Elements of Computing

Elaine Rich

Bill Young

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~ear/ElementsProgram2009.ppt http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~ear/ElementsProgram2009.ppt

We Live in a Knowledge-Based World

Knowledge-Based Public Relations

http://www.ebayholiday.com/black-friday

Knowledge-Based Politics

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Knowledge-Based Corporations

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

It’s Exploding

Computers Connected to the Internet

Moore’s Law

What Does It Mean?

But Fast Isn’t Always Good Enough

Traveling Salesman Problem

But Fast Isn’t Always Good Enough

Paths among 50 cities:

For start: 50 choices

For next: 49 choices

For next: 48 choices

and so forth

So the total number of paths to consider is:

50 49 48 47 … = 50!

But Fast Isn’t Always Good Enough

But Fast Isn’t Always Good Enough

50!

How Is All That Computing Power Being Used?

• $3,076 is being spent on pornography

• 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography

• 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines

The pornography industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink.

Every second:

How Is All That Computing Power Being Used?

How Is All That Computing Power Being Used?

• 94% of all email sent is spam

• spam costs industry over $100 billion a year.

It is estimated that:

How Is All That Computing Power Being Used?

• 71% of the time, attacks began within a week of the theft.

• Women were 26% more likely to be victims than men.

• Low tech methods (lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks, credit cards) were still prevalent (43% of attacks).

An estimated 9.9 million US adults will fall victim to identity fraud in 2009, up 1.8 million from 2007, at a cost of $48 billion.

Where the Jobs Are

Where the Jobs Are

Motivations for the Elements Program

• Computational thinking is a key skill.

• The threshold to attaining that skill is not so high that students should shy away from considering acquiring it.

Multiple Paths through the Program

• Big picture track: the fundamental technology and how it impacts our lives.

• Logical track: develop fundamental reasoning skills.

• Programming track: acquire a useful and marketable skill.

Levels of Involvement

• One course: gain some basic computer literacy, explore an area of personal interest

• Two courses: learn some useful programming skills

• Four courses: get a certificate from the CS department

• Six courses: recognition on UT official transcript

Courses• CS 301K Foundations of Logical Thought

Courses• CS 301K Foundations of Logical Thought

Physician: The continued use of this drug to treat patients with a certain diseasecannot be adequately supported by the proposition that any drug that treats thedisease is more effective than no treatment at all. What must also be taken intoaccount is that this drug is very expensive and has notable side effects.Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the physician’s argument?

(A) The drug is more effective than no treatment at all.(B) The drug is more effective than other forms of treatment for the disease.(C) The drug is more expensive than other forms of treatment for the disease.(D) The drug should not be used to treat the disease unless it is either effectiveor inexpensive.(E) The drug’s possible effectiveness in treating the disease is not sufficientjustification for using it.

A Sample LSAT Question

Courses

• CS 301K Foundations of Logical Thought

• CS 302 Computer Fluency

• CS 329E Elements of Computing in Society

Courses• CS 301K Foundations of Logical Thought

• CS 302 Computer Fluency

• CS 329E Elements of Computing in Society

The case of Tanya Rider

Courses• CS 301K Foundations of Logical Thought

• CS 302 Computer Fluency

• CS 329E Elements of Computing in Society

• Writing Flag

• Ethics and Leadership Flag

Courses - Programming• CS 303E Elements of Computers and Programming• CS 313E Elements of Software Design

• CS 320N Computers from the Ground Up

• CS 320N Visual Programming

Courses - Topics

• CS 323E Elements of Scientific Computing

• CS 324E Elements of Graphics and Visualization

• CS 326E Elements of Networking

• CS 327E Elements of Databases

• CS 329E Elements of Navigating Cyberspace

• CS 329E Elements of Web Programming

• CS 329E Elements of Modeling Biological Data

Fulfilling Requirements

• CS 302 meets the Natural Sciences Part II requirement.

• More ways to use Elements classes to satisfy core requirements are being pursued.

• Elements certificate can satisfy a 12-hour minor requirement.

From Our AlumniBefore I decided to join this program, I would have considered myself familiar with how to use computers and most of the programs on them. But that familiarity was very surface level, and I wanted to know more. …

Th[e] certificate has impacted me in so many ways I never thought possible. For one, I've got the elements program listed on my resume, which always inspires people interviewing or reading over my resume to ask me questions about it. In grad school right now, I feel that I am at a complete advantage over my peers when we are dealing with our statistical programs like R, SAS, and SPSS. Also, very recently, I got my first new smartphone. I love the it, but there were just some annoying quirks about it that I didn't like, and there was no option on the user interface to get rid of them. So I actually went into the registry, into the files related to the annoyances, and changed the programming in them to suit what I wanted. What amazed me about all of this, was how comfortable and completely at ease I was, which is due to the elements program.

- Audrey Leroux

Jason Sears – an Elements Alumnus