COMP 1000: Computer Science - An Introduction

This course provides an introduction to computer science for students who are not intending to complete a computer science major or minor, or would like to discover more about the subject before they decide.

Lab In addition to classes, this course has approximately 6 structured laboratory sessions per semester.

Prerequisites: None

Availability: This course is usually offered once per year, in Fall, Winter or Summer Intersession.

Students cannot receive credit for COMP 1000 if they have previously successfully completed, or are currently registered for,  COMP 1003.
Course Objectives

This course gives students an overview of computer science, providing them with a foundation from which they can better appreciate and understand computing in everyday life. It introduces how to write computer programs to solve problems. It provides an insight into how the computer represents and manipulates information, at the physical and logical levels. It discusses how we can assess the efficiency of different algoirthms to solve difficult problems, and explains how some problems cannot be solved by any algorithm. Finally, it provides a tour of some of the many ways that computers are used now and are likely to be used in the future.

Representative Workload
  • Assignments 10%
  • Lab Quizzes 20%
  • Midterm Exam 25%
  • Final Exam 45%
Representative Course Outline
  • Algorithms and Programming (8 hours)
  • Inside the Dream Machine (8 hours)
  • Number Systems, Digital Circuits, Computer Organization, System Software Techniques and Applications (12 hours)
  • Databases, Networks, Security, Theoretical Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence