Assignment 0: Introductions

Due: Wednesday, January 16

1. Reading
   • Emily Shops at Virtual Emporia.com. Preface from National Research Council. Computer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field. National Academy Press, 2004. (On Blackboard in Course Documents)
   • Brookshear, Computer Science: an Overview Chapters 0 & 4
   • HTML Review
     • HTML Tutorial written by former CompSci 1 TA, Sam Slee
     • or, HTML Tutorial from W3 schools.
     • or, another HTML Tutorial from W3C.
2. Complete in-class survey
3. Register on the Discussion forum.

   Please use your Net ID as your login, but do not use your actual Net ID password for the bulletin board. Instead please create a new password for this site. By using your Net ID as your login, you will help us to more quickly get more information if we need it to answer your question.

4. Make a post with your CS autobiography in the Introductions forum.

   Your autobiography should attempt to answer the following questions:

   • Why did you choose CompSci 1?
   • When did you first start using a computer?
   • What kinds of computers have you used?
   • What notable bad experience have you had using a computer?
   • How do you see yourself using computers in the future (> 10 yrs.)?
   • Describe an area of computer science research that interests you. You should draw upon the above readings for ideas about areas of CS. You may also search the web to find out more about current areas of research. The computer science department webpage or the Association of Computing Machinery site are good starting points.

5. Go to the Who Are You? Computer Science and Informatics video page. You should shuffle the list three times and then choose the first two (2) names shown. You should be able to identify those two people in the video and you should search the Web to come up with interesting information about each person: both their scientific contributions and something about them that you find intriguing. Write up your findings in a post on the Blog on Blackboard.

   Feel free to comment on other entries as well.