Introduction to Engineering Problem Solving

Overview of Computers and Software

Grand Challenges
fundamental problems in science and engineering with potential impact. identified by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in Washington DC, as part of a research and development strategy for high performance computing.

LBYEC71: Engineering Programming 1

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

Lists of Grand Challenges

Lists of Grand Challenges

2.

Prediction of weather, climate and global change A major eruption from a solar storm near a coronal hole (a venting point for the solar wind) can eject vast amounts of hot gases from the suns surface toward the earths surface at the speeds of over a million miles per hour. Learning to predict changes in weather, climate, and global change involves collecting large amounts of data for study and developing new mathematical models that can represent the interdependency of many variables. Computerized speech understanding It could revolutionize our communication systems, but many problems are involved. Consider a telephone system that determines the languages being spoken and translates the speech signals so that each person hears the conversations in his or her native languages.
Lecture No. 1 3

4.

Improvements in vehicles performance Transportation systems are currently being studied in which cars have computers with small video screens mounted on the dash. The driver enters the destination location, and the video screen shows the street names and path to go from the current location to the desired location. A communication network keeps the cars computer aware of any traffic jams so that it can automatically reroute the car if necessary. Other transportation research addresses totally automated driving, with computers and networks handling all the control and information interchange. Enhanced oil and gas recovery It will allow us to locate the estimated 300 billion barrels of oil reserves in the U.S. Current techniques for identifying structures likely to contain oil and gas use seismic techniques that can evaluate structures 20,000 feet below the surface.
Lecture No. 1 4

Prepared by J. Tio

Prepared by J. Tio

Lists of Grand Challenges

Introduction to Computer
Terminologies: Computer is a machine that is designed to perform operations that are specified with a set of instructions called a program. Computer hardware refers to the equipment, such as keyboard, the mouse, the terminal, the hard disk, and the printer. Computer software refers to the programs that describe the steps that we want the computer to perform. Types of Computer: Personal Computers (PCs) are small, inexpensive computers that are commonly used in offices, homes, and laboratories. PCs are also referred to as microcomputers. Workstation is a minicomputer or mainframe computer that is small enough to fit on a desktop. Supercomputers are the fastest of all computers and can process billions of instructions per second. Computer networks allow computers to communicate with each other so that they can share resources and information.

Human Genome Project Its goal is to locate, identify, and determine the function of each of the 50,000 to 100,000 genes that are contained in human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which is the genetic material found in cells. The deciphering of the human genetic code will lead to many technical advances, including the ability to detect most, if not all, of the over 4,000 known human genetic diseases.
SOLUTION? The use of computers and engineering problem-solving techniques will be the key element in the solution process.

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

Computer Hardware
Internal Memory External Memory

Computer Software
User

Processor Input ALU CPU Output

Internal Organization of a computer

Users: Students, Engineers, Scientists, Accountants, etc Application Software: Compilers, word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Operating System: Unix, DOS, Windows, etc. Hardware: PC, Macintosh, Sun Systems, etc
Prepared by J. Tio Lecture No. 1 8

Software Tools
Programs that have been written to perform common operations are called Software Tools or Application Software. Software Tools Word processing Spreadsheet Database Management Computer-aided design Mathematical Computation Examples Microsoft Word, WordPerfect Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro Dbase IV, Visual Foxpro, Paradox AutoCAD, Cadsoft, Multisim Matlab, Mathematica, MATHCAD

Computer Languages
Developing new application software requires writing lists of instructions for a computer to execute. The following are the computer languages that can be used in programming. Computer Languages Machine Language Assembly language High-level language Description The language closest to the machine since the code is in binary form The computer operations are represented by mnemonics codes The language that can be easily understood by a programmer. The instruction requires syntax. Syntax is grammar rules of a programming language. Examples of Programming Languages: C, Fortran, Ada, Pascal, COBOL, and Basic

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

10

Translators
Converts high-level language programs into a cryptic low-level language format easily understood by a computer system. Types:
Compiler Interpreter

INTERPRETERS Reads the source code of the program one line at a time and performs the specific instruction contained in that line. COMPILERS Reads the entire program and converts it into object code, which is a translation of the program source code into a form that can be directly executed by the computer. Object code also referred to as binary or machine code. Once the program is compiled, a line of source code is no longer meaningful to the execution of a program.

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

11

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

12

Exercise:
1. 2.

(15 pts)

Cite other examples of grand challenges which are related in your field that will utilize computer. Discuss briefly the history of computers according to the following periods: a. Electromechanical Era b. Vacuum tube Era c. Transistor Age d. Integrated Circuit (IC) Age e. Microprocessor Age Memory capacity can be quantified using the term BYTE (B). What is the equivalent value of the following in terms of BYTES? TERM ABBREV EQUIVALENT Byte B 8 bits word W ___ bytes Kilobyte KB ___ bytes Megabyte MB ___ bytes Gigabyte GB ___ bytes Terabyte TB ___ bytes

3.

Prepared by J. Tio

Lecture No. 1

13