Introduction to Informatics

Course type: Lecture
Value in ECTS: 3
Bibliographic references available on the University Library website

Academic year 2010/11 - Fall semester

Objectives
To provide an overview of the discipline of informatics, its history, and its conceptual foundations.

Contents
The course deals with foundational concepts of Informatics such as Information, Automation, Knowledge, Modeling, Abstraction, Computation, Processing, and Representation. We introduce all the conceptual building blocks necessary to understand how computer scientists approach and solve problems. We introduce those building blocks hand in hand with the practical dimension of Informatics, which focuses on solving real problems with information technology. We present informatics tools in various human domains, and discuss their implications for the practice of science, engineering, art, and society in general. We also review the history of informatics to understand its deep roots. Finally, we examine the limits of computing, and see what computers will not be able to do.

Teaching mode
Lecture and discussion sessions.

References
David Harel with Yishai Feldman, Algorithmics: The spirit of Computing, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley; 2004.