Fundamentals of Computer Science

Fundamentals of Computer Science

Computer Science Course
Course Code	FCPS
Year Opened	2001
Sites Offered	BRI, LOS
Previously Offered	CAR, LAN, LOU, SRF, SAR, SUN

Fundamentals of Computer Science is a Computer Science course in the CTY program with one prerequisite, Algebra 1.

Course Description

FCPS focuses on the practical aspects of computer architecture and programming. Included in these areas of study is recursion.

From the CTY Catalog:

This course introduces students to three major areas of the computer science discipline: theory and algorithms, hardware systems, and software systems. In the theoretical component of the course, you and your classmates will learn about algorithms, Boolean algebra, binary mathematics, and theory of computation. While studying hardware systems, you’ll become familiar with the physical components of computers, digital logic, computer architecture, and computer networks. As you investigate software systems, you’ll learn the elements of programming languages, compilers, computer graphics, and operating systems. Then you will apply and illustrate some concepts you’ve learned through programming.

Course History

Carlisle

At CAR 18.2 FCPS B was taught by the iconic Mr. Gomes and TA Eric. Memories from this class include extreme ninja during breaks, the $150 textbook that was never touched, and literally no one understanding what was happening. Always remember that when there are 5 wheels, you have many wheels.

During CAR 19.1 FCPS B was taught by instructor Michael and TA Cole. There was one student in particular who made the class truly interesting. He would roll around on the floor, did not do laundry, and by the end of the session, he was breaking out in a rash.

During CAR 19.2 FCPS B was still taught by Michael and Cole, and were quite boring compared to the first session, but were greatly loved by Michael and Cole, especially Cole. Cole was constantly complimented by the students for his hair, which was gorgeous. A favorite pastime of students was "Bathroom break with Cole" and playing tag during break with the sole purpose of tagging Cole. The class also had a lot of food related activities.

Lancaster

At LAN 14.2, FCPS B (aka FCPS Boiiiiiii) consisted of 7 guys and 7 girls. The class was instructed by Jon, and was TAed by the lovely Wizard. We spend our three weeks learning Python, drawing images with Turtle, making Illuminati signs at sassy F & M tour groups, and segregating ourselves by gender (up until the last week, at least). The girl's hall was married during first Saturday's carnival, and is known as the Sexadecimals, despite their RA Emily's initial shock at the name.

• Beware the kernel lava sharks
• π = 3
• Illuminati (the power of triangles)
• But remember, do what you want brah/boiiiiiii

Also at LAN 14.2 was the lower class, FCPS A. It was instructed by Leanne and TA'd by Patricia. We spent the entire session learning Python, constantly playing Never Gonna Give You Up, constantly losing a frisbee disk to Hartman Green, and almost never using the $130 textbook except to read the book's definition of an MMORPG and laugh at it.

• We must put random GIFs in EVERY presentation
• The Awkward Goddess
• "Never gonna give you up..."
• Patricklemore
• PowerPC is best PC
• "...I'd never thought I'd ever type 'pickle' in Python."
• ROBOTS ROBOTS ROBOTS

At FCPS.A.LAN.16.2 there were two girls and 13 boys. The instructor was Jason Yoder and the TA was James.

Los Angeles

At LOS.15.1, the Fundamentals of Computer Science class played Rock-Paper-Scissors (with a computer), talked code around their confused hallmates, and had a lot of fun taking the tests their instructor made for them (not). Regardless, they loved it.

At LOS.22.1, we had a few memorable moments:

• "He lost because he didn't have the pass royale." - Colin
• "WHY DOESN'T THIS COMPUTER HAVE A CACULATOR ON IT?!" - Instructor
• "COLIN! Hit the Gritty!" - Axel
• "Recursion Loops Suck" - Dorian
• "COOKIE CLICKERRRRRR!" - Anusha
• "STOP WITH THE COOKIE CLICKER!" - Instructor
• "She sells seashells on the seashore but the value of these shells will fall due to the laws of supply and demand... (and he would go on to sing the rest of the Money Rap)" - Nick
• "CodingBat is our safe place" - Zach
• "Turtle is the best Python module" - Zach

Saratoga Springs

During 13.2 at SAR, FCPS class A had thoroughly drained all of the energy from their TA Paul (a.k.a. Mr. Paul Sir), discovered how to eat an entire bag of chocolate chips (and dried coconut from the wonderful squirrel Ethan) during evening class, got tired of listening to the Age of War 2 Theme Song, beat Cat Mario a couple of times, ran into the quad shouting their faces off to Ravers in the UK, and became friends. (Thanks Teddi :D) At the end of the session Mr. Paul Sir promised the class he would send the pictures of the class to us but he has still not delivered on his promise.

At SAR 14.1, the class spent 3 weeks learning C++, Arduino, and MySQL. The class consisted of 12 guys (Nick, Max, ANSHUL THE BALLER aka Britney Spears, William, Dylan, Will, Rudra, Justin the Potato, Justin the Cheater, Felix Futbol, James, and Taras) and 2 girls (Ashley and Gianna). We spent 3 weeks being sarcasm'd at by the instructor. Our TA however was extremely chill despite the sarcasm.

