Problem Set 0: Registration Survey Responses

5. Major and year

Majors: Electrical Engineering (7), Systems (3), ECE (2), Cognitive Science (2), Economics (2), Chemistry (1), Computer Science (1), Math (1), Media Studies (1), Physics (1), Pre-Commerce (1), Undeclared (1).

Years: 2 fourth years, 8 third years, 11 second years, 1 first year.

9. What programming languages have you used?

Almost everyone: C++
Only 2 with a little Java experience
Scheme, PHP, Python, Basic, VHDL

10. What is the longest program you have written?

16: CS101/CS200 (few hundred lines)
5 people had experience with 1000+ line programs

11. Did you do any programming over the summer? (If so, describe it.)

Only 4 students in the class did any programming over the summer.

12. What scientist or engineer do you most admire and why?

Three responses were "Dad", and 2 didn't mention anyone in particular.

I've always admired Bill Gates for his marketing savvy, but disliked him for his now bug-prone products.

Tianyou Zhan, engineer who contributed to China under terrible conditions 50 years ago. (built first Chinese railroad)

Richard J. Roberts, 1993 Nobel Laureate for medicine, because he uses the same croquet mallet I used to play with (which my grandfather designed). I only know this because he emailed to asked me where to buy one!

Newton. I LOVE him.

Thomas Edison because he had all kinds of amazing ideas and inventions.

Tesla, because tesla coils are really cool

Descartes, because he was not so focused in any one discipline. He advanced math and philosophy, and my goal is to be well-rounded in liberal arts and science.

Albert Einstein because of his excellent insight into nature and logical reasoning.

Ben Franklin, he was as well-rounded as they come, did more than just science

Jacques Cousteau, he helped portray the ocean in a way that everyone could appreciate and understand.

Alan Turing, for his work at Bletchley Park on the Enigma and his idea of turing machines

Von Neumann - he had such an impact on so many areas of science and computers. He had such a powerful intelligence he advanced any field he turned his focus too.

University of Virginia Department of Computer Science CS 201J: Engineering Software

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation

cs201j-staff@cs.virginia.edu