Preface This book is based on a course I recently developed for computer science ma- jors at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). The motivation for developing this course came from guidance I obtained from the NEIU Computer Science Department Advisory Board. One objective of this Board is to advise the De- partment concerning the maintenance of curricula that is relevant to the needs of companies in Chicagoland. The Board consists of individuals in IT depart- ments from major companies such as Walgreen's, AON Company, United Air- lines, Harris Bank, and Microsoft. After the dot.com bust and the introduction of outsourcing, it became evident that students, trained only in the fundamen- tals of computer science, programming, web design, etc., often did not have the skills to compete in the current U.S. job market. So I asked the Advisory Board what else the students should know. The board unanimously felt the students needed business skills such as knowledge of IT project management, marketing, and finance. As a result, our revised curriculum, for students who hoped to obtain employment immediately following graduation, contained a number of business courses. However, several members of the board said they'd like to see students equipped with knowledge of cutting edge applications of computer science to areas such as decision analysis, risk management, data mining, and