Honours Bachelor of Technology – Software Development (BSD)

Semester 1

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BAB100	Introduction to Canadian Business	In-person	Not offered	In-person
	Introduction to Canadian Business introduces learners to the Canadian business environment, business issues, and functions and forces at work in the global economy. Learners will gain an understanding of Canadian business firms as integrated organizations composed of a number of specialized functions.
BTL100	Computer Foundations for Developers	In-person	Not offered	In-person
	This survey course introduces fundamental concepts found in the software development domain. Students will get a high-level understanding of the environment developers work in. This includes standalone computers, operating systems that manage them and networks which connect such machines together. The mathematical underpinnings of software will also be explored as students will be introduced to number systems, logic and discrete data structures.
BTO125	Introduction to Operating Systems	In-person	Not offered	In-person
	Programmers must work with different operating system technologies and environments. This subject introduces students to operating systems from a software development perspective. Students will learn how to work in these environments utilizing various operating system features to enhance productivity in a professional programming environment. Topics will include how to navigate the file system, resource and process management, and develop scripts to automate tasks, and use developer-specific tools available from the operating systems.
BTP100	Programming Fundamentals Using C	In-person	Not offered	In-person
	This course covers the fundamental principles of computer programming, with an emphasis on problem solving strategies using structured programming techniques. The C programming language, which is widely used and which forms the syntactical basis for such object-oriented languages as C++ and Java, is used to introduce problem analysis, algorithm design, and program implementation.
ENG106	Writing Strategies	Online  In-person	Not offered	Flexible
	This course focuses on critical thinking and the rhetorical elements of both persuasive and evaluative forms of writing. Students will learn to differentiate between shades of fact and opinion, objectivity and bias, and apply the techniques of sound argument for a variety of purposes. The main elements of effective communication and research techniques are also examined. Techniques explored and skills developed in this course are applied throughout the four years of the program.

Semester 2

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTC240	Interpersonal Communications in Organizations	In-person	In-person	Not offered
	This communication course focuses on spoken and visual means of communication. Students will learn techniques for attentive listening, purposeful body language, and careful speaking. They will also learn the fundamentals of interpersonal skill development and apply effective interpersonal communication skills. Students will learn how to be effective leaders and motivate group members.
BTD210	Database Design Principles	In-person	In-person	Not offered
	This course introduces the principles of relational database design. Students will be taught how to code SQL (Structured Query Language). A methodology for relational database design that uses Entity Relationship Diagrams and normalization of data in developing a database schema will be covered. A subset of SQL using Microsoft SQL Server is used to implement data tables.
BTI225	Web Programming Principles	In-person	In-person	Not offered
	This is an introductory course in web programming for standard browsers. Students begin by learning JavaScript, the programming language of the Web, and the focus of this course. Then, the Document Object Model (DOM) is studied, and with it, documents that use the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to define their structure and content. To affect and modify the appearance and formatting of a document, students learn and apply the foundations of the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language. Throughout this progression of topics, JavaScript is continually used to access and modify the content and appearance of documents through the DOM interface.
BTL200	Mathematics for Developers	In-person	In-person	Not offered
	BTL200 is a foundation in mathematics course for students in the BSD program. Software development has its roots in mathematics. Students taking this course will strengthen and expand their core mathematical knowledge. BTL200 will highlight the connections between math and software development and provide students with an opportunity to practice applying mathematical techniques to software development.
BTP200	The Object-Oriented Paradigm Using C++	In-person	In-person	Not offered
	This subject introduces the principles of object-oriented programming. Students learn to design and build reusable objects, making use of encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance as available in the C++ programming language. The emphasis throughout is on an object-oriented approach to the solution of small problems.
plus: Liberal Studies Course (1)