Memories:

• "Halanunu" -Dylan
• "This is hard " -William, Response: "YOU'RE HARD" (Anshul)
• "I'm confused" (Dylan)
• "It's not Garbage, it's Garbaaaage" (Will)
• William being yelled at for talking too much every other minute
• Justin the Cheater
• Anshul looking at Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus photos in the back (not really) resulting in the Teacher calling him Britney Spears, people asking why, and Anshul responding with, "Because I'm hot. Obviously"
• Dylan's slow dance training by Ashley, and him insisting to use pick up lines ("Do you work at little Caesar's, cuz you're hot and I'm ready")
• Rudra singing Let it Go
• Dylan's selfie faces
• Rudra's face at the Class Selfie
• DYLAN STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER
• William's rages
• Playing soccer with a Love Tape ball (referred to as the "Africa Ball")
• Anshul quoting Badman: "Let me recollect: some sh*t happened, you sucked my d*ck." Everyone laughs, and Anshul feels proud of himself, then realizes they were laughing because the TA was standing over him when he said that, which is the real reason everyone was laughing.
• "How Do Man?" (Nick)
• Gianna looks like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch
• James is unamused (except by Dylan)
• James is amused (except by William)
• James and Justin brilliant code
• "My clock is broken" - Ashley
• Teacher accidentally raises Cheater's grade from -1 to 0
• Rudra's nevermore page
• FROZEN
• # not #
• #unfinished labs
• representation in every major sport
• Social Butterfly
• WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE *whistle*

At SAR 15.1 we had 5 girls and 13 boys. The instructor was Ron Hall and TA Erin. Alan Turning ruled supreme.

• What was Alan Turning's greatest contribution to computer science? He invented A-LAN Network
• What was Alan Turning's greatest contribution to camping? He invented A-LANtern
• What was Alan Turning's greatest contribution to geography? He invented A-LANdmass
• What was Alan Turning's greatest contribution to linguistics? He invented A-LANguage
• What was Alan Turning's greatest contribution to aviation? He created A-LANding strip
• When Alan Turing was a wee little boy he competed in the school science fair. He entered his invention "A-LAN network" in against all the other paper mache volcanoes. Needless to say he won by A-LANslide
• After discovering time travel, Alan Turing was transferred back to the medieval era and meets The King whose's daughter was kidnapped by a dragon... Alan Turing went on a grand adventure to finally rescue the princess. After slaying the dragon Alan Turing left his weapon lodged inside the dragon's breast. This weapon belonging to Alan Turing was A-LANce
• After entering the real estate bushiness what kind of job did Alan Turing find himself in? He became A-LANdlord
• What was Alan Turing's greatest contributions to CTY? He invented A-LANyard
• In 1982, Alan Turing ventured into the Video Game industry. Though he had many successes, they were all outweighed by his biggest failure, E.T. for the Atari 2600. Despite its atrocious quality, this was Alan Turing's biggest selling game to date, due to them using E.T.'s likeness to sell copies. This monstrosity of a game caused the great video game crash, with all of Alan Turing's work on E.T. ending up in A-LANdfill.
• What was Alan Turing's greatest contribution to communication technology? He invented A-LANdline.

At SAR 15.2 (FCPS B), there was 11 boys and 7 girls. The class started out with Dr. Rana as the instructor and Grace Chandler as the TA. Dr. Rana was later fired two weeks into the course due to many complaints and angry emails by the students and parents. Through the two day transition between teachers, TA Grace (who was an amazing teacher, the students looked forward to evening classes with Grace) taught the class. Also, TA Erin from the FCPS A came to help out for a few classes. The new instructor who came for the last week of class was Shaina Thonpson. The language of programming the class learned Python. The class also had to buy a $160 textbook (because there was a miscommunication between the instructor and the administration), but then the students were refunded fully by CTY when returning the book since the class used the book about twice and since CTY was apologetic towards the class situation.

• Thomas the Tank Engine remixes was our class anthem (if interested, we recommend listening to Drop It Like Its Hot Thomas the Tank Engine Remix) and played during evening sessions by DJ TA Grace.
• To pass time during lectures, two girls (and other classmates who joined in #ballislife) threw a paper ball in the air while the teacher was not looking. Other things people did to pass time was origami, so there was a large collection of paper cranes and airplanes.
• Dr. Rana also continuously asked us to “Drink more water” and in the beginning of every class we had to “Fill up our water bottles” and “Don’t drink warm water, get cold water,” which turned into a class joke. Also we were instructed to “Give the clapping” after anyone said anything remotely useful/interesting/cool. Consequently, the class clapped about every 5 seconds whenever anyone talked for the first two weeks of class.
• During breaks for the last three days of class, half the class played agar.io together. Instead of teaming up, certain students would just eat each other, which resulted in angry yells across the class.

