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The module exposes students to problems associated with software development on an industrial scale. Overall goals of the module are: to become familiar with the latest trends in software engineering; to understand the software engineering process and to appreciate its complexity; to be exposed to a variety of methodologies for tackling different stages of the software lifecycle; to understand and apply the concepts of systems administration and maintenance; to complete the development of a fairly large object orientation-based software product. The focus of the module is on a project that lasts the whole year. The project is completed in groups of approximately four (4) students and teaches students to take responsibility for a variety of roles within a group, and to understand the different requirements for these; to experience the advantages and problems of working in a group; professionalism with regards to particularly colleagues and clients.
After the successful completion of this module, the student will be able to: understand the psychology of a client; work in groups; and have an appreciation for planning, designing, implementing and maintaining large projects. These qualities should place the students in a position in which they are able to handle software development in the corporate environment.
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This module develops an appreciation of the fundamentals and design principles for information assurance and security. Students will develop a clear understanding of the basic information security services and mechanisms, enabling them to design and evaluate the integration of solutions into the user application environment. Emphasis will be placed on services such as authorisation and confidentiality. Students will acquire knowledge and skills of Security Models such as the Bell-LaPadula, Harrison-Ruzzo Ullman and Chinese Wall Model. Students will develop a detailed understanding of the confidentiality service by focusing on cryptology and the practical implementation thereof. The student will be introduced to professional and philosophical ethics. At the end of the module students will be able to engage in a debate regarding the impact (local and global) of computers on individuals, organisations and society. The professionalism of IT staff will be discussed against national and international codes of practices such as those of the CSSA, ACM and IEEE.
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The objective of this module is to acquaint the student with the terminology of communication systems and to establish a thorough understanding of exactly how data is transferred in such communication networks, as well as applications that can be found in such environments. The study material includes: concepts and terminology, the hierarchy of protocols according to the OSI and TCP/IP models, protocols on the data level, physical level and network level as well as higher level protocols. The practical component of the module involves programming TCP/IP sockets using a high level language. The emphasis throughout is on the technical aspects underlying the operation of networks, rather than the application of networks.
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Programming languages are the backbone for software development. Each language has its own different syntax and semantics, but there are many common concepts that can be studied and then illustrated through the languages. The module concentrates on issues of object orientation, including delegation, iteration and polymorphism. It surveys how languages provide the basic building blocks for data and control, as well as exception handling and concurrency. At the end of the module, students will be able to appreciate the rich history behind programming languages, leading to independent principles that evolve over time. They will be skilled at using a variety of programming languages, including new paradigms such as functional, logical and scripting, and will know how to learn a new language with ease. From this experience, they will be able to apply evaluation criteria for choosing an appropriate programming language in a given scenario.
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This module will introduce the student to the fundamentals of compiler construction. These include: the structural difference between a high-level and a von-Neumann language, the meaning of syntax and semantics and what semantics-preserving correctness means; the concepts of regular expressions, finite automata, context-free grammars in the context of programming languages; the need to construct parse-trees for given programmes; the application of data structures and algorithms for the purpose of code-analysis, code-optimisation and register-allocation; and the limits of code-analysis in terms of undecideability and the halting problem.
After successful completion of the module, the student will have an understanding of the importance of compilers and will understand how to implement a compiler, in terms of its components, the scanner, parser, type checker and code-generator for a given grammar.
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Theory: Molecular quantum mechanics. Introduction: Shortcomings of classical physics, dynamics of microscopic systems, quantum mechanical principles, translational, vibrational and rotational movement. Atomic structure and spectra: Atomic hydrogen, multiple electron systems, spectra of complex atoms, molecular structure, the hydrogen molecule ion, diatomic and polyatomic molecules, structure and properties of molecules. Molecules in motion: Viscosity, diffusion, mobility. Surface chemistry: Physisorption and chemisorption, adsorption isotherms, surface tension, heterogeneous catalytic rate reactions, capillarity.