Semester 3

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTD315	Advanced Database Technologies	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	This course will first introduce students to the advanced principles of relational database design and database programming. The course also covers NoSQL database design and implementation for schema-less data store. Students will create a NoSQL database and apply operations to access and modify its content.
BTI325	Web Programming Tools and Frameworks	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	The modern world deploys its software applications on the web, because of the webs scale, reach, and ease of use. This course teaches students to design and create simple web applications and services, in JavaScript, using widely-used and powerful tools and frameworks. The major topic themes of this course include a study of the web as a programming platform, server and client programming techniques, an introduction to data storage schemes, and an introduction to security.
BTL300	Statistics for Developers	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	Many applications involve processing large amounts of data in order to gain insights about a particular domain of study. Such insights allow make credible claims about events that have occurred or predict future outcomes based on currently available data. This course provides an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics which help learners achieve those goals. Students will perform calculations and write programs to create data visualizations, do hypothesis testing and perform regression analysis. The course provides pre-requisite knowledge required to evaluate statistically founded claims and explore foundational topics in data analytics and machine learning.
BTP305	Object-Oriented Software Development Using C++	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	This course expands the students skill-set in object-oriented programming and introduces the student to threaded programming. The student learns to model relationships between classes using containers, inheritance hierarchies and polymorphism in the C++ programming language and to write C++ programs that execute on multiple threads.
BTS330	Business Requirements Analysis Using OO Models	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	This subject focuses on the techniques and tools involved in gathering and analyzing requirements for business systems. Students will be introduced to system development life cycles, user interface mock-up design, a software requirements document template, and will learn how to use research, observation, interviews, prototypes and feedback to gather client and business requirements. Students will also learn how to analyze requirements using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Rational Rose modeling tool. An in-depth case study will be used throughout the course to allow students to apply what they learn.
LSP400	Presentation Skills	Online  In-person	Not offered	Online  In-person
	This subject prepares students to make professional oral presentations to diverse audiences in a variety of settings. The fundamentals of public speaking and speech writing are covered, as well as the production and use of presentational aids. Students will be in introduced to Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop. They will familiarize themselves with presentation techniques using both PowerPoint and Photoshops raster based imaging manipulation and other Presentation aids. Pre-requisite: ENG205 or its equivalent

Semester 4

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTC440	Business and Technical Writing	Online	Online	Online
	This subject focuses on business and technical documentation and correspondence relevant to the software development field. Students will learn to write abstracts, formal and informal reports as well as technical briefs after studying industry examples. Students will learn to communicate complex problems and solutions in a variety of settings using emerging technologies. They will collaborate with teams to produce comprehensive research and critical analysis of information in software development.
BTI425	Web Programming for Apps and Services	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	This is the third course in the web programming course sequence. Students learn to design and create moderately complex web applications and services that can be deployed at scale. The JavaScript language is used, with widely-used and powerful tools and frameworks. The major topic themes of this course include a study of the patterns for app and service development, using frameworks that enable rich and functional browser apps, working with robust and scalable data storage platforms, and deployment methodologies.
BTN415	Data Communications Programming	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	This course provides a technical foundation of data communications and network technology. It introduces the terminology and design concepts of networking and data communications. It studies the Internet protocol suite, and compares the concepts of the Internet to other protocol standards of today. The course covers the socket API in C/C++ and introduces the foundations of designing and developing client/server based systems, looking at data manipulation and integrity during transmission.
BTP405	System Development and Design	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	In todays rapidly changing market, building distributed software systems requires deliberate planning and systematic execution throughout the software development process. In this course, students explore the development process as a whole along with tools used to support it. Topics include feature identification, software architecture, testing, containerization and deployment. Students will also study concepts used to write robust, maintainable code. Theory discussed will be applied by using industry standard practices to build a minimum viable product.
BTS435	System Analysis and Design	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	This course covers the major system analysis and design activities in the development of business systems. Students will first learn software architectures for designing information systems. Students will apply Scrum methodology to carry out system design activities. The major techniques students will learn and practice on include breaking down user stories to tasks, refining product backlogs, and creating definition of done. Students will also practice on object-oriented design and learn the object-oriented design principles which will be applied to guide their application layer design.

