Appleton Tower G.05
Wednesday 23 November 2016
2 pm to 3.30 pm
An Introduction to Computational Thinking (Episode 3)
by Dr Michael Rovatsos
Senior Lecturer at the School of Informatics at The University of Edinburgh, and Director of the Centre For Intelligent Systems and their Applications.
Video of the first session here: http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/crag/2016/08/28/introduction-computational-thinking/
What is computational thinking? Often, it is construed as a set of
principles that allow us to map problem-solving processes onto
computer hardware and software, so that we can translate a
human-defined problem into an information processing problem.
But computational thinking can be much more than that – it is a mode of thinking where information is seen as the atomic unit of building models of the world, and the modelling skills one can develop following this mode of thinking are far more broadly applicable than simply to serve as a foundation for programming digital machines.
In this introductory lecture, we’ll introduce some fundamental notions that underlie computational thinking – information, data, algorithms, and machine models to enable participants with no or little background in computational thinking to understand the foundational concepts behind it. The theoretical principles covered in the lecture will provide a foundation for learning more about humans, machines, and the ways in which they work with (and against) each other.
This lecture is part of a series on Computational Thinking offered by the Anthrobotics Cluster at the University of Edinburgh and hosted by the CRAG (Creation of Reality Group), which will
cover technical foundations of computer science and AI and discuss their possible futures and societal impact. It is directed at non-computer-scientists and aims to convey the core skills to enable participants to engage in the broader debate around computers and society in an informed way, without attempting to make them programmers.
Appleton Tower G.05