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College of Natural Sciences University of Northern Iowa
Welcome to the Computer Science Department
Dr. Ben Schafer
College of Natural Sciences University of Northern Iowa
When was the first computer invented?
• Sort of a trick question
• The first computers were people – who did computations
College of Natural Sciences University of Northern Iowa
• The first DIGITAL computer was built at Iowa State University in 1941.
• The Attanasoff-Berry Computer
What do you think about when you of computer science??
Information SecurityUser informationAssurance
Digital Special Effects
Databases
High Performance Simulation
Human ComputerInterface Design
Groups of Contacts
Icons Representing
Individual contacts
Group Icons
Wearable Computing
VirtualEnvironments
Graphics
Computer Vision
Robotics
Ubiquitous Computing
Bioinformatics
What do these things have in common?
• They all treat the computer as only part of a bigger picture.
• They all treat the computer as a tool!
Which tool would you rather use?
Hopefully you said “It depends”
• Just like all tools, there are times where the computer is the “right” tool, and there are times when the computer is the “wrong” tool
Three Levels of tools
• Standard Tools – “Off the shelf” tools such as Microsoft Office, Web
Browser, iTunes, etc. – Most users can “figure them out”
• Expert Tools– Professional grade tools such as ArcGIS,
MathCAD, Cadsoft, (Microsoft Office) etc.– Most users have been trained to use these tools
• Tool Builders– The people who build these other tools
Does computer science == programming
• Saying the computer science is only about programming would be like saying that cooking is only about recipes!
• There is so much more!
What is Computer Science?
• Computer scientists study: – how to write recipes (programming, software
engineering) – how the structure of the recipes effect the results
(algorithms) – the nature of the inputs and outputs (data structures,
databases) – what can recipes actually produce (theory, systems,
artificial intelligence) – how well the recipes work (theory, human-computer
interfaces)
How can we use the computer to help people make difficult decisions? (Such as what movie should I see?)
Understanding the Computation
Ghost Apollo 13
Toy Story
Titanic United 93
R.V. X-Men 3
Ben D A B D ? ? ? Amy A F D F Mark A A A A A A Paul D A C Jason A C A C A Philip F A F Gene D A A
Prediction-MovieLens
What the members of this department study
• Software Engineering
• Programming Languages
• Bioinformatics
• Information Storage and Retrieval
• Real Time Systems
• Cluster Computing
• Artificial Intelligence/Robotics
What is Bioinformatics?
Developing software tools for mining biological databases.
Utilizing software tools to perform biological studies.
Interdisciplinary field
BIOINFORMATICS
Physics
Chemistry
Mathematics
Biology
Statistics
Computer Science
Real-Time Embedded Systems
Cluster Computing
Robots!
• Let’s look at some demos!
What should you look for in a college?
• Schools that have a strong program in your field of interest.
• Schools that have a computer science department that can teach you something even if you aren’t a CS major.