The Information Technology (IT) Department is housed entirely on the USF Polytechnic campus, a first for the USF system, which typically houses all academic colleges and departments at USF Tampa.
Information Technology (IT) is designed to bridge the gap between computer science and management information systems providing students with knowledge for rapidly changing technology. USF Polytechnic provides two different minors in the field of IT. While a student's primary career may be in the area of their major, an IT minor will provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed since every field is infused with technology.
Students will not be taught by teaching assistants, but by full-time faculty members of the IT department. A rare exception may occur when the department is able to engage the services of a highly qualified adjunct professor to teach a topic in which he or she has current, real world experience.
There are two options for the minor:
IT General Minor (15 semester credit hours)
The IT General Minor is aimed at providing a good understanding of the concepts underlying information technology while letting students choose four elective topics in which to specialize. These electives encompass a wide spectrum of topics such as programming, networking and web design, human computer interface and security management. The outcome of this program is to build a solid culture of IT technologies and disciplines from scratch.
The IT Technical Minor (24 semester hours)
The IT Technical Minor enforces basic scientific prerequisites and requires students to attend three core IT courses meant to give them the conceptual and technical basis necessary to successfully dwell in more advanced topics. The elective part of the technical minor is composed of two electives to be chosen from a larger set of courses, including database systems and operating systems. Successful students are expected to develop a conceptual understanding of the IT field while developing programming skills to strengthen their major.