The aim of this primer is to understand the underlying abstractions that enable todays computing. The understanding of these conceptual models is fundamental to programming rich and interactive applications. The ultimate goal is for the students to have a holistic knowledge of the technology they work with as Interaction Designers, as well as easing them into the topic of programming. Further to this, we hope to inspire the students by showing possible futures these technologies might enable.
History
- Jacquard Loom
- Punchcard Computing
- US Census, IBM
- ENIAC
- ARM, Intel
Topics
- Engineering and material science developments (transistors, quartz crystals oscillators, Integrated Chips etc)
- Interface and HCI developments (punch cards to Douglas Engelbart etc)
- Ubiquitous Computing (Mark Weiser)
- Mechanical Computing (Abacus, Antikythera Mechanism, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage)
- Electricity, Electronics & Transistor (Edison, Tesla)
- Xerox Parc
- Bell Labs (Telephone, Telegraph, UNIX, UI)
- The Internet (Tim Berners Lee)
- HCI: Inputs and Displays
Books
- “How the body shapes the way we think” pfeifer and Bongard
- “Foundations of neural networks fuzzy systems and knowledge engineering”
- The Big Switch - Nicolas Carr
- Computational Design Thinking: Computation Design Thinking
- Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
- The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Films
- Enigma (Alen Turing Story)