Part 1 - Terminology and Definitions

Computational Thinking is the most important skill that you can have entering the Engineering field. It is the set of skills and abilities that allow engineers to solve problems ranging from very basic to incredibly complex.

Today your task is to do some research into computational thinking and be ready to illustrate it with some examples.

Please be ready to answer the following questions:

Please use this BBC article on Computational Thinking to answer the following questions:

• Explain the differences between Decomposition, Abstraction, Pattern Recognition, and Algorythms

Use the following video about solving problems with Computational (and Design) Thinking to answer the following questions:

• How did the engineers at Google use Abstraction and Pattern Recognition to improve how Pegman works? 

Part 2 - Algorithms

Algorithms are a key part of Computational Thinking. They are the systems that make decisions in computer systems. Listen to the following podcast from 99% Invisible about what algorithms are and how they affect your life. Use this podcast to answer the following questions:

• What are some examples of algorithms that can affect your life that the podcast uses?

• How do these examples decompose human traits and activities into numbers to be fed into the algorithm?