COSC 10001: Course Schedule¶
Fall 2026 · Wednesdays 9:00–9:50 AM · RJH 333
The shape of the semester¶
| Act | Weeks | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| I: Get set up and get dangerous | 1–5 | Tooling first, so you have the whole semester to build |
| II: The map of CS | 6–13 | One subfield per week, each ending with a hands-on agent moment |
| III: Becoming a computer scientist | 14–16 | Careers, planning, shipping |
Act I: Get set up and get dangerous¶
🤖 Meet Karel¶
Weeks 2 through 5 share one running example: Karel the Robot, a robot in a grid who understands four commands. You write your first Karel program in Week 2, put it under version control in Week 3, design a harder one properly in Week 4, and hand that problem to an AI agent in Week 5.
This is not a Java course. You're learning Java syntax in Intro to Programming; here we're after the other half: what an algorithm actually is, what "step by step" really demands, and how to break a problem into named pieces.
No prior programming experience needed. Karel has four commands. That's the point. Stanford's free Karel reader is assigned below, and it's also the thing to reread when something in class goes by too fast.
| Week | Date | Session | Before class | Due & announcements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed, Aug 26 | Welcome to Computer Science. What CS is and isn't, pod assignment, and why you belong here. Slides |
Nothing. Just show up | In class: everyone starts GitHub Student Pack verification. Then: the five things to do in your first week |
| 2 | Wed, Sep 2 | Your First Program: Karel. What an algorithm is, your first Karel program, and a first look at the shapes you'll meet in every language: naming a sequence, repeating one, and choosing between two Slides |
Two things only: install IntelliJ IDEA, then open karel-starter in it. IntelliJ + Karel walks through both, and IntelliJ installs Java for youRead chapters 1–2 of the Karel reader |
No terminal setup needed this week. No class time for installs either: in class we fix what broke, pods debug together, mentors float, nobody leaves broken Read after class: Karel reader chapters 3 and 5–7, which cover the methods, loops, and conditionals we went through Stuck? How to Ask for Help |
| 3 | Wed, Sep 9 | Your Terminal, Git & GitHub. The shell, then live: we break Karel on purpose and undo it in one command. Your project becomes a real repository | Terminal setup: Windows · macOS A Karel program that runs A GitHub account you can log into |
📅 This Week in CS dates assigned today, see What to Read. Pod activity: the README icebreaker |
| 4 | Wed, Sep 16 | Top-Down Design. Karel doubles a pile of beepers without being told how many there are. No AI today, on purpose | Your Karel repo pushed to GitHub | 🚀 Ship-It project announced today. You have eleven weeks |
| 5 | Wed, Sep 23 | Agentic Coding: Delegation and Verification. The most important session of the semester. We hand an agent last week's problem, and you already know the answer | Copilot CLI working in your terminal A second agent to compare it against: Codex CLI |
Last Karel session. All four weeks hand in as Build Checkpoint 1 |
Act II: The map of CS¶
Each session here closes with ten minutes of "now do it with your agent", a small hands-on task in that week's subfield. Week 6 is the exception: it's a panel, no laptops. Three students also open every session with This Week in CS, starting in Week 4.
| Week | Date | Session | Before class | Due & announcements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Wed, Sep 30 | 👥 Thriving in College. Student panel, no laptops. Three upperclassmen, and you ask the questions | Bring a question. Anonymous is fine | The written version, with deadlines, is Opportunities 📌 Professional Foundations due |
| 7 | Wed, Oct 7 | Networks & the Internet. What happens when you hit Enter on a URL | 📌 Build Checkpoint 1 due: your Karel repository, your own world, and NOTES.md |
|
| 8 | Wed, Oct 14 | 🎤 Cybersecurity & Digital Risk. Threat models, and a live phishing teardown of real messages. Industry guest | ||
| 9 | Wed, Oct 21 | How Computers Actually Work. Memory, processes, and the rest of the story behind command not found |
📌 Peer Mentor Meeting due · CS Engagement 2 of 3 due | |
| 10 | Wed, Oct 28 | 🎤 AI, ML & LLMs From the Inside. What's actually in the tool you've driven for six weeks, and why it hallucinates. Industry guest | ||
| 11 | Wed, Nov 4 | Data & Databases. Tables, queries, scale, and who the data belongs to | ||
| 12 | Wed, Nov 11 | Open Source & Your First Pull Request. You open one in class, against a practice site built for this, and watch it merged and live before you leave | Your pull request counts as participation 📌 Build Checkpoint 2 assigned, due Mon, Nov 23: clone a real open-source project, have your agent explain it, get it running. If it won't run, document what you tried and that earns full credit |
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| 13 | Wed, Nov 18 | 🎤 Faculty Research Lightning Talks. Five faculty × six minutes each, tightly timed | Bring questions. This is how undergraduate research positions get filled | 📌 CS Engagement: all 3 due |
Act III: Becoming a computer scientist¶
| Week | Date | Session | Before class | Due & announcements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Wed, Nov 25 | No class. Thanksgiving | ||
| 15 | Wed, Dec 2 | 🎤 Careers, Internships & Résumés. TCU Career Center plus an alum, then a working session on your Four-Year Plan | Placed here because internship applications open over winter break. See also Opportunities 📌 Ship-It due Sun, Dec 6, 11:59 PM |
|
| 16 | Wed, Dec 9 | 🚀 Ship-It Demo Day. Last class. Science fair, two rotations: everyone demos, nobody presents to thirty people | Your project, running. What the demo has to cover | Demo in class |
| Mon, Dec 14 | No class meeting. Nothing to show up for | 📌 Four-Year CS Development Plan due 11:59 PM: one to two pages, uploaded to TCU Online |
All deadlines¶
Every assignment name below links to its full spec. Which AI rules apply to each one is a separate table: Green, Yellow, Red, assignment by assignment.
| Due | Assignment | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Wed, Sep 30 | Professional Foundations: Pack, GitHub, LinkedIn, résumé, repo, profile README | 10% |
| Wed, Oct 7 | Build Checkpoint 1: Karel repository, your own world, NOTES.md |
5% |
| Wed, Oct 21 | Peer Mentor Meeting + 250-word reflection | 10% |
| Wed, Oct 21 | CS Engagement: 2 of 3 complete | n/a |
| Wed, Nov 18 | CS Engagement: all 3 complete | 15% |
| Mon, Nov 23 | Build Checkpoint 2: read somebody else's code, run it or log the attempt | 5% |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Ship-It Project: artifact, README.md, AI-NOTES.md |
20% |
| Wed, Dec 9 | Ship-It demo (in class) | (included above) |
| Mon, Dec 14 | Four-Year CS Development Plan: one to two pages, written | 15% |
| Your assigned week, Sep 16 – Nov 18 | This Week in CS: one slide, 90 seconds | (participation) |
| Ongoing | Attendance & Participation, incl. your This Week in CS slot | 20% |