COMS12303: Coursework Details

Coursework

Four pieces of coursework are expected from each student on the course, and will be assessed in real-time. Feedback will be provided, and students may wish to use discussion sessions to elaborate on this. The coursework is intended to show a student's ability to assimilate many viewpoints and facts from a range of viewpoints, to produce a well reasoned summary of a particular topic. Each essay will be worth 20% of the final unit credit.

Format of coursework

The coursework is to be a précis of the set topic, being no longer than one side of A4 (excluding references), when in a 12pt font. Essays submitted that extend to longer than a single side of A4 (excluding references) will be marked punitively, so students are well advised to keep their discussions brief and relevant.

Marking Scheme

When marking your essays, we will be looking for the following things:

An argument based your take on one of the subjects you have seen in a course theme;
The quality of your argument;
Citations to back up your argument;
Proper scientific writing, with correct structure and grammar;
An interesting read!

Presentation

Toward the end of the course, each student will be expected to produce and deliver a presentation of a chosen topic of interest, researched during the unit. Presentations are to be given in January, and will be worth 20% of the unit mark.

Coursework guideline recap

The course will be assessed through a combination of four 1-page essays and one presentation, each contributing 20% of your final mark. These should demonstrate that you have studied and understand the subject you have chosen, including the relevant sources provided and others you have researched. They should be self-contained, coherent arguments, and properly cite any references used. A plagiarism checker will be run on all sumissions.

The coursework is intimately linked to the discussion sessions on the timetable, which we intend to serve as a testing and developing ground for your ideas and allow feedback. Following each submission (except the final one), individual marking and feedback will be provided within a week. Discussion sessions will then be held to provide group feedback and as a forum for discussion of the topic and interesting ideas that arise from the essays you submit. Please note, that if your essay is chosen as an example, it will be discussed in front of the class.

The first coursework - and discussion will be on early machines. To get you going, here are some questions you may wish to use as the topic for your coursework and also discuss in the sessions (this is by no means an exhaustive list. In fact deviations from it are actively encouraged!)

Proper citations

When should you cite a reference? First, of all, as often as you think is relevant. Second, and perhaps more importantly, whenever you find yourself making a comment or assertion without justification. These "throw away" comments are the height of bad technical writing, and generally leave the reader thinking that the author didn't have any facts to back up their statement. Thhis is the perfect time to use a reference.

Citation format: It is common to cite references from a bibliography at the end of a document by itemising the bibliography numerically, and citing in place (in the text) using the related number in brackets of one kind or another. e.g. [1], [2]; or [1,2]; or (1,2), and so on. Superscript is another acceptable alternative.

More information: The guides at:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/skills/referencing/referencing%20skills/page_03.htm

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/citing.html

are good additional sources of information on when and how to reference.

Essay 1 - Early Machines - Topics

Choose one of the sources used in the lectures - the papers are
linked from the Unit web-page.

   What are the main ideas in this work? How did it influence the
   development of Computer Science? What - if anything - is its
   relevance today?"

Remember that the papers include some from the Turing Archive,
especially:

   Proposal for the development of an Electronic Calculator
   On computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem

Or, you may want to make the ENIAC or the ASCC (Harvard Mark 1)
the subject of your work.

Alternatively, you can tackle a broader topic:

   Describe the evolution of computing machinery from 1950 to 2007. You
   could talk about instruction formats, storage, underlying technology,
   to name some possibilities.

   Have computers really kept up with Moore's Law in the last 55 years?

   What role has cryptography played in the development of computing
   resources in history?

   Compare special purpose computing with its general purpose counterpart.

   What key technology developments led to the construction of
   reliable electronic computers by the early 1950s? 



Essay 2 - Development of Programming Languages - Topics 

Here are some potential topics for discussion in the realm of "Development of
Programming Languages". 

As before, please feel free to diverge from the ones
below, if you find something else that interests you.


"Pick an early PL such as FLOW-MATIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, Autocode, ALGOL, LISP.
What did it contribute to PL design? What (if any) modern languages has it
influenced?"

"What role did assembly language and the need to stay 'close to the hardware'
have on the development of modern, high-level languages?"

"How have features created in one language influenced/been inherited by
another?"

"What is the difference between imperative and functional languages?"

"How has programming language development affected programmers' mind-sets?"
(You could talk about how algorithms are often optimised for certain language
flows (e.g. loops and arrays)

"What effect has the invention of compilers had on programming languages, and
vice-versa?" (You could talk about design patterns and/or efficiencies of
compilation and/or the 'closeness' to hardware of the various compilation
techniques)

"Have programming languages got better/easier to use/more intuitive/higher
performing through history?"

"Pick a modern programming language. Trace the history of its features, and
explain which, if any, you think are obsolete."