Syllabus
[Note: this webpage last modified Wednesday, 24-Jul-2013 09:13:32 EDT]
Table of Contents
General Information
Prerequisite
Announcements
Purpose and Focus of Course
Grading, Assignments, and Expectations
Blackboard
Academic Integrity
Special Needs
Lecture: TR 3:30-4:45, in 209A, University Hall
Final Exam: Tuesday December 10, 3-5pm
Office hours: I am generally in my office and available
most MWF's from about 8:30am-4pm. My official office hours are
Wednesdays 9:30-11:30am. My office is A-129 Root Hall
Instructor: Jeff Kinne
Website:
http://cs.indstate.edu/~jkinne/cs559-f2013/ (or
search for Jeff Kinne on google, bing, yahoo, etc.
and find a link to the course website from my personal webpage)
Required text: The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition by Kernighan and Ritchie. For C/C++ programming, you can also look at How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, C++ Version by Allen Downey.
You must be a graduate student to take this course.
Announcements regarding the course will be made both during class and via email to your @indstate.edu email address. You should regularly check this email account or have it forwarded to an account that you check regularly.
CS 559 is normally taken by computer science graduate students during their first semester. We review some basic concepts and algorithms, with an emphasis on C programming. The goal is that then all graduate students have a common programming language they are proficient at. You must do well in this class if you are to ultimately succeed in the master's program.
Grading, Assignments, and Expectations
The students of this course have the following responsibilities: read assigned pages of the book before lecture, attend lecture, take exams, complete homework assignments, and complete an end of semester project. The final grade consists of:
Project: 15% of the final grade.
Homeworks: 30% total. There will be a programming assignment most weeks. If you turn in the assignment late, I will grade it so you know how you did, but it will count as a 0. LATE HOMEWORKS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. There also will be periodic quizzes that will be counted as part of the homework grade.
Exams: 45% total. We will have 3 exams. The first exam is worth 10%, second is worth 15%, and final is worth 20%.
Class Attendance/Participation: 10% total. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Half of your attendance/participation score will consist solely of whether you were present when attendance was taken each day - the total number of days present divided by the number of lectures in the semester. The other half of your attendance/participation grade will be assigned at the end of the semester based on how attentive you were in class throughout the semester.
The class attendance grade serves the purpose of giving you credit for coming to class. You benefit from coming to class by seeing me present the new material, getting to ask questions, interacting with your classmates, keeping up on what is going on in the course, etc.
The exams serve as benchmarks of your ability to solve problems relatively quickly and without any help. This helps me assign a grade, and also gives you motivation to pay attention and keep up with the assignments.
The homework assignments are designed to solidify your knowledge and give you practice in writing and programming. Some homework assignments will be problem solving/analysis assignments where you will turn in a document for your solution. Others will be programming assignments where you turn in a program. Other times I may ask that you meet with me outside of class to explain your solutions, and I will grade you based on correctness and clarity of presentation.
The final project will be discussed further after the first few weeks of the semester. You will choose a topic that we have not discussed in class, learn the material, prepare a written document and a program, and present the material.
Expectations. My expectation is that an average student will spend 6-12 hours OUTSIDE of class each week WORKING PRODUCTIVELY/EFFICIENTLY (not just staring at the computer) to complete their coursework for this class. Some students may spend less time than this, and some students may spend more.
Classroom conduct. You may not use cell phones, iPods/music players, etc. during class. You should be civil and respectful to both the instructor and your classmates, and you should arrive to class a few minutes before the scheduled lecture so you are ready for lecture to begin on time. Laptops can be used during class only if you are using them to follow along with the lecture in some productive way. You should NOT be checking email, facebook, etc. during class. You should NOT be doing work for other courses during this class.
