CSCD 101/CSIT 103
Introduction to Computer Science
Session 1 – Applications of Computers
Lecturer: Dr. Ferdinand Katsriku, CSD
Contact Information: fkatsriku@[Link]
College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2016/2017 – 2017/2018
Lecture Overview
• General application areas
• Communication and Information Systems
• Commercial and general data processing
• CAD/CAM
• Robotics and Control Systems
• Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Education
• Generic Packages
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Objectives
• Describe how computers are used in a variety of contexts
• Describe the main features and capabilities of CAD/CAM systems,
robots and expert systems
• Describe the main features and use of common application packages
such as word-processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets and
graphics packages
• Distinguish between bitmapped and vector graphics
• Describe the benefits and drawbacks of computerization to an
organisation, its employees and members of the public
• Discuss the effects of computerisation from a social, legal or
economic point of view
• Describe the main clauses of the data protection act and copyright
laws
Recommended Text
• Computer Science by C.S. French
• A’ level Computing by Pat Heathcote
Basic Terms
• Data
• Computer
• Program
• Information
• Definition of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Data: name given to basic fact eg number of students
in this class
• Computer
• Program
• Information
• Definition of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Data: name given to basic fact eg number of students in this class
• Computer: a device that accepts data in one form
processes it to produce data in another form
Data Data
½ ¾ 50% 75%
Process
– A simplified representation of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Input: accepts data from outside for processing within
• Storage: the computer holds the data internally before, during and after processing
• Processing: The computer performs operations on the data it holds within
• Output: The computer produces data from within for external use
Data Data
½ ¾ Process 50% 75%
Input Output
Storage
– The basic functions of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Program: A program is a set of instructions that is written in the
language of the computer. A program is used to make the computer
perform a specific task.
• Information
• Definition of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Program: A program is a set of instructions that is written in the
language of the computer. A program is used to make the computer
perform a specific task.
• Information: When data is converted into a more useful form then it is
said to be processed into information
• Definition of a computer
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Basic Terms
• Program: A program is a set of instructions that is written in the
language of the computer. A program is used to make the computer
perform a specific task.
• Information: When data is converted into a more useful form then it is
said to be processed into information
• Definition of a computer: A computer is a device that work
under the control of stored programs, automatically accepting, storing and
processing data to produce information
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Hardware
Computer System
Hardware Software
Hardware: the electronic and Software: a term used to describe all
mechanical elements of the computer the various programs that may be used
on a computer system
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Hardware
Computer System
Hardware Software
Hardware: the electronic and Software: a term used to describe all
mechanical elements of the the various programs that may be
computer used on a computer system
Main Memory
Processor (CPU)
Input made of control Output
Unit and ALU
Auxiliary
Storage
Block diagram of a computer system
Hardware
Peripheral: Any device that is external to Main Memory
the cpu and main memory
Processor Output
Input
(CPU)
Auxiliary
Storage
Block diagram of a computer system
Hardware
• Categories of Computers
• Microcomputer
• Minicomputer
• Mainframe computer
• Supercomputer
Software
• Intangible parts of the computer
– Programs
– Codes
– Documentation
• Software determines how the computer behaves
– Eg. As a word processor, or as an accounting system,
graphic design etc
• Systems software
• applications software
– Scientific, CAD, database managers etc.
