CMSC 121: Intro to computer science
Fall 2015
Sections 1 and 3
Prof. Blaheta
Edsger Dijkstra famously said that "computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." What did he mean?
In this course, we will indeed spend plenty of time with computers, but we will also spend much time without computers, working with the idea of computation itself, and discovering what it can do for us. We will study how data is processed (and how computers can help us handle more of it). We will study how information can be represented (and some of the limits imposed by storing it in a computer). And we will study computers themselves, seeing how the hardware is built, from the circuit level on up.
This class meets at 10:00pm on MWF (Section 1) and 2:00pm on MWF (Section 3). There is no textbook.
Course materials
- Syllabus
- Collaboration policy
- Readings
- Light-Bot 2
- Research paper
- 2014 Tax forms:
- Exam 1 review
- Character sets:
- Pixel2Spreadsheet (get the development version)
- Exam 2 review
- Exam 3 review
Board photos
- 26 Aug: am, pm
- 31 Aug: am, pm
- 2 Sep: am, pm
- 4 Sep: am, pm side, pm front
- 9 Sep: am, pm side, pm front
- 18 Sep: am
- 23 Sep: am, pm
- 25 Sep: am, pm
- 30 Sep: am left, am right, pm
- 2 Oct: am left, am right, pm
- 5 Oct: am left, am right, pm left, pm right
- 7 Oct: am, pm
- 9 Oct: am, pm left, pm right
- 14 Oct: am left, am right, pm left, pm right
- 16 Oct: am, pm
- 19 Oct: am, pm left, pm right
- 21 Oct: am, pm
- 26 Oct: am, pm
- 28 Oct: am, pm left, pm right
- 30 Oct: am left, am right, pm side, pm front
- 2 Nov: am, pm
- 4 Nov: am left, am right, pm side, pm front, pm right
- 6 Nov: am, pm-side, pm-front, pm-right
- 9 Nov: am, pm-left, pm-right
- 11 Nov: am, pm
- 13 Nov: am, pm-left, pm-right
- 16 Nov: am, pm
- 18 Nov: am-left, am-right, pm
- 20 Nov: am, pm-left, pm-right
- 2 Dec: am, pm
Examples from class
- 9 September: repetition in spreadsheets: am section, pm section
- 11 September: spreadsheet repetition, functions: am section, pm section
- 14 September: spreadsheet decisions, tax example: am section, pm section
- 16 September: tax example: am section, pm section
- 26 October: intro to Logisim: am section, pm section
- 2 November: Circuit for odd-number-of-1s, sum-of-products form: am section, pm section