Important Note. If you wait until the last minute to begin your homework assignments, you likely will not succeed in this course. It takes "time on the calendar" in addition to "time on the clock" to solve the homework problems. I suggest you look at the problems as soon as possible after they are handed out and work on them for a while. After you have exhausted your efforts, you can set them aside and come back to them in another day or so. Then repeat this process. If you come to office hours and have not worked on the homework problems at all, I can be of little assistance to you. If you come with meaningful questions and have thought about the problems, I will be better able to help you. I will not be available the day before a homework assignment is due. If you wait until the last minute to start the homework, you will be on your own. Working on the homework problems will be much less stressful if you start early!
I STRONGLY encourage you to get off to a good start to the course. It can be difficult to begin the course with a poor grade and end the course with a good grade.
Grade cutoffs
I make no promise ahead of time what the exact cutoff will be in terms of the number of points to achieve an A+, A, A-, etc. These will depend on how the course goes. I will use the guidelines below in assigning letter grades. After the first few weeks, I will include a "letter grade if the semester ended today" in your grades. You can keep track of how you are doing in the course with the grades on the blackboard site for this course.
The following is roughly what I would expect by the end of the semester to earn a particular grade.
A+/A Superior. You have a good understanding of all of the concepts we have covered. You can solve routine problems always. You have clear writing and presentation skills, and are able to clearly communicate your understanding. You are a good programmer and can write programs for any of the algorithms we have covered in class.
A-/B+ Excellent. Similar to superior, but there may have been a few concepts that you did not fully grasp. Or your writing and communication skills could still use work. Or your programming skills may be good but not great.
B/B- Good. You have demonstrated basic understanding of the concepts, and you can often solve problems on your. But just as often, you are not able to solve more complicated problems on your own.
C+/C Adequate. You have demonstrated basic understanding of most concepts, but you routinely are unable to solve problems on your own.
F Failing. You do not even show basic understanding of many of the concepts, or have missed so many assignments/quizzes that a passing grade is not possible.
If you earn below a B+ in this class, you should continue working to improve your programming and analysis skills so you will be ready for the next courses.
The course has a blackboard site. Click here to go to blackboard. You should see CS 559 listed under your courses for the current term. The blackboard site is used only for giving you your grades. All course content, schedule, etc. is kept on the instructor's webpage (which you are currently viewing).
Please follow these guidelines to avoid problems with academic misconduct in this course:
Weekly Homeworks:
Do NOT share electronically. You must type your own solutions. You can discuss the problems with each other, but you may only discuss them. You may not write out solutions together.
You MAY NOT search the Internet, textbooks, etc. for solutions to the problems. The following are the ONLY sources of information that you may use in solving the problems: the textbook and pages linked from the class schedule, wikipedia articles on basic math/probability/etc., and mathematical review material at the following MIT opencourseware page: 6.042J / 18.062J Mathematics for Computer Science, Fall 2005. You may discuss the problems with each other and with myself, but must obey the previous item in doing so.
If you do find the solution in one of these three sources, you should let me know.
You may use NOTHING ELSE that is online or other textbooks.
You MAY NOT copy word-for-word from any source, even those you are allowed to consult. If you feel it is necessary, you should put the quotation in quotes and provide a reference/citation.
Exams: This should be clear - no cheating during exams. The exams will be closed-book, closed-notes, no computer, and no calculator.
Project: You should not copy from the internet or anywhere else. The project should be your own work. It will be fairly obvious to me if you do copy from the internet or elsewhere, and the consequences will be at the least a 0 on the project.
If cheating is observed, you will at the least receive a 0 for the assignment, and I will file a Notification of Academic Integrity Violation Report with Student Judicial Programs, as required by the university's policy on Academic Integrity. A student who is caught cheating twice (whether in a single course or in different courses) is likely to be brought before the All-University Court hearing panel, which can impose sanctions up to and including suspension/expulsion. See the Student Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity Resources for more information.
Please ask the instructor if you have doubts about what is considered cheating in this course.
If you have special needs for the classroom environment, homeworks, or quizzes, please inform the instructor during the first week of classes. If you have any such needs, you should go to the Student Academic Services Center to coordinate this. See Student Academic Services Center - Disabled Student Services for more information.