Computer Science Core Courses

The computer science core courses get you off to quick, and fun, start on your computer major.  You will be surprised by how much you will learn, how quickly you will learn it, and how much fun you will have learning it!

CISC 118 - Game Programming

Learn to program by learning to program computer games!  The course is taught in the Python computer language, which is actually used in the real world to create computer games.

The award winning Hartwick spring 2011 play Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom featured eight eight short scenes written in Python written by Diana Acker '12 and Prof. Robert Gann.

CISC 120 - Cracking the Code

This is not your typical introduction to programming course.  It starts out with a super cool introduction to logical thinking and problem solving.   You will work both individually and  in teams to solve various brain teasers, learning to deconstruct the questions logically and improving your cognitive skills. 

When you are comfortable with creating logical solutions the course moves to more conventional programming using Microsoft's Visual Basic.  Object-oriented programming is absolutely critical to the development of today's incredibly complex computer systems.   You will get a firm grounding in Visual Basic Programming.  Each student produces an individaul programming project at the end of the course.

Incidentally, the CISC Department has a special agreement with Microsoft that allows us to give any student in our courses a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio or any Microsoft operating system.

CISC 135 - Visual Programming
After completing the Intro to Programming or Game Programming course, students will move into the Visual Programming course.  This course will introduce students to the C# programming language.  C# is a language that was developed by Microsoft as an alternative to the C++ and Java programming languages.  This is the language that can be used to develop all kinds of amazing applications, and is used to create Xbox360 games through the XNA Game Studio plug-in.

CISC 225 - Advanced Programming Techniques

This is really the "So you want to be a programmer" class.  After completing the Visual Programming course, students will take a step back and learn more about the fundamentals of programming.  One of the main ideas of the course is the introduction to programming data structures.  These structures are used by the students to store and manipulate data to improve the efficiency and elegance of their code.

CISC 315 - Database Management


In today's electronic world the standard method of storing and accessing information is through the use of a database.  This class will teach you how to communicate with a database management system in its own specialized language, Structured Query Language or SQL.  You will create, select and modify data and learn how to secure that data using modern security measures.