Computer Science

Computer science is all about problem solving; writing code is a lot like working out a puzzle. It’s a discipline that changes the way you think. It can turn everything you do into a step-by-step challenge. For instance, if you get up late in the morning, you probably ask yourself (even if you’re too sleepy to be aware of the steps): “How can I prioritize my time most efficiently? What is the most important thing I have to do? What will take longest? What can I eliminate to save time?” You’ll find that learning the syntax of a new computer language is not all that different from learning new vocabulary as you study another spoken language.

Not only is computer science fun and intellectually stimulating, it is also the fastest-growing occupation out there. Skilled young programmers are in high demand and will be for the foreseeable future. The tech giants are constantly searching for new talent. The work of computer science is woven into pretty much every field in the “real world” today—medicine, finance, education, artmaking, public relations, museum work, business, architecture—the list goes on and on.

In Boston we are extremely lucky to live in one of the great technology hubs of the nation. If you’re an enthusiastic computer science student, you’ll have matchless opportunities to land projects with innovative companies. Often these can turn into well-paying summer jobs or can evolve into long-lasting internships.

Students who endeavor to study computer science at Commonwealth will find themselves not only able to apply it in the "real world," but to explore its philosophical implications. What is computation? What can and cannot be computed? We aim to provide students with the training to find both beauty and elegance in this discipline.

Courses

Computer Programming Essentials

This course provides a first look at the ideas of computer science and programming, and it is designed for students with no prior coding experience. Using a variety of languages, students will learn the basic tools used by programmers throughout a variety of disciplines, including data visualization, music generation, game design, and mathematical problem-solving. The course will be entirely project-based and inquiry-driven, with time divided equally between in class discussions/lectures and labs. We will cover foundational topics such as variables, conditionals, loops, and functions, with previews of further topics such as recursion and data types.

Designing Programs

Computer Science is a vast and exciting field, and this class provides a thorough and mind-stretching introduction to its most fundamental tool: programming. The course uses the pedagogically-driven student languages provided by DrRacket to allow for focus on program design. By learning the essential habits of systematic problem solving, students will be able to create complex programs such as video games, text editors, and document analyzers. Topics include data design and structure, recursion, abstraction, higher-order functions, and event-driven programming. No prior experience is necessary and the course is open to all grades. Access to a Mac OS, Linux, or Windows computer at home is strongly recommended.

After a semester of learning Python, my classmate and I decided to learn Java as an independent project. Our Project Week was not only a good self-learning experience, but it also helped me see the differences and similarities between Python and Java. After my week’s work, I see programming as a whole in a completely different way.

Designing with Classes

AP

Building upon the foundation provided by Designing Programs, this course looks at programming from the perspective of classes. Shifting to Java, an object-oriented language, students will be exposed to industry-standard tools such as loops and streams, as well as grapple with the benefits and stringencies of a statically-typed language. Now, instead of solely functions consuming and returning data, methods will have access to "this" object's data, and then use it for the majority of the computation. Topics such as structured, union, and recursive datatypes, abstraction, and higher-order programming are reassessed through this outlook. The course also introduces crucial concepts such as state, mutation, and memory and runtime analysis; it will culminate in the building of a full chess game and artificial intelligence. Prerequisite: Designing Programs and permission of the
department.

I decided to do a computer-programming project, and quickly realized that the most exciting option was to learn a new language, immersing myself in a totally fresh way of thinking. Internet research indicated that I’d enjoy a language called Haskell. I much preferred this learn-as-much-as-possible-about-something-new project to, say, a project that stayed within familiar paradigms.

Computer Science Theory

After two years of intensive programming, students in this course will gain an appreciation for and experience with the mathematical underpinnings of computation. To enable the study, the course begins with a study of discrete mathematics, including an introduction to combinatorics and set theory, as well as various proof techniques. From there, students will analyze increasingly complex models of computation, going all the way from finite state machines to Turing machines. Armed with the Church-Turing thesis, the class will be able to prove what problems are not computable. The runtime analysis that began in Designing with Classes will then be greatly expanded upon in the study of complexity theory, which covers the infamous, unsolved P vs. NP problem. The course ends with a study of algorithms, and techniques such as divide-and-conquer, greedy algorithms, and dynamic programming will be covered. The course offers a healthy mix of pencil-and-paper and programming assignments. Prerequisite: Designing with Classes.I have now implemented most major data structures. I know exactly how they work. The CS3 class is literally just students working together to write data structures. It's the definition of engagement and cooperation.

Programming Languages

Having used programming languages extensively for three years, we will now study their design of languages. From both a theoretical and practical perspective, students will formally define and then implement programming languages that gradually increase in complexity both syntactically and semantically. These languages will be built in variants of Typed Racket, and will build upon concepts studied in all prior computer science courses.
Prerequisite: Computer Science Theory.

I find the approaches and habits that go with the constraints of different languages to be a fascinating part of the thought behind programming, and I think it’s beautiful to people who get along well with the mathematical and the logical."