2017 Class Schedule

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This is an outline of the course schedule and content.

• Lectures

  • Monday 1200-1300 (PSYC G8)
  • Tuesday 1000-1100 (PSYC G8)
  • Wednesday 1200-1300 (PSYC G8)

• Lab/tutorial slots

  • Thu 1400-1600 (CSIT N112)
  • Fri 0900-1100 (CSIT N112)
  • Fri 1100-1300 (CSIT N112)

Part I – Introduction to Programming

Week 1 (20-24 Feb)

• Introductory lecture: What is Art of Computing, what to expect (LX+DP, guest appearance Tony Hosking)

Introduction to programming via Karel the Robot

• Procedural abstraction (LX)

• Conditionals and loops (LX)

• Lab 1: Snap! and Karel the Robot.

Week 2 (27 Feb - 3 Mar)

Programming continued.

• Variables (conditionals and loops with variables) (LX)
• Procedures with parameters and return values, input and output. (LX)

• cultural lecture: different levels of abstractions (DP)

• Lab 2: Snap and Karel MK II.

Week 3 (6-10 Mar)

Data structures

• Arrays and lists (LX)
• Applications to arrays and lists, building blocks for software - recommender system (LX)

• (No Wed lecture, music guest lecture 8 May)

• Lab 3: Make Snap! Sing and Talk.

Week 4 (14-17 Mar)

• (no Monday lecture, Canberra Day 13 Mar)

Recursion

• Recursion - guessing a number (LX)

• Recursion2 - binary tree, more recursion examples (LX)

• Lab 4: Recursion.

Part II – Computational Thinking

Week 5 (20-24 Mar)

Optimization, logistics, and solving sudoku

• The 8 Queens problem (LX)
• Computational problem-solving and discrete optimisation (LX)

• Optimization (Tommaso Urli)

• Lab 5: Solving sudoku.

Week 6 (27-31 Mar)

Computational biology and dynamic programming

• Dynamic programming - Knapsack problem (DP)
• Sequence alignment (DP)

• Computational thinking in biology (Gavin Huttley)

• Lab 6: Sequence alignment.

Two Week Teaching Break (3 - 17 Apr)

Week 7 (18 - 21 Apr)

• (No Monday lecture, Easter Monday 17 April)

Computational social science, sentiment analysis, and hashing

• Searching and sorting, notions of algorithm complexity (LX)

• Dictionaries and hashtables (LX)

• Lab 7: Sentiment analysis.

Week 8 (24-28 Apr)

• Computational thinking in the humanities (Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller);

• (No Tue lecture, ANZAC day 25 Apr)

• Intro to machine learning and data analytics (LX)

• Lab 7 take 2: Sentiment analysis.

Week 9 (1 - 5 May)

Data science, predictive analytics, and curing diseases

• Trees (LX)

• Decision trees (LX)

• Digital Music and Live coding (Benjamin Swift)

• Lab 8: Diagnosing disease with decision trees.

Part III – Computing in the world

Week 10 (8 - 12 May)

• Programming beyond snap! - A look at python

• Introduction to the digital computer: Data representation

• Continue work on Lab 8

Week 11 (15 - 19 May)

• Introduction to the digital computer: Logical functions and circuits

• The digital computer, part 1.

• The digital computer, part 2.

• Lab 9: Simulating combinatorial circuits.

For this lab, we will be using Logisim, a tool that simulates computer hardware.

Week 12 (22 - 26 May)

• cultural/guest lecture Computing in the world, “Debate” AI and its impact (TBC)

• The limits of computation: The Halting problem and NP-hardness (DP)

• Quantum computing (TBC Elanor Huntington)

12 January, 2017
468 words

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Written by

Lexing Xie Dirk Pattinson

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