COSC 235: Programming and Problem Solving Instructor: Dr. Xenia Mountrouidou 1.
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Transcript of COSC 235: Programming and Problem Solving Instructor: Dr. Xenia Mountrouidou 1.
COSC 235: Programming and Problem Solving
Instructor: Dr. Xenia Mountrouidou
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Who am I?• Dr. X – Computer Scientist• PhD at North Carolina State University – Optical
networks performance • Worked at IBM – Software Performance Engineer• Post doc at College of William and Mary – research on
performance and power savings for hard disk drives• Assistant professor at Jacksonville University• Assistant professor at Wofford College!• Scuba diver, manga comics collector, science fiction
reader
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Who am I?
Topics
• Who are you and what are you looking from this course?
• Syllabus and Policies• Group activities on Syllabus• What is Computer Science?• What do Computer Scientists study?
What do they actually do?
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What is computer science?
• “Computers are to computer science what telescopes are to astronomy.” –E. Dijkstra
• The study of what can be computed• Computer scientists… (what do they do, what
do they look like?)
http://services.allegany.edu/acmlife/?page_id=2065
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Algorithms
• What is an algorithm?• How does algorithmic thinking help in
problem solving?• How did you apply algorithmic thinking this
weekend?
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The Universal Machine
• “a machine that stores and manipulates information under the control of a changeable program.”
• Two key elements:– Manipulating information… data!– Changeable program
The Universal Machine
• What is a computer program?
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Program Power
http://www.theworkprint.com/
jubilee-joins-x-men-apocalypse/123
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Why do you want to learn how to code?
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References
• “Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science”, 2nd ed., John M. Zelle
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