COMPSCI 093 History of Computing, Cryptography, and Robotic Devices

Lectures - Teaching Assistants 

 

Lecture Schedule and Notes: For Downloads, Use Safari or Firefox not Chrome

 

Date

Topics and Lecture Notes

(Required Readings and Lectures in Bold)
(See below for parenthesis for credits for lecture notes)

Required Readings in Bold 

Tues, Aug 29

Lecture 1 by Prof John Reif

0.1 Course Motivation and Overview

0.2 Course Outline

 

Thurs, Aug 31

Lecture 2 by Prof John Reif

1.1 MechDigitalCalc1 - Abacus

1.2 MechDigitalCalcr2 - John Napier's Bones & Schickard’s Calculator

1.3 MechDigitalCalc3 – Pascal's Pascaline Calculator

[Williams]: 2.3, 2.6, 3.1-3.3

[O’Regan]: 2.2

Monday, Sept 4

Labor Day – no Recitation

 

Tues, Sept 5

Lecture 3 by Prof John Reif

1.4 MechDigitalCalc4 – Leibniz's Calculator & Arithmometers

[Williams]: 3.4-3.7

[O’Regan]: 2.2 and 11.6

Thurs, Sept 7

Lecture 4 by Prof John Reif

1.5 MechDigitalCalc5 – Babbage's Difference Machines

[Williams]: 4.1-4.6

[O’Regan]: Chapter 12

 

Mon, Sept 11

Recitation by TA

 

 

Tues, Sept 12

No Lecture – Reif on Travel

 

 

Thurs, Sept 14

No Lecture – Reif on Travel

 

 

Monday, Sept 18

Recitation by TA

 

 

Tues, Sept 19

No Lecture – Reif on Travel

 

 

Thurs, Sept 21

Lecture 5 by Prof John Reif

1.6 MechDigitalCalc6 – Babbage's Analytical Machine

[Williams]: 4.7-4.8

[O’Regan]: Chapter 12

Monday, Sept 25
(Makeup) Lecture 6 by Prof John Reif

1 page Summary of Final Project due

Assignment of HM#1

2.1 History of Mechanical Storage Technology

2.2 History of Vibrational, Static Electric & Magnetic Storage Technology

[Williams]: 1.1-1.7, 2.2, 8.2

[O’Regan]: Chapter 3

Tues, Sept 26

Lecture 7 by Prof John Reif

3.1 History of Binary Logic & Logical Inference Machines

3.2 History of Relay Logic, Switching Devices & Electromechanical Computers

[Williams]: Chapter 6 and 10.6

[O’Regan]: Chapter 3 and 12

 

Thurs, Sept 28

Lecture 8 by Prof John Reif

3.3 Claude Shannon's Information Theory

4.1 1st Generation Electronic Tube Computers

[Williams]: Chapter 8

[O’Regan]: Chapter 2.4

 

Monday, Oct 2

Recitation by TA

30 min Quiz #1: administrated by TA

 

Tues, Oct 3

Lecture 9 by Prof John Reif

4.2 Alan Turing’s Universal Computing Machine & Church-Turing Thesis

4.3 2nd Generation Electronic Tube Computers with Stored Programs

[Williams]: Chapter 8

[O’Regan]: Chapter 11.7,14, 2.4.1

 

Thurs, Oct 5

Lecture 10 by Prof John Reif

5.1 History of IBM's Computers

5.2 History of Supercomputers and Parallel Computers

 

[Williams]: Chapter 9

[O’Regan]: Chapter 6 and 11.5

Monday, Oct 9

(Makeup) Lecture 11 by Prof John Reif

HM#1 due

3 page Draft of Final Project due

Assignment of HM#2

5.3 History of Transistors & Microprocessors

5.4 History of Personal Computers & WYSIWYG

5.5 History of Time-Sharing, the Internet & Web

 

[O’Regan]: Chapters 6 and 8

Tues, Oct 10

Lecture 12 by Prof John Reif

 

6.1 History of Operating Systems

6.2 History of Computer Hacking

 

[O’Regan]: Chapter 7

Thurs, Oct 12

Lecture 13 by Prof John Reif

6.3 History of Algorithms

6.4 History of Software Engineering

 [O’Regan]: Chapter 10 and 11.7

Monday, Oct 16

Fall Break – No Recitation

 

