Department of Computer Science, University of Northern Iowa

A Major in Networking and System Administration

The Networking and System Administration (NaSA) major is a timely program aimed at preparing graduates for careers and research opportunities in all fields related to reliable and distributed network computing. This program, offered jointly between the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Industrial Technology, prepares graduates for careers and research opportunities in a world where scalability and interoperability of services compete with aspects of security and reliability.

Consider what the Bureau of Labor and Statistics says about job prospects for graduates with the skills you'll learn in this program...

Employment of systems administrators is expected to increase much faster than average as firms will continue to invest heavily in securing computer networks. Companies are looking for workers knowledgeable about the function and administration of networks. Such employees have become increasingly hard to find as systems administration has moved from being a separate function within corporations to one that forms a crucial element of business in an increasingly high-technology economy. Also, demand for computer security specialists will grow as businesses and government continue to invest heavily in 'cyber-security', protecting vital computer networks and electronic infrastructure from attack.
-- Bureau of Labor and Statistics,
http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos268.htm

Among the career paths available to NaSA graduates are Network Administrator, Computer Systems Administrator, Computer Security Specialist, Network Security Specialist, Technical Support Specialist, and advanced research in all the topics of the program.

Students in the program have many opportunities to conduct undergraduate research in topics such as:

high performance computing,
high performance networks,
distributed environments,
parallel computing,
system security,
network security,
data encryption and integrity, and
grid computing.

The full set of program requirements for the NaSA major includes courses in computer science, industrial technology, mathematics, and physics. The major culminates in a set of three capstone courses: System Administration, System Security, and Networking.

Related majors and minors:

You can download printable versions of a NaSA program overview and NaSA course descriptions.

FACULTY PROFILE

With distributed computing, the devil is in the details. That's because a programmer is dealing with all sorts of different hardware and networks. Meshing all of these elements presents a significant challenge that Paul Gray, associate professor of computer science, is leading the charge to solve... [more]

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PROJECTS/GROUPS

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