CS 500

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CS 500 Fundamentals of Programming is taken by CS MS students during their first term in the MS program. The main outcomes of the course are proficiency in C programming and data structures and algorithms.

It is assumed that students starting the course have passed the CS MS admissions process (see Graduate Admissions Interview, in particular those taking the course should be proficient in some programming language). Those who are looking for an introductory programming course should consider CS 510 instead.

This page contains the syllabus for CS 500 for the most recent offering (spring 2024).

General Information

Course website - https://cs.indstate.edu/wiki/index.php/CS_500

Your Instructor

Jeff Kinne, jkinne@cs.indstate.edu
Office: Root Hall A-142 and in Microsoft Teams, phone 812-237-2126
Instructor Office Hours: M 12-2:30pm; TR 9:30am-2:30pm; WF 2-2:30pm
Meeting: https://cs.indstate.edu/jkinne-meeting

Lecture, Exam

Lecture: MWF 11-11:50am, in Root Hall A-019 and over Zoom (link in Canvas, see below), and recorded
Mid-term exam: TBA
Final exam: Friday May 10, 10am-noon

Prerequisites - admission to the CS MS program or approval of instructor, should be a competent programmer in some programming language. See section below on CS 500 versus CS 510 for helping to decide if you are ready to take this course, and you can contact the instructor as well.

CRN numbers - 11148 for the 001 face to face section, 11636 for the 301 online section

Required text We will use the following free online sources.


Class notes - Notes during class will mostly be kept in the documents in this OneDrive folder. Note that you will need to authenticate with your ISU account to view the notebook. Programs that we develop during lecture will be available on the CS server here: https://cs.indstate.edu/~cs500/. If you are logged into one of the CS systems in a terminal, you can get to these files by doing: cd ~cs500/public_html/.

Announcements/Assignments/Quizzes

HW and Labs These are posted in Canvas. HWs are normally due 1 week after being assigned. Labs are normally due two days after assigned.

Quizzes Will normally be taken at the end of class on Fridays in Canvas. Practice quizzes will be here - https://indstate.instructure.com/courses/12565/quizzes

Announcements Announcements will normally be posted to the course in Canvas.

Course Description and Content

Course Description

The catalog description for this course is: "Review of undergraduate topics in Computer Science including Data Structures, Computer Architecture, and Computer Organization. Review of a computer programming language that students can expect to use in advanced courses." The two main goals are that you leave the course as proficient C programmers and proficient at using and analyzing the most important data structures and algorithms.

Course Outline

  • Getting started - system setup, git, linux, bash, make, apache, math background, development on your personal computer.
  • C programming basics - operators, reserved words, data types, base systems, overflow.
  • C programming strings - manipulation of C strings.
  • C programming memory management - different types of memory in C, how to use them, pros and cons.
  • C programming style - good programming style for reliability, readability, extensibility, security.
  • Data structures - understanding/use of most important data structures - arrays, linked lists, skip list, binary search trees, red black trees, hash tables, heaps, B tree. Implementation of some of these in C.
  • Algorithms - understanding/use of basic algorithms - sorting (various), binary/linear search (and uses), graph algorithms (basic properties, BFS, DFS, MST, shortest path), strings (edit distance) - including some algorithms that are each of - greedy, dynamic programming, heuristic, randomized, brute force / backtracking.
  • Vocab - additional terms, algorithms, concepts at a shallow level.

Learning Outcomes

  • System setup - personal computer setup for both remote (connecting to CS server with terminal, sftp, X windows) and local development (editor, compiler).
  • Git - basic use of git for source code management.
  • Linux - proficient using the Linux terminal for development.
  • Bash - basic use of bash scripts for testing code.
  • Make - basic use of GNU make for compiling code.
  • Apache - able to post content to your CS accounts to be viewable over the web.
  • Math background - proficient in math background needed for data structures and algorithms.
  • Personal computer - is setup for development so you can do coursework from your home computer as well.
  • C programming - understanding of all language features, proficient in writing code using the most common, write code using good programming style.
  • Data structures - understanding of operations, efficiency, use cases, can write code in C for data structure operations.
  • Algorithms - understanding of basic algorithms, arguments for correctness and efficiency, can use the right algorithms to solve problems efficiently.

Course Policies, Grading

See Jeff Kinne Course Policies for course policies and how your overall letter grade will be determined.

Prerequisite, CS 500 versus CS 510

The prerequisite for CS 500 is admission to the CS MS program or permission of instructor. You should be a competent programmer in some programming language and have studied data structures and algorithms as a part of some course in the past. If your background in programming and CS is too weak, you should start in CS 510 Intro to Programming and Computer Science rather than CS 500. Also note that CS 500 uses the C programming language, while CS 510 uses the python programming language. CS 510 is meant for those with little or no background in CS, and for those outside of CS wanting to take a CS course. CS 510 is also meant to help students with a weak CS background get ready to pass the CS MS admissions interview and to prepare for CS 500.