Tues, Oct 17

Fall Break – No Lecture

 

Thurs, Oct 19

No class – Reif on travel

 

 

Monday, Oct 23

Recitation by TA

 

 

 

 

Tues, Oct 24

Lecture 14 by Prof John Reif

6.5 History of Programming Languages

6.6 History of Software Applications

[O’Regan]: Chapter 9 and 10

Thurs, Oct 25

Lecture 15 by Prof John Reif

7.1 Ancient Cryptography

7.2 History of Substitution Ciphers

7.3 History of Steganography

 

Monday, Oct 30

Recitation by TA

HM#2 due

5 page Initial Draft of Final Project due

Assignment of HM#3

30 min Quiz #2: administrated by TA

 

Tues, Oct 31

Lecture 16 by Prof John Reif

7.4 History of Electromechanical Coding Machines Including the Enigma Machine

 

[O’Regan]: Chapter 14.3

Thurs, Nov 2

Lecture 17 by Prof John Reif

7.5 History of One Time Pads Used by Spies

7.6 Modern History of Cryptography & Digital Currency

 

  [O’Regan]: Chapter 13.4

Monday, Nov 6

(Makeup) Lecture 18 by Prof John Reif

8.1 Analog1 - Introduction to Ancient Mechanical Devices

8.2 Analog2 - Ingenious Ancient Mechanical Devices

 

 

Tues, Nov 7

Lecture 19 by Prof John Reif

8.3 Analog3 - Zoo of Basic Mechanisms

 

Thurs, Nov 9

Lecture 20 by Prof John Reif

8.4 Analog4 - Analog Mechanical Astronomical Instruments

 

 [Williams]: 5.1-5.2

Monday, Nov 13

(Makeup) Lecture 21 by Prof John Reif

8.5 Analog5 - Ancient Mechanical Computers for Orbit & Eclipse Prediction

8.6 Analog6 - The Ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism

 [Williams]: 5.3

Tues, Nov 14

Lecture 22 by Prof John Reif

8.7 Analog7 - The Ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism Continued

  [Williams]: 5.3

Thurs, Nov 16

Lecture 23 by Prof John Reif

HM#3 due

10 page Initial Draft of Final Project due

Assignment of HM#4

8.8 Analog8 - The History of Analog Calculators

8.9 Analog9 - Integrators, Harmonic Analyzers & Differential Analyzers

 [Williams]: 2.3-2.8, 5.4-5.5

 

Monday, Nov 20

(Makeup) Lecture 24 by Prof John Reif

8.10 Analog10 - History of Analog Control Computers & Cybernetics

8.11 Analog11 - History of Electrical & Electronic Analog Computers

 

Tues, Nov 21

Recitation by TA

 

 

Thurs, Nov 23

Thanksgiving Recess – No Class

 

Monday, Nov 27

Recitation by TA

30 min Quiz #3: administrated by TA Dan Fu

 

Tues, Nov 28

Lecture 25 by Prof John Reif

9.1 Automata1 - Robots Made by Gods: Mythology of Automata in Classical Greece

9.2 Automata2 - History of Automata (Mechanical Robots) in Classic Greece

 

Thurs, Nov 30

Lecture 26 by Prof John Reif

9.3 Automata3 - Automata (Mechanical Robots) of the Islamic Golden Age

 

 

Monday, Dec 4

Lecture 27 by Prof John Reif

9.4 Automata4 - Automata (Mechanical Robots) of Western Europe

9.5 Automata5 - Modern Robots and Science Fiction Robots

 

Tues, Dec 5

Lecture 28 by Prof John Reif

 10.1 History of AI, Neural Networks, Deep Learning, & ChatGPT

[O’Regan]: Chapter 14.5 and 15

Thurs, Dec 7

Recitation by TA HM#4 due

30 min Quiz #4: administrated by TA Dan Fu

  

Friday Dec 10

Final Project due

NO FINAL EXAM

 

Credits for lecture notes:

Course textbooks:

 (Free download via Duke Library: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-66599-9)

 

Other references made available: