Faculty of Computer Science

Mission of Computer Science Faculty:

Provide quality and updated educational services to enhance managerial, entrepreneurial and research skills with the aim of presenting dedicated and expert human force in the field of computer science.

Outlook of faculty of Computer Science:

Acquiring top rank at the national and regional levels through the creation of effective and efficient educational and research programs in the field of computer science

1. Faculty members

Professor Seyyed Mohammad Sharif Shakir

 Position: Caretaker of Computer Science faculty

Education:

• Master of Mathematics from Puna University of India
• Bachelor of Mathematics from Kabul University
• Diploma in financial management from India
• Diploma in English from the Star Language Course, Kabul
• Completion of Management Courses (RIMO) arranged by Ministry of Education, Kabul

Teaching experience

• Teaching at Noor University, Herat
• Teaching at the Higher Education Institute of Khaja Abdullah Ansari (RAH) – Faculty of Computer Engineering, Economics and Management.

Syllabus subjects

• Mathematical analysis, probabilities, statistics, graph theory, discrete mathematics and research in operations

Appreciation letters and awards

• Received a second-rate Appreciation letter from the Ministry of Education
• Having several honorary letters from the Planning Directorate and NGO partners of the Ministry of Education of Planning Department, such as the CDP, etc.
• Received appreciation letter and certificate from the Ministry of Education (RIMO course)
• Received a merit certificate from the Department of Mathematics of Puna University for educational and cultural activities
• Received certificate of English among foreign students on behalf of Puna University
• Participation in two international conferences (IMS) in India and obtaining Certification
• Having more than 30 awards, letters of appreciation and certificate from other cultural institutions in Kabul and Herat provinces

Authorship:

• Dissertation with the subject of mathematical methods in physics (Bessel function)
• Presenting two scientific essays on the subject of graph and metro theory during studying master’s degree at Puneh University
• The presentation of a seminar and an academic paper on: “Generating Functions Models in Applied Combinatorics” at the University of Puneh in India.
• Preparation and editing of several books of mathematics (General Mathematics, Mathematical Analysis, Linear Algebra, Probabilities) are ready to publish

Operating activities

• Administrative and financial assistant of Khaja Abdullah Ansari institute
• The head of computer faculty at Private Institute of Higher Education, Khaja Abdullah Ansari for three years.
• Caretaker of the Khaja Abdullah Ansari Educational Institute in the winter of 2013
• Official Task Manager for Planning Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Main responsibilities: Upgrading primary schools to secondary or high school levels, classifying provincial needs including teachers training centers, night schools at Provincial Levels, Review and Implementation all filings of private schools in provincial level and assessing state schools, according to distance, student and teacher ratio, distributions of human resource with consideration of the number of schools and students, cooperation and active participation in Ministry Projections, and cooperation with the Department of Strategic Planning) for two years.

2. brief introduction to the computer faculty

The Faculty of Computer Science at Khatam Al-Nnabieen University was established in 2011 and in the spring of the same year, it started to enroll the students with formal permit issued by the Ministry of Higher Education of the Republic of Afghanistan. This faculty aims to educate skilled and experienced human resources as a basis for a strong foundation in computer science including software development, creation, design and management of computer networks at various levels; it can include managing information systems, implementing web page projects, learning different programming languages, operating systems, and design of various algorithms are the main goals of this faculty. The basic criterion of this school is training of youths according to the conditions of employment and the labor market; more importantly, the standard teaching of different computing disciplines has been taken into account. The school of Computer Science is working hard on this with high commitment.

facilities and classrooms

Faculty of Computer Science at Khatam-AL-Nabieen University (pbuh) has facilities and classrooms necessary for training and comfort. This faculty has 3 classrooms and 2 labs of computers and networks that have good teaching equipment such as projector, whiteboard, proper chairs and enough light.

Number of professors

There are 8 faculty members in the Faculty of Computer Science, including faculty members who are permanent and outsourced, with absolute majority of them masters. Meanwhile, the faculty is using contracted academic experts to complete its scientific knowledge.

Educational aims of the computer science faculty

Aims: The purpose of the faculty of Computer Science is to educate skilled and expertly trained human resources for future of the community which is summarized as following: with training of skilled and professional human resources it is aimed to establish a strong foundation in computer science comprising software development, creation, design and management of computer networks at various levels; managing information systems, implementing web page projects, learning different programming languages, operating systems, and designing various algorithms are the main goals of this faculty. The basic criterion of this school is training of youths according to the conditions of employment and the labor market; more importantly, the standard teaching of different computing disciplines has been taken into account. The school of computer science is working hard on this and is committed.

