Topics Covered in CS2010: Computing Fundamentals (Fall 2025)

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Computer Hardware Fundamentals (Early September)

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• Binary numbers, base conversions (binary, hex, decimal).
• Boolean logic: AND, OR, NOT; truth tables.
• Logic gates and circuits in Minecraft/Redstone.
• Designing circuits: sum-of-products, Boolean algebra simplification.
• Karnaugh maps (K-maps) for circuit optimization.
• Seven-segment displays.
• Negative numbers (two’s complement), floating-point representation.
• Memory: D flip-flops, registers.
• Clocks and counters.
• CPU outline: ALU, register file, memory, instruction execution.

Midterm Review and Exam (Early October)

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• Review of hardware topics.
• Midterm exam.

Programming Introduction with Lua and ComputerCraft Turtles (Mid-October)

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• Lua basics: REPL, data types (numbers, strings, tables), variables.
• Turtle commands: movement, digging, placing blocks.
• Control structures: while loops, for loops, if statements.
• Functions and abstraction.
• Tree chopping programs.

Version Control and Collaboration (Late October)

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• Git basics: init, add, commit, log, checkout.
• GitHub: forking, branching, pull requests, merge conflicts.

AI-Assisted “Vibe” Coding (Late October)

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• Using Aider with LLMs (e.g., OpenRouter, Qwen Coder) for turtle programs.
• Iterative development: square coverage, tree detection, chopping, dead reckoning.

Advanced Turtle Programming (Early November)

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• Dead reckoning: position and direction tracking.
• Recursive tree chopping.
• Variable scope and environments in Lua.

Networking and Web (Mid-November)

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• Internet basics: DNS, IP, TCP, HTTP/HTTPS.
• ComputerCraft HTTP client: fetching and parsing data.
• Drawing images from online text files.
• Web servers and applications (intro to Lapis in Lua).

Careers and Majors (Early December)

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• Comparison of CS, IT, Robotics, Math majors.
• Job outcomes, recommendations (projects, grad school, etc.).

This summary is derived from the class notes. The course emphasized hands-on Minecraft labs for hardware simulation and turtle programming, with a shift from low-level hardware to software and web concepts post-midterm.