Rice University
Comp 200:
Computer Science for Poets¹


It's cliché to observe that computers seem to be everywhere these days, and that different people have different degrees of understanding of computers. However, in spite of the computer's pervasive presence, there are many people (including some programmers and a plethora of IT support staff) who have had little or no exposure to some of the central ideas of computer science.

This course aims to convey some of the major thoughts behind the science of computing, as well as a few interesting recent topics. It will address questions such as:

  • Can the notion of computation be formalized? Are there inherent limits to what a machine can compute?
  • In fact, how does a non-thinking machine actually work, anyway? How does it add two numbers, much less follow arbitrary programs fed into it?
  • How can you write some programs yourself?
  • Widespread use of computers has only made issues of privacy more important. If you encrypt a file, how secure is it? If your home computer gets e-mail from somebody, how much faith can it have that the message truly is from the purported sender?
  • Computers always do exactly what they are told. What if we were to augment these stodgy computers with the ability to do something random, like flip coins? Surprisingly, this appears to increase a computer's ability to solve some problems.
  • Computer science has drawn from biology and nature; what do buzzwords like "neural nets" and "DNA computers" really mean? What potential do they have?
    • The course will involve learning some programming and isn't a class you can coast through, but no previous experience is expected. The course is intended for non-science, non-engineering students. It is not a course in computer literacy ("How to use a spreadsheet program..."), nor in how to become a wizard programmer. Rather, it is geared for curious people who wish to get an inkling about the science of computers.

    Comp200 is a Group III distribution course, and is scheduled for MWF 10:00AM (Spring 2002). If you have questions, please contact Ian Barland, email ian@cs.rice.edu, ext 3814, or Nick Collins, email rubanec@owlnet.rice.edu, or see the main web page for the class.

    ¹ For poets...and architects, and economists, and curious others. This name better reflects the elan of the course than the official entry, "Elements of Computer Science". (back)
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    ian@cs.rice.edu           Please report broken links             Revised Jan 2002