Computational eScience Thinking
	Course Description PH 407 Honors Fall 2009        © RH Landau, Oregon State University

No prerequisites.
Familiarity with algebra, trigonometry assumed.

Computation is now indispensable to all areas of academic inquiry and is set to be even more transformative in the upcoming petascale computing generation. While it is not known yet how best to integrate the requisite computational thinking into undergraduate education, this course will introduce students to some of the fundamental concepts that the problem solvers of the petascale generation will need to understand. We will focus on thinking in terms of computational processes, understanding what can be computed and how computation is used to solve, model, and analyze problems scientifically. Rejecting the view that only traditional programmers can understand computing, we will look inside the black boxes of computers and computation, and discover that it is not hard to understand the concepts if careful attention is given to explaining what the words mean. While we will discuss hardware and software, it will not be for their own inherent interest, but rather to understand how to use them to attack multidisciplinary, real-world problems.

There will be hands on demonstrations of simulations, visualizations, and management of massive data, with students taking the class for 2 credits expected to do some programming.