Semester 5

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BAB235	Introduction to Marketing	Not offered	Not offered	Flexible
	This introduction to Marketing course emphasizes that marketing is an approach in business that stresses putting the customer at the center of its activities and focuses on satisfying customer needs and wants. Learners will locate and analyze markets, match products and examine the controllable elements of the marketing mix. Practical decisions that a manager utilizes in daily work interactions are a major focus of this course.
BTH545	Principles of GUI Design and Programming	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	For any interactive system, the users convenience depends largely on the ease of use of the interface, and its visual impact. In this course, students learn the User-Centred Design (UCD) process for software development. Through labs and assignments, students explore the fundamentals of cognition, the steps in conducting user research, and prototyping techniques. The rudiments of visual design, the importance design principles and design guidelines, and the impact on users of fonts, colours, and other elements of screen displays in human-computer interaction are also introduced.
BTI525	Web Programming for the Cloud	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
BTP500	Data Structures and Algorithms	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	In this course, the student learns to write and apply, to real programming problems, the classical data structures and algorithms from computer science, such as searching and sorting algorithms, stacks, queues, linked lists and trees. Algorithm efficiency, encryption algorithms, randomized algorithms and heuristic search are among other topics investigated. The C++ Standard Template Library and the Java libraries are also looked at, as examples of data structure implementation.
BTS535	Software Project Management	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	In this course, students apply modern and classical project management technologies and methodologies to develop artifacts that describe software development projects and facilitate cooperation within a team setting. With regards to modern methodologies, students learn agile frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban, at the same time as they create artifacts such as Product Backlogs, Definition of Done, Working Agreements, Kanban Boards, etc. In a classical project management, students learn how to perform stakeholder analysis, risk assessments, estimate budgets, develop project charters, and perform quality assurance.
WTP200	Work Term Preparation	Not offered	Not offered	Online
	This Work Term Preparation course is designed to empower students with the tools, skills, and strategies needed to navigate the modern job market and achieve long-term career success. Through self-assessment, career exploration, helping students to identify and leverage skills from their existing experiences, students will develop a deep understanding of their personal strengths, values, personality, interests and goals. The course covers essential topics such as crafting professional résumés and cover letters, mastering interview techniques, and building a strong personal brand, including an online presence. Students will learn how to research career pathways, evaluate job market trends, and create actionable career plans tailored to their aspirations. Emphasis is placed on professional communication, networking, workplace readiness, and adapting to diverse organizational cultures. Additionally, the course provides insights into negotiating job offers, managing career transitions, and professional growth. With a focus on lifelong learning and continuous improvement, this course equips students with the confidence and resources to pursue fulfilling careers while remaining adaptable in a dynamic and competitive workforce. Ideal for students preparing to enter the job market or those seeking to refine their career trajectory, this course fosters self-awareness, professional readiness, and strategic career planning.

Semester 6

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTH650	Advanced User Interface Design	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	This course builds upon the foundation of UI design principles and delves into advanced topics to create user interfaces that are not only usable but also innovative and engaging. The topics include technologies such as wearable devices, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), Extended Reality (XR), Voice Interfaces, and Internet of Things. Students will explore the unique challenges and opportunities presented by these technologies, gaining hands-on experience in designing user interfaces. The advanced course ensures that students are equipped to handle the complexities and opportunities presented by technologies, preparing them for the future of UI design.
BTP610	Mobile Applications	Hybrid	Not offered	Not offered
	The course explores the fundamental principles of developing a mobile application for IOS or Android devices. Using a mobile app software framework, learners will develop proficiency in creating graphical user interfaces, working with data persistence, implementing networking, and integrating with on-board device hardware.
BTS530	Major Project - Planning and Design	TBD	TBD	TBD
	In this course students will work in groups to plan a major systems development project for a real client. Students will find a client, analyze client business requirements, model the system using object-oriented modeling tools and techniques, design interfaces and plan and start construction, in iterations. Students will complete the system in the follow-up project implementation course.
plus: Liberal Studies Course (1)
plus: Professional Options (1)

Work-Integrated Learning Term 1

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BSD771	Software Development, Co-op	Not offered	Hybrid  Online  In-person	Not offered

