Course syllabus

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This page gives a basic overview of CS110 for Summer School  2021. All course material is in Modules.

Course Overview Digital Course Outline Staff
Class Representatives Meeting Times Course Resources
Assessments Course Expectations Getting Started

 

Course Overview

Welcome to COMPSCI 110. This course is about computers and how they work and some of the things we can do with them. At the lowest level computers are collections of switches connected together to control two basic values (we usually call these 0 and 1). By the end of the course you should have a good understanding of how those devices in your pocket and on your desk enable you to calculate and communicate based on this simple idea. 

The real description:

Modern computers are both complicated and fast. This course explains how computers work and some of the things we can use them for. In order for us to understand computers we gradually examine a series of layers, each one built on the layer beneath. We start with looking at how data can be represented in binary, then see how we can make machines which can transform that data using simple circuits. Once we can control those circuits with instructions we have the basis for programming languages. The course extends the idea of a computer to how we connect computers together in networks such as the internet and we also touch on some research areas in Computer Science such as Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics.

This course is compulsory for students intending to major in Computer Science for students starting a CS degree from 2019 onward but is valuable to anyone who is interested in how computers work and what we can do with them.

Digital Course Outline

A full overview of the course is provided in the Digital Course Outline

Staff

Class Representatives

Class reps can act as an intermediary between students in the class and the lecturers and tutors. You can share with them any suggestions/complaints/remarks about the lectures. The class reps are not a part of the teaching team.

Add here once elected

Meeting times

This summer school semester there will be 6 lectures and 2 tutorials a week. The lecture timetable is as follows:

  • Monday 2 - 3
  • Tuesday 2 - 3
  • Wednesday 2 - 3
  • Thursday 2 - 3
  • Friday 1 - 3

All lectures will be held in Owen G Glenn, Room 092. 

Tutorials will be held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Tutorials will be in rooms B09 and B05 in Building 303. Please attend the tutorial stream you have enrolled in through SSO.

Tutorials do not start until Friday the 8th of January.

Course Resources and Getting Help

Piazza: Piazza is the main forum we will be using for asking and answering questions. You are encouraged to participate asking and answering questions there.

Textbook: 

image007.jpg Invitation to Computer Science 8th edition, by Schneider and Gerstang

The ebook can be purchased online from Cengage. Please get the "Textbook/ebook" version for $74.95 NOT the Digital Platform version for $79.95. If you use the discount code NZ15OFF at checkout you get an extra 15% off the price. (Edit: if this code doesn't work please try NZ10OFF, the information given to us was incorrect).

If you prefer a paper version Ubiq has it in stock for $157.46 (this includes a 10% discount from the standard price of $174.95). Find it at https://ubiq.co.nz/p/invitation-to-computer-science-9781337561914.

Assessments and Pass Requirements

Type

% of final mark

Exam

50

Test - date : 29th January

20
10 tutorials @ 0.2% each

2

5 assignments @ 4% each

20

3 essays @ 2.66..% each

8

In order to pass the paper, you must:

  • Get an overall pass of 50% (this includes the exam, test and course work marks)

Canvas hand-in of the tutorial tasks will be used for the submission of tutorial work.

Course Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and Summer Semester students are expected to spend 20 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 6 hours of lectures, 2 hours of tutorials, 6 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 6 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

The Summer Semester courses progress really quickly and you really need to keep up with the material by starting assignments as soon as the material has been covered. There are two days where both an assignment and an essay are due, please be very careful with your time allocations.

Getting Started

The course material is arranged in Modules (see the link in the left hand panel).

Also consult the Learning Toolkit information.

 

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due