CSC103 Weekly Schedule Fall 2012

--D. Thiebaut 12:05, 21 August 2012 (EDT)

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Wikis | Weekly Schedule | Main Page

Office Hours: Tu-Th: 2:00-4:00 p.m. and by appointment.

Weekly Schedule

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 1 9/6	Thursday Introduction to the class and the 1/2 semester Organization of the class a short movie to get the discussion started... some examples of computers: Antikythera mechanism, oldest computer (start at 1min 47sec) Harvard research: 1.8 zettabytes in 4 grams of DNA Keywords: code: Translating from one system of values to another system. Electricity The Binary System: a system where the only two numbers available are 0 and 1. Every operation that we can do in decimal, with 10 digits, we can also do in binary. The Transistor: A switch controlled by electricity. Two giants for computer science: George Boole (1779-1848): logic expression = boolean expression. Logic: creating formulas where variables are combined by operators. The variables are boolean variables, the operators are logic operators. Any formula can be represented with a combination of just three operators: AND, OR, and NOT.	Reading Primary: Video (Part 2) on George Boole and Boolean Algebra. (5.18 min) Shannon's MIT Thesis, and boolean theory Counting in Binary Secondary:
Week 2 9/11	Tuesday A note on registering for CSC102 (Shameless plug for CS Facebook page) Three different "worlds": World 1 (Logic) World 2 (Technology) World 3 (Math) George Boole (1779-1848) Expressions that can be True or False Operators to combine expressions And, Or, Not Electricity Switches (transistors) ON/OFF The idea of a code Number systems Decimal: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Binary: 0, 1 Logic: truth tables for AND, OR, and NOT operators Counting in decimal Counting in base 8: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, ... 76, 77, 100, 101, ... Interesting published research result: U. Penn designs first optical gate Thursday Counting in base 2 (binary) Adding in decimal Adding in base 2 Homework #1 is due a Thursday 9/20/12 at 9:00 a.m.	Reading Primary: Video (Part 2) on George Boole and Boolean Algebra. (5.18 min) Shannon's MIT Thesis, and boolean theory Counting in Binary Secondary:
Week 3 9/18	Tuesday Review addition in base 2 Claude Shannon (1916-2001): writes a Master's thesis at MIT in 1948, which states that any binary numerical computation can be performed using logic expressions and logic operators. Logic Gates Data sheet for the AND gate. Data sheet for the OR gate. Data sheet for the NOT gate. Logic Design Simulator Thursday Lab #1 in FH241.	Reading: Logic Gates on wikipedia: You can skip the Universal Logic Gate section, the De Morgan section, and the remaining sections until the end. A good introduction on the Logic Circuit Simulator which we use in Lab #1 A "HowTo" document for creating simple Wiki pages (to get you started for next week)
Week 4 9/25	Tuesday PC Demolition Lab (Ford Hall Foyer) Thursday	Reading
Week 5 10/2	Tuesday Thursday	Reading
Week 6 10/9	Tuesday: Fall Break Thursday	Reading
Week 7 10/16	Tuesday Thursday: Take-home Final Exam	Reading
Week 8 10/23	Tuesday: Final Exam Q&A	Reading

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