Calendar and Coursenotes: Spring 2012

This page will show what we cover each day, including the course notes covered in class.

Reading assignments, if any, are also posted for each week. The intention is that you will have finished the reading for that week by the end of the week (that is, typically you would be expected to read material after the associated lecture). However, some folks like to read it before the lecture, so I will try to get it up by the beginning of the week if I can.

• Week 1: Introduction.
  • Course introduction.
  • Coursenotes (Introduction)
  • The Fermi problems
  • Coursenotes (Interview type questions)
    • Reading Assignment (Before Homework 1): "Does Personality Matter? An Analysis of Code-Review Ability" by Da Cunha and Greathead.
      
    • Reading Assignment (During/After HW 1): Read about your identified type(s) at TypeLogic.
      
      

• Week 2: Your problem solving skills so far. Personality type test and how to use it..
  • Take the Whimbey Analytical Skills Inventory (WASI).
    [In-class assignment: WASI, 38 points]
    
  • Coursenotes (personality test)
    

• Week 3: Getting started with a problem.
  • Getting started with a problem.
  • Coursenotes (Group Problem Solving)
    
  • Test statistics + common problems
  • Coursenotes (Errors in Reasoning)
    
  • For the inquisitive mind: SUPERCOMPUTER ON YOUR DESK: GPU COMPUTING.
    • In-Class Assignment 1 (Group Problem Solving)
      
    • In-Class Extra Credit Assignment 1 (Group Problem Solving)

• Week 4: Analogy Problems; Heuristics for problem solving "in the small"
  • Coursenotes
    
  • Self-study: Verbal reasoning problems
    
    • Reading Assignment: Whimbey and Lochhead chapter IV
    • Analogy problems; six myths about reading
      Reading Assignment: Whimbey and Lochhead chapters V, VI, and VII
      Today's coursenotes
  • Heuristics for problem solving "in the small". Externalization.
  • For the inquisitive mind: QUANTUM COMPUTER.
    
  • Today's coursenotes

• Week 5 Heuristics for problem solving "in the small". Open-ended problems.
• For the inquisitive mind: GPU, or supercomputer on the desk.
  • Visualize. Graph. This week's coursenotes

• Week 6 Principles of team work.
• Problem solving "in the large", prep up for the project. Real world examples.
  • The packing company challenge. This week's coursenotes

• Week 7: Combinatorics.
  • Heuristics for counting and probability problems. Examples. Coursenotes
  • For the inquisitive mind: DNA COMPUTING
    • Reading Assignment: Zeitz book, chapter on Counting. Specifically, page 207 on. Any combinatorics primer will also do.

• Week 8: Heuristics for problem solving.
  • Analysis of trends. "Lateral" thinking. Coursenotes
    
    • Reading Assignment: R. McCartney, A. Eckerdal, J.E. Mostrom, K. Sanders, and C. Zander, Successful students' strategies for getting unstuck, ITiCSE '07: Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2007, 156-160.
      
  • Symmetry Coursenotes
    
  -

• Week 9: The pigeon hole principle, Invariants
  • Reading: Chapters of the pigeonhole and invariants in the Zeitz book.
  • Coursenotes. Pigeon Hole
    
  • Coursenotes. Invariants
    

---

Go to the CS2104 Homepage.