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What CSCE 155* is About

Introduc;on to Computer Science
Not a programming course (though
CSCE 155* : Computer Science I programming is a tool we will use)
About: Problem Solving; Computa;onal
Introductory Computer Science Thinking, Fundamental CS topics
Course Op;ons The world is process; the world is
Or, What avor do you savor computa;on (biological, physical, economic,
engineering, etc.)

Essen;al Topics (all avors of 155) CSCE 155A

Mastery of the fundamentals of programming in a high- Language: Java
level language
Problem solving methodology (specica;ons, design, Recommended for Computer Science Majors
renement, tes;ng, prototyping, best prac;ces, etc.)
SoUware Development principles Orienta;on toward soUware design
Data: abstrac;on, modeling, processing Evolved from the classic CS 1 which
Control structures: condi;onals, repe;;on, error handling
Algorithms: design & analysis, searching, sor;ng, recursion prepared students for more advanced
Exposure to Graphical User Interface & Event-driven Computer Science courses
programming
Exposure to Databases and DB access Could be used as a stand-alone programming
course in Java

CSCE 155E CSCE 155H

Systems Engineering Focus Honors sec;on (UNL Honors Program, CSE
Language: C (C++, Java are object-oriented Honors Program, or by invita;on)
descendants of C) Smaller sec;on, faster pace, greater depth;
Recommended for Computer Engineering and recommended for CS and CE majors
required for Electrical Engineering Majors Language: Java and C are both covered
Recommended for those interested in systems Fall semesters only
engineering: opera;ng systems, mobile Contrac;ng for Honors in another 155 is
compu;ng, embedded systems always an op;on, contact the instructor

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CSCE 155N: MATLAB CSCE 155N: FORTRAN

Systems Engineering & Science Focus Systems Engineering & Science Focus
Language: MATLAB (easy to use, interac;ve) Language: FORTRAN (history goes back to 1954)
Exclusive to meteorology students
Recommended for those interested in
Oered Spring only
numerical and graphing applica;ons in
engineering and science Recommended for those interested in number
crunching applica;ons in engineering & science
Sa;ses all engineering majors except EE Good lead-in to Interac;ve Data Language, used
Powerful matrix processing func;ons extensively in Astronomy, Medical Imaging,
satellite data processing (NASA), etc.
Oered spring, fall, summer

CSCE 155T Which languages are the best?

Humani;es Focus Transparent Language Popularity Index:
hip://lang-index.sourceforge.net/
Languages: various (Fall: Python, Spring: Ruby) TIOBE Index:
Emphasis on natural language processing and hip://www.;obe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/
index.html
data analysis
hip://readwrite.com/2014/01/08/in-demand-tech-skills-
Oered Spring semesters of-2013-java#awesm=~osHlnh85FoCR0S
Recommended for those interested in data and Best job prospects? Java, C/C++, PHP, VB, Python, C#,
JavaScript, Perl, Ruby
informa;on processing such as library and The real answer? NONE! Any CS1 course will give you a
database applica;ons, online commerce and solid founda;on in problem solving and basic CS topics: you
bioinforma;cs should be able to pickup any other language with ease!

Isaac Asimov 1964

The world of A.D. 2014 will have few rou;ne
jobs that cannot be done beier by some
machine than by any human being. Mankind will
therefore have become largely a race of machine
tenders. Schools will have to be oriented in this
direc;on. All the high-school students will be
taught the fundamentals of computer
technology, will become procient in binary
arithme;c and will be trained to perfec;on in the
use of the computer languages that will have
developed out of those like the contemporary
Fortran.