Computer Laboratory Practicing at the Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics

Vesna Veličković

Marko Milošević

Workshop on Lab Practicing

in Computer Science EducationFaculty of Electronic Engineering, Niš, 18 June 2003

Faculty Organization

Department of

MathematicsPhysicsChemistryBiologyGeography

Curricula of each department contain at least one course with computer practicing.

Computer Laboratories

Old CL (1998.) for teaching at the departments of chemistry, biology and geography

New CL (2001/2002) for teaching at the departments of mathematics and physics

Multimedia laboratory for individual projects and seminars

Tempus laboratory (under construction)

Very fast local network (1 Gbit/s) and internet connection (1 Mbit/s)

Old Computer Laboratory

15 computers – celeron 166MHz, – 1.3Gb, – 32Mb RAM, – 14’’ Monitors

Scanner

Used mostly for education on user level for departments of chemistry, biology and geography

New Computer Laboratory

10 computers – Athlon 1.2GHz, – 20Gb HD, – 256Mb RAM, – 3D video card, – 19’’ monitors

Donation of German Ministry of Education and Science through Humboldt University, Berlin

Used mostly by students of mathematics and physics

In function of the project Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering (DAAD project – Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe)

Multimedia Laboratory

6 computers– 1.6 GHz, – 40Gb HD, – 256 Mb RAM, – Web cameras,– 19’’ Monitors

ScannerVideo BeamDonation of Austrian Ministry of Foreign

Affairs trough World University Service Austria

Tempus Laboratory

3 computers – Fujitsu-Siemens Pentium 4, – 2GHz, – 256Mb RAM, – 40Gb HD,– 17’’ monitors

Printer HPLJ 1200Under construction

Local Area Network

Local connection 1GbInternet connection 1 Mb

Donation of German Ministry of Education and Science through Max Plank Institute für Physik, München

Pilot phase of bigger projects SINYu (Scientific Information Network Yugoslavia) and SINSEE (Scientific Information Network South Eastern Europe)

Nonmathematical Departments

Informatics at user level– Operating system– Word processor– Across tables– Internet

Specialized program packages and data bases for appropriate subject (Example: Chemistry – program or drawing structural formulas)

Statistical data processing

Department of Mathematics

Teaching majors

Theoretical Mathematics and Applications

Informatics (Computer Science)Educational Mathematics and

InformaticsMathematical Economics

Theoretical Mathematics and Applications

Theoretical fundaments in the major mathematical disciplines and a detailed training in broad applications of mathematical methods in practice and other branches of science

2 courses in area of informatics, giving knowledge in programming fundaments

Possible 1 elective course, giving knowledge in advanced programming or information technologies

Theoretical Mathematics and Applications

Number of courses which have, or plan to introduce part of education in computer laboratory– Descriptive Geometry– Numerical Analysis II (Numerical Solution of

Differential Equations)– Statistical Data Processing– Probability Theory– Differential Geometry– Stochastical modeling, etc.

Informatics (Computer Science)

Provides theoretical and practical knowledge needed to design and operate mathematical software, computer systems, system software, database systems...

14 courses in narrower area of Informatics, giving knowledge in– Programming fundamentals, programming

languages– Algorithm design and analysis, computability

Informatics (Computer Science)

– Architecture and organization, operating systems

– Data Structure, Database Systems– Computer Graphics and Visualization– Computing methodologies (modeling and

simulation, numerical, symbolic and algebraic computing, parallel computing, optimization etc.)

Seminar worksDesign and simulation of mathematical

processes as part of education in mathematical courses

Educational Mathematics and Informatics

Focused on pedagogical, psychological and methodical training needed for a career in teaching of mathematics and informatics

7 courses in area of Informatics, covering– Programming fundamentals, programming

languages– Data Structure, Database Systems– Application software, especially software packages

included in primary and secondary school curricula– Information technologies and their application in

education– Didactics of Informatics, etc.

Mathematical Economics

Provides broad instruction in mathematics and information technologies directly applicable in economical science.

8 course in area of Informatics, covering– Programming fundamentals, programming

languages– Data Structure, Database Systems– Business software, e-commerce– Other software packages– Security systems and cryptography, etc.

Problems

Lack of classrooms, faculty building is still under reconstruction (New CL was in other building)

Lack of teaching staff, both teachers and teaching assistants

Better organization of exams (big number of students)

Software

Plans

Continuation of reconstructing the faculty building

Constructing the Tempus laboratory

SoftwareTo continue reconstruction of the

curricula of number of courses

Trend

Very positive trend is willing of the teaching stuff of pure mathematics to reconsider their teaching methods