This course offers a survey of information technology
underpinning information systems in the private and public sectors. It aims to
provide students with an overview of advances in information technology of
importance to systems design and development. Topics to be covered will be
updated each year the course is taught. Current topics would include cloud
computing, mobile applications, user interfaces, data analytics, and social networks.
The key elements of each of these technologies will be detailed together with
examples of their use in existing information systems. The implications of
these technologies for future information systems development will also be
examined.
This course presents an in-depth look at an area of specialization such as financial computing, business process management or medical informatics. Description of the specialization offered for coverage is as follows:
Financial Computing
This specialization presents theories and computational methods for analyzing and modeling various aspects of financial markets. It aims to provide students considering careers in Investment Banking with an in-depth understanding of financial services and significant computing and statistical skills. The topics in this area would introduce students to the modeling of asset values and financial derivatives and the software implementation of these models for pricing, simulations and scenario analysis. Also included would be an introduction to markets and financial derivatives, and a development of the necessary tools from the theories of stochastic processes and parabolic differential equations. Extensive use is made of financial information sources and software packages available on the Internet for modeling and analysis.
Semantic Business Process Management (SBPM)
Business Process Management can be viewed as a mapping between a business requirements process space of an enterprise and the actual process space of this enterprise comprised of IT systems, resources, and human labor. One paradigm of SBPM is to represent both spheres using Semantic Web Technology and then to process the information content, rather than just presenting the information. The Ontology Web Language (OWL), a language for defining and instantiating Web ontologies, which is seen as a major technology for the future implementation of Semantic Web, will be discussed. Laboratory work will form an integral part of this specialization. Projects will introduce students to Ontology Building tools, and Ontology Editors (e.g. Protégé from Stanford, and SemanticWorks, an OWL editor from ALTOVA).
Medical Informatics
The emerging field of Medical Informatics is dedicated to improving healthcare outcomes through the application of information technologies. This field blends healthcare management and information systems. The specialization in medical informatics aims to provide a balance of both conceptual and applied knowledge, preparing graduates for career paths in the field of medical information management. The topics in this specialization will cover a subset of the following: Computer-Based Patient Records; Medical Decision Support Systems; Medical Informatics in Web-Based Enterprise Computing; Clinical Data Acquisition and Analysis; and Telemedicine.