The selected topic for this semester was the electronic computer. I sent a memorandum to Dean Jacoby informing him of my intent and included a copy of the course outline. Both are included here.
The course was centered around a simulation of the working capital requirements of a small business. I remember that the data were provided by my brother-in-law who owned and operated a car wash. It was open 7 days a week and he had daily revenue data for a year as well as weekly and monthly expense data.
We made a model of the car wash with daily revenues generated randomly according to the relative frequencies of his operation, and weekly and monthly expenses that matched his outlays. We then ran the car wash using random numbers to generate the daily revenues.
Note that in the outline section I, E, this was described as playing the "game."
Note also that outline section II, C has an asterisk beside binary numbers because they were a critical part of the learning experience. This number system discussion probably also included octal and hexadecimal number systems although these were not made explicit in the outline.
Section IV refers directly to the SWAC computer and its coding and operation. Some considerable detail is provided about SWAC in another section so that the current reader can compare what students did then to what they do today.
I remember that only four students enrolled in the course. I have no recollection about who they were or whether any of them went into the computing field after graduation. A computer course was not offered again until 1957 when BA 119 Electronic Computers in Business became an established part of the curriculum. (This will be discussed in the section on WDPC.)