CPS 1, Spring 1999

Course Overview
Instructor
Dr. Dietolf Ramm
dr@cs.duke.edu
660-6532
D226 LSRC
Office Hours: Mon 10:20-, Thu 10:00
 Lectures
B101 LSRC (Auditorium)
1:10 to 2:00 MWF
Lab sessions in 130 North Building
 
Senior TA
Steve Ruby
ruby@cs.duke.edu
Office Hours: TBD
 Head Undergrad TA
____________________________
____________________________
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Summary of office hours and review sessions
 
List of Lab TAs
 
Textbooks
  • Great Ideas in Computer Science by A. Biermann, MIT Press (Note: instructor's manual with answers is on reserve in Perkins
  • OPTIONAL: Programming.Java by R. Decker and S. Hirshfield, PWS

Central Theme
What computers and computer networks are, how they work, what they can do, and what they cannot do, now and in the future.

Course Outline
  1. Computer networking
  2. Computer programming in the language Java
  3. Understanding what a computer is and how it works
  4. Advanced topics
Topics Not Covered
Commercial word processing, operation of commercial software packages, history of computing, sociology of computing, impacts of computers on society.

Who Should Take This Course
This course is designed for students who have little or no experience in computer science and who want a general overview of the field. Little or no mathematical background is required. However, students should be prepared for a rigorous coverage of computing including extensive programming, detailed studies of the internals of the computer, and various advanced topics. Students should be prepared to learn several mathematical notations in the course and to use them extensively.

About the Instructor
Dr. Ramm's home page

This Web Site
This web site includes general information about the course, information about the professor and the TA staff, all of the class handouts (as they become available), all of the lab assignments (as they become available), and current news and announcements.

First Assignment
Read Chapter 11 of Great Ideas in Computer Science (GI)
Read HTML Notes on Web
Labs begin on Thursday, 1/21.

Grading
  Item Approximate Weight
Programs, problems 25%
Programming test (in the last lab. meeting)
10%
Quizzes (every week at the end of the Wednesday lecture)
25%
Exam (Wednesday, October 8)
20%
Final exam (as indicated on the official schedule)
20%


Grading Policies
  1. Each student must write his or her own programs without help from other persons. After a program is typed into a machine, students may help each other to find bugs but not to write new code. Homework problems must be done without help from others.
  2. No make-up exams will be given. If an exam is missed for reasons beyond the student's control, a copy of a Dean's Excuse should be handed in. The final grade will be based on the other scores earned.
  3. The lowest two quizzes will not be counted. No make-up quizzes will be given. If a quiz is missed for an excusable reason, be sure to hand in a written excuse. The quiz average will be based on the quizzes actually taken.
  4. Late homeworks or programs will receive 80% of full credit if they are handed in within seven days of the regular due date. After seven days, no credit will be given except in unusual circumstances.
  5. The grade of I (incomplete) will be administered as specified by University rules. Thus it will not be given to those students who simply did not complete the course on time.
  6. Unethical practices by any student (such as copying on an exam or copying a homework) will be dealt with strictly usually by turning the case over to the Judicial Board. (Special caution: Often two or more versions of the quizzes or exams are given on a given day. If you accidentally see an answer different from yours on another paper, both may be correct. Your neighbor may be taking a different version of the test from you.)
  7. The final exam is not optional and every student will be required to take it at the scheduled time unless a written excuse is presented from the Dean.
  8. Final grades will be assigned approximately on the basis of 90%-100% A, 80%-89% B, and so forth.
  9. Even though you have an average of 100% for all grade categories, you will need to do something extra or special to earn an A+. Otherwise A is the highest grade. Opportunities to do this something extra will be made available from time to time.
Records
Keep copies of all homework assignments, quizzes, labs, and tests until after the end of the course. Occasionally assignments are misplaced and errors are made in grading or recording your grades. You will be expected to have copies of all of your work. Grades will made available on the Web. You will be expected to compare these with your personal copies and notify us of any errors.

Class Schedule