Welcome to CSCI0931

In today's world, it has become increasingly important for researchers in almost every field to be computer and programming literate. Are you?

Whether you know a little bit about programming and are eager to learn more or if you've never programmed before, don't worry, we're here to help. CSCI 0931 is an introductory computer science course specifically developed for concentrators in the humanities and social sciences. Because of this, we'll be focusing on real world applications rather than computer science theory. There are no prerequisites, though some experience with Excel is preferred. Students from all fields are welcome.

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First Day of Class September 2, 2010

Hello! This is the Message of the Day. The first class will be held in the CIT (Thomas J. Watson Sr. Center for Information Technology) room 167. It's on the first floor and if you come in the front doors it will be to the far left of the building. Hope to see you there!

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General Info

Class Location: CIT room 167 (The MS Lab).

Class Time:Tuesday, Thursday 2:30-3:50PM

CRN: <a href="https://selfservice.brown.edu/ss/bwckschd.p_disp_detail_sched?term_in=201010&crn_in=14513">14513</a>

Professors: <ul>

<li><a href ="http://cs.brown.edu/people/faculty/twd.html">Thomas Doeppner</a> (<a href="http://cs.brown.edu/people/twd/">Homepage</a>)</li>

<li><a href ="http://cs.brown.edu/people/faculty/jfh.html">John "Spike" Hughes</a> (<a href="http://www.cs.brown.edu/~jfh/">Homepage</a>)</li>

<li><a href ="http://cs.brown.edu/people/faculty/sk.html">Shriram Krishnamurthi</a> (<a href="http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/">Homepage</a>)</li>

<li><a href ="http://cs.brown.edu/people/faculty/spr.html">Steven Reiss</a> (<a href="http://www.cs.brown.edu/~spr/">Homepage</a>)</li></ul>

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What to Expect

The course will be very hands-on and cover a variety of topics that will ultimately allow you to:

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<li> Practice solving real world problems by learning to use new tools and applying familiar ones -- like Excel -- in new ways </li>

<li> Gather data from the web </li>

<li> Learn about and create algorithms that analyze large amounts of data</li>

<li> Create web-based interfaces </li>

<li> Learn about computer security </li>

<li> Become proficient in a scripting language </li>

<li> ...take over the world! </li>

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Coursework

The expected coursework will be a mixture of homeworks, and projects. The course projects will be drawn from current problems that researchers in the humanities and social sciences are tackling. Examples of such problems are:

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<li> Analyzing voting blocs in the Senate</li>

<li> Performing a textual analysis to study the usage of proper nouns in American novels</li>

<li> Using census data and Google Earth to map information regarding Brown students </li>

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While we expect the course to be engaging, this is not your typical computer science course and you won't waste away in the sunlab.

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