Introduction to Computer Science

Explain what a programming language is and how it tells computers to perform tasks, compare generations from machine language to fifth-generation declarative styles, and emphasize readability and maintainability.

Explore system software, from the kernel and operating system to middleware and utilities, and how proprietary and off-the-shelf apps, ERP, and programming languages drive computing.

Discover Python programming, chosen for readability and its vast standard library. Explore core concepts like variables, data types, comments, print statements, and list and string operations.

Explore memory organization, primitive vs dynamic data structures, structure syntax with malloc and free, and stacks and queues; cover inheritance, abstraction, encapsulation, and polymorphism in object-oriented programming.

Define algorithms as step-by-step problem solving processes and explore common sorting methods such as bubble sort, merge sort, heapsort, and quicksort, plus recursion and big-O complexity.

Discover how an operating system coordinates user interactions, applications, and hardware, with the kernel, multitasking, multiprocessing, and multi-threading enabling multi-user, parallel work across desktop, server, and mobile environments.

Trace the evolution of computer hardware from vacuum tubes to modern microcomputers and mainframes, and summarize core hardware components, memory types, storage media, and input and output architectures.

Explore how hardware and software form a computer system via the von Neumann architecture, with memory (ram) and memory cells, address width, a processor with control unit, alu, and input/output.

Explore microarchitecture design choices that balance cost and performance, covering control units, ALU, registers, buses, and the fetch-execute cycle through microprogrammed control.

Explore how database management systems organize and store data, enabling users to retrieve, manipulate, and analyze information with relational databases and RDBMS features.

Explore the relational model and SQL, including how tables (relations) store data, data manipulation and definition language, and using select, join, and alias techniques to query employees and departments.

Explore XML, the extensible markup language, and its relationship to DTD, detailing tags, elements, attributes, content, and entities, while highlighting readability, platform independence, and modular, text-based documents.

Explore how computers connect to form networks and enable information exchange, including client-server, peer-to-peer, and hybrid models, with routers, switches, bridges, hubs, LANs, WANs, and MANs.

Explore the seven OSI layers, from the physical layer to the application layer hosting web services. Understand how each layer uses protocols for routing, reliability, synchronization, and data presentation.

Compare connection oriented and connectionless services, highlighting reliability, flow control, and the tcp/ip backbone with udp for best effort delivery.

Trace the internet's history from ARPAnet to NSFnet and private networks, then explore how the World Wide Web uses browsers, servers, hyperlinks, and protocols like HTTP.

Learn to identify security threats such as viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, and phishing, and apply defenses like antivirus software, firewalls, strong passwords, and backups.

Discover how web development integrates desktop and web applications, explains HTTP, DNS, domain names, and URLs, and shows how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript create dynamic web pages.

Explore HTML5 as a markup language, learn key tags and structure elements, and see how the document object model enables multimedia and interactive web pages.

Explore multimedia as a content form that blends text, audio, images, animation, and interactivity. Distinguish linear from non-linear multimedia with examples like cinema and computer games.

Explore computer graphics, from interactive rendering and 3D modeling to shading and animation, and see how rendering pipelines enable cinema and design.

Explore the basics of robotics and artificial intelligence, defining robots, their sensing of environments, and their use in assembly lines, space, and medicine.