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Theory: Separation methods: Extraction, multiple extraction, chromatographic systems. Spectroscopy: Construction of instruments, atomic absorption and atomic emission spectrometry, surface analysis techniques. Mass spectrometry. Instrumental electrochemistry.
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Theory: NMR spectroscopy: applications. Aromatic chemistry, Synthetic methodology in organic chemistry. Carbon-carbon bond formation: alkylation at nucleophilic carbon sites, aldol and related condensations, Wittig and related reactions, acylation of carbanions (Claisen condensation).
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The main objective of this module is to introduce a selection of topics from artificial intelligence (AI), and to provide the student with the background to implement AI techniques for solving complex problems.
This module will cover topics from classical AI, as well as more recent AI paradigms. These topics include: search methods, game playing, knowledge representation and reasoning, machine learning, neural networks, genetic algorithms, artificial life, planning methods, and intelligent agents. In the practical part of this module, students will get experience in implementing
(1) game trees and evolving game-playing agents;
(2) a neural network and applying it to solve a real-world problem; and
(3) a genetic algorithm and applying it to solve a real-world problem.
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This module builds on a prior introductory module on database technology and provides more advanced theoretical and practical study material for managing large volumes of data, for example, noSQL database systems and MapReduce. The module will consider file system models, for example Hadoop, relevant for big data storage, manipulation at scale, mining and visualisation. Basic knowledge of parallel decomposition concepts will be included.
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The aim of this module is to acquire a sound knowledge of the basic theory of interactive computer graphics and basic computer graphics programming techniques. The theory will cover graphics systems and models, graphics programming, input and interaction, geometric objects and transformations, viewing in 3D, shading, rendering techniques, and introduce advanced concepts, such as object-oriented computer graphics and discrete techniques. The module includes a practical component that enables students to apply and test their knowledge in computer graphics. The OpenGL graphics library and the C programming language will be used for this purpose.
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Information Organisation. The module is concerned with the organisation of information in the digital environment focusing on the structure and use of document management and workflow systems, as well as distribution channels and virtual environments. The characteristics and application of the internet, intranets, as well as portals and applications use, are considered.
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Information and Knowledge Management. This module focuses on information and knowledge management at an operational level and introduces information and knowledge management at a corporate strategic level. It deals with the management of information and knowledge, which enables the organisation to be competitive. In this module the focus is on four aspects, namely: the 21st century organisation, the external and internal stakeholders that have an interest in information products, as well as the infrastructure that should be in place in organisations to manage information products. The module concludes with a few topics relating to information management at a corporate strategic level.
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This module deals with the construction and management of digital repositories. It also addresses the characteristics of the digital repository in a rapidly changing technological world and a challenging information society. Core aspects include: system design, relationships to hybrid libraries, digital collections and rights management, standards, virtual referencing and the development and evaluation of digital repositories.
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This module examines aspects of the information and knowledge society within local, regional and international contexts. A special focus of the module is the interaction and exchange of data, information and knowledge from communities' local knowledge system with data, information and knowledge from the global knowledge system. The module discusses the growth and role of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and their implications for development.
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Experiential learning project. This module takes the form of a project and experiential training in co-operation with industry.
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This module provides an overview of Competitive Intelligence (CI) and focuses on the needs for CI in organisations. The ways in which organisations compete and the benefits that CI can bring to these organisations will also be covered. The growing need for CI among South African organisations will also be examined. Practical examples and case studies will be used to highlight the value of CI in organisations.
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Electronics (14 lectures)
Thévenin and Norton equivalent circuits, superposition principle, RC, LC and LRC circuits. Semiconductor diode. Bipolar transistor. Operational amplifiers. Computer controlled instrumentation.
Electromagnetism (21 lectures)
Electrostatics: Coulomb’s law, divergence and curl of E, Gauss’ law, Laplace’s equation, image charge problems, multipole expansion.
Magnetostatics: Lorenz force, Biot-Savart law, divergence and curl of magnetic field strength, Ampère’s law, magnetic vector potential, multipole expansion, boundary conditions.
