Concepts
The device you build is not the goal. It is the object on which a set of concepts becomes visible that would otherwise stay invisible. These pages collect them.
Every concept meets you at a particular point in the project, usually as a problem before it appears as a term. That is deliberate: you are meant to notice first that something does not work, and to learn afterwards what it is called and why it behaves that way.
Every page starts with a summary and the questions it is about. Then the concept is explained in full, with its diagrams. For looking things up again, the slides from the session follow, and later some further reading.
Take this part seriously: the concepts are what the exam is about. Your project is the material on which you explain them, but it does not replace understanding them. Whoever has passed every challenge and still cannot say why digital transmission tolerates noise does not pass the exam.
One question, four questions
The module has one big question: how can we solve complex problems with computers? Four questions about information sit underneath it, and every concept on these pages belongs to one of them. Above all four lie the ways of working that you need everywhere: cutting problems, the input-processing-output model, measuring, and thinking in layers. The colours on this map are the same on the slides: whenever a session works on one of the four questions, its colour tells you which.
All concepts
The order inside each group is the order in which the concepts appear in the semester; the last column says where in the project you need them.
Solving problems (how you think and work, needed everywhere)
| Concept | Where you need it |
|---|---|
| Cutting Problems | C0 to C4 |
| Problem Solving with Computers | C0 to C4 |
| Algorithms and Programs | from C0, central in C1 and C2 |
| Measuring and Experimenting | from C1 |
| Abstraction and Layers | from C2 |
Representing information (making bits)
| Concept | Where you need it |
|---|---|
| Analog and Digital | C1 |
| Symbols and Information | C1 |
| Zahlensysteme | C2 |
| Codesysteme | C2 |
Storing information (storing bits)
| Concept | Where you need it |
|---|---|
| Memory | C4 |
| Dateien | C4 |
Transferring information (sending bits)
| Concept | Where you need it |
|---|---|
| Signal und Rauschen | C1 |
| Abtastung und Synchronisation | C2 |
| Protokolle | C2 and C3 |
| Fehler und Redundanz | C4 |
| Information und ihr Träger | C4 |
| Durchsatz und Grenzen | C4 |
Processing information (processing bits)
| Concept | Where you need it |
|---|---|
| Logic and Arithmetic | C4, first contact in C2 |
| Kompression | C4 |
| Verschlüsselung | C4, optional |
By challenge
If you are working on a particular challenge right now, these are the pages that go with it.
Challenge 0. Problem Solving with Computers and Algorithms and Programs as soon as you write your first lines of your own. Cutting Problems starts here as well.
Challenge 1. Analog and Digital, Symbols and Information and Signal und Rauschen belong together and answer, between them, why the size of your alphabet is limited. Add Measuring and Experimenting, because this is the first time you need a proper series of measurements, and Algorithms and Programs, because your recognition rule is the first algorithm you invent yourselves.
Challenge 2. Codesysteme for the way from a letter to a symbol, Abtastung und Synchronisation for the question why it falls apart at higher speed. Add the first part of Protokolle, the simple agreement.
Challenge 3. Protokolle in full: framing, synchronisation, and how complete an agreement has to be.
Challenge 4. Logic and Arithmetic first, because checksums and encryption both build on it. Then Fehler und Redundanz, Memory and Dateien for what travels through the air as a whole for the first time, Kompression and Durchsatz und Grenzen. If you like, add Verschlüsselung.
Looking back. Abstraction and Layers is worth a second look at the end, once your finished system is in front of you.