elasticfoundations; torsion of noncircular thinwalled members; deforma- tion of cylinders and spheres; inelastic analysis.
ClVL 534 Optimal Structural Design [3-0-0:3]
Presents advanced techniquesfor design optimisation; linear and nonlinear mathemati- cal programming techniques, approximation concepts, sensitivity analysis, optimality criteria method for large-scale structures; special topics on optimal tall building design.
ClVL 535 Elasticity and Plasticity [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: CIVL 600El Stress and strain tensor; compatibility; Hook's Law and equilibrium equations; plane stress and plane strain; two-dimensional problem in polar co-ordinates; elastic wave; failure criteria; flow rule; upper and lower bound;
applications of plasticity. Background: ClVL 112 Exclusion: MECH 501
Postgraduate Course DescriDtions
ClVL 541 Physical and Chemical Wastewater Treatment [3-0-0:3]
Principles of treatment for removing contaminants from drinking water and municipal wastewaters: includes eaualisation, neutralisation, ~reci~itation, coagulation and flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, air stripping, carbon ads~r'~tion,-disinfection.
Background: ClVL 242
ClVL 542 Biological Waste Treatment [3-0-0:3]
Principles of secondary, biological treatment processes; includes sewage sand filters, trickling filters, activated sludge plants, lagoons, ponds, rotating biological contactors, aerobic and anaerobic digesters, and biological nutrient removal. Background: ClVL 242
ClVL 543 Aquatic Chemistry [3-0-0:3]
Chemistry applied to reactions occurring in water and wastewater, includes inorganic solution chemistry, chemical equilibriuG, acidslbases, coordination chemistry, chemi- cal kinetics, colloid chemistrv, solubilitv and ~recioitation, . . oxidation-reduction ~otential.
Background: ClVL 242
ClVL 544 Process Design of Water and Wastewater Treatment [3-0-0:3]
Systems
Complete design of water or wastewater treatment plants with emphasis on careful iterative accounting in terms of solids mass balances, flow sidestreams, hydraulics and pumping. Prerequisites: ClVL 541 and ClVL 542
ClVL 545 Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal [3-0-0:3]
Technical and regulatory aspects of the handling and disposing of hazardous wastes;
includes waste collection, treatment, storage and disposal facilities, remediation of contaminated soils, treatment of liquid wastes, waste minimisation. Background: ClVL 344
ClVL 546 Engineering Design For Landfill System [3-0-0:3]
Geoenvironmental as~ects of landfill lining and cover svstems: includes clav mineral- ogy, construction of 'liners and covers, construction 'quality'assurance, effects of chemicals, transport of chemicals, permeability tests, landfill operation. Background:
ClVL 141 and ClVL 271
ClVL 547 Industrial Wastewater Treatment [3-0-0:3]
Procedures for industrial surveys; includes waste sampling, waste characterisation, treatability studies, selection of treatment methods for achieving cost effective opera- tion, case studies of selected types of industrial waste treatment.
ClVL 551 Fluid Transients in Systems [3-0-0:3]
Unsteady flow problems in complex pipe or channel systems with emphasis on boundary condition representation; pipe networks-pumps, valves, reservoirs; open channel systems-irrigation, storm and sanitary sewers. Background: ClVL 151 ClVL 552 Water Resources Systems Analysis [3-0-0:3]
Systems approach to the area of water resources management; includes water resources svstems within the context of oublic investment svstems, criteria and desian of water management schemes. ~ a c k ~ r o u n d : ECON 11 1 and MATH 281
-
ClVL 553 Wastewater Disposal [3-0-0:3]
Disposal of wastewater in rivers, lakes and oceans; includes water quality standards, wastewater collection and treatment, outfall hydraulics, transport and dispersion of conservative and non-conservative pollutants.
Postnraduate Course DescriDtions
ClVL 554 Pollutant Transport and Dispersion [340:3]
Introduction to turbulence and its importance in Environmental Engineering; includes the governing equations, isotropic turbulence, statistical theories, free and wall- bounded shear flows, transport and dispersion.
