cs1120: Introduction to Computing

The web site for the Fall 2011 version of the course is now available. Please visit http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/cs1120-f11/ for the latest information on the course.

We’ve increased the enrollment limit to 60. If you tried to register before this when the course was listed as “Closed”, please try again, or contact me (evans@cs.virginia.edu) if you have problems.

The website here is from the Fall 2009 Course.  The current (Spring 2011) version of cs1120 is here; (taught by Paul Reynolds).  The Fall 2011 course will be similar in most ways to this course, so you can get an idea of what to expect here.

Materials include:

• Course Book (available as a free download, or as a printed book)
• Course Syllabus (expect some minor changes for Fall 2011)
• Problem Sets (to give you an idea what the course assignments are like)
• Final Projects from Fall 2009 students (one useful example is Josh Lesko’s Days on the Lawn site, although you may prefer to play Pong)

You may also want to see my ratemyprofessors.com ratings or my teaching philosophy. If you have questions about the course or want help deciding if this is the right course for you, feel free to contact me (David Evans, evans@cs.virginia.edu).

Final Exam Comments [PDF]

Please submit a Course Improvement Survey. This is anonymous, but I really appreciate your taking the time to do this and providing useful feedback to improve future course offerings.

Thanks much!

The final exam is here: [PDF, Word template]

The exam is due before 5:00pm Friday. You should turn your exam in on paper at my office.

Notes and Slides [PPTX].

Project Presentations

Schedule of the project presentations Monday

Each team will get up to 4 minutes to present your project. You should have enough time to explain the purpose of your site and demonstrate some of its functionality.

Two of our assistant coaches, Ethan Fast and Rachel Lathbury, have won 2010 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awards. This is a very prestigious national recognition that is given to about 60 students nationwide. If you see Ethan or Rachel, congratulate them and ask them about their research.

Class 40 slides: [PPTX, PDF]

Here’s info on the Math club talk mentioned in class today about quantum computing:

Friday, December 4th at 4:00pm in Kerchof Hall 317 (pizza arrives at 3:45)
Speaker: Prof. Paul Fendley (UVa Department of Physics)
Title: How quantum computers may destroy commerce on the web

Abstract: Encryption algorithms for encoding internet traffic rely on the fact that it is essentially impossible for a conventional computer to prime-factorize large numbers. However, if one could build a computer exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics, one could prime-factorize in polynomial time. I will explain how this works, and how errors threaten the whole idea. I then will discuss a proposal for a topological quantum computer, which would use topological invariants to avoid errors.

Some links from today’s class:

• Video discussion on computability
• NY Times article about previous final (see also www.jeffersonswheel.org).