1. Foundations of Computer Science
CS 1428
Foundations of Computer Science

2. Overview
Syllabus
Course Goals

3. Course Goals Understand the capabilities and limitations of computers
Learn the fundamentals of computer science and what computer scientists do
Learn the fundamentals of computer programming and problem solving
Learn how to program in C++
Have fun!

4. Common Misconceptions
Computer Science is the study of computers
Computer Science is the study of how to write computer programs
Computer Science is the study of the uses and applications of computers and software
All computer scientists do is sit and write code all day long

5. What is Computer Science?
Computer Science is the study of algorithms, including their
Formal and mathematical properties
The logic used to prove that we have the correct solutions
Hardware realizations
Creating microchips, processors, and other hardware
Linguistic realizations
Creating the languages to express the algorithms precisely
Applications
The actual real-life problems that are solved

6. What is an Algorithm?
Step-by-step instructions that tell a computing agent how to solve some problem using only finite resources
If we can specify an algorithm to solve a problem, then we can automate it.
Computer Science is all about solving problems to help people.

7. Hardware Realizations
The components of a computer system
Putting all the pieces together – the Von Neumann architecture
Why getting more memory will help your computer run faster

8. Components of the Von Neumann Architecture
Bus
Cache
Components of the Von Neumann Architecture

9. The Control Unit Instruction Cycle Manages stored program execution
Task
Fetch from memory the next instruction to be executed
Decode instruction: determine what is to be done
Execute instruction: issue appropriate command to ALU, memory, and I/O controllers
Instruction Cycle

10. Topics for the semester
Algorithms
Problem Solving
Some classic algorithms
Algorithmic efficiency
Debugging and Testing
How do you know you have the correct solution?
Programming
C++ basics
Implementing the algorithms we’ve discussed