LSP 350: Computers and Society
Lehman College, City University of New York
Fall 2005

Announcements:

• Due to the transit strike, grades will be posted officially in January.  Once your grade has been calculated, it will be posted to your Blackboard account.
• Here's a photo gallery from our last couple of labs.
  

Handouts:

• Syllabus
  
• Outline
• Lecture Notes for 30 August
• Lecture Notes for 7 September
• Programs for lecture & lab on 7 September:
  
  • tankbot1.nqc (written by Dave Baum-- see textbook)
  • tankbot2.nqc (written by Dave Baum-- see textbook)
• Lab 1 for 7 September
• Quiz 1 (target date: 14 September)
• Programs for lecture & lab on 14 September:
  
  • pirouette.nqc
  • duet.nqc
  • forTurn.nqc
• Lab 2 for 14 September
• Quiz 2 (target date: 21 September)
• Grading Rubric for Writing Assignments
• Programs for lecture & lab on 21 September:
  
  • bumpbot1.nqc (written by Dave Baum-- see textbook)
  • sing.nqc (from the NQC distribution)
• Lab 3 for 21 September
• Quiz 3 (target date: 28 September)
• Lab 4 for 28 September
• Quiz 4 (target date: 19 October)
• Programs for lecture & lab on 19 October:
  
  • seek.nqc
  • linebot1.nqc
• Quix 5 (target date: 26 October)
• Lab 5 for 26 October
• Links for computers and society discussion on 26 October:
  • NSF statistics on who earns bachelors degrees in  engineering:
    http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabb-9.pdf
  • NSF statistics on who earns doctoral degrees in  science and  mathematics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf05300/pdf/tab8.pdf
  • NSF statistics on Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science & Engineering:
     http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/
  • CUNY statistics on who earns degrees:
    http://condor.cuny.edu:7778/portal/page?_pageid=94,188680&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL 
• Programs for lecture & lab on 26 October:
  
  • task.nqc  
• Quiz 6 (target date: 2 November)
• Lab 6 for 2 November
• Links for computers and society discussion on 2 November:
  
  • Approaching Ethics:  5 standard approaches:
    http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/approach.html   
    
  • Intellectual Property Case Study:
    http://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/jumpstart.html
    
  • Biotechnology Case Study:
    http://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/supplier.html
    
• Quiz 7 (target date: 9 November)
• Lab 7 for 9 November
• Programs for lecture & lab on 9 November:
  
  • beep.nqc
   
• Lab 8 for 16 November
  
• Quiz 8 (target date: 16 November)
• Quiz 9 (target date: 23 November)
• Project Information
• Programs for lecture & lab on 30 November:
  
  • light_log.nqc 
• Lab 9 for 30 November
  

Useful Links:

• The official Lego Mindstorm robot page is http://www.legomindstorms.com.
• The programming language for the course is Not Quite C (NQC), written by Dave Baum, and maintained by John Hansen. Some useful NQC documents include:
  
  • NQC Programmer's Reference Sheet by Matthew Bates:
    2 pages with every NQC command and construct, very briefly described.
  • NQC Programmer's Guide by Dave Baum:
    62 page guide to programming in NQC.
  • Some BricxCC tutorials by the original authors (towards the bottom of the page).
    
  • The Bricx Command Center software for Windows.
  • The MacNQC software for MacIntosh OS.