ECS15: Introduction to Computers

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1 ECS15: Introduction to Computers Winter 2012 Prof. Raissa D Souza

2 Goals of this course Understand how a computer works: 1) input (a string of letters or numbers, a picture, a waveform, etc.); 2) program (algorithm: transforms the data) 3) output (a human-useful format: string, picture, etc). Become computationally aware and literate in software, programming basics and internet workings. Learn the process of writing a scientifically sound and rigorous paper.

3 Computation and Information is currently transforming all disciplines: Origins of WWW: sharing high energy physics data. Social Sciences (immunology, economics, sociology) online social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.) Biological sciences: DATABASES Human and other genomes (Terrabytes every month?) Microarray data of gene coexpression Protein and gene interaction networks Protein folding libraries Archeology: genetic evidence to link migration. Cosmology: terrabytes of data Geology/seismology: massive instrumentation (sensor networks) Entertainment -> user generated like youtube.com

4 Fact: You will need to understand computation and how to use it Goal: Understand ICT. Information and Communication Technologies. Computer literacy required at most jobs. (Ability to write clearly and correctly: reports, s,) Social networks: privacy, identity theft, finding contacts and opportunities. Data privacy (increasingly important) Cloud storage of content (e.g., icloud, dropbox, gmail, ). (Your content lives in a remote server not on your local machine necessarily.)

5 Moore s Law: The exponential growth in computational power per dollar spent on transistor. Note: X-axis is linear Y-axis is logarithmic ( Counting in base 10: log(10) = 1 log(100) = 2 log(1000) = 3 (What base do computers count in?

6 By 2020, speed of one human brain By 2050, speed of all human brains combined! Moore s Law (Gordon Moore, founder of Intel) (

7 The growth of computation and information In your lifetime, the number of operations per second will exceed the capacity of all human brains combined! In your lifetime it is possible that the amount of data generated each day will exceed the amount of data ever written previously. (We will soon reach the point where the content on the WWW exceeds all the content ever written.)

9 Class details Class: T/Th 9:00-10:20 a.m; 1002 Giedt; Labs: A01 M 12:10pm to 3:00pm; 1131 Meyer A02 M 3:10pm to 6:00pm; 1131 Meyer A03 W 2:10pm to 5:00pm; 1131 Meyer A04 F 12:10pm to 3:00pm; 1131 Meyer A05 T 1:40pm to 4:30pm; 2020 SLB (If necessary some week, you can go to different lab section but priority to the 30 enrolled students)

10 Some Important Facts Instructor: Raissa D Souza raissa@cse.ucdavis.edu (subject line: ECS 15) TAs: them first!! Before Prof. D Souza. Sam Johnson, samjohnson@ucdavis.edu Yu Liu, ywliu@ucdavis.edu Chris (Yucong) Ye, chrisyeshi@gmail.com Reader/grader: Isaiah (Zhige) Xin, zxin@ucdavis.edu TA office hour and location same as the lab sessions

11 Class website: Check for notes Check for announcements periodically.

12 Grading Term paper (20% ) Computer in an area of your interest Lab assignments (35% ) 9 small projects (basic computer skills, basic programming): we remove the lowest grade. No homework Midterm (20% ) (one mid-term) In class Final (25% )

13 Why? Basic knowledge of computers Order a computer online Buy a digital camera Configure your wireless router Basic understanding of software and tools Word processing, etc. Security and privacy Writing programs to solve your own problems Understanding how to query and find information

14 Laboratories Go to your registered Lab session, on exception you can attend a different lab. Priority goes to students registered in the lab session TAs will be there the whole time to help you. Yes, you can go and ask any questions related to the class! Please let the TAs talk about the lab assignment first. Lab assignments are posted two weeks in advance All assignments are submitted via smartsite.ucdavis.edu Please make sure you submit correctly! Please check your grade and TA comments (if any).

15 20% of the total grade ~2500 words (around 10 pages) A research paper on a topic related to computers that interest you An opportunity to learn how computers are used in an area you are interested in. Start early! Term paper

16 Timetable Prospectus due Friday, January 20 Progress report Due Friday, February 3 Draft due Friday, February 17 The paper itself is due Friday, Mar 9 All due at 6pm, submitted via Smartsite.

17 Possible Topics Computers in education for teaching reading for teaching music Computers in biology bioinformatics computational biology Computers in art, architecture, and design computer-generated and computer-supported art computer-aided design Digital libraries legal issues (e.g., intellectual property) technologies Music on the Internet Internet on entertainment P2P file sharing Video-on-demand E-books

18 Possible Topics Social networking websites and their impacts Online advertising Google? Security and privacy computer and/or Internet addiction failures regarding computers in schools famous computer viruses and "worms" Digital divide

19 Computer Science Theory of computation Software engineering Computer graphics Computer security and cryptography Computer networks Artificial intelligence Human-computer interface Bioinformatics System and architecture

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