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Undergraduate

Enrolment News (2021-22)

General News

Fall In-Person and Remote Teaching

See the Arts and Science page on returning to campus in Fall 2021, which includes directions on registering as a remote student.

In accordance with Arts and Science policies, most fall courses are fully in-person and will not accommodate either remote students or students arriving later than the end of the 2nd week of classes (the normal last-add date). If you do not return for in-person classes in September, your set of possible paths to graduation may be reduced.

  • CISC 101, 102, and 121 will have separate in-person and remote sections.
  • CISC 203 will be fully remote. No other second year fall courses will accommodate remote learning. If you need one of the core courses (204, 221, 223, 235) and cannot take it in the fall, you will have to take it in the winter term.
  • CISC/CMPE 365 is fully remote but open only to graduating students and those for whom it is the only option for maintaining full-time status.
  • CISC 457 is fully remote. If you are a 4th year student whose plan requirements demand a particular fall 400-level course that is not offered remotely, you can seek permission to substitute CISC 457. You cannot use it to satisfy a prerequisite for some follow-on to the course you are substituting for.
  • A few upper year courses required for 4th year students to graduate are in-person but will accommodate remote graduating students.
    • CISC 327
    • CISC 330
    • CISC 498A but only for projects where all stakeholders (team members, customers, coordinator, and supervisor) all freely agree.

The situation may change depending on advice from Public Health.

Winter term courses will be online until after Reading Week (Feb 22-25), when they are expected to return to in-person. CISC/CMPE 454 will continue online-only.

Error in SOLUS Listing of Remote Courses

As of 2021-08-10 SOLUS is erroneously listing some in-person courses with classrooms (and sometimes timeslots) as TBA, which normally means remote. Only the courses listed above are remote. We are trying to get the SOLUS error fixed as soon as possible.

Online Courses at Other Institutions

Some other universities have online courses equivalent to some offered at Queen's. See the list of Athabasca courses with CISC equivalents. All such transfer credits require a Letter of Permission from Arts and Science in advance of taking the course.

Starting Fall Term Late

If a student cannot attend in-person classes by the end of the add/drop period (Monday, September 20), they should register in online and remote courses. In most cases missing even the first week of a class creates significant problems. If any instructors confirm that their courses can accommodate later arrivals, we will list them here, but we currently expect it will rarely be possible. If you register in a course not listed here, you may discover that you miss some assessment tasks and may therefore get a zero in some elements of your grade.

  • CISC 204: You must keep up with lectures and individual assignments (available via OnQ) and be able to attend the first in-person quiz on September 24. Since you can drop one of your five quiz scores, arriving later means this quiz is the one you will drop.
  • CISC 360: No in-class assessment will occur in the first 2 weeks. The lowest quiz mark will be dropped, so if an in-person quiz is held in Week 3, it is possible to miss it. However, not all course material will be available online. Students are responsible for material in missed lectures.

Substituting CISC 457 for Other Courses

CISC 457 is offered remotely and is not a required course, so if you are a registered remote student you can substitute it for one Fall 4th year course required in your degree plan (though you can't use it to satisfy a prerequisite of some course that requires the one you're replacing). The process is to enrol in CISC 457, then send mail to the Undergraduate Chair stating the degree plan requirement for which to substitute CISC 457.

Security Option

The Security option now requires new course CISC 468, Cryptography (winter 2022); this replaces an erroneous duplicate reference to CISC 324 in the 2020-21 calendar.

The optional courses CISC 434 and CISC 448 are not offered this year; you can contact the Undergraduate Chair to substitute any SOFT_Design course at the 300 level or above; see the SODE plan for a list of SOFT_Design courses.

CISC 320 will also be accepted as a SOFT_Design course.

Full Courses

When a course fills up (that is, is marked "closed") there is often nothing we can do; we cannot add students to courses whose classrooms are full, and there are almost never larger classrooms available. You may need to take a full course in a later term, or take an alternative course.

COGS 100 Fall/Winter Full

COGS 100 Winter is full. COGS 100 fall has been converted to remote to accommodate 50 more students; those spaces are reserved for 3rd and 4th year COGS, majors, and CSCI specialists until Open Enrollment. Arts and Science Online is very likely to offer COGS 100 in both Spring and Summer 2022.

CISC 220 Fall Full

The Fall section of CISC 220 is full. There is plenty of room in the winter section.

Fall CISC 360 Full

Fall CISC 360 has reached its enrolment cap. There are a few spaces left in the classroom which we have reserved for 4th year students who cannot take it in the winter. All others should enroll in the Winter section.

CISC 452 Full

CISC 452 is full. A few more seats will become available later this week when we can transfer whatever remains of the COGS 400 seats to CISC 452.

CISC 457 Full

As of 2021-11-13 we arranged to increase the enrollment cap for CISC 457 slightly, to the maximum the instructor and TAs can handle. Applied Science might be able to release a few more seats to us late next week.

