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More About This Textbook
Overview
Based on the author’s introductory course at the University of Oregon, Explorations in Computing: An Introduction to Computer Science focuses on the fundamental idea of computation and offers insight into how computation is used to solve a variety of interesting and important real-world problems. Taking an active learning approach, the text encourages students to explore computing ideas by running programs and testing them on different inputs. It also features illustrations by Phil Foglio, winner of the 2009 and 2010 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Novel.
Classroom-Tested Material
The first four chapters introduce key concepts, such as algorithms and scalability, and hone practical lab skills for creating and using objects. In the remaining chapters, the author covers "divide and conquer" as a problem solving strategy, the role of data structures, issues related to encoding data, computer architecture, random numbers, challenges for natural language processing, computer simulation, and genetic algorithms. Through a series of interactive projects in each chapter, students can experiment with one or more algorithms that illustrate the main topic. Requiring no prior experience with programming, these projects show students how algorithms provide computational solutions to real-world problems.
Web Resource
The book’s website at www.cs.uoregon.edu/eic presents numerous ancillaries. The lab manual offers step-by-step instructions for installing Ruby and the RubyLabs gem with Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. The manual includes tips for editing programs and running commands in a terminal emulator. The site also provides online documentation of all the modules in the RubyLabs gem. Once the gem is installed, the documentation can be read locally by a web browser.
After working through the in-depth examples in this textbook, students will gain a better overall understanding of what computer science is about and how computer scientists think about problems.
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
This entry-level computer science textbook is intended for use in an introductory course for computer science majors or non-majors desiring an overview of the basic concepts and processes of computer programming. … Each chapter contains illustrations and code examples as well as a tutorial project that walks the student step-by-step through a task-related programming activity. Access to online resources, including a lab manual and links to the latest version of the open source Ruby software, is provided.
—SciTech Book News, February 2011
Product Details
Meet the Author
John S. Conery is a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Oregon. With over 30 years of teaching experience, he has taught courses on high performance computing and scientific computing in addition to introductory computer science courses. A member of the University's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Dr. Conery has worked with biologists on a variety of problems related to gene and genome duplication, artificial neural networks, and population modeling. His current research interests are computational biology and bioinformatics.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Computation The Limits of Computation Algorithms A Laboratory for Computational Experiments
The Ruby Workbench
Introducing Ruby and the RubyLabs environment for computational experiments
Interactive Ruby Numbers Variables Methods RubyLabs
The Sieve of Eratosthenes
An algorithm for finding prime numbers
The Sieve Algorithm The mod Operator Containers Iterators Boolean Values and the delete if Method Exploring the Algorithm The sieve Method A Better Sieve Experiments with the Sieve
A Journey of a Thousand Miles
Iteration as a strategy for solving computational problems
Searching and Sorting The Linear Search Algorithm The Insertion Sort Algorithm Scalability Best Case, Worst Case
Divide and Conquer
A new strategy: breaking large problems into smaller subproblems
Binary Search Binary Search Experiments Merge Sort Merge Sort Experiments Recursive Methods
When Words Collide
Organizing data for more efficient problem solving
Word Lists Hash Tables The mod Function Again Collisions Hash Table Experiments
Bit by Bit
Binary codes and algorithms for text compression and error correction
Binary Codes Codes for Characters Parity Bits Huffman Trees Huffman Codes
The War of the Words
An introduction to computer architecture and assembly language programming
Hello, MARS The Temperature on MARS Corewar Self-Referential Code Clones
Now for Something Completely Different
An algorithm for generating random numbers
Pseudorandom Numbers Numbers on Demand Games with Random Numbers Random Shuffles Tests of Randomness
Ask Dr. Ruby
A program that understands English (or does it?)
Overview of ELIZA Sentence Patterns Building Responses from Parts of Sentences Substitutions An Algorithm for Having a Conversation Writing Scripts for ELIZA ELIZA and the Turing Test
The Music of the Spheres
Computer simulation and the N-body problem
Running around in Circles The Force of Gravity Force Vectors
N-Body Simulation of the Solar System
The Traveling Salesman
A genetic algorithm for a computationally demanding problem
Maps and Tours Exhaustive Search Random Search Point Mutations The Genetic Algorithm Crossovers
Appendix A: Answers to Selected Exercises Appendix B: Ruby Reference