Computer Studies / Computing

Course summary

One of Microsoft’s early dreams was a computer in every home and on every desk. Today, around a quarter of the world’s population carries around daily a computer in the form of a phone and more and more people are embracing the “internet of things”, allowing them to interact remotely and intelligently with their domestic appliances. Impressive as the hardware is, it is nothing without well-written software. What makes the modern world work are computer programs. In this course, you will study computational thinking and learn the skills of programming. You will learn to analyse a problem by identifying its parts, use algorithms to describe problems, identify the components of a solution to a problem and determine the order of the steps needed to solve a problem. Alongside the study of formal aspects of computing, you will also examine a range of legal and moral issues such as how social media has led to concerns being raised over privacy and whether computers will make too many people redundant. In the first year, you will study two areas of computer science. The first, Computing Principles, focuses on contemporary systems architecture. You will look at the characteristics of hardware and software. You will look at different types of data, data structures and data exchange as well as study compression, encryption, databases, web technologies and networks. The second, Algorithms and Problem Solving, concentrates on computational thinking. At the heart of computer science is the idea of an algorithm, or step-by-step process, each step being basic but the whole potentially incredibly complex. You will learn how to think abstractly about problems and decompose them into simpler elements. In the second year, you will continue to study the areas you began in the first year. You will additionally take on a major programming project which will include analysing a problem, designing a solution, implementing and testing the solution and thoroughly evaluating your work. The programming project will typically be completed in a language such as Python.