You can check the CS MS admissions programming quiz to gauge your programming level - https://indstate.instructure.com/courses/12565/quizzes/238564 If those questions are not relatively easy for you, then you should start with CS 510 rather than CS 500.

Assignments

Start Assignments and Quiz Studying Early - I suggest attempting an assignment the day it is given, or the day after, so that if you have a problem you can ask early. If you continue to have problems in trying to complete the assignment, you will have time to ask again. Many of the assignments require thought and problem solving, which takes "time on the calendar" not just "time on the clock". By that I mean that spending an hour on 3 consecutive days is likely to be more productive than trying to spend 3 hours at once on the assignment.

Expected Amount of Work - My expectation is that an average student will spend about 5-10 hours OUTSIDE of class each week (that is in addition to class time or viewing lecture videos) 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 will spend more.

This is the foundation for the rest of CS, so it definitely pays off to do your best here.

Note - please find a way to spend enough time on this class (the investment will pay off in terms of skills, being able to get a job, etc.).

Grade Meanings

Letter grades in this course are intended to have the following rough meaning.

  • A+/A: You understand everything and probably could teach the course yourself.
  • B+/A-: You understand nearly everything, and should be all set to use this knowledge in other courses or in a job.
  • C/C+/B-/B: Some things you understand very well and others you don't (more towards the former for a B and more towards the latter for a C).
  • D-/D+/C-: You did put some effort in, and understand many things at a high level, but you haven't mastered the details well enough to be able to use this knowledge in the future. Note that the lowest grade for grad courses is a C, so if you fall in the range below C then your letter grade will be an F.
  • F: Normally, students that get an F simply stopped doing the required work at some point.

The default assignment of letter grades will initially be the usual one (90 is an A-, 80 is a B-, etc.), but these cutoffs will be adjusted down (in your favor). I will adjust these cutoffs and let you know where you stand periodically throughout the term.

CS-Specific Items

This section contains items that are generally the same for all CS courses (and in particular those taught by this instructor).

Lab Help

We have a few lab assistants who are available to help students in beginning computer science courses. Please see https://cs.indstate.edu/wiki/index.php/Unix_Lab_and_Help for details. The lab hours are in a calendar on the CS homepage, at http://cs.indstate.edu/info/index.php#lab_hours. You can join the lab when working on your programs. You can ask the lab assistants to look at your programs, and you can work with any other CS students that are there (you could use the lab as a regular meeting place to work with your classmates).

Course Announcements

Announcements regarding the course will be made both during class and in Canvas. You should make sure your settings are such that you will be notified of these announcements (e.g., by email). You should regularly check your ISU email account or have it forwarded to an account that you check regularly. You can set the account to forward by logging into your indstate.edu email online (if you aren't able to find the option, try a different browser or search online for things like - outlook online forward email setting).

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. You may use your computer during class if you are using it to follow along with the examples that are being discussed. You should avoid spending time on email, Facebook, work on other courses, etc. during the lecture for this class (be fully present wherever you are, make the most of each experience).

Academic Integrity

See also Jeff Kinne Course Policies for additional information for more specifics about how I am handling these things for this course.

Please follow these guidelines to avoid problems with academic misconduct in this course:

Homework: You may discuss the homework assignments, but should solve and finish them on your own. To make sure you are not violating this, if you discuss with someone, you should DESTROY any work or evidence of the discussion, go your separate ways, SPEND at least an hour doing something completely unrelated to the assignment, and then you should be able to RECREATE the program/solution on your own, then turn that in. If you cannot recreate the solution on your own, then it is not your work, and you should not turn it in.

Note on sources: if you use some other source, the web or whatever, you better cite it! Not doing so is plagiarism.

Exams: This should be clear no cheating during exams. Each instructor has different rules for what is allowed on exams in terms of notes, etc. If not noted otherwise, you should assume that a quiz or exam is closed notes, no computer, no calculator.

Projects: 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 code from the Internet, 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 may receive an F for the course), 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 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 http://www.indstate.edu/sjp/docs/code.pdf and http://www.indstate.edu/academicintegrity/ for more information.

Please ask the instructor if you have doubts about what is considered cheating in this course.

Office hours (using Teams)

You can contact me by email or Teams or come to my office during the hours I am normally there. If you want to be sure I am there you can sign up for an appointment. Note that I normally am available for online meetings MTWR 8-10pm as well. If you would like to meet in person you should reserve an appointment using http://cs.indstate.edu/jkinne-meeting to reserve an in person meeting with Jeff Kinne. I am normally in my office during my listed office hours, but by making an appointment you can be more certain.

