Scope of this course

1. Give you a highly requested skill which can improve your résumé in case you decide (or are forced to) not to become an entrepreneur and apply for a job.
2. Open your mind towards a problem solving attitude together with the other module Design Thinking. Clearly each module will show you a completely different aspect of problem solving.
3. Give you a strong background knowledge over programming techniques and strategy, obviously not to become a programmer yourself but to be able to talk with your developers and arrange with them precise plans without accepting passively developers' decisions.

Prerequisites

In order to correctly follow this course each student is required previous knowledge on these topics:

• English understanding and reading: you must be able to read and understand spoken English at level B2. If, for example, you have problems reading this website, you will not follow the course correctly.
• Microsoft Windows or Mac: you must already know how to use an operating system in its basic aspects
• File handling: you must have very good practice on how to move, delete, rename, copy, compress, uncompress files and directories. These are activities with which some students have severe problems.
• Internet: you must be able to navigate, send and read email, use basic UNIBZ network features and download files.

Course content

• precourse: things that you must already know (how to use the operating system, files handling, unibz network features) and will thus not be explained during the lessons, but it is better to take a look at the videos below if you have any doubt
• basic Python
• typical algorithms and data structures
• computational complexity
• cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology

How to study for this course

This course is different from the majority of courses you are used to. This course is much more technical than theoretical and it is strictly sequential. This means that you have to adapt your study strategy:

1. First of all, you either attend all the lessons (or compensate for missing lessons watching immediately the corresponding videos) or it is really not worth coming to the next one, since you will have a hard life understanding the next topic.
2. After each lesson you must repeat slowly on your own everything done in class in order to be sure to have fully grasped the explained concepts before the next lesson.
3. Needless to say, do the assigned exercises without copying them from your colleagues.

For the exam, the main difference with respect to other courses is that you have to train much more than study. The content of this course is easy and does not need extensive study, however, it is only with practice that you become skilled enough and know immediately what to do without wasting time.

Exam

The exam is split into three parts. The grade is the weighted average of the three parts, based on how many lessons were dedicated to each of them.

1. Practical exercises on Python (on computer, fully open book), worth proportionate to the amount of hours dedicated to this topic
2. Questions and exercises on computational complexity (on paper closed books, no material), worth proportionate to the amount of hours dedicated to this topic
3. Theoretical questions on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology (on paper closed books, no material), worth proportionate to the amount of hours dedicated to this topic

Before the exam:

1. if you do not use your own notebook, borrow a computer from the library well before the exam and configure it before the exam
2. make sure that Anaconda is installed and that you can use Jupyter for Python;
3. if you are paranoid and are afraid that your notebook crashes the night before, some days before the exam borrow a computer from the library and check that you are able to log in on your unibz account and that you have, or are able to install, everything you need

Coursework

Students have the opportunity to skip part 1 of the exam with a mid-term, which will be your grade for part 1 at the exam. If you believe that the grade is too low for you, write an email to dr. Coletti at least 7 days before the exam and you will be able to do part 1 at the exam.

In order to be allowed to participate in the mid-term you must submit all the home exercises that are assigned after each lesson by email within the deadline. You do them in groups of 1,2,3,4 people, but the group may not be composed of exactly the same people of the previous assignment. If they are not done properly or contain severe mistakes, you will receive immediate feedback from dr. Coletti. Assignments will be evaluated and you need to do them in a decent way to be allowed to participate in the mid-term, even though the assignments' grade will not be considered for your exam's grade. You are allowed to skip ONE assignment getting 0 in the exercises, but at the second missing one you are excluded. 

Students have the opportunity to skip part 2 of the exam with a mid-term. This is completely independent from part 1 and is offered even to students who do not attend.

In order to be allowed to participate in the mid-term you must submit all the home exercises that are assigned after each lesson by email within the deadline. You do them in groups of 1,2,3,4 people, but the group may not be composed of exactly the same people of the previous assignment. If they are not done properly or contain severe mistakes, you will receive immediate feedback from dr. Coletti. Home exercises will be evaluated and you need to do them in a decent way to be allowed to participate in the mid-term. You are allowed to skip ONE assignment getting 0 in the exercises, but at the second missing one you are excluded. 

Your grade for part 2 at the exam will be the your second mid-term grade if your mid-term grade is higher than the assignments' average grade, otherwise will be calculated as 70% the mid-term grade and 30% the assignments average grade. For example: mid-term 70% and assignments 60% -> final grade is 70%, mid-term 70% and assignments 90% -> final grade is 76%. If you believe that this grade is too low for you, write an email to dr. Coletti at least 7 days before the exam and you will be able to do part 2 at the exam.

If you have not understood anything of this rule, do not worry, it will be easy after you go through the first part of the course 🙂

Do not:

• Search with Google and come up with a solution that uses techniques and tools not explained in class. All exercises are designed to be solved with what is explained in class and you cannot use other tools to make your job easier, it is not useful for you;
• copy the assignment from your colleagues (excluding obviously the colleagues with whom you are officially working as a group). I will have to inform the Dean if this happens (yes, in the past it happened...);
• send your code to your colleagues. It is fine to help other students and even to work together in more than two, but each group has its own code. If you send your code around, for sure somebody will send it to me very similar and I will inform the Dean (yes, in the past it happened...);
• send the assignment to me without specifying that you worked in a group other people. It is not possible to attach a person after you have submitted (yes, in the past somebody tried it...)

Note that all students have these possibilities, regardless of whether they attend or not. However, at the beginning of each lesson we will discuss together the home exercises and your problems and thus being present has its advantages for your comprehension and you can get extra points for course's improvements and good suggestions.