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Categories of Software
software
Systems Applications
software software
Operating Systems User Commercial
GUI
Systems Services Programs packages
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Software
• Programming languages
– Machine language
Memory Location Contents (HEX) Comments
1000 220F Load R0 from…
1002 2000 Load R1 from…
1004 0901 Add R1 to R0
Software
• Programming languages
– Low-level languages
Instruction Comments
LDR R0, N1 LoaD Register R0 with the contents of location N1
LDR R1, N2 LoaD Register R1 with the contents of location N2
HLT HaLT execution of program
Language Processors
• Assemblers
Source Program Object Program
ldrldraddr 00101010
1r0addld0 10101010
olalaksnsx Assembler 10111010
nxidniso0i 10101010
wjw122m 10101010
skppppp
Assembly Language Machine Code
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Language Processors
• Compiler
Library
Source Program Object Program
ldrldraddr 00101010
1r0addld0 10101010
olalaksnsx Compiler 10111010
nxidniso0i 10101010
wjw122m 10101010
skppppp
High Level Language Machine Code
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
Interpreter
Source Program
Wiwow
owowo Output
woiuxn
xxnxhx
nxhxux
skblac, Interpreter
a,acua
mvnuw
eneme
nm,sdn
High-level language
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects
General application areas
• Purpose of the application
• Overall system design
• How data is captured and input to the computer
• What hardware is used
• What provision could be made for system failure
• The effect of the computer system on individuals in
organisations and on society in general
– How can computers be used to
• increase safety of people travelling in cars on a motorway
• Help catch criminals
• Design aircraft
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• Communication
– Local area networks
– Wide area networks
– Electronic mail
– Social media
• Information Systems
– Operational systems
– Management Information Systems
– Decision Support Systems
– Expert Systems
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• Communication
– Local area networks
– Wide area networks
– Electronic mail
– Social media
• Facebook whatsapp, twitter etc.
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• Computer networks can be:
– Wired
– Wireless
– Hybrid
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• The three levels of hierarchy in Business Information
Systems
– Strategic level
• At this level senior management take responsibility for long
term planning and policy decision making
– Tactical level
• Middle level management in charge of particular departments
or areas take responsibility, sales dept. production dept. etc
– Operational
• Consists of the workforce who take sales orders, keep
accounts, make the products etc.
Communication and Information Systems
• Information Systems
– Operational systems
• Designed to process data generated on day by day basis
which records the business transactions of the company
• What information would a wages clerk need to enter
into a payroll system which calculates weekly wages
for factory workers?
• What information about each worker would be held
in the computer system?
Communication and Information Systems
• Management Information Systems
– What were the total sales of each item during the last
period
– How do the sales figures compare with previous times
– Which sales areas had the highest sales
– Which customers have had amounts outstanding for more
than three months
• What management information can be extracted
from payroll?
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• Decision Support Systems
– A system designed to help someone reach a decision
– It summarises all the available relevant information
• Information may be held internally on company’s database
or on an external database (interest rates, price of oil etc).
– Such systems often include query languages
• This enables managers make request for information
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Communication and Information Systems
• Expert Systems
– An expert system is a computer capable of emulating
human reasoning
– Need rules to draw inferences
– Used in medical diagnostics, fault diagnostics, geological
prospecting etc
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Commercial and general data
processing
• Commercial and general data processing
– Applications common to majority of businesses
• eg payroll
– Applications that provide competitive advantage
• eg gathering information about customer purchases using customer
loyalty cards
– Applications specific to particular industry of organization
• eg. Hospitals may install very sophisticated administrative systems
• Hotels may have computerized booking systems
• Banks may automated procedures for processing cheques
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
CAD/CAM
• CAD-Computer Aided Design
• CAM- Computer Aided Manufacturing
• Benefits
– Accuracy
– Repeatability
– Speed and flexibility of production
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
CAD/CAM
• Specialized hardware for CAD Systems
– A high resolution CRT display
– An additional monitor to display commands entered by operator
– A keyboard for entering commands
– A graphics tablet with a grid that corresponds to the resolution of the
CRT
• This allows coordinates on the tablet to be mapped directly onto the
screen using hand held cursor or stylus
– A light pen that allows user to pick point on the screen and cause an
action to be taken
– Plotter to produce high quality drawings
– A printer, typically a laser printer
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
CAD/CAM
• CAD Software
• Use of real world coordinates
• Draw straight lines and polygons, shading them if required
• Draw mathematically defined curves including circles, arcs,
ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas etc.
