Assignment 1

This assignment has 2 parts:

  • Part 1: A written investigation to start us off!
  • Part 2: Some coding in C++!

Part 1: Discovering CS (5 Marks)

To get us started, assignment 1 includes a little discovery about the fields of Computing Science here at SFU. Please complete ONE of the following 2 options:

  1. Look at the list of SFU Computing Science faculty. Choose 2 professors and look at their homepage or search up articles written by/about them. Write 1 paragraph for each professor, in your own words, describing what they work on within computing science and examples of applications resulting from their research. Please include your sources.

    OR

  2. Choose 2 of your favourite computer program or website (video game, photo-editor, web browser, music player, social media site, search engine, ...). For each, look up one algorithms that would be used in that style of program. Read up a little on the algorithms and write 1 paragraph about each algorithm. Please include your sources.

For example, start with a search like "What algorithms do video games use to know the best path for a creature to follow to get somewhere?" or "What algorithms do photo editor applications use to remove noise from images?".

You may not use generative AI systems (like ChatGPT) for generating your content. However, you are welcome to use non-academic sources like Wikipedia, or video game programmer's blogs. This is to spark interest, not write publishable papers! You may not copy-and-paste content from the web: you must write the text yourself!


  • You must cite your sources. Any reasonable and clear citation style is fine.
  • Expected length 300-500 words (total, for both paragraphs combined).

Part 2: C++ Coding (40 Marks)

See the Assignment 2 - Part 2 description.