Class 1: Computing
Slides
[PPTX] [PDF (6 per page for printing)]
Schedule
- Thursday, 25 August (4-5:30pm): Office “Packing” Hours (Olsson 236A) (stop by to pick up a printed book and with any questions you have)
- Thursday, 25 August (4:30-6:00pm): Assistant Coaches’ Help Hours (Jonathan Burket and Jiamen Chen, Thorton Stacks) (this is a good opportunity to finish PS0 and get help with any problems getting started with DrRacket)
- Friday, 26 August (before class): Read Course Book Chapters 1 and 2.
- Friday, 26 August (beginning of class): Course Pledge [PDF version for printing]
(print, read, and sign the course pledge, and bring it to turn in at the beginning of Friday’s class) - Sunday, 28 August (5:59pm): Submit Problem Set 0
Notes and Questions
What is Computer Science?
Why is Computer Science not a real science?
How is computing different from other kinds of engineering?
What is a liberal art?
Didascalicum, Hugo of St. Victor, around 1120
Moore’s “Law”: Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed in 1965 that transistor density approximately doubles every 18 months. In rough terms, this means that the amount of computing power you can get for a fixed price doubles every 18 months. (Its not a “law”, its an observation, but so far it has held remarkably well.)
If it takes 60 seconds to compute a photomosaic today on a typical PC, estimate how long it will take cs1120 students in 2014 to compute the same photomosaic? How long will it take in 2017?
What other things have changed as much as (or more that!) computing power in your lifetime?
(Post your guesses/answers as comments here.)
Links
- Some Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Moon [PDF], Richard H. Battin, 1989.
- Moore’s Law
- Augusta Ada Byron
Some Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Moon, Richard H. Battin, 1989.
I do not know when I have been so tantalized by anything, and should be ashamed to say how much time I have spent upont it, in vain. These Functional Equations are complete Will-o-the-Wisps to me. The moment I fancy I have really at last got hold of something tangible and substantial, it all receded further and further and vanishes again into thin air…
Ada Byron, letter to Augustus De Morgan, 27 November 1841.
(From Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers, by Betty A. Toole, 1998.)
… Enough is known already of the diverse applications of computing to recognize the birth of a coherent body of technique, which I call computer science … Whether computers are used for engineering design, medical data processing, composing music, or other purposes, the structure of computing is much the same … “
George Forsythe, coining the term “Computer Science” in 1961.
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