Semester 7

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTE620	Law, Ethics and Social Responsibility	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	This course examines fundamental issues concerning the nature of legal and moral responsibility. What is it to be responsible, i.e. for ones actions? The concept of responsibility is prima facie a kind of liability to the welfare or interests of others. Thus, if ones act is considered good, then it is deserving of the appropriate praise or reward; an evil act, on the other hand, is subject to the required blame, censure, or (if necessary) punishment. Actions, however, can be evaluated in moral and/or legal terms. We may now ask: what is the difference between moral and legal responsibility (for ones actions)? What is the justification of punishment? Similarly, moral blame is a form of punishment; but under what conditions is it reasonable to morally condemn irresponsible acts? In order to properly address these questions, we must first explore their foundation: the nature of law in relation to morality. Is law (necessarily) conditioned by moral principles or only contingently moral, i.e. a social fact? Thus, our understanding of moral and legal responsibility turns on our conceptions of morality and law.
BTH745	Human-Computer Interaction	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	Building on principles learned in BTH545 (Principles of GUI Design and Programming) and BTH645 (Multimedia Elements for User Interfaces), BTH745 focuses on the interaction between humans and computer-mediated technologies as well as the psychological and physiological factors related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Throughout the course, students will work on a major HCI project to gain a deeper understanding of all phases of the User-Centred Design (UCD) process in software development. The course will also examine broad issues related to human factors, traditional and new user interfaces, interaction paradigms, ergonomics, accessibility, social and emotional interactions, agile UX, and the importance of HCI in software development.
BTN710	Information Security	Not offered	Not offered	In-person
	With the ever-expanding use of the internet there has been an increased need for security at all levels within data communications. This course provides the technical foundation required to understand the security concerns faced by network administrators, technical support staff and end users in todays data communications environments. Current security solutions that address issues such as Authentication and Authorization, Data Integrity, Non Repudiation, Privacy/Confidentiality, and Availability of Service will be examined through a combination of lectures and hands-on labs.
BTS630	Major Project - Implementation	Not offered	Not offered	Hybrid
	This course requires students to apply the object-oriented design and implementation concepts, tools and techniques learned in previous courses to a larger-scale project. As part of a project development team, students will take their system proposal from BTS530 (Major Project Design and Planning) and continue its development -- planning, designing, coding, testing, and documenting a complete system, rolling it out by the end of semester.
plus: Professional Options (1)

Work-Integrated Learning Term 2

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BSD772	Software Development, Co-op II	Hybrid  Online  In-person	Not offered	Not offered

Semester 8

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BTM710	Research Methods	Not offered	In-person	Not offered
	This research methods course will examine the various components of the research process including the formulation of research questions or a research hypothesis; the review of the literature; qualitative, quantitative and mixed method research designs; research ethics; data collection; analysis of data; and ethical protocol. Students will develop the elements of a research proposal based on a problem relevant to the students? professional practice.
BTM800	Technology Planning and Acquisition	Not offered	Flexible	Not offered
	Students learn how to identify the technology requirements for a business and then plan the steps necessary to select and acquire specific technology. The impact of technology trends on an organization, the purchasing process, including the Request for Proposal (RFP), contracting types, and how to manage contracts once in place will be discussed.
plus: Liberal Studies Course (1)
plus: Professional Options (2)

Professional Options

Semester 5 Select(one course), Semester 6 (select one course), Semester 8 (select 2 courses)

