Computational Thinking: A Perspective on Computer Science

Zhiwei Xu received his PhD from the University of Southern California (1987) and is a Professor at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. He is also a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).  His main research areas include computer architecture and distributed systems. He has led over a dozen priority research projects in parallel and distributed computing. He has over 30 years of experience teaching  undergraduate and graduate courses in computer architecture, computer organization, digital logic, distributed systems, introduction to computer science, and parallel processing.Jialin Zhang received her PhD from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (2010) and is a professor at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. She is also a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).  Her main research areas include theoretical computer science and quantum computation. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in introductory computer science, design and analysis of algorithms, and advanced algorithms.

“The book companion website includes the course’s lecture and project slides as well as Go source code. … Xu and Zhang validate the view that it is indeed more concerned with … CS instruction itself and provides an effective framework for teaching the subject from introductory to advanced courses. Thus they agree with other notable CT researchers and practitioners, such as Denning and Tedre [1], and their textbook is a most valuable contribution to CS education.” (Harry J. Foxwell, Computing Reviews, October 12, 2022)“The book has a companion website from which readers can pull down over 200 MB of zip files with lecture notes, lab notes … and project notes. This is a puzzling book in some respects. On the one hand itcovers basic concepts and terminology for the beginning student, yet on the other hand plunges into sophisticated topics without drawing a breadth. Likewise, it claims that programing experience is not a prerequisite … .” (Anthony J. Duben, Computing Reviews, August 30, 2022)“The most preeminent characteristic of this book is its ‘thinking’-perspective, which the reader may or may not like, and which perhaps leads to a suboptimal arrangements of topics. … the material presented is impressive, and at least the fundamentals are covered in great detail.” (Dieter Riebesehl, zbMATH 1490.68001, 2022)

• 1 Overview of Computer Science.-2 Processes of Digital Symbol Manipulation.- 3 Logic Thinking.- 4 Algorithmic Thinking.- 5 Systems Thinking.- 6 Network Thinking.- 7 Projects.- 8 Appendices.