Lecture 1: Intro to CSCI 0020 Concepts and Challenges of Computer Science or Demystifying Digital

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Lecture 1 Intro to CSCI 0020 - Concepts and
Challenges of Computer ScienceorDemystifying
Digital

• Fall 2009
• Prof. Donald Stanford
• dls_at_cs.brown.edu

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Who am I?

• Brown class of 1972, International Relations
• ScM, Applied Mathematics, Brown 77
• Chief Technology Officer of GTECH Holdings Corp
  1979-2002 (retired)
• Adjunct prof. in CS and Engin since 2002
• Times2 Academy Charter School
• R.I. Innovation Factory Board
• Self employed Technology Consultant and advisor
• Currently consulting with GTECH
• Commute between RI and St. Thomas V.I. much of
  the year

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Dons Office Hours

• By Appointment
• I am available after every class to answer
  questions or discuss anything important

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CS2 TAs Fall 2009

• Luke Angelini Head TA
• Ben Cohen
• Mike Jaehnig
• Roman Shraga
• John Loesser
• Xander Tabloff
• Amin Shaik
• Tasha Pelaez

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Embrace your TAs!

• Remember,
• The TAs are your friends!
• They are also full time students so you need to
  take that into consideration when you interact
  with them

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Guest Lecturer

• Lou Mazzuchelli
• Brown Alum
• Founder, Cadre Technologies
• Technologist and Bon Vivant

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CSCI 0020 or CS2?

• CSCI0020 is the course formerly known
  affectionately to generations of Brown students
  and grads as CS2
• Implementation of the new Banner registration
  system resulted in the re-numbering of all
  courses..
• You will still hear me or other people referring
  to us as CS2 since it rolls off the tongue a lot
  easier!

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What is CSCI 0020?

• A computer literacy course which covers a lot of
  territory
• Hands-on experience with important applications
  web pages, spreadsheets, databases, simple
  programs, etc.
• Conceptual knowledge - what is going on
• under the hood
• Discussion about what the digital revolution
  means to you in everyday activities

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Course Material

• Text No Text!Reading is assigned on the
  Worldwide Web or passed out in the labs
• Lecture Notes available on the CS2 webpage
  after the lecture
• CS2 Homepage http//www.cs.brown.edu/courses/csci
  0020
• The CS2 website is a critical resource. When in
  doubt, go there first!

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The CS2 Website

• Contains latest info on everything to do with the
  course (MOTD, Schedules, Syllabus, etc)
• All assignments and tutorials are posted there
• All assignments are submitted using a hand-in
  utility on the Mycourses site which is linked to
  the CS2 site
• All grades are posted and can be checked on the
  Mycourses site

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Lectures

• I will present most of the lectures but on
  occasion we may have a guest or a TA lecture
• Lectures will be posted to the website after they
  are presented
• Both the midterm and the final will have extra
  point questions (6 points!) that can only be
  answered if you attended the lectures

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Sections

• Each student will be assigned a lab section - a
  once a week meeting of about 15 students plus two
  UTAs.
• All sections will be held in CIT room 267.
• Signups after class on Thursday
• Section attendance is mandatory and will count
  for 16 of your grade

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Lab Sections

• Every student is required to sign up for section
  and obtain a log-in account for this course
• Sections are important and should be attended
  regularly. Dont expect TAs to tutor you if you
  havent been to Section
• If you are having problems, contact the head TAs
  or me ASAP!...

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A CS2 Thursday Tradition

• Thursdays are designated as Hawaiian Shirt Days!
• Don will match his Hawaiian shirts against the
  best that you can pit against him
• You can win valuable prizes that will help with
  the assignments!.....Be There!

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Some of the Previous Winners!
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CS2 Millionaire Quiz Shows

• Each week we will hold a review quiz show in
  which a lucky volunteer will have the opportunity
  to show the rest of the class how smart they are
  and how much theyve learned!
• And they too can win Valuable Prizes!
• Study guides, Ice Cream, etc.

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For 100
Don, the CS2 Instructor attended
Princeton
Harvard (sucks)
Brown
Slippery Rock
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Grading

• Two exams Midterm (15) Final
  (15).
• Project Assignments 60
• Section Participation 16
• Total available points 106!
• Late Projects will incur a penalty!
• DO NOT show up at the very end of the semester
  asking for more time to do the projects!

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Signing up for CS2

• Please register in Banner as soon as possible if
  you are not already registered
• In addition, you must turn in a signed copy of
  the Non-Collaboration policy at lab section
• Tell your friendsand make up your mind
  soon!....it takes 5 days for the Registrar to add
  you to Mycourses

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Why Study Computing?

• Useful for getting a job and providing you with
  the tools for a wide variety of work.
• Interesting in its own right.
• Its Fun!
• Guaranteed to become still more im-portant
  regardless of where you work or what you study in
  the future

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The CS 2 Promise

• You will know how computing a digital devices
  work to greater level of understanding
• You will leave this course with valuable new
  skills that will benefit you at work and study
• You may be intrigued enough to pursue the subject
  further
• You will have some fun along the way and meet
  some new cool people!
• You will have a useful digital vocabulary and
  will be able to hold your own in any geeky
  conversations at cocktail parties or social events

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When asked the question?

