CSE 143

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Exploration Sessions
Mondays, 1:30pm in room MEB 238

Each week we will offer a different opportunity to explore extra topics in computer science. You will accumulate one "exploration point" for each week that you attend the lecture. At the end of the quarter, your total exploration points will be divided by 3 and will be added to your homework points. There will be 170 homework points total, so this isn't adding a lot to your potential score. As an example, if you were to participate in 3 exploration sessions, you would have 1 point added to your homework points, which is like getting one more point on a weekly programming assignment. The idea is to give people a small reward, but not something that is so large that people feel obligated to participate in these optional sessions.

Week 8 JUnit -- Monday, December 3 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Sara Piccirilli

This week, we will learn about the importance of unit testing for producing reliable, (mostly) bug-free code. More specifically, we will be discussing how to use the JUnit library in Eclipse. We will discuss good testing practices and proper convention for writing robust and descriptive tests.

Week 7 Advanced Data Structures -- Monday, November 27 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Janette Siu

This week we discussed how priority queues are implemented.Priority queues are a useful way to store information when we're only concerned about the biggest or smallest thing in a group. Priority queues are implemented with a data structure called a heap. A heap is a specialized binary tree, which uses a little bit of cleverness to achieve pretty impressive efficiency.

Week 6 Computational Biology -- Monday, November 19 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Simone Schaffer

This week we learned about three of the ways Computer science is being used in the field of Biology, including exploring DNA sequences, programming molecules to begin autonomous computing, and mathematical modelling. We looked at how Scientists use the BLAST Algorithm to find matching sequences of DNA, how they are rethinking of the way in which we will build computers in the future, and how the patterns that flocks of birds chose to fly in can be modeled using computational techniques.

Week 5 Kinect Hacking -- Monday, November 5 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Brian Walker

This week we discussed programming the Kinect.

Week 4 Python -- Monday, October 29 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Allison Obourn

This week we discussed the basics of Python, another programming language. We covered most of the 142 material.

Week 3 History of Computer Science -- Monday, October 22 1:30 - 2:20

Session led by Dane Paschal

This week we learned about the origins of Computer Science and the influences that have shaped it.

Week 2 Cellular Automata -- Monday, October 15 1:30 - 2:20

Some label the field of cellular automata as "recreational science". As we'll see, a cellular automaton is no more than a strange sort of game. However, these games turn out to have extraordinary implications in many fields, and some think they can explain the nature of the universe! We'll take a close look at some interesting cellular automata and discover why mathematicians and computer scientists are so obsessed with them.

Week 1 Artificial Intelligence -- Monday, October 8 1:30 - 2:20