Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time.

Computers are part of our everyday lives. You are likely reading this assignment on a computer screen right now; you may have a smart phone sitting on your desk, and maybe you just came back from a business trip during which you made airline and hotel reservations online. Over the last several years, you may have noticed that computers are able to store more information and process that information more quickly. New research into the electron spin of atoms hints at a new computer revolution in the near future.

Assignment

For this project, you will be exploring the developments in material science that have allowed computers to become so fast. To do so, please address the following in 3–4 pages, not including title and reference pages:

• What are the 3 essential properties of every material?
• New materials often lead to new technologies that change society. Describe how silicon-based semiconductors revolutionized computing.
• What are microchips? How are they related to integrated circuits?
• One the pressing questions about the increasing ability of computers to quickly process large amounts of information is whether a computer can be built that is considered “alive” or “conscious.” What is artificial intelligence? What are 2 essential differences between human brains and the central processing unit of a computer?