History of Computer Science 2015 Lecture 1

Lecture 1 of the course on History of Computer Science.

Key points:

- Establish the rules of the course and outline the grading policy
- Explain what the presentations are about
- Provide an example of how to address a topic from the presentations
- Describe how can the extra credits be obtained

Transcript

1. History of CS Lecture 1. Introduction to the course.
2. Three main qualities • Speak • Write • Engage
3. Speak • You’ll have to prepare presentations • Speak at conferences & meetups • Organize conferences & meet ups
4. Write • Write an in-depth research blog post • Help other people online • Help open source projects
5. Engagement • Discuss presentations • Debate points • Just be here
6. – Woody Allen “Showing up is 80 percent of life”
7. Evaluation • 40% Engagement • 30% Speaking • 30% Writing
8. Engagement • 50% is being in class • > 10 minutes late = not being in class • 50% is debating things
9. Speaking • Group presentations • 2 students: • 40 minute presentation • 20 minute debate/discussion with the class • Self report the involvement in the presentation • You will be graded separately based on the reported input
10. Writing • Blog post > 2000 words as a follow-up for your research • Each blog post is independent work and is graded separately • Posted on our common blog platform
11. Due dates • Presentation & Debate: Tuesday • Blog post: Saturday 11PM of the same week • Blog post topics should be announced at the end of the presentation
12. Time investment • Prepare the presentation: 5 hours • Blog post: 5 hours • Debate preparation: 1 hour • Total invested: 11 hours
13. Not doing things on time • 2 presentations • 2 blog posts • Very rigorous acceptance criteria • Many more hours invested
14. Extra credit • Speaking / organizing a meetup = 50% score on speaking • StackOverflow 5K points = 50% score on writing • Open Source documentation contributions = 50% score on writing (2K words)
15. Communication • Facebook Public Page • Email:
 zarea.ivan@gmail.com
 leca.doina@gmail.com • No other communication channels
16. Topic selection • Randomisation will be done later today • If you want to select teams, you should be presenting in October • Topics will be announced during the week
17. First week topics • The impact of the second world war on the evolution of Computer Science
 • Fortran and Lisp – from mathematical foundations to practical implementations
18. Ideas for Topic 1 • A history of the Enigma machine • How did the Manhattan project impact modern CS • The rise of the Information Theory • Movies or books inspired by the life and work of Alan Turing (and what’s wrong with them)
19. Ideas for Topic 2 • Overview of the original Lisp & Fortran papers • Early uses of both languages • The history of the Lisp Machine • Why and where is Fortran used today? • How did the work of John Backus inspire modern higher level programming languages
20. Due dates • Presentation – October 13th • Blog post – October 17th – 11PM • Send a .markdown file to our email addresses • A late assignment is a failed assignment
21. Sources • Wikipedia (with references) • TED • Publications – Ars Technica, Wired, Linux Journal • Forums – Reddit, YCombinator news, Quora • Influential people in the industry: • Personal blogs • Twitter feeds • Educational blogs & YouTube channels – Computerphile, KhanAcademy
22. Administrivia • Follow the Facebook page for resources • Read & Comment on the blog posts • We will have one or more “hackathons” to make up for September