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 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 Counting in decimal Counting in base 8 Counting in base 2 (binary) Adding in decimal Adding in base 2 Exercises 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. (Shameless plug for CS Facebook page) Interesting published research result: U. Penn designs first optical gate Thursday Homework #1 will be given out Thursday evening, will be due a week later.	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 Thursday	Reading:
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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