ClVL 555 Modelling Fluid Systems [3-0-0:3]
Physical processes in water resources systems, their mathematical representation and numerical solutions; includes Newton's second law, equations of mass and energy conservation applied to closed-conduit, open-channel and groundwater flow problems.
ClVL 561 Urban Transportation Planning [3-0-0:3]
Land use and transportation-interaction; trip generation; trip distribution; modalsplit and direct demand models: discrete choice models: traffic assianment: eauilibrium between supply and demand; simplified transportation demand mo2els. ~ack~round: ClVL 261
ClVL 562 Traffic System Analysis [31M1:3]
Traffic flow characteristics; demand-supply analysis; capacity analysis; traffic stream models; shock wave analysis; queueing analysis; computer simulation models; optimi- sation of traffic systems. Background: ClVL 261
ClVL 571 Advanced Soil Mechanics [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics from recent advances in theoretical and experimental development in soil mechanics: includes stress-strain behaviour of soil. consolidation settlement, drained and undrained strength slope stability problems. Background: ClVL 372
ClVL 572 Advanced Foundation Design [3-0-0:3]
Current practice of foundation design and analysis; includes design and analysis of bulkheads, deep excavation, tieback systems, tunnelling in soft ground, buried con- duits, lateral pile loading, pier foundations. Background: ClVL 372
ClVL 573 Theoretical Soil Mechanics [3-0-0:3]
Recent advances in numerical methods in geotechnical modelling; includes boundary conditions, constitutive laws, critical state soil mechanics, bounding-surface and hypoplastic concepts, diffusion and consolidation problems. Background: ClVL 372 and ClVL 331
ClVL 574 Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics [3-0-0:3]
A state-of-the-art examination of the use of geosynthetics and ground modification techniques in geotechnical engineering; includes soil densification, preloading, vertical drain, grouting, ground freezing, soil nailing, and the use of geosynthetics in geotechnical design. Background ClVL 372
ClVL 575 Soil Dynamics [340:3]
Examines basic principles of soil dynamics and site response analysis; includes theory of vibration and elastic wave propagation, time discretisation, earthquake excitation, soil behaviour under dynamics loading, liquefaction, machine foundations. Back- ground: ClVL 372
ClVL 576 Marine Geotechnical Engineering [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: ClVL 600HI Investigation of marine soil properties and geotechnical testing, ocean wave a& earthquake loading, seafloor slope stability, foundations for offshore structures. Background: Soil mechanics and foundation engineering
Postgraduate Course Descriptions
ClVL 600 Special Topics [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics of current interest. May be repeated for credit if different topics are covered.
ClVL 610 Directed Studies [3-0-0:3]
Specialist courses where instruction is generally on a one-to-one basis.
ClVL 612 Advanced Topics i n Finite Element Analysis [3-0-0:3]
Variational formulation of nonlinear boundary-valued problems with material and geometric nonlinearities; solution methods for nonlinear systems of equations; solu- tions for plastic and viscoplastic problems. Background: ClVL 51 2
ClVL 680 Civil and Structural Engineering Seminar [I-0-0:1]
Discussion of current araduate research. and auest lectures on recent advances in civil and structural engineering. The course h a y ce repeated for credit. Up to a maximum of 3 credits earned by any single student. (Graded either P or F).
ClVL 698 MSc Project [6 credits]
An independent research project carried out underthe supervision of afaculty member.
This compulsory project for MSc students will normally be completed at the end of the course of study. (Graded either P or F).
ClVL 699 MPhil Thesis Research
Master's thesis research supervised by a faculty member. A successful defence of the thesis leads to the grade Pass or Pass with Distinction. No course credit is assigned.
ClVL 799 Doctoral Thesis Research
Original and independent doctoral thesis research. A successful defence of the thesis leads to the grade Pass or Pass with Distinction. No course credit is assigned.
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Courses denoted by * at the end of the course code are available for enrolment by undergraduate students on a limited basis. Permission of the course instructor is required.
