Member Avatar for Curious Gorge

So I'm taking a Public Speaking course as part of my CS program, at a community college before I head off to a large university in a year to major in Computer Science. For the first graded speech of the class I must make a speech about a "process". Since I like math, logic, and computers I thought I might do a speech about how an algorithm works. I would assume most of my fellow students don't know much about computers. I need to put this in to lamens terms for them; but right now I need to know of a few algorithms which I could use as an example for the class.

Indeed I've been researching possible algorithms to use as an example; and though I've only had training in programming in High school and now some college; I don't know of all the existing algorithms which exist. So I need your expert help Daniweb!

I require these elements in the given algorithm:

  1. Must have a relevant application to my class in order for it to be interesting and to be able to relate to my fellow students.
  2. Must be somewhat complex; I don't want to spend two minutes up there talking about the repetitive process of computing the factorial of a number. I would probably fail the speech anyway if it were that short.

Please provide a list of even remotely relevant algorithms, I plan to ask the class which application is more interesting and/or relevant to them. I wouldn't want to bore them!

Thank you for your time! :D

Edited by Curious Gorge
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Member Avatar for rubberman

Fibonacci algorithms can be made interesting especially if you discuss some of the history. The algorithm for computing the Fibonacci sequence is simple enough, has tonnes of applications, and has copious examples in nature. Here are two wikipedia articles that may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

FWIW, I found that joining and participating in Toastmasters was extremely helpful in learning how to speak with confidence and clarity in public.

Edited by rubberman
Member Avatar for Curious Gorge

Your replies were helpful but I think I'm just going to change my topic to something about the steps involved in creating a small program. I just don't know if I can fill out 5-6 minutes of time with a discussion of an iterating algorithm. My instructor said the speech must be mostly about the steps in the process, I could discuss some background information in the introduction but I think that would take more time than the body.

Member Avatar for Curious Gorge

Your replies were helpful but I think I'm just going to change my topic to something about the steps involved in creating a small program. I just don't know if I can fill out 5-6 minutes of time with a discussion of an iterating algorithm. My instructor said the speech must be mostly about the steps in the process, I could discuss some background information in the introduction but I think that would take more time than the body.

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