Syllabus
CSIS 550 is a one semester course which covers the history of computing from the abacus to the present. Due to time requirements, the level of detail is non-uniform, meaning that some topics are covered in more detail in this course than other teachers might like. Indeed, it is fair to say that the present course tracks the Williams text with notable additions to include punched card technology, minicomputers and microcomputers. The syllabus is broken into sections: Description and Purpose, Course Objectives, Course Requirements, Grading, Required Reading, Recommended Reading, Writing Quality, Plagiarism, and the Class Schedule which lists the lectures by dates, along with any additional recommended reading.
Requirements: Students have a midterm examination and are required to do two projects: a biography paper and a period paper. Graduate students have a research paper.
The Biography Paper examines the life and contributions of a significant person in the evolution of computing. There are some suggested books of biographies which students can use to get their research started, i.e., they contain short biographies and references to sources.
Since it is impossible to cover the period from the early 1950’s to the present with any depth, students are expected to examine Datamation and Computerworld for a specific year and write a Period Paper describing the most important computer news for that year. Students are encouraged to scan the tables of contents of the issues for that year and look for important hardware, software, or industry topics. In addition, students are advised to look at the advertising as well. Most students introduce their year by discussing what was going on in the world generally (from Time, Newsweek, Business Week, etc.).
Graduate students have an additional Research Paper which takes an element of present computing and traces it to its origins. Some examples of exemplary student papers are contained in Adobe format on this site.
To see all student papers, please go to the menu on the left side of this page and click on "Student Projects".