EECS1001

Computer Science is an exciting and wide-ranging discipline, many of whose topics will not be introduced in any technical depth until upper year courses (if at all). This course consists of a set of invited lectures by researchers in the department and industry as well as a set of other organised events that will introduce the students to the breadth of computer science.

The course is organised around a series of invited talks by individual researchers and research groups, as well as a number of other events that will introduce students to specific research directions in computer science, issues related to professionalism and professional societies, as well as opportunities to become engaged in different research and technical groups and events related to computer science.

Computer Science and Computer Security Majors are expected to complete this course in their first year of study.

There are no prerequsites for this course.

• Richard P. Wildes
  • Office: LAS 1012R
  • Office hours: Wednesday, 15:00-16:00 on weeks that class meets
  • Email: wildes@cse.yorku.ca

• Andrew Speers
  • Office: LAS 2010
  • Office hours: N/A
  • Email: speers@cse.yorku.ca

In order to ensure timely responses to e-mails, please include EECS1001 in the e-mail subject line and include your CSE account number and student number in the body of the e-mail. E-mails lacking such information are unlikely to receive timely or useful response.

There are no textbooks for this course.

Students are expected to attend lectures. A schedule of currently planned lectures is can be accessed via the side bar to this page and will be updated incrementally throughout the year.

Students are expected to complete assignments and quizzes based on material presented in the lectures. Most lectures will be accompanied by an evaulation in terms of a quiz or assignment.

Students will be expected to write and hand in a final essay that integrates and discusses three of the lectures that were presented during the year. The essay will be due on 3 April 2015; hardcopy must be placed in the course drop box in Lassonde no latter than 23:59 on that date. Additional details will be provided in class, some of which can found <a href="http://www.cse.yorku.ca/course_archive/2015-16/Y/1001/essayInfo.pdf">here</a>.

During the course of the year, announcements will be made regarding various outside of class activities in which students can participate; one of these will be for credit. These events will be noted in class and on the What's new link on the side bar to this page.

This course is offered on a pass/fail basis only. There are two components to the marking for the course, as follows.

• Markable events (quizzes, assignments and other activities identified by the course coordinator)
• A final written essay. Specifications for the essay will be given in lecture.

In order to pass the course, a student must receive a pass on 8 individual markable events and on the final essay. In total, 10 markable events will be available: 1 assignment, 8 quizzes and 1 outside of class activity. For example, to pass a single quiz a student must achieve 50% correct or better (i.e., at least 3 out of 5 on a 5 question quiz). Similarly, a student must achieve at least 50% on the final essay to receive a pass on that component.