Course

Unit 1  

Computer Hardware

What are computers? Its various characteristics, applications, and limitations. Functional block diagram of computer – Components of a computer, digital signals, microprocessors, input/output devices, storage devices etc. 

Unit 2  

Software Systems

Introduction to software – Types of software – Operating systems – Types and various functions and types of operating system – Basic introduction to Linux, Unix operating system – Languages and their types (High level and low-level language.) – Introduction to programming using C language.

Unit 3  

Office Applications  

Word processing, spreadsheet and database applications. Basic operations in word processor like styles, table of contents, inserting objects, references, merging the documents etc. Spreadsheet operations like summing, averaging, graphs and visualizations. Making graphs and plots for scientific data.

Unit 4  

Fundamentals of Modern Networking  

History of Networking, Types of networking, how networks operate, Peer-to-Peer versus Client/Server, network types and topologies, network protocols. 

Unit 5  

Additional Information Systems Concepts  

Introduction to supercomputing and high-performance computing – Multimedia application for biological domain – Introduction HTML and web technology. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

To enable the students to understand the fundamentals of IT and to provide the basic understanding of the internet. The students also would learn the essential applications which are useful for a life scientist.

COURSE OUTCOMES:

After completing the course, students shall be able to

CO1. Students will be understanding different components, signals, microprocessors, input/output devices etc.

CO2. The course enables the students to understand the IT applications in biology.

CO3. On completion of the course students will be able to use Microsoft office tools for their computational requirements as a life science professional.

CO4. They will be knowing the fundamentals of programming, making graphs and plots for scientific data etc. 

CO5. On completion of the course, students should have acquired essential knowledge to meet their computational requirements as a life sciences aspirant.

REFERENCES:

1. Govindarulu, IBM PC and Clones, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2^nd edition 2002.
2. Computer Fundamentals: Concepts, Systems & Applications- 8th Edition, Pradeep K. Sinha, Priti Sinha, BPB Publications; 6th edition, 2004
3. http://www.openoffice.org/documentation/conceptualguide/conceptual_guide_OOo_3_ebook.pdf