Canvas

The course has a canvas site. Click https://indstate.instructure.com/ to go to canvas. You should see this course listed under your courses for the current term. If you don't you may need to click on the Courses icon and then click the "All courses" link. The canvas site is used for giving you your grades, for quizzes/exams, for getting to online lectures (which are done using Zoom), and for posting announcements. Links and such will be kept on this website.

Lectures (using Zoom)

Here at ISU section numbers starting with the number 3 (e.g.3xx: 301, 302, etc.) are generally online sections. There are 2 types of online sections, synchronous online and asynchronous online. Sections that are synchronous should be joined at the regularly scheduled time of the course, whereas sections that are asynchronous generally keep up with the material independently without regularly scheduled meetings. In general async sections are more difficult to stay on top of, and require a great deal of self-discipline (it is much easier to think "I can watch the videos tomorrow" and just get behind). So if you are in one of these sections make sure you get off to a strong start, and ask for help sooner rather than later. If you are in an online section, check your course schedule for course meeting times; if you have a meeting time, then your section is synchronous, otherwise it is asynchronous (or there is an error in the system).

This course has a 301 section (synchronous online) and 001 section (face to face). Students in either section can participate in whatever way you need to.

For ISU's links to information on getting started with Zoom, see https://indstate.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1851/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=107534. You can also see the information linked at https://www.indstate.edu/services/student-success/cfss. You will get to the lectures for this course by going to Canvas, select this course, click Modules on the menu on the left, and click on the Zoom module. Once there you should see a schedule of lectures and be able to view recorded lectures. Note that you should install the Zoom application for your computer, and you will need to be logged into to Zoom with your ISU credentials to be able to connect. Also note that the lectures are recorded and only available to those in our class. Recorded lectures normally appear later the same day as the lecture.

Note that if you have not used Zoom with your ISU account previously, you need to go to https://indstate-edu.zoom.us and login with your ISU email address and password to get it setup.

Participating online

If you are participating online, please see the information at https://www.indstate.edu/services/student-success/cfss about participating in online courses. You are expected to either join lectures live through Zoom or watch the recordings once they are available. You will complete assignments, quizzes, and exams on the same schedule as the rest of the class.

For quizzes, I will try to find a time each week that works for everyone to take the quizzes at the same time. The mid-term will be scheduled when it gets closer.

For attendance when you are not in the room... If joining by zoom, you need to post a comment in the chat to say if you have any questions about the current assignments, reading, the last lecture, etc. If watching the lecture later, you need to watch it before the next lecture and send me a message by Teams or email saying if you have any questions or want any more examples about a particular topic. So, if not in the room, you should participate at least as much as "no questions from me right now" to get credit for attendance. Also, if joining by zoom, please set a profile picture so that I will see a picture of you in the list of zoom participants (like mine); or leave your video on - in either case, so I can associate a face with the name; if you have a good reason to not do either of these let me know.

ISU Required Syllabus Items

The items in this section are required and are the same for every ISU course.

Special Needs / Disability Services

Standard ISU language required in all syllabi...

Indiana State University recognizes that students with disabilities may have special needs that must be met to give them equal access to college programs and facilities. If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, please contact us as soon as possible in a confidential setting either after class or in my office. All conversations regarding your disability will be kept in strict confidence. Indiana State University's Student Support Services (SSS) office coordinates services for students with disabilities: documentation of a disability needs to be on file in that office before any accommodations can be provided. Student Support Services is located on the lower level of Normal Hall in the Center for Student Success and can be contacted at 812-237-2700, or you can visit the ISU website under A-Z, Disability Student Services and submit a Contact Form. Appointments to discuss accommodations with SSS staff members are encouraged.

Once a faculty member is notified by Student Support Services that a student is qualified to receive academic accommodations, a faculty member is obligated to provide or allow a reasonable classroom accommodation under ADA.

Non-Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct

Standard ISU language required in all syllabi...

Indiana State University is committed to inclusive excellence. To further this goal, the university does not tolerate discrimination in its programs or activities on the basis of: race, color, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 in particular prohibits discrimination based on sex in any educational institution that receives federal funding. This includes sexual violence, sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. If you witness or experience any form of the above discrimination, you are asked to report the incident immediately to Public Safety: 812-237-5555 or to The Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX: 812-237-8954. With respect to sexual discrimination, instructors, faculty, and some staff are required by law and institutional policy to report what you share with them to The Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX. You do, however, have the option of sharing your information with the following confidential resources on campus:

  • Student Counseling Center: 812-237-3939; Gillum Hall, 2nd Floor
  • Victim Advocate: 812-237-3849 or 812-243-7272 (cell); HMSU 8th Floor

For more information about discrimination and the support resources available to you visit the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX website. Please direct any questions or concerns to: Title IX Coordinator; 812-237-8954; Rankin Hall 426; ISU-equalopportunity-titleix@indstate.edu.

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