Content introduction

Course period:

The course of Computer Science covers four years. Some students who are able to get excellent average have the possibilities to graduate after seven semesters. The four-year program of the Computer Science Faculty is designed to meet the needs of young people who complete twelve years of education and seek professional training in computer networks, software management, and information security. The admission is open to those who have readiness for training in the fields of computer engineering, software engineering, web page design, database creation, data management and computer network management.

Of course, its basic knowledge is mathematical topics, mathematical logic, electric physics, and English, which has been pursued during the school years. Anyway, the program with all curriculums and content is generally available to students with a high academic readiness and high talent to succeed. Therefore, applicants for this program will be selected by the entrance exam process.

In addition, to professional and specialized courses, there are other programs followed during four the years of study, which includes public areas such as English, Mathematics, Islamic Studies, Contemporary History of Afghanistan, as well as general information and skills about computer science. These programs are intended to promote professional and general knowledge of the student. With this curriculum, it is endeavored that the graduates, as professional and expert people, will become the pride of their country and higher education community.

Number of credits

The Bachelor’s degree program of the Computer Science faculty is 140 credits, of which the total of at least 136 credits should be implemented in a desirable manner and eventually will graduate the student as a bachelor’s degree holder. It is worth mentioning that the curriculum of the faculty has already been reviewed by a specialist group considering the needs of community, the level of students, hence the total number of credits should be changed.

Educational system

Bachelor of computer science courses like other disciplines at Khatam Al-Nabieen University, is “Credit system” which is the latest and most standard educational system in the world. This system of education is also endorsed by the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan. Based on the credit system, each undergraduate student is taught about 136 credits during eight semesters (four academic years). Each credit is as much as to be completely taught in 16 hours.

Subjects (category and percentage)

The subjects of the computer science curriculum are divided into four categories according to regulation of the Ministry of Higher Education’s credit system:

• General topics which include all faculties at the university.
• Essential subjects
• dedicated subjects
• Optional subjects

Internship and Scientific Excursion

In addition to the theoretical courses, the undergraduate students in computer science will have practical courses and projects which are defined according to their subject and course syllabus for each student’s lesson. furthermore, the final project (monograph) is also defined by the faculty for students, which is intended more for practical activities. Visiting IT centers, telecommunications, and computer systems is also considered important for learning and defining the project.

The appropriateness of practical and theoretical work

It is imperative that the student learns the contents of a lesson in a way that he or she can use it to do something practical. In other words, they can find its practical ways. To fit the practical work with theoretical work, a course plan will be defined according to course content initially presented to the students. Doing practical work in computer labs and defining class projects and assignment will finally finalize the final lesson project in the same semester. Theoretical and practical lessons may differ in each subject course. Often, the appropriateness of theory with practical work will be practically equivalent from 60% theoretical and to 40% practical.

 Teaching methods

In the bachelor degree of computer science, in accordance with the content, different educational methods are used. Meanwhile, efforts are being made to use active and student center methods. Overall, the methods which is applied in this field, is one or a combination of the following methods:

1. Lecture Method: This method is used in the subject that are mostly based on the theoretical basis. In other words, we use this method when it is needed to transfer a large amount of information to students. So, through this, concepts and topics are verbally transmitted to students.
2. Exploratory Method: After students receive basic knowledge about the discipline and learn the basics of lessons, it’s time to get active classroom and students are made to think and answer the questions before a response is made by the professor. To fulfill this demand, students are urged to actively learn new knowledge, ideas and participate in contribution to their discussion and critique with their professors and their classmates.
3. Question and Answer Method: To ensure proper learning, a part of learning process is assigned to questions and answers between students and professor. This way, is used on the already taught lessons and new lessons so as to enhance creativity talent and thinking and also pave the way for institutionalization of lessons by replication of the topics.
4. Practical work in the classroom: Normally practical work begins after presenting the definition of the problem and getting basic familiarity with the general concepts of that lesson. Many of these practical works are defined by subject teacher and then the students in cooperation with the professor, carry out their practical work.
5. Research and problem solving: In this method, students are given a subject to increase their information through further study in order to find solutions to a given problem and then they present their feedback within specified time.
6. Group work: In some topics, the members of the class are divided into multi- micro-groups and then they are given group work (project). So, the responsibility and the privilege of work belong to everyone. This method of training is implemented after gaining basic knowledge about a learning subject such as problem solving, analysis of algorithms, system alignment and system scenarios.

