CIS 110 Help Sessions Week 2

For students who missed their week 1 lab or just want extra help, you are welcome to attend one of more Help Sessions.

110 Help Sessions Week 2 (10/1 - 10/5)

4-5pm MTWRF B90CD Onyx Bridge (Science Library)

Note that if no one shows up during the first 10 minutes the session is cancelled.

Getting to B90CD Ony.

Flying Math: Bees Solve Traveling Salesman Problem

From Wired Science, 09-21-2012. Bumblebees foraging in flowers for nectar are like salesmen traveling between towns: Both seek the optimal route to minimize their travel costs.

Mathematicians call this the “traveling salesman problem,” in which scientists try to calculate the shortest possible route given a theoretical arrangement of cities. Bumblebees, however, take the brute-force approach:

For them, it’s simply a matter of experience, plus trial and error, scientists report.

Apollo Guidance Computer

This is the type of computer that went to the moon in the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.

There was one computer in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and one the mothership (CM) circling above. It was the first use of integrated circuits [chips]. It's cycle time was 1 Mhz, 11 instructions. It had 1K of 16 bit words of erasable (RAM) core memory and 12K of read-only memory (ROM). The ROM held the "Colossus 249" flight control software. There were no disks or tapes in the flight system.

How to build one in your basement, with many useful references.