Computer science at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science combines the study of computation and information processing fundamentals with their application. Computer scientists build fast, reliable, scalable and secure software systems to organize and analyze information. The honours curriculum comprises advanced topics in databases, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, security, distributed computing and algorithm design, culminating in an honours project. This program teaches graduates how to use their creative and innovative talents to conceive, design and implement software systems. The University of Ottawa's degrees are very flexible and include options, minors and a major, which can be used to explore connections between computer science and many other fields of study. Mathematics and statistics are not only powerful problem-solving tools, but also highly creative fields of studies that combine imagination with logic, and precision with intuition. Mathematics is much more than numbers. Its basic goal is to reveal and model general patterns to help explain the world, whether they be found in electrical impulses in the human nervous system, the evolution of animal populations in their habitats, fluctuations in stock-market prices, or electronic communications. Mathematics reaches far beyond science and engineering into medicine, business and the social sciences. Advances in mathematics and statistics lie behind many discoveries that are now part of people's daily lives, such as MRI scanners, digital compression of music and video, secure electronic communications, data mining, genomic algorithms, futures pricing, and many other innovations. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers Honours, majors and minors both in mathematics and in statistics. The University of Ottawa's Honours program in statistics is accredited by the Statistical Society of Canada, allowing graduates to earn the A.Stat. professional designation. Moreover, the Department offers a joint honours program in mathematics and economics, a joint honours program in mathematics and computer science, as well as a multidisciplinary program in financial mathematics and economics.