1 What this course covers

The official description of this course is:

Broad introduction to the nature, capabilities, and limitations of computing. Topics range from the way data is represented and stored, to the way today’s computers work, to the general ideas of algorithms and computational efficiency, to the future of computing. Covers Great Ideas across various areas of the field, including, for example, cryptography and internet security, problem solving, modeling and simulation, and artificial intelligence.

That suggests the following topics:

• Data (0s and 1s and beyond)
• Computers (silicon, memory, processor, disk)
• Algorithms and computational efficiency (ambiguity, scale)
• Future of computing (quantum, GPU, coprocessors)

and also a selection of topics of interest; by default:

• Cryptography (openly secret)
• Internet security (technical and social)
• Problem solving (using computers)
• Modeling and simulation (cheap approximate experiments and predictions)
• Artificial intelligence (both knowledge-based and data-driven)

Past semesters have also discussed

• The Internet
• Databases
• User interfaces
• What cannot be computed
• Conversing about computing
• Working with computing professionals

2 Weekly schedule