CSC 190 Creative Computing Seminar
Information
Course: CSC 190 Creative Computing Seminar
Instructor: Randal C. Nelson
Office hours: by appointment, CSC 719
Time: TR 9:40 - 10:55
Room: CSB 601
Summary
Do you have any atoms in your body that were once part of Julius
Caesar? If so, how many?
How much fossil fuel has been burned by humans over the entire
course of history? Is the resulting CO2 mostly still in the air?
How much would it cost to build a mile-high skyscraper?
Can you figure an easy way to directly verify the distance to the moon?
Can you answer these questions without looking anything up?
or by looking up only a few basic facts? Can you do the computation in
your head?
This course is designed to exercise quantitative reasoning,
critical thinking and creative problem solving skills with respect to
real-world issues that have a computational component.
Technical skills emphasized include
facility with approximation, "back-of-the envelope" calculation,
assumption vetting, multi-method consistency checks,
plausibility tests, and cross-checking of information.
Basic concepts of numbers, information, measurement, and computation
are also included.
And there are numbers
about the world that everyone should know.
The course will include some presentations by the professor on basic
concepts, but otherwise
will consist primarily of individual and group problem-solving
exercises, where the answer is not necessarily known by anyone
(including the professor) beforehand.
Assumptions, information sources, procedures, and results will be vetted
through in-class presentations and discussions.
Some of the exercises will be based on out-of-of class asignments;
others will be done within the context of a classroom session.
There may be occasional short quizzes involving numbers everyone should know.
Attendance is mandatory. Participation in discussions is an
essential part of the experience.
Prerequisites
Curiosity about how to figure things out
Course Text Books
There are no required texts. However, the following are good
reading, in whole or in part.
- "Out of Their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great Computer
Scientists" by Dennis Shasha and Cathy Lazere,
(Copernicus, an imprint of Springer-Verlag, 1995).
The title says it all.
- "The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the
Structure of DNA" by James D. Watson, W. W Norton & Co., 1981;
Also in print from Touchstone Books, 2001.
A real classic.
- "Who Got Einstein's Office?" by Edward Regis, Perseus Publishing, 1988.
A history of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study,
which was home to fourteen Nobel laureates and most of the century's
greatest mathematicians and physicists, including Einstein,
Kurt Godel, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
- "A Gift of Fire" by Sara Baase (Prentice-Hall 1997).
Very readable inquiry into some of the ethical societal issues
arising from mastery of information technology.
- "Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices",
editied by Charles Dunlop and Rob Kling, (Academic Press, 1991).
Older, but still largely relevant set of essays.
Grading
Some combination of:
Attendance, class participation, presentations, written reports,
quality of written assignments.
As a first approximation, 20% each. However, class
participation and presentations can only occur in class, and much of
the project work and organization will occur in class, hence most of
the grade is dependant on attendance. If you do not attend class
regularly, you cannot pass this course, and missing more than a session or
two will seriously impact your final mark.
If you cannot avoid an absence, contact or email me IN ADVANCE.
The contents of the following may be expected to change regularly.
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