• Move sections of drawing to a different location
• Scale an object (increase or decrease the size)
• Rotate an object
• Zoom in on a section of drawing
• Show a drawing from any angle
• Calculate the centre of gravity of an object
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Robotics and Control Systems
• Basic H/W components of robots
• Sensors
– To detect changes in the operating environment eg temp, speed,
position, pressure etc. all these are analogue vary continuously in time
• Transducers
– To convert analogue signals into analogue voltages
• Analogue-to- digital converters
– They convert the analogue voltages to discrete digital values which can
be processed by the computer
• Microprocessors
– To process the information
• Actuators
– These produce the desired outcome of movement or alter the
environment eg switch off or on
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Robotics and Control Systems
• Advantages of robots
• Can work in environments which are hazardous or inaccessible to humans
eg underwater or radioactive
• Can tirelessly perform repetitive and monotonous tasks
• Quality of work produced is consistent
• Have greater levels of accuracy than humans
• Robots can work continuously without break thereby increasing
productivity
•
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
Alan Turing
• The science of making machines perform tasks that would
require intelligence if done by people
• The study of how to make computers do things which at the
moment people do better
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Expert System
– This is a computer program or application that encapsulates the
knowledge of one or more human experts
• Can store facts and rules
• Can use this rules to deliver advice to user
• Components of an expert system
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Expert System
• Components of an expert system
– A knowledge base with all facts and rules associated with the subject
– An inference engine
• The means of using that knowledge typically a computer program
– A user interface
• Provides a means of communication between the user and the computer
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Expert System
• Facilities of an expert system
– It stores facts and rules associated with the subject
– It asks questions relevant to the problem
• How many stories will the building have?
– It can handle don’t know answers
– It allows a user to change an answer to explore what if situation
– It makes reasonable deductions
– It explains how it reaches a decision
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Expert System
• Advantages of an expert system
– The knowledge is ‘on tap’ (always available)
– The knowledge is not lost when the expert falls under a bus
– An expert system can reach a conclusion in a few seconds based on
complex calculations that would take a human expert a long time, days
even weeks
– Decisions reached by an expert system is purely based on logic,
emotions don’t have any role to play
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Expert System
• Disadvantages of an expert system
– This systems are inflexible, application of pure logic may not
necessarily be good
– A human expert using an expert system may find it difficult to
contradict the system even though his/her instincts may dictate
otherwise.
– A human may become over reliant on the expert system and simple
rubber stamp the decisions without thinking about them
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Computers in Education
• Computer aided learning is now very widespread
– From teaching multiplication in primary to teaching pilots how to fly a
jumbo jet
• Rely on the use of multimedia packages
– may include text, graphics, animation, video clips, sound, scanned
photographs etc
• Benefits
– Students can work at their own pace, going over material as many
times as required
– In a work situation learning can take place at employee’s own desk, no
need to send them away on expensive course
– In case of flight simulator , real life situations can be simulated and the
student can learn without the fear of an accident
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Generic Packages
• Word-processing
• Desk-top publishing
• Spreadsheets
• Graphics packages
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Generic Packages
• Word-processing
– Type, correct, delete and move text
– Change font and font size, align text left, right centre, set tabs, set
italics and bold
– Find and replace text
– Insert graphics
– Check spelling and grammar
– Set up templates with type styles for different types of document
– Work in tables or columns
– Add headers or footers to each page
– Automatically create indexes and tables of content
– Type equations with maths symbols
– Integrate with a database and send personalized letters to selected
people from a database (mail merge)
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Generic Packages
• Desk-top publishing
• Facilities provided by DTP
– Work in columns more easily
– Wrap text around a graphic
– Design complex page layouts
– Control the spacing between characters to achieve the best possible
page layout
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Generic Packages
• Spreadsheets
• Facilities provided by spreadsheets
– Increase or decrease column width
– Insert or delete cells, columns or rows