COMP 501' Organisational Computing Systems [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 5321 Technoloav integration as a ~ ~ l i e d to oraanisa- iional computing systems. lnterdi&iplinary n z i r e ; Gabling technologies; h;man- computer interaction; information management; organisational communication; organi- sational work; designing organisational computing systems; impact and evaluation.
COMP 514 Software Engineering [3-0-0:3]
Concepts and principles which underlie current and emerging methods, tools, and techniques for software development, validation and maintenance; case studies.
Exclusions: IEEM 51 1, ISMT 501, ISMT 502
COMP 516 Neural Computation [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 520A] Computational principles underlying nervous system function. Topics include: introduction to physiology of neurons, information coding, comparison of physiological data and models, visual and auditory sensory processing, motor systems.
Postgraduate Course Descriptions
COMP 520 Topics i n Artificial Intelligence [3-0-0:3]
Topics in artificial intelligence covered at an introductory postgraduate level, including neural networks, logic programming, machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, expert systems, and others. Background: COMP 221
COMP 522 Machine Learning [3-0-0:3]
lntroduction to machine learning paradigms and techniques. Induction from examples, conceptual clustering, explanation-based learning, analogical and case-based reason- ing, statistical pattern recognition, connectionist learning and genetic algorithms.
Background: COMP 221
COMP 523 Artificial Neural Networks [3-0-0:3]
Theory and applications of neurocomputing. Artificial neural networks as biologically inspired computational models for supervised learning, unsupervised learning, rein- forcement learning, associative memory, optimisation, etc. and their theoretical foundations. Background: Knowledge of linear algebra and probability
COMP 524 Computer Vision [3-0-0:3]
lntroduction to techniques for automatically describing visual data and tools for image analysis; perception of spatial organisation; models of general purpose vision systems;
computational and psychological models of perception. Background: COMP 221;
knowledge in linear algebra
COMP 525 Expert Systems [3-0-0:3]
lntroduction to expert systems. Problem specification, knowledge acquisition, knowl- edge representation, inference techniques, uncertainty management, explanation, tools and languages for building expert systems; examples of existing systems.
Background: COMP 221
COMP 526 Natural Language Processing [3-0-0:3]
Techniques for parsing, interpretation, context modelling, plan recognition, generation.
Emphasis on statistical approaches, neuropsychological and linguistic constraints, large text corpora. Applications include machine translation, dialogue systems, cogni- tive modelling, knowledge acquisition. Background: COMP 321
COMP 527' Pattern Recognition [3-0-0:3]
lntroduction to pattern recognition techniques, Bayes decision theory, discriminant functions, perception, potential functions. ~arametric and non~arametric techniaues:
supervised and unsupervised learning; clustering; feature selection; syntactic recognition. Background Knowledge of linear algebra and probability (e.g. MATH 11 1 and MATH 244)
COMP 528 Logic Programming and Prolog [34-0:3]
Established, important concepts of logic programming. Topics include Prolog program- ming, language translation and logic grammars, rewriting and meta-interpretation, constraint logic programming and parallel logic programming. Background COMP 251
COMP 529 Digital Image Processing [3-04:3]
Two-dimensional signals and systems; image perception; image sampling and trans- forms; image enhancement andrestorati0n;linear and nonlinear image filtering; image feature extraction: i m a ~ e re~resentation and recognition: imaae com~ression: comou- ter vision. Backgroun~ ~ n o w l e d ~ e of linear alg&ra and prGbabilit); (e.g. ELEC
2i
1, MATH 1 1 1 and MATH 244) Exclusion: ELEC 532Postm-aduate Course DescriDtions
COMP 530 Database Architecture and Implementation [3-0-0:3]
Systems and architecture concepts in database management systems: advanced storage and access methods; transaction processing; query processing and optimiza- tion; implementation of relational operators; memory and storaqe management; fault tolerance; recovery. ~xclusion: COMP 333 PrereqGsites:
COMP
231 and COMP 252 COMP 531' Data and Knowledge Base Systems [3-0-0:3]Advanced course in data- and knowledge-base systems. Data models including object- oriented and logic-based. Architectures; database design and system implementation techniques. Transaction management and recovery; query optimisation. Active databases. Background COMP 231
COMP 533 Information Retrieval [3-0-0:3]
Systems that provide relevance (similarity) based retrieval rather than exact matching.