CISC 467 Full

CISC 467 Winter is full and cannot be increased. Because of the 2020-21 calendar, any 400-level CISC course can be substituted for it in the AI option of the major and Computer Science specializations, and we will extend this substitution to COGS students as well for this year. Enroll in your substitute course and email the undergraduate chair to have your academic advisement report marked to show the substitution.

CISC 492 Full

CISC 492 (Winter) is full and the class cannot be made larger.

Special Issues

Calendar Error re Prerequisites for MATH Courses

The electronic calendar erroneously leaves out MATH 111/121 as prerequisite for upper-year math courses, particularly MATH 210 and 280. Students intending to select COMA for second year remain free to take those two courses in first year.

SODE requirement for CISC 271 or 340

On of the SODE requirements for the software development option is "CISC 271 or 340" but 340 is not offered this year. In next year's calendar this will be replaced by "any SOFT_Design course," of which these are two examples. For this year, if you have a SOFT_Design course on your transcript, or add one now, and it isn't needed for the existing two SOFT_Design requirements (one 400-level, one at any level), contact the undergraduate chair to have your records marked that you have satisfied the 271/340 requirement. See the official calendar for a list of SOFT_Design courses.

CISC 453 and CISC 455

As of 2021-08-01, CISC 453 (not offered) was listed on SOLUS, crosslisted with CISC 474. It will shortly be deleted; enroll in CISC 474 instead.

Prior to 2021-08-05, CISC 455 (new AI and Theory course) was not listed on SOLUS. That has now been fixed.

CISC 496 Calendar Error

There is an error in the Arts and Science calendar: the prerequisites for CISC 496 are actually

registration in a Computing honours plan and (C- in CISC 486) and 30 units in CISC/SOFT/COGS/COCA and 2.6 GPA in all of CISC/SOFT/COGS/COCA

We will need to manually drop any student who does not meet these criteria.

CISC 497 Fall Full

CISC 497 Fall is full and cannot be increased. Please sign up for CISC 497 Winter. There used to be 'permission of school required' messages from SOLUS for one of the seminar sections, but this should now be fixed.

Known Course Conflicts

CISC 204/STAT 268 Conflict

For COMA students needing both Fall CISC 204 and STAT 268: enroll in STAT 268 and email Karen saying that you need these two courses and agree to the following constraints required by the instructors.

CISC 204

  • The classroom is "flipped," and so missing a live lecture on Thursdays is something they can make up easily.
  • If recording is available in the lecture hall, it will be done; if not, you must make up the material on your own.
  • There is one quiz tentatively scheduled for a Thursday: Oct 7th. You must attend this quiz.
  • Students can miss/drop their lowest quiz score.

STAT 268

  • All the content discussed in the lectures will be provided in the lecture notes and I will see if I can record those lectures.
  • No tests will be held on Thursdays.
  • Extra office hours may be possible; the instructor has to see how many students have the time conflict.

CISC 330/471 Conflict

As of 2021-08-07 CISC 471 has been moved to the winter term for several reasons, one of which was a conflict with CISC 330. If you are a BMCO student who would be forced into a 6-course overload in the winter because of this change, you can consider substituting fall CISC 457 for winter CISC 471; contact the undergraduate chair after you have enrolled in 457.

CISC 423/498B Conflict

CISC/SOFT 423 conflicts with CISC 498B on Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30. You must attend the full CISC 498b session on those few Wednesdays when CISC 498B meets; the CISC/SOFT 423 instructor will not hold mandatory in-class events on those days. See the list of specific dates.

Please first enroll in CISC 498, then contact Karen Knight to enroll you in CISC 423. We can't do it the other way around because CISC 498 has a complex prerequisite we need SOLUS to check. If you are already in CISC 423 you will need to drop it, add 498, then contact Karen who will add you to 423.

Security Option: Replacements for CISC 434/448

No instructors were available this year for CISC 434 or 448. There will be a change in the 2022-23 calendar to allow "SOFT_Design at the 300 level or above" as a replacement; we will implement this change this year via course substitutions. Sign up for one of the following courses and then email the undergraduate chair to make a subsitution ion your Academic Advisement Report: CISC 320; CISC 332/3.0; CISC 352/3.0; CISC 452/3.0; CISC 454/3.0; CISC 458/3.0; CISC 486/3.0. If they are offered, the following are also acceptable: ELEC 470/3.0; ELEC 471/3.0; ELEC 476/3.0; ELEC 478/3.0.

If you have already taken the substitute course, just inform the undergraduate chair as above.

Note that the Security option now requires CISC 468, Cryptography.

General Advice

Getting Advice

Always check this page or the undergraduate FAQ before asking a question; if it is a standard one, you will find your answer faster than asking an adviser.

As of August 1, 2021 advice will be provided through a ticketing system via email to the School's centralized advising service instead of by email to individual advisers. This means you will get answers from the next available adviser, instead of having to wait for a single potentially overload person. Use this email address for all advising requests except those for which we provide a specific alternative on this page or in the FAQ. Always provide your student number in any email to an adviser or any of the addresses on this page, even a reply to a previous email.