At SAR 16.2 FCPS B (?) there were 4 girls and 11 boys. The class was instructed by Matt and Enoch was the TA. The class was taught to code in Java, and had many inside jokes, including, but not limited to:

• Enoch the Sand Guardian
• Do/While Loops and their pure amazingness
• The Binary Game (Curse you, level 6)
• The constant inspirational videos we watched
• Pokémon Go and the Gym near our Classroom (THERE WAS A BLASTOISE OUTSIDE OUR CLASSROOM)
• Evening Sessions with Enoch
• Slither.io
• Pres with Ladders
• Liar's Poker

SAR 17.1, there was FCPS A and B.

FCPS A was taught by Brian and TA'ed by Sophia. The class consisted of 12 boys and 4 girls. The students learned to code in Java, HTML/CSS, and Java Script. The class was taught in Scribner Library, and on the occasion, in Harder Hall. A majority of the class was injury prone, especially when playing Ultimate Frisbee. Flippy Bit became notorious too.

FCPS B was taught by Matt, or Dictator Davis, and TA'd by CTY alum Chris. The class consisted of 10 boys and 5 girls. The class took place in the basement of Wiecking Hall, which was a five-minute walk away from all other human interaction. As a result, the class bonded a lot together and during breaks would listen to Storytime with Chris. The students mainly learned Java. Some memories were when Diego Rodriguez was always around when people would get hurt, Ajay Anisetti would ask a million questions a day and Gabe Ruoff would rave in class. Also, Cindy Zhang, Nikita Seth, and Nadia Radoulov named as many of the trees on campus as they could.

SAR 17.2, there was FCPS A and B

FCPS A was taught by Brian and TA'ed by Sophia. The class had 12 boys and 5 girls.

In SAR 17.2 FCPS B, there were 12 boys and 3 girls (yikes ik). The instructor was Dictator Davis (or Matt), and the TA was Chris the sav.

Iconic Inside Jokes:

• dAAAviid
• TRicKy CaLCulUs
• jimAAAy
• "THAT'S RACIST"
• It happens to the best of us
• Crazy eyes: the looks the comsci bois got when they talked. (ex. Rick during evening class)
• Rick's speaker and his trash music taste
• Rick as a whole
• Chris P. ChrisP. CRISPY
• Dictator Davis always wins ERS
• The "look"

In addition,the students managed to convince Chris Y to participate in the talent show, since they managed to get under 5 strikes in one night class. All two of the strikes were from Jimmy.

SAR 18.2 FCPS.B was taught by Matt Davis (Dictator Davis) and Jake with students:

Arnav, Alex K, Rafay, Victor, Jacob, Alex Z (Unofficial Rave God), Cole, George, Kai, Helena, Marie, Alice S, Alice Z, Angie, Joanna, and Jessica(Joanna and Jessica were transport students who lived off campus).

The class had a weird obsession over the game ShellShockers and they did a bunch of activities relating to overthrowing a dictatorship.

There were too many similar names and it was confusing.

Memorable Quotes:

• "YOU FOOL" - Cole Witco
• "This was my plan all along!"
• "I said this was nerd camp, but I didn't say that you guys were all necessarily smart" - Matt
• "I LOST THE GAME"
• "So Alice Z is OG Alice, and Alice S is Alice 2.0?"
• "This is so sad, Alexa play Despacito"
• "It's Wednesday my dudes- aaaAAAAA"
• "Alice is Primary Goddess. Alex is Secondary God. We need a Tertiary God"

• Dead memes and vines in general
• Alice Z was spectacular at Chinese Yoyo
  • She might have brought 3 yoyos and many people wanted to try them
  • She never got to use them because they were always given to others who wanted to play with them (Set goal: Learn to say "NO")
  • At the end of the camp, at least 2 of the yoyo lines were frayed
• Alice Z was called OG Alice and Real Alice, Alice S was called Alice 2.
• Angie was called Fake Alice, Falice, Fallacy, Steve, and Bob by members of the Logic Class on her hall because she hanged out with the two "Real Alices" a lot and it became confusing.
• Alice Z drew a cute circle blob thing with a flower on top of it on a whiteboard. It was never erased.
• Dictator Davis could not read Angie's signature and called it a "Pikachu rabbit thing".
• Alex Z was the unofficial rave god. He sold glowsticks for all three dances.
• Angie bought a giant sunflower during the first week from the Farmer's Market that was fawned over for "aesthetics". She named it Peggy.
• There was a very disturbing CTY-I hidden route in Angie Z's final project.
• The guys were very obsessed with shellshock.io to the point where they asked for break to be indoors. Some of the better players were Kai, George, and Sake (Pronounced in the Japanese way).

SAR 19.1 FCPS B taught by Supriya Karmakar and TA Nick Mohan

Stefan, Rose, Galaxy, Alex, Nathan, Leon, Matt, Ben, Owen (pronounced Gwenn according to Karmakar), Bix, Tarkan, Allen, Hanmo, Max, Jonathan, and Jason

To put it simply this year was a mess.