Topics: IR system architecture, IR models, performance, evaluation, relevance feed- back, clustering, other reductional indexing approaches, analysis applications, future trends. Exclusion: COMP 336
COMP 534 Distributed Data and Knowledge Bases [3-0-0:3]
Advanced t o ~ i c s in distributed data and knowledge base svstems: architectures:
database design; query processing and optimisatioi; concurrency control; recovery:
Techniques for supporting heterogeneous database systems and cooperative informa- tion systems.
COMP 535 Knowledge Representation [3-0-0:3]
Epistemology of object, concept, procedure and meta-knowledge, declarative and procedural representation. Types of representations include logic, production system, associative networks, frames, schema, class-concepts and hierarchies.
COMP 536 Formal Methods i n Reasoning r3-o-0:3i
Deduction; induction; abduction; probabilistic and approximate reasoning; situate;
calculus; belief revision; non-monotonic reasoning; assumption-based reasoning; modal logic; temporal reasoning.
COMP 537 Knowledge Discovery in Databases [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 631A] An introduction to knowledge discovery in databases. Different discovery and learning techniques are presented and compared.
Automatic generation of query language expressions is discussed in depth. potential applications are shown. Exclusion: COMP 337 Prerequisite: COMP 231 or equivalent COMP 538 Reasoning and Decision under Uncertainty [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 52081 Methods of reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. Foundations. History. Probability theory and Bayesian networks.
Decision theory and influence diagrams. Algorithms. Dempster-Shafer theory. Fuzzy set theory. Applications.
COMP 540 Computer Graphics [3-0-1:3]
Input and output; graphics primitives; line drawing; coordinate systems; transforma- tions; synthetic camera; colour; curves; shading and rendering. Optional: surfaces;
human vision; ray tracing; architectures. Exclusion: COMP 341 Prerequisite: COMP 271
Post~raduate Course DesrriDtions Postgraduate Course Descriptions
COMP 541 Multilingual Computing [3-0-0:3]
Classifying systems of writing, script families, major scripts. Fonts: representation, rendering, etc. Attributes of systems of writing: bound and unbound graphemes, case and other modes, conjuncts, character classes. Operations over scripts.
COMP 542 Computer Music [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 640A] Methods for generating and manipulating computer music including musical acoustics, spectral analysis, wavetable and FM synthesis, filtering, reverb, and MIDI. Background: No previous background in music is assumed, but would be helpful.
COMP 551' Compiler Design [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 5711 Overview of compiler organisation, compiler building software tools; use of regular expressions and context-free grammar in programming language specification; parsing, semantic analysis, code generation and optimisation. Background: COMP 352
COMP 552' Operating Systems [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 5121 Operating system design and construction techniques; concurrent programming, operating system kernels, correctness, dead- lock, memory management, process scheduling, file systems, security; programming methodologies for operating systems. Background: COMP 252
COMP 553 Distributed Systems [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP5111 Issues in the design of distributed systems. Clock
~~nchronisation, state detection, mutual exclusion; naming and authentication; coordi- nation of distributed orocesses: desian environment for specification, testing and analysis; case studies: ~ a c k ~ r h n d :
COMP
252-
COMP 560 Computer Communication Protocols [3-0-0:3]
Nature, design and implementation of computer communication protocols, in particular, design principles of OSI protocols. Suwey of the protocol development cycle including introduction to the use of formal techniques for protocol specification, verification and testing. Background COMP 361
COMP 570' Algorithm Design and Analysis [3-0-0:3]
Advanced topics in algorithm design and analysis, including probabilistic algorithms, geometric algorithms, parallel algorithms: shared memory and network connected, graph algorithms, and advanced topics in complexity theory.
COMP 572' Computability and Logic [3-0-0:3]
Computable functions, Church's thesis, unsolvable problems; recursively enumerable sets and degrees, computational complexity; predicate calculus, including the com- pleteness, compactness, and Lowenheim-Skolem theorems; formal theories and the Goedel incompleteness theorem.
