HB300 Information and Communication Technology (3 ECTS)

• A short overview of the components of a modern computer system and the way they interact will be given. Focus will lie on the central processor unit, storage devices, storage media input and output ports and device drivers in general.
• Next, we describe the role and architecture of mainstream operating systems such as Windows, UNIX and Linux. We list the functions and operations provided by an operating system and learn how to work with common application software systems such as spreadsheet, word processor, graphics software, presentation software and internet browser.
• We then turn to software development procedures: we discuss how to state the requirements of the system to be developed, interface design, algorithm development, flowcharts, and pseudocode. We then turn our attention to a modern programming language (e.g. Python) to be used in developing our software. We define the syntax, data types and structures, control structures, arrays, pointers, functions, and file processing procedures. These tools and procedures will demonstrate how (geographical) data/information can be processed, analysed and visualised in a user-friendly way using open-source software and a bottom-up approach.
• Additionally, the implementation and use of user-defined programming applications in Geographical Information Systems will be demonstrated.
• We also investigate basic networking. We discuss the networking concepts underlying Internet and intranet communications and pay attention to the features, available resources and security issues of the Internet. We also learn how to conduct searches for specialized information using Internet tools.
• The final part of this course is dedicated to basic aspects of database management (e.g. Structural Query Language, pgAdmin...) and relational databases. Geospatial databases are foreseen in the Data Management Course.

• To be able to distinguish the different components of a real-time data acquisition computer system, including different methods of communication and time-tagging.

• To clearly explain the operation of device drives and their relation to data exchange.

• Being able to use spreadsheet, word processing, graphical and presentation software.

• To be able to construct and populate a database and query its content.

• Being able to design pseudocode and write out a program for data conversion.

• To clearly and scientifically explain various types of network communication protocols used in remote data exchange applications.

• Evaluation form

Written examination with open questions and programming exercises.

Assignments – permanent evaluation of the exercises.

• Assessment methodology

The final figure of assessment is composed of:

50% (written examination)

50% (permanent evaluation)

• Assessment criteria

Permanent evaluation is based on two assignments linked to the course contents, one on Pyton programming and the other on SQL queries.

Theory examination: contents covered in the slides as well as in the practicals.