The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 26, 1985 -Page 5
COMPUTERS
New course takes a different look at computing
By EVE BECKER
In continuing its push for computer
education, the University has
established a new computer literacy
course which will start experimen-
tally winter term.
This course, Introduction to Com-
puter Systems (CS 181), will differ
from other existing computer courses
since it will not place its emphasis on
programming, but rather on under-
standing computer systems and the
impact of the computer in our society.
In CS 181 students will examine
issues such as morality and ethics in
computing, the history of computers,
software packages, and the effect of
computers on industry.
Chess is
The class is intended for students,
mainly freshmen, who have had no
background in computers. EECS
Prof. Bernard Galler, who will teach
the course, said he plans to limit
enrollment to freshmen "so I can see
what can be accomplished with such
students."
After his first term, the course will
be opened to all students with little
background in computers. Galler
hopes that after a year, half of the in-
coming freshmen will take the com-
puter literacy course.
GALLER SAID the course is "not going
to make experts out of people," but
rather it will give students an idea of
how computers work.
1 breeze
mnachine
He won the World Correspondence
Chess Championship in 1968. He sen-
sed Hitech was destined for greatness
when it tied him recently.
Most compiter courses have as a goal to
teach programming. This is not our goal.'
-Bernard Galler,
EECS professor
"The course may disappear after
five to ten years," Galler said, as
students come to the University with
a stronger background in computers.
The first four weeks of the course
will be spent on learning program-
ming, but, Galler said, "most com-
puter courses have as a goal to teach
programming. This is not our goal."
The literacy course will examine
packaged programs, such as word
processing software, to give students
an idea of what is inside these
storebought programs.
Most of the coursework will utilize
the Apple Macintosh computer, and
students will be taught to use such
programs as MacWrite, MacPaint,
and MacPascal, Galler said.
The class will also provide some
exposure to the University's main-
frame computer system, MTS.
A special Macintosh lab in Angell
Hall will be set up specifically for the
class.
The students are required to spend
three hours in lecture, one hour in
recitation, and five hours in lab each
week.
There is an introductory computer
course in the College of Engineering,
but last year a LSA faculty committee
saw the need for a course different
from other standard computing
classes. The faculty committee then
asked the EECS department to teach
the introductory computer literacy
for
this
PITTSBURGH (AP) - While two
Soviet chess masters were playing a
72-match struggle over 14 months for
the world championship, a souped-up
chess computer was earning the elite
Srank of master in just five months of
play and achieving the highest rating
ever given a machine.
The electronic chess whiz is called
Hitech, capable of analyzing 175,000
moves per second, which its creators
sey is 50 percent faster than any other
chess-playing machine. It beats other
computers and holds its own against
humans.
"IT'S BOTH smart and fast. It's
very, very strong in tactics and the
ability to calculate sequences," said
Dr. Hans Berliner, a computer scien-
ce professor at Carnegie-Mellon
University who helped create Hitech.
"What sets it apart from other
computers is we're able to evaluate a
position with a high degree of
sophistication very, very quickly,"
said Berliner. "I think we have a real
chance to penetrate the very top
levels. We'll be in the top 50 players in
the country by the end of next year."
IN THE GRUELING championship
-contest in the Soviet Union, Garri
Kasparov finally defeated Anatoly
Karpov earlier this month, making
him the youngest chess champion in
history at the age of 22.
On this side of the Atlantic this mon-
th, Hitech whipped two human
masters at a local tournament and
drew a third. It also established
supremacy over all other machines
by winning the North American Com-
puter Chess Championship in Denver.
The victories earned Hitech the
rank of master, based on a numerical
formula that weighs won-lost records
and the level of competition. Hitech's
ranking is about 2,250. The best
human is near 2,000.
"HITECH IS the highest rated
computer we ever had," said David
Gertler of the U.S. Chess Federation
and assistant editor of "Chess Life"
magazine.
A computer named Belle was the
first machine to earn the master's
rank in 1983, but it has since slipped to
expert. Of 30,902 players rated by the
U.S. Chess Federation, only 766 are
'masters and Hitech is the lone
machine. According to a recent
Gallup poll, 20 million Americans
know how to play chess.
Berliner, himself a chess master,
was once one of the nation's top 12
players and played former world
champion Bobby Fischer four times.
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----- ---------------- ----------- - - - - -
course. years ago.
William Williams, LSA associate "In return for our faculty going
dean for research, said CS 181 is being there, the engineering departmen
taught by EECS as part of an had to provide all courses for LSA. It
agreement made when LSA com- was part of an agreement that a com
puting faculty merged with the puter literacy course be taught,"
college of Engineering almost two Williams said.
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