The Bottom Line

    The Contra Costa College (CCC) Computer Science program will give you a strong practical and theoretical Computer Science AS degree to transfer as a junior to a four year college, in particular, one of the four universities surrounding CCC: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Cal State East Bay, and San Francisco State University. Go to Assist.org to verify which classes transfer to a particular college. For more information see the Theoretical Computer Science page.

    The CCC Applied Computer Science courses can prepare you to get a job as a computer scientist via courses in robotics, video game design, cluster design, and animation, as well as many other possible special projects. For more information see the Applied Computer Science page.

Degree

  • Associate of Science in Computer Science
Certificates of Achievement (Coming Fall 2007)

Instructors

The Details

    Computer Science is primarily focused on the science of computers (the study human/computer interaction), including structure and organization, function and programming. The traditional Computer Science program trains traditional students. The CCC program can certainly do this.

    However, we live in a time of ever expanding knowledge and possibilities. The theoretical foundation is certainly necessary, but more intangible and impossible to measure attributes and experiences are also essential to a successful career as a computer scientist. The applied computer science portion of the program addresses these intangibles through providing open-ended collaborative opportunities for students to foster their creativity, computer science intuition and experience. This is done through open-entry open-exit variable unit laboratory courses without lectures. This means students can typically sign up for between .2 and 3 units, attend laboratory when they choose, and are graded on the work they produce.

    For the robotics courses, this means participating in competitions where the robot must be designed, machined, built and tested within weeks. The special projects course allows students to team together to take on a longer-range project lasting from one semester to up to two years. Past and current projects have included designing and building a computational cluster in a suitcase, designing/building a LISP based robot, developing computational resources for one-hour open-ended explorations, developing an educational presence in a virtual environment, designing and building computer video games, and creating animated shorts. For its foundation, the applied computer science program relies on the theoretical portion of the computer science program, as well as from other CCC programs:

Facilities

    CCC's Computer Science program is equipped to offer students the opportunity to learn the theory, practice and methods of Computer Science. A well-equipped robotics laboratory and four computational clusters are available for use in the applied computer science portion of the curriculum. Student projects requiring resources beyond those of the CCC clusters will accommodated by student accounts through CCC collaboration with the Oklahoma University Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER), the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). There are plans to add a computer numerically controlled (CNC) milling machine, CNC lathe and CNC plasma cutter to the robotics workshop. Students will gain valuable hands-on experience that has led to summer internships and jobs with local business and national laboratories.
Possible Careers

    The CCC computer science program is an initial step towards the following careers:

    • Computer programmer
    • Software engineer
    • Systems analyst
    • Chief information officer
    • Civil Engineer
    • Structural Engineer
    • Mechanical Engineer
    • Electrical Engineer
    • Computer operator
    • Computer service technician
    • Operations analyst
    • Computer security specialist
    • Technical support specialist
    • Hardware analyst
    • Quality assurance analyst
    • Microcomputer support specialist
    • Semiconductor design analyst or technician
    • Network technician
    • Robotics technician
    • Digital design analyst
    • CAD/CAM analyst


 

CCC Computer Science   =>   Applied Computer Science  +   Theoretical Computer Science