CSC151.01 2015F, Class 01: An Introduction to Algorithms
========================================================

_Overview_

* Preliminaries.
    * Admin.
    * Upcoming Work.
    * Extra Credit.
    * Introductions.
    * Questions.
* Introduction: What is CS?
* Exercise: An everyday algorithm.
* Debriefing on exercise (continues next class).

Preliminaries
-------------

### Admin

* Congratulations on finding Noyce 3rd!
* Welcome to CSC 151!  I'm Sam.  Our mentors are Erin and Zachary.
* Please grab a playing card.
* Please grab assignment 1.

### Upcoming Work

* [Assignment 1](../assignments/assignment.01.html) due Sunday night
  at 10:30 p.m..
* Readings for Monday:
  [Grinnell's Linux Environment](../readings/linux-reading.html) and
  [Parts of Algorithms](../readings/algorithms-reading.html)

### Extra Credit Opportunities

#### Academic

* Tuesday, noon, CS Table, JRC 224C.

#### Peer Support

* Pun Club, Saturday, 4pm, Way over Younker
* Forthcoming: Pals of PALS, pals@grinnell.edu, normally Saturday at 1:30
  and Mondays at 4:45.  Requires sign up in advance.
* Indoor soccer 4:30.

### Attendance

* I would like to know
    * What name to use for you in normal situations.  This will usually
      be your given name or a nick name.
    * What name to use if I am addressing you by family name or last name.
    * Your preferred gender pronoun.
    * Optionally, any upcoming events in which you are participating that
      you would like classmates to attend.
* I will take attendance using last names.  When I call a name that
  resembles your name, please answer using something like the following
  models.  (It's okay if you don't have any upcoming events.)
    * Hi.  My name is Casey Smith.  I prefer that you call me "Case" or
      "Mr. Smith".  My preferred gender pronouns are he, him, and his.
      I'm singing in a Con Brio concert this weekend, and I hope to see
      many of you there, whether or not you are opposed to toy trains.
    * Hi.  My name is Casey Smith.  I prefer that you call me "Casey" or
      "Ms. Smith".  My preferred gender pronouns are she and her.
      I'm swimming against cornfolk from the neighboring state a week
      from Friday, and we always like to have folks cheer us on.
    * Hi.  My name is Casey Smith.  I prefer that you call me "Cay" or
      "Mx. Smith".  My preferred gender pronouns are zi and zir.
      I'm giving a math talk on non-Euclidean combinatorics next Tuesday.

### Additional Administrative Things

* There is a waiting list for this class.  If you decide to drop (and I
  hope that you do not), plesae let me know asap.
* The computer science department maintains a mailing list for assorted
  announcements (talks, discussions, study breaks, internship opportunities,
  etc.).  Please drop me an email message if you'd like to be added.  
* It's Friday.  I do a Public Service Announcement every Friday.

### Questions

Introduction: What is CS?
-------------------------

* Use a language to tell a computer how to solve problems?
* Study of how computers function
    * We study in order to make things better?
* Writing programs?
* Science: A way of studying the world; a method of inquiry.  
    * We observe to understand how things work.  
    * We ask why.
    * We come up with hypotheses
    * We design experiments
    * We conduct experiments.
    * Analyze the results
    * And do it all over again
* Computer science is the study of algorithms and data representation
    * Algorithm - Fancy term for instructions
* Generally, we write our algoriths and representations for use on the
  computers

Exercise: An everyday algorithm
-------------------------------

Debriefing on exercise (continues next class)
---------------------------------------------