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Foundations of Computing (COMP10001)
Undergraduate level 1Points: 12.5Dual-Delivery (Parkville)
From 2023 most subjects will be taught on campus only with flexible options limited to a select number of postgraduate programs and individual subjects.
To learn more, visit COVID-19 course and subject delivery.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Summer Term
Semester 1
Semester 2
Professor Chris Leckie
Overview
Availability | Summer Term - Dual-Delivery Semester 1 - Dual-Delivery Semester 2 - Dual-Delivery |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
AIMS
Solving problems in areas such as business, biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, humanities, and social sciences often requires manipulating, analysing, and visualising data through computer programming. This subject teaches students with little or no background in computer programming how to design and write basic programs using a high-level procedural programming language, and to solve simple problems using these skills.
This subject is the first subject in the Computing & Software Systems and the Informatics majors, and introduces students to programming and the basics of algorithmic thinking.
INDICATIVE CONTENT
Fundamental programming constructs; fundamental data structures; abstraction; basic program structures; algorithmic problem solving, testing and debugging; introduction to the Web, multimedia and visualisation.
Examples of projects that students complete are:
- A text analytics “library” consisting of a series of independent functions to calculate/extract different things given a document/document collection as input
- A video recommender system, broken down into a series of functions
- An AI player for an online card game, designed such that students play off against each other (and against the class) at the end of semester
Intended learning outcomes
On Completion of this subject,the student is expected to:
- Use the fundamental programming constructs (sequence, alternation, selection)
- Use the fundamental data structures (arrays, records, lists, associative arrays)
- Use abstraction constructs such as functions
- Understand and employ some basic program structures
- Understand and employ some basic algorithmic problem-solving techniques
- Read, write, and debug simple, small programs
Generic skills
On completion of this subject, students should have developed the following generic skills:
- An ability to apply knowledge of basic science and engineering fundamentals
- An ability to undertake problem identification, formulation and solution
- The capacity to solve problems, including the collection and evaluation of information
- The capacity for critical and independent thought and reflection
- An expectation of the need to undertake lifelong learning, and the capacity to do so
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
Credit cannot be given for COMP10001 if students have already obtained credit for COMP20005 Engineering Computation (Intro. to Numerical Computation in C as of 2022).
INFO10001 Informatics 1: Practical Computing (prior to 2011)
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
One 2-hour end-of-semester examination, due during examination period.
| During the examination period | 50% |
A two-stage project, requiring approximately 30 - 35 hours of work, with stages due in approximately weeks 7 and 12 (15% each project stage).
| Week 7 | 30% |
One 1-hour mid-semester test.
| Mid semester | 10% |
Workshop assignments that demonstrate programming competency, due weekly, requiring 10 - 13 hours of work per student.
| Throughout the teaching period | 10% |
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Dates & times
- Summer Term
Principal coordinator Ekaterina Vylomova Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours Comprised of three 2-hour lectures and three 1-hour workshop per week Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 18 January 2022 to 18 February 2022 Last self-enrol date 24 January 2022 Census date 28 January 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 4 February 2022 Assessment period ends 21 February 2022 Summer Term contact information
- Semester 1
Principal coordinator Chris Ewin Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours 60 hours, comprised of three 1-hour lectures and two 1-hour workshops per week Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 28 February 2022 to 29 May 2022 Last self-enrol date 11 March 2022 Census date 31 March 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 6 May 2022 Assessment period ends 24 June 2022 Semester 1 contact information
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Christopher Leckie Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours 60 hours, comprised of three 1-hour lectures and two 1-hour workshops per week Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 25 July 2022 to 23 October 2022 Last self-enrol date 5 August 2022 Census date 31 August 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 23 September 2022 Assessment period ends 18 November 2022 Semester 2 contact information
Professor Chris Leckie
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 11 April 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
There are no specifically prescribed or recommended texts for this subject.
- Subject notes
LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS
The subject is delivered through a combination of lectures and workshops (combination of tutorial and individual/group work in a computer lab). Students get a hands-on introduction to Python through a series of online worksheets with embedded programming tasks/automatic assessment, and then go on to complete three projects.
INDICATIVE KEY LEARNING RESOURCES
Students have access to lecture notes, lecture slides, tutorial worksheets, which houses the interactive worksheets as well as a programming environment. The subject LMS site also contains links to recommended resources relating to basic programming, and advanced problems for students who want to extend themselves.
CAREERS / INDUSTRY LINKS
As an introductory programming subject, this is relevant to all aspects of the IT industry. Exemplar companies/organisations which have been involved in the delivery of the subject (through guest lectures etc.) are: Palantir Technologies (software engineering, intelligent systems), AURIN (Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network: geomatics, distributed computing, web development), VLSCI (Victorian Life Sciences Computing Initiative; computational biology, bioinformatics, distributed computing, big data). There have also been guest lecturers from within the university in fields including computational ophthalmology, electronic voting, and social media analysis.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Diploma in Informatics Course Master of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) Course Bachelor of Biomedicine Informal specialisation Science Discipline subjects - new generation B-SCI - Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Environments
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art)
- Bachelor of Music
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 11 April 2024