Information Technology

Career potential

Information technology applies modern technologies to the creation, management and use of information. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. The bachelor's degree in information technology from the University of North Texas can be tailored to support career opportunities in:

• data and information management
• network and systems security
• software design and development
• database systems design and applications
• systems and network administration and configuration

According to projections by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor, some of the fastest growing jobs through 2014 are computer-related.

UNT's Career Center can help you prepare to pursue your career. The center has information about jobs and employers, and the staff can help you with resume and letter writing, job search strategies, and interview preparation.

MAJORING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering offers a bachelor of arts degree with a major in information technology. UNT is one of the first public universities in Texas to offer a bachelor's degree in information technology. It is also the only IT program to be eligible for accreditation as an engineering program by ABET Inc. (111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, Md. 21202, telephone 410-347-7700). This accreditation recognizes the degree program for its strong technical components. In addition, the degree program emphasizes the teamwork, management and global perspective that you will need to be successful in the technology-driven world of the 21st century and beyond.

The program will have several components to meet state-mandated core curriculum requirements and conditions for ABET accreditation. It will also permit flexibility in establishing an academic and career focus. These components are:

• University core courses (24 hrs) — the state's educational requirements including history, political science, English, social sciences and humanities
• College of Engineering core courses (28 hrs) — 12 hours of laboratory science, 10 hours of higher-level mathematics and 6 hours of oral and written communications; designed also to satisfy ABET accreditation guidelines
• Required major courses (39 hrs) — will provide the broad foundation in IT-related skills, including software and systems design and development, networking, security, project management, database systems and professional ethics
• IT concentration courses (9 hrs) — will provide you with the ability to focus and gain knowledge in one particular technical area; can be combined with courses in the supporting area
• Supporting area courses (18 hrs) — you can merge your core IT skills with other academic domains and skills to create a unique and personalized academic experience. Department advisors have created sample degree plans that focus on game development, IT security, digital forensics, pre-law, pre-MBA, pre-med, computational life sciences, bioinformatics, communication systems, networking and music technology among others. Transfer credits from community college technology programs can also satisfy this degree component.

LABORATORIES

The department supports several laboratories that will provide you an opportunity to learn from faculty at work in research areas.

The Center for Information and Computer Security helped UNT earn the designation of “Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education” from the National Security Agency for its strong computer and information security program.

The Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratory applies computational science patterns to public health to provide tools for epidemiologists and public health researchers.

The Computer Privacy and Security Laboratory conducts research on improving privacy and security of computer systems.

The Computer Systems Research Laboratory focuses on issues related to multi-threaded computing, cooperative architecture and compiler techniques for intelligent memory devices, hardware/software codesign, computer-aided design for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), and development of high-level design tools in electronic system level design.

The Computer Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory focuses on computer vision problems such as image fusion, target recognition and pattern classification.

The Geometric Computing Laboratory conducts research to improve the theoretical effectiveness and efficiency of algorithms for problems with a geometric nature.

The Intelligent Distributed Software Systems provide the software and hardware infrastructure for research and graduate teaching in intelligent mobile agents, distributed artificial intelligence and Internet programming.

The Laboratory for Recreational Computing is a center for research and education on game development and entertainment computing.

The Language and Information Technologies Laboratory fosters research on various aspects of natural language processing, including text understanding, machine translation, natural language learning and information retrieval.

The Multimedia Information Laboratory conducts research on multimedia material processing, multimedia information extraction, and multimedia information modeling and retrieval. This includes video and image segmentation, motion and color analysis, image quality analysis, and object recognition by region clustering and classification.

The Network Research Laboratory conducts research in high-speed networking techniques and applications.

The Network Security Laboratory was established to increase the general wireline and wireless network security awareness of computer science and engineering graduates, to produce skilled security specialists, and to conduct research and development activities to advance the state-of-the-art in wireline and wireless network security and communication.

The VLSI Design and CAD Laboratory carries out research in low power design and CAD for nanoscale VLSI circuits.

The Wireless Sensor Laboratory was established to increase general wireless communications awareness among computer science and engineering graduates, produce skilled wireless specialists, and conduct research and development activities to advance the state-of-the-art in wireless sensors.

GETTING HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

Upon completion of 12 semester hours at UNT with at least a 2.5 GPA, you may work in a job related to your major through UNT's Cooperative Education and Internships office. You may earn academic credit and money, and gain valuable work experience.

PREPARING FOR UNT

If you are a high school student, we suggest you prepare for college by becoming computer proficient and taking:

• English … 4 years
• Math … 4 years
• Social science — economics, geography, government, history … 4 years
• Science … 3 years
• Foreign language … 3 years
• Fine arts … 1 year

You will need to take courses in most of these subjects under the university core curriculum required of all undergraduates, in addition to your major courses. Talk with your high school counselor about preparing for college, including the entrance exams (SAT Reasoning Test or ACT) that you should take during your junior year.

As a benefit for transfer students, UNT participates in the Texas Common Course Numbering System. This system makes it easier to transfer credits for general academic courses from one Texas institution to another.

If you're attending a Texas community college, you should consult the UNT Transfer Guide, the UNT Undergraduate Catalog and an academic advisor/ counselor to discuss your degree plan. Proper planning will help you receive the maximum amount of transfer credits.

CHARTING YOUR PATH WITH ACADEMIC ADVISING

Faculty members in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering will help you select courses necessary to earn your degree. They also will give you career guidance and advice. The department office is in Suite F201 of Discovery Park, UNT's nearly 290-acre research park.

Curious about courses and other features of this major?
See the current catalog.