Electrodynamics: Electromotive force, electromagnetic induction, Maxwell’s equations, wave equation.
Electric and magnetic fields in matter: Polarisation, electric displacement and Gauss’s law in dielectrics, linear dielectrics. Magnetisation (diamagnets, paramagnets, ferromagnets), auxiliary field H and Ampère’s law in magnetised materials, linear and nonlinear media.
Quantum mechanics (28 lectures)
The Schrödinger equation, the statistical interpretation of the wave function, momentum, the uncertainty principle, the time-independent Schrödinger equation, stationary states, the infinite square well potential, the harmonic oscillator, the free particle, the Delta-Function potential, the finite square well potential, Hilbert spaces, observables, eigen functions of a Hermitian operator, Dirac notation, the Schrödinger equation in spherical coordinates, the hydrogen atom, angular momentum spin.
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Statistical mechanics (28 lectures)
Isolated systems in thermodynamical equilibrium. Systems in equilibrium with a heat bath: the canonical ensemble, Gibbs' entropic formula, classical statistical mechanics, energy equipartition theorem, thermodynamic potentials, paramagnetism.
The classical limit of perfect gases: non-distinguishable character of quantum particles, the equation of state of the classical ideal gas. Quantum perfect gases: Black body radiation, the grand canonical ensemble, Fermi-Dirac distribution, the free electron gas in metals, the Bose-Einstein distribution, Bose-Einstein condensation.
Solid state physics (28 lectures)
Crystal structures, the reciprocal lattice, x-ray diffraction, lattice vibration, the Debye model, characteristics of solids, the free electron model, Pauli paramagnetism, electronic heat capacity, the relaxation time, electrical conduction, the classical Hall effect, thermal conduction in metals, failures of the free electron model, the independent electron model, band theory of solids.
Computational Physics and modelling. Assessment will be done through a portfolio of project reports. The topics for the projects will be selected from various sub-disciplines of Physics.
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Definition of a stochastic process. Stationarity. Covariance stationary. Markov property. Random walk. Brownian motion. Markov chains. Chapman-Kolmogorov equations. Recurrent and transient states. First passage time. Occupation times. Markov jump processes. Poisson process. Birth and death processes. Structures of processes. Structure of the time-hom*ogeneous Markov jump process. Applications in insurance. Practical statistical modelling, analysis and simulation using statistical computer packages and the interpretation of the output.
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Note: Only one of the modules WST 321 or STK 320 may be included in any study programme.
Stationary and non-stationary univariate time-series. Properties of autoregressive moving average (ARMA) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) processes. Identification, estimation and diagnostic testing of a time-series model. Forecasting. Multivariate time-series. Practical statistical modelling and analysis using statistical computer packages.
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Decision theory. Loss distributions. Reinsurance. Risk models. Ruin theory. Credibility theory. Methods to forecast future claim numbers and amounts. Practical statistical modelling and analysis using statistical computer packages.
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Mean variance portfolio theory. Market equilibrium models such as the capital asset pricing model. Factor models and arbitrage pricing theory. Measures of investment risk. Efficient market hypothesis. Stochastic models of security prices
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Group theory: Definition, examples, elementary properties, subgroups, permutation groups, isomorphism, order, cyclic groups, hom*omorphisms, factor groups. Ring theory: Definition, examples, elementary properties, ideals, hom*omorphisms, factor rings, polynomial rings, factorisation of polynomials. Field extensions, applications to straight-edge and compass constructions.
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Direct methods for the numerical solution of systems of linear equations, pivoting strategies. Iterative methods for solving systems of linear equations and eigenvalue problems. Iterative methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations. Introduction to optimization. Algorithms for the considered numerical methods are derived and implemented in computer programmes. Complexity of computation is investigated. Error estimates and convergence results are proved.
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Axiomatic development of neutral, Euclidean and hyperbolic geometry. Using models of geometries to show that the parallel postulate is independent of the other postulates of Euclid.
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