Course Code	Course Name	Winter	Summer	Fall
BDA420	High Performance Computing
	This course explores advanced tools and techniques for working with very large datasets. In particular, students will learn how to use modern parallel data-processing frameworks and develop scripts that fully leverage parallelization to analyze data efficiently at scale.
BTP610	Mobile Applications
	The course explores the fundamental principles of developing a mobile application for IOS or Android devices. Using a mobile app software framework, learners will develop proficiency in creating graphical user interfaces, working with data persistence, implementing networking, and integrating with on-board device hardware.
DPI910	Web Application Security Assessment
	With more and more aspects of our lives involving the World Wide Web, ensuring the security of web applications is essential. Security professionals are often engaged by industry to identify key vulnerabilities which might affect web application security for organizations, and need to recognize the most common areas of security risk and determine how this can impact the reputation of the organization. This course teaches students how to identify web application security flaws, and assess the security posture of web applications.
DPI912	Python for Programmers: Sockets and Security
	This course focuses on developing intermediate and advanced competencies in socket programming, and is informed and guided by information technology and cybersecurity concepts, concerns, and problem sets. Students will explore developing applications on TCP/IP as well as in higher level protocols. Applications developed may include forensic, defensive, and offensive security tools.
DPS530	Cross-platform App Development
	In this course, learners will gain practical experience building native mobile applications using React Native, a cross-platform framework.
DPS909	Topics in Open Source Development
	This course introduces students to the technological, social, and pragmatic aspects of developing open source software through direct involvement in a real open source project/projects. Students will learn to use the tools, techniques, and strategies of OS developers. This is a project-based programming course. The particular open source project(s) to be studied will vary with each offering and be announced at the beginning of the semester.
DPS911	Open Source Project
	This course builds on the skills and knowledge developed in a prior course by having the student take a partially developed open source project to completion. The student must have an open source project in progress, along with a faculty mentor and coordinator approval, in order to enroll. The student will learn what is necessary to take a working program and polish, refactor, and improve it on the way to making 1.0 product release.
DPS912	Topics in UNIX Systems Programming
	UNIX, the operating system of choice for much of the Internet, is the most versatile non-platform-specific, general-purpose computing environment available. This course explores UNIX at a technical level. The primary focus will be system and network programming using C. Students will also learn to use development tools and utilities.
DPS920	Computer Vision
	As cameras are becoming a popular feature of standard PCs and mobile devices, it is important to be able to extract useful information from this data. This course covers simple computer vision concepts, such as capturing digital images and video, applying simple and arithmetic changes to images (e.g. crop, rotate, enhance color), and extracting information from images (e.g. finding or counting objects). Also, concepts such as tracking objects in a video sequence are introduced. Students will work on a project targeting a computer vision application such as face recognition, security systems, medical imaging, robotics, and others.
DPS921	Parallel Algorithms And Programming Techniques
	Data-intensive and compute-intensive problems benefit from programming solutions that execute instructions in parallel. A variety of programming models are available for implementing parallel algorithms. Students study industry-standard parallel patterns and learn how to implement parallel algorithms on multi-processor accelerators, shared-memory systems and distributed-memory systems using these programming models.
DPS923	Mobile App Development - iOS
	This course covers the foundations of programming applications for the Apple iOS operating system. Students will learn and become proficient with the development tool environment, and create graphical end-user iOS applications that follow the MVC design pattern. Students will write their programs in the Swift and Objective-C languages, using the object-oriented Cocoa framework. A wide range of iOS development topics, including user interface programming techniques, data management, and network access will be covered.
DPS924	Mobile App Development - Android
	This course covers the foundations of programming applications for the Android operating system. Students will learn and become proficient with the Eclipse development tool environment, and create graphical end-user Android applications that follow the mobile design pattern. Students will write their programs by using the Java language and runtime platform. A wide range of Android development topics, including user interface programming techniques, data management, and network access will be covered.
DPS931	Game Engine Foundations
	Graphics accelerators provide developers with powerful tools for displaying visual information. This course teaches students the mathematical and structural concepts required to develop 3D gaming and simulation engines and how to implement these concepts using the DirectX and OpenGL low-level APIs.
DPS936	Game Content Creation
	In game development, 3D modelling tools are used to generate graphical content such as models and animations. This course will explore how content is created both interactively and through coding. Students will learn to create and alter 3D content using both means.
DPS937	Game Development Fundamentals
	Commercial and open source game engines let developers focus on the design of games, including their play, progression, and flow. In this subject, students will learn to create a game level for an existing engine, and have an opportunity to customize the engine to suit their game level.
DPS941	Mobile Robotics Software Design
	This course provides a technical foundation into the design and development of embedded software for robotic control. Students will be introduced to the terminology and design concepts for tele-operated and autonomously controlled robotic systems. Using an education-focused robotic device platform, students will learn about analog/digital sensors, and software design for low power micro-controller applications.
DPS970	AI for Software Developers
	Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning in particular, are having a revolutionary impact across countless fields and applications. In this course, students will be introduced to artificial intelligence-based strategies used to solve real world problems. Tools which implement these strategies will be used to infuse AI functionality into a software application.
SEP700	Compiler Design
	The structure, organization and design of the phases of a compiler are considered. A compiler translates code written in one computer language into a language understandable by the computer hardware without changing the meaning of the program. Students gain knowledge of the scope handlers and type checkers and learn to implement components of a compiler. Compiler design is also applicable to other areas of software engineering such as a lexical analyzer used in text editors, information retrieval system, and pattern recognition programs or a parser used in a query processing system such as SQL, for example. Many software having a complex front-end may need techniques used in compiler design.