Objectives

The objective of DESS-ISI is to give a real skill in computer systems engineering, allowing to solve computer systems engineering problems within companies belonging to varied industrial areas. The increasing need for multidisciplinarity takes students who have obtained this degree to such jobs as decision assistants in the matter of computer science and information processing strategy, within their original skill domain.

At the end, trainees will have gained thorough knowledge in computer systems engineering, but also a good approach of firms.

In terms of know-how, they will be able to :

• participate to the drafting of the terms of reference of projects and/or the drawing up of fonctional specifications, in close collaboration with users ;
• participate to the design of solutions corresponding to the requirements of applications ;
• assist decision makers in the management of computer systems engineering projects (work planning, costs and time limits control) ;
• develop new applications or maintain existing ones ;
• participate to the working-out of benchmarks and operating tests ;
• participate to the reception of applications ;
• participate to the writing of technical records (in particular the software documentation).

• to be able to work in teams ;
• to converse with users, and more generally to adapt to different kinds of people;
• to develop technical and functional relations with interested services ;
• to adapt permanently to the quick evolution of the sector (methods, software, hardware, …) ;
• to analyze and synthesize technical informations ;

DESS-ISI allows people who are not skilled computer people (but skilled in another discipline) to acquire in one year a supplementary skill in computer science and information technology.. It is open to people who have a master’s degree or an equivalent level in another domain than computer science. It is also open to continuous education.

Organization

Training begins the first week of October, and it ends the last week of March. It relies both on theoretical and practical education modules (510 h), projects carried out by groups (300 h), and a final industrial training period (at least 5 months). The division into teaching modules allows to obtain the degree by capitalization.

The teaching program is splitted up into three periods that correspond to three successive teaching units (groups of modules). The first period is dedicated to learning the fundamental concepts of computer systems and application programming. It corresponds to the Fundamentals teaching unit. The second period is dedicated to the deepening of concepts and to the implementation of information systems and computer networks. It corresponds to the Deepening teaching unit. The objective of the third period is to give additional skills concerning more specific aspects. It corresponds to the Specialization teaching unit.
 
 

Fundamentals Teaching Unit (180 h)

Module CA : Computer Architecture (30 h)

Objective : explain the basic mechanisms of (micro)processors, exchange mechanisms between processors and their environnement, as well as the different kinds of architectures (RISC, CISC, multi-processors).

Contents : processor organization, microprogramming, exceptions and interrupts, exchange mecanisms, caching, input-output management, CISC and RISC architectures, multiprocessor architectures.

Prerequisite : none.

Module OS : Operating Systems (60 h)

Objective : explain the basic principles of operating systems, the management of processes and resources.

Contents : processors and processes, protection and communication mechanisms ; process scheduling and synchronisation ; memory hierarchies and virtual memory ; UNIX and Windows NT operating systems.

Prerequisite : none.

Module AP : Algorithmic and Programming Languages (60 h)

Objective : explain the fundamentals of program construction ; present the different classes of languages ; explain the coding of algorithms with programming languages.

Contents : algorithms ; abstract data types ; procedural, declarative, functional and object-oriented languages ; event-based programming ; function libraries and reusable software components ; JAVA language.

Prerequisite : none.

Module DS : Data Structures and File Organizations (30 h)

Objective : present the mostly used data structures, as well as basic file organizations and access methods.

Contents : lists, queues, stacks, trees, sequential organization, hashing, indexing.

Prerequisite : none.

Deepening Teaching Unit (240 h)

Module SE : Software Engineering (60 h)

Objective : acquire the basic principles of the design and development of enterprise management systems and software in general, taking account of methodological and qualitative aspects.

Contents : information systems specification languages (data models, processing models and communication models, object-based models), UML standard. Software engineering : life cycle models, quality and standards, project management, documentation, process design automation.

Prerequisite : none.

Module DB : Data Bases (60 h)

Objective : understand the functionalities of a relational database management system, be able to use it and design a good database schema.

Contents : relational model, formal languages associated to the model (relational algebra, relational calculus), design principles of relational databases, integrity constraints and normalization, SQL language and integration within a programming language, development tools (4GLs, application generators), data structures, physical design and indexing, concurrency control and crash recovery, protection and security, transactions. Evolution towards relational-object systems.

Prerequisite : none.

Module NW : Networks (60 h)

Objective : acquire the basic principles of computer networks, in order to be able to answer to different kinds of problems arising with the implementation of applications distributed between near or distant computers.

Contents : telecommunications, network architectures (ISO, SNA, TCP-IP), LAN and WAN, interconnection of heterogeneous networks, distributed programming in message mode and distant procedure calls, security protocols, cryptography techniques, file transfer and network file systems (NFS, FTAM, …).

Prerequisite : CA and OS modules.

Module OB : Object-based Systems (30 h)

Objective : acquire the basic object-oriented concepts (abstraction, encapsulation, heritage) for the design of computer systems.

Contents : reuse, patterns, software components, advancement of classical systems (operating systems, DBMS and applications) towards object-oriented systems.

Prerequisite : AP, DS, DB and SE modules.

Module CS : Client-Server, Internet-Intranet (30 h)

Objective : understand the concepts under the development of client-server and distributed architectures, and be able to design and implement client-server architectures.

Contents : evolution of the architecture of computer systems, access to distant databases (ODBC), distributed and heterogeneous databases, distributed objects and objects sharing (CORBA), data warehouses, client-server development tools, internet-intranet.

Prerequisite : OB, OS and NW modules.

Specialization Teaching Unit (90 h)

Module EL : Software Ergonomics (30 h)

Objective : explain the principles and methods of user interface design and development.

Contents : man-machine interfaces, multimodality, hypermedia systems, Internet-Intranet developments.

Prerequisite : AP and DS modules.

Module QL : Software Quality and Security (30 h)

Objective : learn how to implement the techniques used for checking the validity of software.

Contents : testing within the software development life cycle, main techniques (control graphs, data streams, formal methods).

Prerequisite : AP, DS and SE modules.

Module GE : Organization and Management (30 h)

Objective : explain the principles of organization and management.

Prerequisite : none.