SMART-ICS credit transfer program

SMART-ICS is a program that encourages partnership with area community colleges in an effort to provide student transfers to ICS subject credit for all lower division math and ICS courses required for the ICS degree.

The Bren School currently has SMART-ICS agreements with:

» Fullerton College
» Long Beach Community College
» Orange Coast College

Students should contact the community college they are interested in attending to learn about its SMART program.

FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS

SMART Reasoning
The typical community college student transfers to UC Irvine's Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences with a junior standing in terms of units completed.

Yet, because of the difficulty of articulating community college computer science and discrete math courses to ICS' requirements, most of those transferring into the ICS major receive limited ICS course transfer credit.

To complete the missing courses often requires a transfer student to spend more time (and money) to obtain an ICS degree than a student who entered UCI as a freshman ICS major.

SMART Program
SMART-ICS, Standardized Major Requirements to Transfer into Information and Computer Science, is a new articulation program that allows community college students to meet the lower-division computer science and mathematics course requirements of the ICS major by covering designated topics and meeting a programming proficiency requirement, rather than by a series of course-to-course articulations.

Transfer students completing the SMART-ICS requirements come to the ICS major immediately prepared to begin upper-division courses in ICS. SMART-ICS does not affect ICS' course-to-course articulation options; they are still in place and available.

SMART Steps
Most community colleges will satisfy SMART-ICS by specifying a group of courses that a student will complete. Still, SMART-ICS is about topic coverage: ICS will accept any SMART program that reasonably ensures satisfaction of the SMART-ICS requirements. In particular, if you wish, your school can have multiple programs that meet the SMART requirements.

To guide your community college in developing its SMART programs, please refer to the SMART Chart.

The Chart lists each topic to be covered and, as a guide to the depth of coverage, the number of lecture hours to devote to it; it also spells out the programming proficiency requirement.

Community colleges interested in partnering with ICS in its SMART-ICS program follow four simple steps:

  • Notify ICS of your interest in participating in SMART-ICS
  • Create your SMART programs, using the SMART Chart as your guide
  • Obtain ICS certification of your programs
  • Certify your transfer students when they complete one of your SMART programs

SMART Resources
Below is information to assist you in the creation of your SMART programs:

  • Core Knowledge and Skills documents
  • Current Computer Science and Math syllabi
  • One-on-one assistance available in creating your program
  • SMART Chart
  • SMART Textbooks*
    • ICS 21/CSE 21:
      Horstmann, Cay. Java Concepts, 5th edition. Wiley & Sons.
    • ICS 22/CSE 22 and ICS 23/CSE 23:
      Goodrich, Michael T. & Tamassia, Roberto. Data Structures & Algorithms in Java, 4th edition. Wiley & Sons.
    • ICS 51:  
      Tanenbaum, Andrew S. Structured Computer Organization, 4th edition. Prentice Hall.
    • ICS 52:
      Sommerville, Ian. Software Engineering, 6th edition. Addison-Wesley.
    • ICS 76/Math 67:
      Ross, Sheldon. A First Course in Probability, 6th edition. Prentice-Hall.
    • Math 6D/ICS 6D/Math 6B:
      Rosen, Kenneth H. Discrete Mathematics and its Applicaitons, 5th edition. McGraw-Hill.
    • Math 6G:
      Fraleigh, John B. and Beauregard. Raymond A. Linear Algebra, 3rd edition. Addison-Wesley.
    • Math 2A-B:
      Stewart. Calculus, 4th edition. Brooks/Cole. or
      Stewart. Single Variable Calculus, 4th edition. Brooks/Cole.
      (The latter text is just the first chapters of the former text.)
    • Math 2J:
      None: Notes by UCI Professor R. C. Reilly are used.
*This list is subject to change, as each instructor determines the text(s) to use in her/his courses.