CMPSC 131Programming and Computation I: Fundamentals

3 credits · Computer Science · Penn State

This course introduces the fundamental concepts and processes of solving computational problems through the design, implementation, testing and evaluation of efficient and robust computer programs. The concepts include basic computational constructs found in imperative, object-oriented and functional programming languages such as iteration, conditionals, functions, recursion, and datatypes. These provide the basic building blocks found in virtually all programming languages. The processes include the stepwise refinement of a problem description into individual components that can be implemented, tested, and integrated into an effective solution. A central theme to the course is computational thinking which includes a wide range of approaches to solving problems and designing systems that draw upon concepts fundamental to computer science. Computational thinking includes thinking recursively, considering parallel processing, thinking about types and type checking, judging a program not just for correctness and efficiency but also for its esthetics, and judging a system design for its simplicity and elegance. Computational thinking is applying principles of abstraction at multiple levels to focus on important details; it is applying problem decomposition to identify small problems that can be individually solved then combined to form a solution to the original problem. Computational thinking uses program invariants to describe a system's behavior succinctly and declaratively. Computational thinking considers multiple models of computation when designing an effective solution to a problem.