Foundations of Information Systems

Winter Semester 2025/2026

Summary

This class is a first introduction to Computer Science.

Quick Links

• Module on KU.Campus
• Lecture instance on KU.Campus
• Tutorial instance on KU.Campus
• Class in previous years: 2022/23, 2023/24 2024/25
• Exercises
• Lecture notes
• Exams

Supplementary Reading

• D. Tarnoff, Computer Organization and Design Fundamentals, 2007
• B. Forouzan, Foundations of Computer Science, 4th edition, Cengage, 2018

Grading

• Weekly exercise assignments are not to be turned in and graded in this class. However, you are strongly encouraged to work on them before they are discussed in the exercise session on Wednesday
• The grade for this class is determined by one final exam
• There will be a “mock exam” 3-4 weeks before the final exam. Passing the mock exam will add a grade bonus of 1/3 of a grade step to your final grade. Note that the pass/fail decision is not affected by the bonus, and the top grade can be achieved without the bonus.

Topics

Oct 15, 2025

Introduction, Boolean algebra (see notes, Wikipedia article on Boolean algebra)

Oct 21, 2025

Binary logic and logic gates (see notes); example for circuit simplification; flip-flops and latches (see animation of RS latch)

Oct 22, 2025

Discussion of Exercise Sheet 1 - solutions