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Computers have become an essential part of daily life for most people, whether it is to write email or documents, create and access databases, read the news, check the weather, do online banking or shop on the web, play games or chat with peers on online communities. This course aims to provide a tour of substance through many aspects of the fascinating science - and art - of computing. You will see software and hardware in action, and be exposed to several great ideas and personalities that have set this field apart like no other in the last 20 years.
This course is not a skills-oriented course: if, for instance, you merely wish to learn how to use a specific spreadsheet application like Excel, then this course is not for you. One of the striking features of the computing revolution is how quickly a particular piece of hardware or software can become outdated or even extinct. On the other hand, there are beautiful ideas and sound principles at work here and the course will cover many of the seminal ones.
As befits a tour, we will visit a broad range of topics and on occasion, delve a little deeper. There will even be time to do some elementary programming using a language called Python - as you will see, it is not all that difficult!