COMP-102: Computers and Computing (Winter 2015)

INSTRUCTOR: Kaleem Siddiqi (Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:30-16:00, McConnell 420, or by appointment)
Teaching Assistants:

  • Swetha Rajagopal
    Email: sriswetha.rajagopal@mail.mcgill.ca
    Office Hours: Mondays 10:00 am - 11:30 am AND Thursdays 16:00 pm - 17:30 pm, Trottier 3110


    CLASS DAY/TIME: Monday/Wednesday, 14:35 pm -15:55 pm
    WHERE: Trottier 0100.

    Course calendar

    Course syllabus

    News

  • Welcome to COMP 102 for the Winter 2015. Check for news items here on a regular basis.
  • The logism example explaining DeMorgan's laws is downloadable by right clicking here. (On a Mac use Ctrl-click and then "save link as", which will save the file in your "Downloads" directory.)
  • Here is another logism example of a Full Adder. This circuit considers the binary addition of 3 digits (A, B, Cin) and generates a sum (S) and a carry out (Cout). It is downloadable by right clicking here. (On a Mac use Ctrl-click and then "save link as", which will save the file in your "Downloads" directory.)
  • Description

    A course for students with no previous knowledge of computer science. The course is intended to provide a survey of selected topics in computer science starting from how computers store data (text, numbers, images, sound, etc.), to the inner workings of computers (hardware) and moving on to more advanced topics that involve computation including computability, complexity, AI, computer vision, robotics, and graphics.
    (3 credits; 3 hours per week)

    We will also explore concrete questions such as: What are the origins of computation? Are there things that computers cannot do? How are computers designed? How do you teach a robot to recognize what it sees? How is it possible to render realistic scenes by a computer?

    Prerequisite: The course is appropriate for both novice and experienced computer users. It is intended for any student with a high-school-level math and science background who has a keen interest in learning how the science of computation is impacting the world in which we live.

    Restrictions: Credit will not be given for COMP-102 if it is taken concurrently with, or after, any of COMP-202, COMP-203, COMP-208, or COMP-250. Management students cannot receive credit for COMP-102.

    Course Outline

    Prerequisite: High school mathematics.