"reserved for students in other plans" and "course closed"

If you are a Computing student getting the message "course reserved for students in other plans" it is because of enrolment reserves which expire on August 18. Please do not sent email to us requesting an override, unless you are a dual degree, second degree, or Computing minor student in 3rd or 4th year trying to add winter term CISC 221, 223, and 235.

If you are a non-Computing student getting the same message, it is because until open enrolment starts on August 30, all upper-year Computing courses are reserved for students in Computing plans. Please do not send email to us requesting an override.

If you get a message that a course is closed, it is almost always because it is full. We cannot add students to a full course, and for courses with classrooms it is nearly certain that no larger classroom is available. In a crosslisted CISC/CMPE course it may be that there are spaces in the CMPE section. We cannot claim those spaces for CISC students until Applied Science releases them to us, which will not be until at least August 18. Please do not send email to us requesting an override.

If you are getting the vague "requisites not met" message, please double-check that you really do have all the prerequisites listed in the online calendar before emailing Karen.

Fall CISC 365

Fall CISC 365 is co-taught with CMPE 365 and is a slightly different course that would normally risk exceeding the TA capacity if CISC students were free to take it. For both reasons we normally only permit graduating students, and those on exchange in Winter of their 3rd year, to enroll.

BMCO students for whom it is impossible to take CISC 365 in the winter may also take it in the fall, because CISC 471 might be in the fall of 4th year.

Send email to the Undergraduate Assistant with your student ID and enrolment appointment time if you qualify for either of these exceptions.

CMPE 365 is open to all Engineering students who meet the prerequisites.

Statistics and the Analytics Focus

The Data Analytics focus requires 3rd year course CISC 371, which requires statistics. If you don't take statistics in 2nd year, you will need to defer CISC 371 and CISC 372 to 4th year. This will affect your workload in 4th year but doesn't jeopardize graduation unless CISC 372 conflicts with a required 4th year course; we can't guarantee that 3rd year courses won't conflict with 4th year ones.

Changes to Course Offerings

See the course list for which courses are offered in what terms. In particular, COGS 100 is now offered both fall and winter.

New Courses

CISC 455 (Evolutionary and Genetic Computing) is offered in the fall, and can be used as an option in COGS and in the AI option and theory options in the major and CSCI.

CISC 468 (Cryptography) is offered in the winter, and is required in the Security option in the major and CSCI.

AI and COGS Options

CISC 453 and CISC 473 are not offered. Available options for Cognitive Science and the AI option are Fall CISC 452/COGS 400, CISC 455, and 474, and Winter 467.

Theory Options

4th year theory options in the Fundamental Computation option are Fall CISC 422 and 455, and Winter 465. With permission, Winter CISC 471 and Fall 490 can be substituted; register in the course before contacting the School's Undergraduate Assistant.

Topics Courses

Fall CISC 490, Computing Beyond Turing, can be used as a theory option. Winter CISC 492, Software Startups, can be used as a SOFT_Design course in SODE.

Topics Courses

Enrolling in topics courses requires contacting the Undergraduate Assistant to check that you have the necessary prerequisites.

CISC 490 has one offering, in the fall, subtitled "Computing Beyond Turing." It requires a B+ in CISC 365 and registration in a Computing plan.

CISC 492 has one offering, in the winter, subtitled "Software Startups." Its prerequisites are C- in (CISC 235 or COMM 200), or Level 2 in Engineering and Applied Science.

Plan Selection for Students Finishing First Year

The plan selection period will open on SOLUS from May 17th to May 28th, 2021. See the Arts and Science description of plan selection, a few parts of which are summarized below.

At the end of first year, students who have completed 24.0 units must select a degree plan for second year. Any Arts and Science student who meets the plan selection requirements may select any plan in Arts and Science, not just the ones for the degree program in which they first registered. To automatically get into any Computing plan, you need a B in CISC 121 or 124, and a 2.6 cumulative GPA. A B- and 2.3 GPA get you onto a "pending list" from which we accept a limited number of students after the plan selection period ends.

All plans are treated equally; there are no separate quotas for individual plans.

If you are not accepted, you can apply at the end of enrolment, as soon as you do qualify, via an "Academic Change Form" found on the Arts and Science website under "Registration-Related Forms."

There will be MS Teams meetings from May 3 to May 27 for assistance with plan selection.

Change of Plan for Upper-Year Students

During the same time as first-year plan selection, we consider applications from upper-year students who wish to switch into Computing (via the plan change process outlined on the Arts and Science website). We make decisions about acceptance at the end of the application period, based on the same criteria as the pending list, which may allow accepting a limited number of students with GPA below 2.6.

After the end of the enrolment period, we consider applications for switching into Computing based on the same criteria we used during plan selection, but with no promise that seats will be available this year in classes. This process uses Academic Change Forms found on the Arts and Science website under "Registration-Related Forms."

Orientation Session for Incoming First-Year Students (March 25, 2021)

Updated slides (PDF, 1.5MB)

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