Mosaic+ Facilitator-TAs: Dior Williams, Muhiim Ali, Kamryn Walker, Melyssa Cristino, Nicole Sanchez-Soto E-mail: mosaic-plus@brown.edu Web: https://mosaicplus.github.io/ Zoom: https://brown.zoom.us/j/96302913000 GroupMe: https://groupme.com/join_group/95295043/vEwhMr8K Discussion Sessions: Monday-Friday 10am-11am EDT and 4-5pm EDT Office Hours: Monday-Friday 11am-12pm EDT and 5-6pm EDT and as requested ## Course Description The Mosaic+ Transition Program was created to introduce incoming first-year students to Computer Science at Brown. The program is typically broken into two parts: an online portion and an on campus portion. The online portion consists of about 1-2 hours of coursework per weekday. At the end of each week, there will be an online quiz on that week’s material and a survey to provide feedback. we will have both synchronous and asynchronous lectures to teach you more about Brown, Computer Science at Brown, and facilitate community building among your cohort. ## Required Materials The only required material is access to a computer with the Internet. All course notes will be provided through Canvas and are accessible under the "Modules" tab once you click on the course. Synchronous discussions and TA hours will be held via Zoom: https://brown.zoom.us/j/96302913000 ## Prerequisites The only prerequisite is a basic algebra class; we do not assume any familiarity with programming languages, etc. ## Course Objectives 1. Introduce students to Computer Science at Brown, the Mosaic+ community at BrownCS, and the Brown community at large; and 2. Introduce students to important coding and non-coding-related topics in Computer Science ## Course Structure The course is divided into 3 online weeks and 1 in-person, residential week. ## Daily Online Class Structure The primary mode of academic content delivery during the online weeks will be Monday--Friday morning (10am-11am EDT) or afternoon (4pm-5pm EDT) synchronous sessions run through Zoom. Morning and afternoon sessions will have the same content. Students may attend whichever of these fits their schedule best, but should attend and participate every day unless prevented by external circumstances. These synchronous sessions are not only "lectures"! Expect to participate in discussion, collaborative coding exercises, and more. Each session will be followed by open office hours. There will also be community time held at office hours after synchronous sessions (11am-12pm EDT and 5-6pm EDT). We strongly urge all students to complete the coding exercises given during the online weeks. This will help ensure they are prepared for the residential week, which will involve more intensive project work. ## TA hours TA Hours will be available to students. During hours you may ask questions about the content, or anything else! We encourage you to meet TAs and ask questions about life at Brown, CS in general, or anything else you want to talk about! During the online weeks, hours will be held via Zoom. Zoom links for each session and each office hour will be available on Canvas. If the current hours do not work for you, but you would still like to meet for help or to ask questions in general, we encourage you to reach out to the TAs to schedule a meeting or add additional hours. ## Surveys and Feedback Form Every week we will send out a survey asking you about that week's course. The only purpose of this survey is to see how we can improve your online learning experience, or to let us know about any concerns you have. We will also have an anonymous feedback form where you can express any other concerns you may have that are more urgent or don’t fit as well into the weekly survey. [Anonymous Feedback Form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCj2FZW3yroWp_e-Ym31sX9ULj1ktraNye7ArC0m9LyCUnhA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0) ## Residential Session Structure The mornings of the residential session will be split between: a mix of technical lecture and discussion (similar to the online sessions); and working with a partner on a small coding project that extends the ideas previously covered. In the afternoon, we will have info sessions with several CS faculty and other members of the Brown community. This includes, but is not limited to: * Info sessions about different student support centers * Information about preparing for internships * Info sessions on the different CS intro courses with intro course professors We will also have different social events in between and after these events. ## Staff Bios ### TAs **Muhiim Ali ’25** **Pronouns:** She/Her **Email:** muhiim_ali@brown.edu **Intro Courses:** CSCI 0150/CSCI 0200 Hello everyone! My name is Muhiim. I'm from Somaliland,an internationally unrecognized country in East Africa. I'm studying computer science and Math. In my free time, I like to play soccer, go to the gym, watch stand-up comedy, and listen to music. I love listening to female R&B and afrobeats. I'm so excited to meet you all! **Melyssa Cristino '25** **Pronouns:** She/Her **Email:** melyssa_cristino@brown.edu **Intro Courses:** CSCI 0111 Hi everyone! My name is Melyssa and I’m a rising junior from NYC studying Computer Science and Education Studies. In my free time, I like to spend too much time making Spotify playlists, dance, or read! So excited to work with y’all and support your transition into Brown. Feel free to reach out with any questions :) **Dior Williams ’26** **Pronouns:she/her** **Email:** dior_williams@brown.edu **Intro Courses:** CSCI 0170/CSCI 0200 - Concentration: Computer Science and Astronomy - Hometown: Houston, Texas - Hobbies: Video Games and Learning Spanish - Fun Fact: I once directed a Christmas Play **Kamryn Walker ’26** **Pronouns:** She/Her **Email:** kamryn_walker@brown.edu **Intro Courses:** CSCI 0150/ CSCI 0200 Hi! I’m Kam. I’m a rising sophomore from Maryland concentrating in CS. In my free time, I love to read books, explore cities, and dance (shoutout to Fusion Dance Company). I’m so excited to meet everyone and can’t wait to start! Also, fun fact about myself: I’ve been in a Disney parade before :) **Nicole Sanchez-Soto ’26** **Pronouns:** She/Her **Email:** nicole_sanchez-soto@brown.edu **Intro Courses:** CSCI 0150/ CSCI 0200/ CS 0020 Hey! I'm Nicole. :) I'm a rising sophmore from Brooklyn double concentrating in CS and Econ. In my free time, I like to dance (go checkout Impulse Dance Company), go to the gym, listen to podcasts, and wonder off into my own little world lol. I'm very excited to meet all of you and help you get used to life at Brown! Feel free to reach out to me about anything! Fun Fact: I got to film an ad for a big tech company this summer. ### CS department **Faculty Sponsor: Tim Nelson** Pronouns: he/them Email: tim_nelson@brown.edu Good to meet you all! I'm a first-generation college student who attended community college, a commuter-focused state college, the "college" of an industry job, and a STEM university...and now teaches at Brown. Someone who enjoys puns might call this a collage of colleges, although not quite a universe of universities. I think that asking someone how many programming languages they know is like asking a doctor how many diseases they have, but I'm always happy to talk (and learn) about any of them. **Staff Coordinator: Laura Dobler** Pronouns: she/her Email: laura_dobler@brown.edu Hi everyone! Welcome to Brown! I am a staff member in the CS department that supports our diversity, equity and inclusion programs. I don’t have a background in computer science, but I am available if you have any questions about navigating the University and the department’s resources and programs. My job includes supporting students, developing and advocating for inclusive policies, and coordinating our DEI programs and initiatives. I am also pursuing a Masters of Social Work. When I have free time, I enjoy hiking and being in nature, and spending time with friends and family. I look forward to meeting all of you. **Fun fact:** I love to garden, but I’m not very good at it! ### Tentative Professional Development Schedule **Remote Week 1** * Monday - Welcome to Mosaic + Lists * Tuesday - Lists, Loops * Wednesday - Variables, Functions, FileIO Practice * Thursday - Nested lists (>1-dimensional data) and loops * Friday - TBD **Remote Week 2** * Monday - Hashing 1 (Conceptual) * Tuesday - Hashing 2 (Solving collisions, simple implementation) * Wednesday - Sets and Dictionaries * Thursday - Comprehensions * Friday - TBD **Remote Week 3** * Monday - Image Processing I * Tuesday - Image Processing II * Wednesday - Image Processing III * Thursday - Image Processing IV * Friday - TBD **Residential Week** * Monday, 8/21/2023: - Morning: Move-in * Tuesday, 8/22/2023: - Tic-Tac-Toe I - Afternoon: Brown Life Hacks, Campus Tour / Scavenger Hunt * Wednesday, 8/23/2023: - Morning:Tic-Tac-Toe II - Afternoon: Career Resources (Internship preparation, career panel), CS Intro Courses Info Session & CS Advising * Thursday, 8/24/2023: - Morning:Tic-Tac-Toe III - Afternoon: Wellness Resources Please note that this schedule is tentative and subject to change. * Friday 8/25/2022: Field trip to Scarborough State Beach! TWTP and International Orientation start at 5:00PM.