Universidade Nova de Lisboa

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Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Introduction to Computers and Programming

Code

3643

Academic unit

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Department

Departamento de Informática

Credits

5.5

Teacher in charge

Pedro Manuel Corrêa Calvente Barahona

Weekly hours

4

Total hours

65

Teaching language

Português

Objectives

In addition to the introduction of the basic concepts of the architecture of computational systems, the course introduces the basic concepts of programming, in an imperative style, through a number of simple problems from the areas of engineering. The reactive style of programming, typical of spraedsheets is also briefly addressed.

 

Prerequisites

Introductory course to Programming. It is convenient some basic knowledge of calculus (functions, derivatives, integrals) and algebra (matrices).

Subject matter

Basic concepts of architecture of computational systems and their programming. Their use for solving problems, with special enphasis in engineering problems, including solving equations and equation systems, graph problems, simulation, numeric integration and data analysis. Modeling of these type of problems and algorithms to solve them. Basic concepts of imperative programming paradigm (sequence, alternative and cicle), as well as basic data structures (vectors and matrices) used by these algorithms. Functions and procedures. Recursion and iteration. Introduction to reactive programming style, adopted in popular software tools (spreadsheets) for the quick implementation of some of these algorithms, as well as the visualization of results. 

Bibliography

·         Computer Science: An Overview, J. Glenn Brookshear, Addison-Wesley 2004. Introductory book to diferent aspects of computational science(QA76BRO).

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science. Online enciclopedia of the main topics of computational science.

·         MATLAB 7 & 6 – Curso Completo, Vagner Morais e Cláudio Vieira, FCA – Editora de Informática 2006. Introduction to MATLAB, with examples of engineering aplications.

·         Programação em Pascal, Byron Gottfried, McGraw-Hill 1999. Introduction to the Pascal language.

Teaching method

The topics lectured in the theoretical classes is subsequently applied in the solving of problems in the practical classes, and more generally, in the evaluation projects.

Evaluation method

The assessment of the course has one theoretical and one practical component. The final grade is obtained through the weighted sum of the grades of the exam (75%) and the practical component (25%):

Final Grade= 0.75*Exam + 0.25*Practical_grade

Note: If the practical_grade is more than 5 points higher than that of the exam, it is decreased to Exam+5, unless the student defends it in an oral examination.

The (closed-book) exam is composed of 85% of the questions regarding Octave/Matlab programming and the remaining 15% regarding spreadsheet problems.The practical grade is mostly done during the lab sessions, in groups of 2 students (always the same throughout the semester) and has 2 parts:·         1st Octave project
·         2nd Octave/Excel project

The grade of the practical component is the average of the grades obtained in these 2 parts.To be admitted to the exam it is necessary to obtain a minimal practical grade of 8. The practical grade obtained in the previous year (2005/06) is still valid. These students should register in none of the lab classes, except when wanting to improve the grade already obtained (they should tell this situation to the lecturer).

 

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