SUNY Geneseo Department of Computer Science

Introduction

(No Previous Lecture)

This is CSci 141

I'm Doug Baldwin

Review Syllabus

Goals of this course

• Learn to think like a computer scientist

What Is Computer Science

Do some, and then figure out what we did....

• A game:
  • I will lay out some cards, one of which is "special"
  • You guess which card is "special", by asking yes-or-no questions
    • (e.g., "is the special card red?", "is the special card in the top row," etc.)
• A strategy:

    Repeat while more than 1 card
        Pick a question that eliminates about half the cards, ask it

• An Algorithm!
  • = a way/process of solving a problem
  • Always gives the right answer
  • Always stops
• Does this always find the special card?
  • Yes
  • Because it always reduces the number of possibly special cards
• Does it always stop?
  • Yes, because eventually there's only 1 possibly special card
• This was a correctness proof
  • Instance of theoretical reasoning
  • One of 3 methods of inquiry
• Think of solution (design), test, improve, repeat that process
• Empirical reasoning = testing expectations against real world

Next

Design and Abstraction

Read Sections 2.1 - 2.3, 2.5

Interest Survey

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