Student assessment methods

In order to assess students, it is tried to divide student assessment to different segments and times. Because one of the features of active education system is that students are not evaluated in one way or once or twice, but rather students are evaluated in a variety ways and also in different times. Students’ assessment in the computer science bachelor’s degree is conducted with using different methods. Of the 100 points which is awarded to each subject, (depending on the type of lesson whether it is project based or rarely required project work) 60-50% of them belong to written examinations taken at the end of semester, 20% of them belong to middle semester exam but the remaining percentages are allocated to other parts, such as project delivery, teamwork, regular attendance in the class, homework, classroom activities, etc., as decided by the respective professor.

The distribution of the scores are as following way:

1. Regular presence in the classroom with maintaining general discipline (5%)
2. Homework and class activities such as: taking part in questions and answers during teaching, and delivering practical tasks in the classroom of relevant content (5%);
3. Mid-Semester Assessment: This assessment is done after the eighth or ninth week. (20%)
4. Evaluation at end of the semester: This assessment is done in written form at the end of the semester. (60%).
5. Evaluation of the final lesson project: Delivering the final project of the course, which is defined at least one week before the beginning of the final exam by the relevant professor. (5% – 10%).
6. Evaluation of group work: Due to the need for practical work, some group work is defined by the respective professor; if it done by the students, each member of that group deserves the individual score, which included by the first and second parts of this paragraph.

Computer Science Departments

As one of the goals of the university is to update the educational content based on the needs of the country. therefore, Department of Computer Science has considered three departments in this regard.

The necessity of computer science department

There are many reasons why departments may need to be established but below is referred to some of those reasons:

1. The labor market in the field of computer science has a special trend to expertise
2. Applicants of this field are interested in a certain department
3. Considering the economic situation of the people, some graduate students are not able to continue their studies at higher educational levels, and on the other hand, the ground for continuing education in the country is not yet available, it is highly required to specialize the graduates on relevant subjects.
4. In the state universities, this major has also divided to several departments
5. And finally, the establishment of various departments will increase the expertise of students in a particular field.

Departments

There are three departments considered to be the most applicable departments in this field, below details are provided for each one.

Department of Software Engineering

1. The extraordinary importance of information for today’s human beings and computerizing of various dimensions of life require the design and development of software systems to highlight the needs of life in the present day. So that the correct information helps us properly develop and implement development plans. Access to the correct information depends on the effective and efficient use of computer systems in both software and hardware.
2. The software engineering field allows graduates to use computer science principles and mathematical analysis to design, analyze, and develop computer systems.

Department of Information Technology

Today, one of the important factors of the development is to increase the use of information technology in the economic, administrative, government, law enforcement, and so on. So that information technology and the degree of progress in it are one of the most important developmental measures of the countries. Therefore, every development program requires the establishment of an appropriate environment for the use of information technology.

3. Students of this field can specialize in designing and implementing computer systems in the hardware and software sectors, and designing security policies on networks and computer systems, as well as the proper use of computer system resources.

Department of Information Systems

The goal of the department of information systems is to explain the scientific issues and provide technical skills to the people of our beloved country. The Information Systems Department is a young department and information systems in computer science and it is also a new science. Therefore, the department needs a curriculum. The members of the scientific staff of the Department have high professional qualifications and the majority of them have master’s degrees in this field. The responsibility of the members of the scientific staff of the Information Systems Department is to create and develop a curriculum in this department.

This department, in accordance with the requirements and the plan already prepared, should include subjects related to computerized information system, including database classes and web design classes. the Students who graduate from this department should be trained so that the scientific and professional issues related to the area of information systems from the beginning to advanced levels, including practical work. All professional courses that relate to their field must include general issues (foundations), advanced titles, and practical ones.

Abilities of the graduates

Graduates of this faculty will have various abilities and capacities, if properly directed, the will be able to implement good projects and solve many problems. Some of them are as below:

 1- Ability to analyze different topics of computer science.

2- Developing and managing of software systems.

3- Create, design and manage computer networks at different levels.

4- Implementing web page projects.

5- Provision, design and management of information systems.

6. Good ability and efficiency based on employment and labor market conditions.

7- Exploring and recognizing new software and hardware.

8. Examination of deficiencies and requirements of software and hardware in network services, information systems and fulfil their needs.

9. Implementing computer programs, installing, debugging, testing and training.

10. Support and maintenance of information systems including identifying errors, fixing errors, and adding new features to systems.

11. Identifying new computer techniques and design architecture.

12. The ability to standardize teaching in different computing disciplines.

13. Training and research in the field of wired, wireless, smart wireless networks, management of information system, programming languages, operating systems and the design of various algorithms.