COMP 573 Computational Geometry [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 67081 An introductory course in Computational Geometry. Algorithms for manipulating geometric objects. Topics include Convex Hulls, Voronoi Diagrams, Point Location, Triangulations, Randomized Algorithms, Point-Line Duality. Background: COMP 271
as they affect computer architectures, performance evaluation; supercomputer case studies. Background COMP 180
COMP 582 Parallel Processing: Hardware Systems [3-0-0:3]
Design and analysis of parallel computer systems ranaina from networked workstations to massively parallel computers. ' ~ o ~ i c s include- architectural classification and performance evaluation of parallel computers; interconnection networks and the implementation of various parallel algorithms on these networks; message-routing methods; performance evaluation. Background COMP 381
COMP 583 Computer Engineering Graph Theory [3-0-0:3]
Graph theory and techniques with applications to computer engineering problems;
optimisation techniques; resource allocation, logic design verification, distributed fault testing and diagnosis, network communication routing. Background COMP 271
COMP 584 Optical Computing [3-0-0:3]
Design of computer systems and communication networks using optical devices;
nonlinear optical devices, optical switchinq and interconnection networks. different routing protocols in optical links, pipeliningin waveguides, optical addressing.
ground COMP 381 Back-
COMP 585 Fault Tolerant Computing [3-0-0:3]
Fault-tolerance issues in designing computer systems; fault detection and testing, algorithms for designing test sets; design for testability; error detecting and correcting codes; characterising fault-tolerance, reliability, availability. Prerequisite: COMP 381 COMP 586* Concurrency and Real-time Systems [3-0-0:3]
Concurrency and synchronisation issues in computer systems; deadlock, contention, real-time interrupt driven systems, hardware and software synchronisation mecha- nisms, synchronous, asynchronous, and self-timed systems. Background COMP 252
COMP 587 Parallel Processing: Software [3-0-0:3]
Software aspects of parallel processing systems including parallel programming paradigms, complex problem solving techniques using high performance computing, parallel algorithms, parallelism management, scheduling, mapping, load balancing, parallel languages, and parallelisation compilers. Background COMP 252 and COMP 271
COMP 610 Topics i n Software Engineering [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics in software engineering of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 61 1 Topics in Object-Orientation [3-0-0:3]
[Previous Course Code: COMP 5151 Topics include object-oriented computing con- cepts, object-oriented analysis and design, object-oriented data models and databases;
impact on software reuseability; exemplary languages and systems; and other selected research topics.
COMP 621 Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence [3-0-0:3]
Advanced topics in artificial intelligence including neural networks, natural language processing, logic programming, image understanding, robotics and others. Back- ground an appropriate 500-level course.
COMP 581 Advanced Computer Architectures [3-0-0:3]
Design and evaluation of high performance computers. Memory hierarchies, virtual memories and caches, pipelining, vector processing, compilers and operating systems
Postgraduate Course Descriptions
COMP 630 Topics in Database Systems 13-0-0:3]
Selected topics in database systems of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 631 Topics in Knowledge Base Systems [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics in knowledge base systems of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 632 Topics in Information Retrieval [3-W:3]
Selected topics in information retrieval of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 640 Topics in Interactive Computing [3-W:3]
Selected topics in interactive computing of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 641 Topics in Graphics [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics in graphics of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 650 Topics in Computer Systems [3-0-0:3]
Selected topics in computer systems of current interest to the Department and not covered by existing courses.
COMP 651 Topics in Computer Systems Analysis [3-0-0:3]
Advanced tooics in comouter svstems analvsis: issues in the development and solution of system mbde~s; model para;netrisation.verification and validation; recent develop- ments in techniques and tools for system evaluation.
COMP 660 Topics in Computer and Communication Networks 13-0-0:3]
Nature, design and implementation of computer communication protocols, in particular, the design principles of OSI protocols. Survey of protocol specification, verification and
Nature, design and implementation of computer communication protocols, in particular, the design principles of OSI protocols. Survey of protocol specification, verification and