CI 101
COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS
DESIGN 1
College of Engineering and
Computing
• Created in 2025 to bring
Drexel’s engineering and
computing programs
together into one academic
unit
• School of Computing and
Informatics
• Welcome!
2
Introductions
Dr. Tammy Pirmann Prof. Daniel Moix Dr. Erjia Yan
Course Coordinator Instructor Instructor
Associate Teaching Professor Associate Teaching Professor Associate Professor
Computer Science Dept. Computer Science Dept. Information Science Dept.
3
Welcome to CI 101!
Each week you will have:
1 lecture and 1 lab
One or more Teaching Assistants (TAs) or Course
Assistants (CAs) will be assigned to each lecture
and lab session.
TAs/CAs help with instruction and course content.
TAs/CAs grade your work based on rubrics
developed by the course coordinator.
Course Sequence Overview
CI 101 • Survey course, overview of many great
areas of computing and informatics
CI 102
• Project course Part 1: team
development, planning and design
activities, 2 Sprints with reviews
CI 103 • Project course Part 2: 3 Sprints with
reviews, final presentations
5
(Some) Goals of CI101
Practice with a lot of different project types
Give you a basic foundation in many of the areas covered
by the School of Computing and Informatics
Inspire you (so many classes to choose from!)
Help you understand our majors
Create as part of a team
Learn as part of a team
Get to know your fellow students
Work on your professional skills in a safe environment
What is a Survey Course?
Broad and shallow
Many discrete topics, new topic each week
Little to no depth or building on previous topics
Purpose is to provide a broad overview of a field of
study, to introduce topics that will be explored in more
depth later in the course of study.
How to Succeed
Plan your time – use a calendar and block off time
for your work (not just a due date!)
Read the directions all the way through BEFORE
starting any work
Ask questions if something is not clear (Discord is
great for this!)
Check your completed work against the rubric
How to Succeed
Be sure to click the Submit button…until you submit
we can’t see it and therefore cannot grade it!
When submitting a file, make sure it is in a format
all graders can view
PDF – best ever format!
DOC or DOCX – works well
.pages – incompatible format, we cannot open these
No extension – we cannot open these
No link to google docs
Syllabus Exploration
Organize yourselves into teams of 4 (based on who’s sitting
near you)
Introduce yourselves!
You will collaboratively answer some questions.
You will learn as a team but be assessed as an individual.
At the end of lecture, you will answer 2 questions in
Blackboard for 10 points.
The second quiz (in lab next week) will include some
questions based on the syllabus and this activity
Getting to GILT
• Open the room map from BBL
• Find your team's name based on where you are sitting
• The person on your team with the name closest to the
END of the alphabet will follow the link by clicking
your team's name
• Only one person should be entering the team’s
consensus answers
• Next week you will be in an assigned team
11
Reporting Out
• Model 1 – How much of your grade is team based?
How much is individual?
• Model 2 – Why should teams have roles? And why
should those roles rotate?
• Model 4 – On a whiteboard near you, list the 4 modes
in order from most effective (first) to least effective
(last).
12
Majors in School of Computing
and Informatics
We can talk about the majors and the various work
that they do…
…but the best way to learn about
these areas is to experience them!
That’s CI 101.
Weekly Lecture Topics
• Using our systems
• Human Computer Interaction
• Academic Integrity
• Cryptography
• Networks & Internet
• Ethics and professionalism
• Artificial Intelligence
• Software Engineering Methodologies
| 14
Lab Topics
• Design Thinking
• Using CCI’s Systems
• Web Development
• Cybersecurity
• Game/Simulation Development
• Using Agile
| 15
Lab 1 Preview
• Design Thinking Lab
• You will work with an assigned partner
• You will follow a design thinking protocol
• Each person will submit a lab write up via BBL
• You are NOT graded on the awesomeness of your
design (but I’m sure yours will be great!) rather on
your documentation of the process so it is important
that you follow the process and document your steps.
| 16
Homework in this Course
• Due before midnight on Monday
• Homework will typically consist of two parts
– Reading – the content or link will be provided in BBL
– Either:
• A short BBL quiz (MC or T/F)
• If MC, you can take it several times until you are happy with
your score
• OR- a short answer essay question. Regardless of the prompt,
remember that you need to convince your grader that you
actually read the reading!
| 17
Reflections in this Course
• Due before midnight on Monday
• Writing a personal reflection
– Be sure to respond to the prompt provided (answer the
question being asked!)
– Two paragraphs with four well written sentences each
is a minimum requirement for full points.
– This is personal, not academic. It’s all about you and
your lived experiences including how and what you
have learned.
– This is not a writing assignment that requires citations
| 18
Homework due Next Monday
• Respond to part 1 of the prompt in BBL
• Read this article on Office Hours
• After reading it, respond to part 2 of the prompt in
BBL for the 10 point homework assignment.
• The final week’s homework score of 10 points is
earned by going to office hours with any of your
professors (doesn’t have to be this course). Can be
earned 1x this quarter.
| 19
Reflection due Next Monday
• The topic is why/how you chose your major
• Reflections:
– Are 2 paragraphs of well written sentences
– Are about YOU!
– Do not need academic citations
– Should take no more than 10 minutes to complete
| 20