What to expect?

1. What to expect? or Who is this guy with his weird foreign accent?

2. Introduction • Akos Ledeczi • Associate Professor at EECS • Senior Research Scientist at ISIS (Institute for Software Integrated Systems) • http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/akos/ • akos.ledeczi@vanderbilt.edu • Research Interest: • Wireless Sensor Networks • Model Integrated Computing • Office hours: • Mondays 2-3pm, Jacobs 380 or • By appointment, 1025th 16th Ave. South, 4th floor (not far from the Commons)

3. Why two professors? • “the idea to combine professors is bad ” • It is a compromise with good reasons behind it: • It saves a lot of time for us. Given a fixed number of hours we can dedicate to the class, we can use it to improve the material, create more examples, answer emails, etc. • The two sections are pretty much equivalent.

4. Communication • “Hard to understand through the Russian accent…” • “Needs to speak slower.” • “Difficult to understand at times.” • Communication needs to be bidirectional. • Do not be afraid to ask questions! • Chances are, you are not alone with your problem… • There are no stupid questions…

5. Speed • “Easy class. Helpful for engineering students. Didn't really learn anything new until halfway through the semester, though.” • “Also, the class moved very slowly. There wasn't really much point in actually going to class” • “He teaches a bit fast” • “Difficult to understand during class due to the speed when going over example problems” • With 200+ students having diverse backgrounds, experience level, abilities, it’ll always be slow to some and fast to some others. I’ll try to strike a balance.

6. Outside class • “The professors never respond to emails asking for help.” • Not true. But if I do not respond immediately after reading your email, it may slip my mind. If you do not get an answer within 24 hours, send me a reminder. I won’t be annoyed, I’ll be glad you reminded me. • Your “first line of attack” should be the TAs, because • back of the envelop calculation: • Each student sends one email per month • It takes an average of 5 minutes to read/respond 4 hours per week (10% of (official) working hours)

7. Class structure • Visit: • OAK or • The class webpage directly at http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/Courses/cs103/ • If you forget the url, google vanderbilt cs103

8. Why is programming difficult? • Computers are dumb: they need to be told what to do very precisely, using elementary steps • When you see a “smart” application, it is all in the software • Programming languages: • assembly (what the CPU understands) • C, C++ (compiler translates it to assembly) • Java, Matlab, Scratch (interpreter “executes” program) • Scratch and Matlab have lots of smarts, but they are still programming languages

9. Still, why is it difficult? • Algorithmic thinking is not natural to humans • We are great at things that computers still cannot do (at least not well): “intuition,” “intelligent, creative and contextual thinking,” or more concrete examples: natural language understanding, image understanding • Computers are great processing large amounts of information fast (if you tell them what to do and how to do it via a program) • But translating a problem to a program that computers can “understand” requires you to “think” like a computer • It comes naturally to some, some others can become quite good with practice and still some suffer to make this mental switch • (Incredible productivity difference between an average and a great programmer) • The only way to get there (and become good at it) is by doing it: PRACTICE

10. Programming • It is a creative process • There are a few flexible building blocks (i.e., programming constructs), but you decide which ones to use, in what order, how to “configure” them, etc. • There is an infinite number of possibilities • The same problem can be typically solved many different ways • This makes it challenging, but really rewarding • A well-written program is just like a piece of art

11. Why is it important? • This is one of the most important classes you take at Vanderbilt • “Everybody” writes programs these days in engineering, science, business, etc. to solve all kinds of problems • Software runs “everything” these days: cars, phones, TVs, medical equipment, factories, utilities, traffic, etc. • http://spectrum.ieee.org/feb09/7649 • Your programming ability may be your most valuable asset in the job market

12. Class • Good old boring lecture • All code examples will be available by class time (Matlab) or right after class (Scratch) on the website • Class notes (highlights) will be updated after class • In-class assignments: • The only way to learn this is by practicing it • Most of you would not do this until 2 days before the next project is due or the night before a test which would be too late for many  • Use this opportunity to try out what you have just heard • You can quickly realize if you do not understand something • ASK QUESTIONS • Fun: 5-min context switch (during some of the Matlab classes): • Discussion of an interesting topic from CS/EE

13. Summary • There are no stupid questions • Practice, practice, practice • Programming is one of the most important skills an engineer or many other professionals can have today • I am here to TEACH you and NOT to give you a hard time, give you a bad grade, bore you to death, etc.

14. Computer Science • Computer science is the study of algorithms for processing information with computers. • An algorithm is a precise step-by-step procedure for performing a task. •  Let’s look at some examples of tasks that might be algorithms: • Example: Leave this room • Get to a door and go through it. • Is this an algorithm? No, because it is not precise. • Example: Leave this room • Get up, face right, walk until you hit a wall, turn right, walk until you hit a wall, turn right walk until you hit a door, push the door open and walk two steps, turn left and walk until you hit a door, push the door open and walk two steps. • Is this an algorithm? Yes. • Is it part of computer science? No, because it does not process information on a computer.

15. Computer Science cont’d. • Example: Process webpage data for amazon.com • Display list of book titles with authors. If title is clicked, display first 12 pages. If “Close” is clicked, close the page. • Is this an algorithm? Yes • Is this part of computer science? Yes • Example: Add the first 100 numbers together. • Set sum = 0for each of the integers n from 1 to 100 sum = sum + n • Is this an algorithm? Yes • Is this part of computer science? Yes.

16. Example areas of computer science • Algorithms (solve puzzles) • Artificial Intelligence (mimic human thought) • Graphics (make pictures, games, movies) • Information Processing & Storage (e.g., databases) • Image Processing (improve/inspect pictures) • Networks (local, Internet, computers, phones) • Operating Systems (e.g., Windows, Linux, MAC OS) • Software Engineering (i.e., design large programs) • User Interfaces (determine what the user sees and does) • Programming Numerical Algorithms.

17. Scratch • Visual Programming Language • Developed specifically for novices • Introduces the most important programming constructs common to all languages • Cannot do everything that a full featured programming language such as Java or C++ can • What it can do, however, it does very well: • Easy • Intuitive • Fun