Università Roma Tre

Foundations of Computer Science
To provide the basics of "computer culture" through the introduction of effective methodological and conceptual tools, aiming to face in a flexible way the evolution of technology and the broad world of applications. Specific objectives are:- To introduce computer science as a discipline for automatic problem solving;- To examine basic concepts related to programming electronic computers; in particular, syntax and semantics, methods and techniques for formal programming, algorithm efficiency and correctness;- To introduce programming techniques such as iteration and recursion;- To introduce fundamental data structures such as arrays and lists.
To provide the basics of "computer culture" through the introduction of effective methodological and conceptual tools, aiming to face in a flexible way the evolution of technology and the broad world of applications, emphasizing the role of Computer Science as a discipline for the automatic solution of problems.
Specific objectives:
- To understand the essential elements related to computer architecture and operating systems, as well as information representation;
- To gain the ability to design and code simple algorithms using structured programming and basic programming techniques such as iteration, as well as elementary data structures;
- To understand and use testing methodologies (debugging) for the produced code.

To provide the fundamental skills concerning the “top-down approach” to algorithm design and modular programming, as well as the main methods that allow performing both qualitative and quantitative comparisons among different algorithmic solutions.

Specific objectives:

- To understand and apply problem-solving techniques for algorithm design, with particular reference to approaches based on problem decomposition and simplification;
- To understand and apply modular and recursive programming paradigms;
- To understand and apply methodological tools for the asymptotic evaluation of algorithm efficiency;
- To understand and apply both formal and pragmatic techniques for algorithm correctness verification and program validation;
- To gain practical skills in using fundamental data collections in code development.