• What did you get for your Birthday?
• You will be able to reply authoritatively
• Golly, I received a wonderful digital imager
  with a 6.2 mega-pixel low noise CMOS imager with
  XVGA resolution due to its 9 micron pixel size,
  complete with a 5 gigabyte flash card and an IEEE
  1394 port for high speed data transfers!

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For those of you who are aspiring capitalists

• Competence in Information Technology is worth big
  bucks in the job market!

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Paul Allen
Bill Gates
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Questions ???
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The Computing Revolution

• Distant Pre-history (prior to 1945)
• Birth of Digital Computers around WWII
• Repeated revolutions since then with computing
  technology becoming pervasive in almost all areas
  technology, industry, entertainment and science

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How did we get from
HERE.
To HERE ??????
                                      
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Pervasive Computing

• What is it and what does it mean to us?

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Trend towards Pervasive Computing
size
one computer, many people
one computer, one person
one person, many computers
smart dust
number
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The Machine

• Hardware the physical components of the
  computer - central processing unit, memory,
  input-output devices
• Operating system the program that serves as a
  buffer between the user and the hardware
• Software the applications one uses or writes to
  get stuff done

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Moores Law

• The number of transistors that can be
  manufactured into a square inch of integrated
  circuit doubles every 18 months or so. This
  means
• The amount of memory that can be supplied for a
  given cost doubles every 18 months or so and,
• the speed of computation goes up by a factor of
  2 about every 1.5 years for the same cost!
• Gordon Moore, co-founder Intel Corp
• 1965

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Implications of Moores Law

• The Apple iPod that fits into your shirt pocket
  would have occupied more space than this room 30
  years ago!
• The equivalent amount of memory and computing
  power in your average PC would have cost gt10M 25
  years ago!
• If Moores law continues to hold, in 20 years a
  PC like device will fit on a chip small enough
  to be injected into your blood stream and perform
  a diagnostic on your heart and send the results
  back using a wireless network.

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Moores law in action
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The Software Revolution

• Relatively few people actually program
  computers. Most use software (programs)
  developed by others, intended to be used by
  people with limited understanding of how
  computers work, hence a huge market in commecial
  computer appications
• E.g., spreadsheets, databases, powerPoint, word
  processing, web design, games, mathlab, computer
  aided design, graphics, imaging, simulation

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The Emergence A New Law

• Bandwidth (the amount of information one can
  pump though a connection) doubles every nine
  months or so.
• Interestingly, it seems that the amount of
  information we want to send doubles at the same
  rate, due in large part to the growth
  commercialization and popularity of the internet.

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The Communication Revolution

• The World Wide Web
• The convergence of Computers, TV, Telephone,
  Multi-Media, Personal Digital Assistants that now
  communicate with each other in increasing numbers
  using a wide variety of media (images, video,
  sound, text, etc.)

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The Future that Was and Wasnt

• Past predictions that have failed robots that
  clean your house, machines you can have a
  conversation with (HAL)
• In some cases we have greatly exceeded
  expectations
• computer inter-connection (the web), computer
  graphics, animation, industrial robots, ease of
  use,
• increased flexibility

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Where Does This Flexibility Come From?

• All data that the computer will work on, and the
  instructions it will execute (the software) , are
  stored in electronic digital memory.
• Thus the same physical device, but loaded with
  different instructions and data, acts quite
  differently.

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Bits ( Binary Digits)

• Internally, all data in a digital device is
  memory is stored in electronic devices that are
  either on or off (binary).
• Thus all data can be thought of as being
  expressed in bits, where on 1 and off 0.
• (also expressed as true/false)
• In future lectures we will understand how data
  can be stored and manipulated in a binary system

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The Digital (Re)-EvolutionSome Examples

• Digital Documents (Email)
• Digital Music (CD)
• Digital Imaging
• Digital Video (DVD)
• Digital Television (HDTV)
• Digital Signatures and Identities!!!

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The Digital EvolutionSome Examples (continued)

• Virtual Reality and Simulation
• Digital Communications
• The Internet
• The World Wide Web
• browsers
• web pages/sites
• hypertext

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In Other Words,

• Digital Representations Everywhere !!!
• Affects practically every aspect of modern life
• Similar to Medicine, advancements continue to
  occur at an ever quickening pace

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The Digital Domain Today
Two Important Essential Components

• Multimedia
• Networking

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Multimedia

• Informational media
• text
• numerical data
• illustrations, photographs
• animation, video
• sounds, voice, music
• Multimedia integrates various forms/media of
  information

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Networking

• Networks connect computers at different locations
• Networks permit the exchange and sharing of
  information across time and space
• Networked computers have created a new habitat
  called cyberspace

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Networking (contd)

• Networks support point-to-point and
  point-tomultipoint communication
• Allow computers of different scale, type, and
  performance to interact
• Expand the capabilities of connected computers
  through distributed computing

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Growth of Arpanet into the Internet
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Who Benefits from Multimedia and Networking?

• Information Consumers
• Information Providers
• Informational Workers
• Students and Researchers

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Summary

• Todays computer systems are far more than
  computational and text processing tools
• They enable a new communication paradigm
• This paradigm is enhanced by the rapid expansion
  of the World Wide Web
• It is driven by the convergence of two
  technologies multimedia and networking

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Questions?