– Copy or move blocks of cells
– Display numbers in particular format eg 2 decimal places
– Use built in mathematical and statistical functions
– Automatically recalculate results when a field value is changed
– Create a graph or bar chart from figures in the spreadsheet
– Automate a series of steps using a macro
– Allows what if scenarios
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Generic Packages
• Graphics packages
– Bitmapped
• Paint programs, scanners
• Come in the form of collection of pixels
– Vector based
• Geometric data is used to create the image
• Eg line is define by its endpoints, length width, colour etc this information
is used to create a representation on the screen
• This allows the image to be stretched and resized without distortion
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Legal Implications
• Data protection Act
– Personal data must
• Be obtained fairly
• Be held for specified purpose
• Not be used for reason incompatible with original purpose
• Be relevant and adequate
• Be accurate and up-to-date
• Not be kept longer than necessary
• Be made available individual concerned and provisions made for
corrections
• Be kept secure
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Legal Implications
• Data protection Act
– All data user have to register and provide the following
• Their name and address ( or that of their company)
• A description of the sources from which the data is obtained
• A description of the persons to whom it is intended to disclose the data
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Legal Implications
• Data protection Act
– Exemptions from the act
• The act does not apply to payroll, pensions and accounts data, nor to
names addresses held for distribution purposes
• Subjects do not have the right to access data if sole aim of collecting is for
statistical or research purposes
• Data can be disclosed to data subject’s agent eg lawyer or to persons
working for the user in response to urgent need to prevent injury or
damage to health
– Exemptions for special categories of data held
• In connection with national security
• For prevention of crime
• For the collection of tax or duty
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Legal Implications
• Copyright
– It is illegal to
• Copy software
• Run pirated software
• Transmit software over communications line thereby creating a copy
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Legal Implications
• Computer misuse act
– Offences under such an act
• Unauthorised access to computer program or data
• Unauthorised access with further criminal intent
• Unauthorised modification of computer material
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Social, Ethical and Economic Implications
• Codes of Practice
– Eg British Computer Society code of practice
• This sets out professional standards of
– Competence
– Conduct
– Ethical behaviour
• Codes of practice are not the same as legal requirements professionals
within the industry are required to follow the code
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Social, Ethical and Economic Implications
– Health hazards
– Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
• Results in painful arms and wrists and inability to perform simple tasks
such as lifting a teacup or even type
– Eyestrain from staring at a screen for long periods
– Backache from sitting too long in one position on an uncomfortable
chair
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
• Social, Ethical and Economic Implications
– European Directive
– Work with computer screens must be planned to include breaks or
change in activity
– Employers must undertake analysis of workstations to evaluate risks to
:
• Eyesight
• Physical problems
• Mental stress
– Design of workstations must comply with technical requirements:
• Keyboard must be separate from screen
• Chair must allow freedom of movement, adjustable in height and tiltable
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Legal, Ethical and Social Implications
– The future
– Navigation systems
– Emergence of driverless vehicles
• Trains
• Planes
• cars
– Electronic shopping
• Amazon etc
– Computer controlled artificial limbs
– Telephones and televisions integrated into computer terminals
– A cashless society
• Implanted RFIDs
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
Example Questions
• What three points should you consider before buying a software
package?
• Describe the main components of an expert system
• A computer chess game is described by a magazine as using artificial
intelligence. Describe what you would look for in the game to decide if
the claim was correct
• A mail-order book club holds its customers data on a computer file.
The club wishes to contact those customers who have not ordered a
book for one year or more. Briefly describe the stages involved in the
necessary mail merge.
• Many governments have passed laws which restrict the uses that may
be made of data stored in computers.
– Identify the problems such legislation is designed to overcome and describe the
main features of the legislation which overcome these problems
– Why is there not, usually, similar legislation for data held in other forms
All material presented in this course is based on the book by
END
• Thank you
All material presented in this course is based on the
book by D. Dalcher and L. Brodie Successful IT proj
ects