CS112 Retrospective

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CS112 Retrospective
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This course is all about

• MATLAB?
• Computer programming?
• Scientific applications?
• Problem solving!

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MatLab vs. Java
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What is Computer Science?

• Its not really about computers
• Its not really a science
• Its about imperative (how to) knowledge as
  opposed to declarative (what is) knowledge
• Imperative knowledge is expressed via algorithms
  computational recipes
• A computer language is a novel formal medium
  for expressing ideas about methodology, not just
  a way to get a computer to perform operations.
  Programs are written for people to read, and only
  incidentally for machines to execute
  -- Harold Abelson and
  Gerald J. Sussman

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Four big ideas

• Four important concepts are at the core of
  computer programming1. Abstraction 2.
  Modularity3. Divide, Conquer and Glue4. Models
• These interrelated ideas are important in almost
  every discipline, but theyre at the core of
  computing
• We illustrated these ideas in several ways
• Our goal was to help you think about problem
  solving in new ways

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Big idea number 1 Abstraction
Contract
Implementer / Designer
User / Client
Function Black Box
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Big idea number 2 Modularity

• Large systems are built from components (modules)
• The interfaces between modules are designed so
  they can be put together in a mix-and-match way
• In MatLab, one important goal is to design
  functions and scripts for maximum reusability

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Big idea number 3 Divide, conquer glue

• Divide
• problem P into subproblems
• Conquer
• each of the subproblems
• Glue (combine)
• the solutions to the subproblems into a solution
  S for P

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Big idea number 4 Models

• Need simple models to understand complex
  artifacts and behaviors

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Assignment 1 Golden Ratio, Olympics, Stars

• Variables and assignment
• Mathematical computations
• Vectors
• Plotting

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Assignment 2 Conditionals, Colon Notation,
Analyze/Visualize Ocean, Smartphone Data

• Conditionals
• Cell arrays
• Indexing colon notation
• Logical values and expressions
• Data analysis and visualization
• Mathematical models

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Assignment 3 Seeing is Believing, Gradesheets,
Energy Data Bean Counting

• Matrices
• Real and synthetic images
• Tables of data
• Reading heterogeneous data
• Image processing

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Assignment 4 cftool, Ubbi Dubbi, Pole Vault
Spread of Disease

• Curve fitting parameterized equations
• String processing
• Loops
• User-defined functions
• Regression models
• Simulating models
• Animations

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Assignment 5 Thumbnails Favorites, MRI
Data, Supply Demand

• Reading/writing image files
• Designing large programs
• Structures
• Loops
• Interactive programming
• Colormaps and color representations
• Computing equilibria

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Assignment 6 A GUI Sketchpad Simulating
Population Growth

• Structures
• Graphics handles
• Properties
• GUIs
• Layout editor
• Simulations

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Assignment 7 Supply Demand Revisited, Mystery
of Life, Parlez-vous Francais?

• Reading/writing files
• Analyzing textual data
• Cell arrays
• Frequency statistics

iphone supply and demand data fabricated by
Sohie, cs112 March 2008 Supply and Demand
Quantities in Thousands (x103) Price Supply
Demand(USA) Demand(Europe) Demand(Asia)
Demand(Canada) 1,500.00 800 2.980
5.808 3.864 3.765 900.00
650 5.767 8.649 9.986
6.755 500.00 500 35.876 24.855
29.544 28.087 400.00 225
45.645 30.786 67.211
45.775 350.00 100 90.656 55.551
106.656 80.099 250.00 50
120.771 126.191 232.799
129.632 100.00 20 223.721 246.687
356.053 145.997 55.00 1
523.875 364.866 467.524
272.075
gtgt translateRNA sequence 1 Val Thr Stop sequence
2 Ala Leu Cys sequence 3 Ile Met Ala Trp Thr
StopLys sequence 4 Tyr Leu Ser Ile Tyr Leu Ser
Ile sequence 5 Leu Tyr StopSer Leu StopGln
sequence 6 Gln Thr Val Glu Arg Ala Leu
sequence 7 Arg Cys Arg Ala Thr Leu Arg Val Ser
gtgt
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Assignment 8 Mobius Strip, Reaching for the
Stars Koch Snowflakes

• Types of numbers
• Color images colormaps
• 3D visualization
• Recursion

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What Else Is There in CS?

• Having taken CS112, you have the tools to solve
  fundamental problems with computer programs
• In future computational courses, you can
  investigate more complex and creative problems

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CS Department Alumnae Address Book
Grad school in computer science Manager of
database administration at Johnson
Johnson Director of applications engineering at
AirFlash Program management for Lotus
multilingual products Web application
development Teaching computer science Product
manager in Silicon Valley Senior consultatnt at
Cambridge Technology Partners Human-computer
interaction Information technology at Morgan
Stanley Foreign exchange trading applications for
Citi Smith Barney
GE corporate research and development Microsoft Ad
agency Program associate at the Center for
Democracy and Technology Med school Credit
Suisse Senior program manager Architecture Teach
English Software engineer Bioinformatics Medical
system analysis in healthcare industry