CS 110 - Fall 2012, Section 001
Bryn Mawr College
CS 110: Introduction to Computing
Fall 2012 - Section 001
Syllabus and Schedule
This is a
tentative syllabus and schedule. Topics, reading
assignments, and due dates are subject to change.
All homework assignments are due by the start of class (10:10am)
on the day listed.
General Information
| Co-Instructors: |
Eric Eaton,
Ph.D. and Paul
Ruvolo, Ph.D. |
| E-Mail: |
(This e-mail address reaches both instructors. Be
certain to use this e-mail for course-related topics instead
of our individual e-mails.)
E-mail is the best way to reach us, and we make a
concerted effort to respond to all e-mails within 24 hours
on weekdays and 48 hours on weekends (often, much less!).
|
Office Hours, Eric Eaton:
|
Tuesday/Wednesday 1:30-2:30pm
and by appointment in Park 249
|
Office Hours, Paul Ruvolo:
|
Monday 3-4pm and by
appointment in Park 246-D
|
|
|
| Website: |
http://cs.brynmawr.edu/Courses/cs110/fall2012/section001/ |
Lecture:
|
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10am to 11am |
| Room: |
Park 349 (Lecture) Park 231
& 232 (Hands-On)
|
| Open Lab: |
Park 231 Monday 11am-12:30pm, Tuesday
11:15am-12:45pm, Friday 11am-12:30pm
|
| Teaching Assistants: |
TA
Schedule
|
Course Description: An
introduction to the nature, subject matter and branches of
computer science as an academic discipline, and the nature,
development, coding, testing, documenting and analysis of the
efficiency and limitations of algorithms. Also includes the social
context of computing (risks, liabilities, intellectual property
and infringement).
This semester, we will be exploring the creative aspects of coding
as a context for learning the above concepts. You will exercise
your creativity by desiging programs in the Processing language.
Processing is a new language/environment built upon the
programming language Java. Processing was created by
artists, designers, and computer scientists to explore ideas of
creative coding sing computer algorithms. The passage below
from Shifman's text is an excellent description of what we will be
doing this semester:
This book tells a
story. It’s a story of liberation, of taking the first
steps towards understanding the foundations of computing,
writing your own code, and creating your own media without the
bonds of existing software tools. This story is not
reserved for computer scientists and engineers. This story
is for you.
- Daniel Shiffman, Learning
Processing, page ix
Text & Software
|
|
Learning Processing: A
Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and
Interaction by Daniel Shiffman, Morgan Kaufmann
Publishers, 2008. Available at the Campus Bookstore.
Book Web Site: Here you
will find additional materials.
|
|
Processing Software, version
1.5.1 (http://www.processing.org)
This software is already installed in the Computer Science
Lab.
It is also available for your own computer from Processing
web site listed above.
Be sure to download Version 1.5.1.
|
Course Policies
Communication
Attendance and active participation are
expected in every class. Participation includes asking questions,
contributing answers, proposing ideas, and providing constructive
comments.
As you will discover, we are proponents of two-way communication
and we welcome feedback during the semester about the course. We
are available to answer student questions, listen to concerns, and
talk about any course-related topic (or otherwise!). Come to
office hours! This helps us get to know you. You are welcome to
stop by and chat. There are many more exciting topics to talk
about that we won't have time to cover in-class.
Although computer science work can be intense and solitary, please
stay in touch with us, particularly if you feel stuck on a topic
or project and can't figure out how to proceed. Often a quick
e-mail, phone call or face-to-face conference can reveal solutions
to problems and generate renewed creative and scholarly energy. It
is essential that you begin assignments early, since we will be
covering a variety of challenging topics in this course.
Grading
There will be seven assignments,
weighted equally in the final grading. Assignments must be
submitted according to the Assignment Submission
instructions. You should pay careful attention to the Code Formatting Standards and Grading Policy when doing your
assignments. The grading structure for individual
assignments is broken down in the Grading Policy.
At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated as a
weighted average of all grades according to the following weights:
| Exam 1: |
18% |
| Exam 2: |
22% |
Quizzes:
|
4% (total)
|
| Assignments: |
56% (8% each)
|
| Total: |
100% |
Incomplete grades will be given only for verifiable medical
illness or other such dire circumstances.
All graded work will receive a percentage grade between 0% and
100%. Here is how the percentage grades will map to final
letter grades:
Rounded Percentage
|
Letter grade
|
|
Rounded Percentage |
Letter grade |
97% -100%
|
A+ (4.0)
|
77% - 79% |
C+ (2.3) |
| 93% - 96% |
A (4.0) |
73% - 76% |
C (2.0) |
| 90% - 92% |
A- (3.7) |
70% - 72% |
C- (1.7) |
| 87% - 89% |
B+ (3.3) |
67% - 69% |
D+ (1.3) |
| 83% - 86% |
B (3.0) |
60% - 66% |
D (1.0) |
| 80% - 82% |
B- (2.7) |
0% - 59% |
F (0.0) |
The instructors reserve the right to adjust the percentage ranges
for each letter grade upward in your favor.
Submission and Late Policy
All work must be turned in either in hard-copy or electronic
submission, depending on the instructions given in the
assignment. E-mail submissions, when permitted, should request
a "delivery receipt" to document time and date of submission.
Extensions will be given only in the case of verifiable medical
excuses or other such dire circumstances, if requested in advance.
Late submissions will receive a penalty of 10% for every 0-24 hours
it is past the due date and time (e.g., assignments turned in 25 hrs
late will receive a penalty of 20%). Submissions received more
than one week late will not be accepted.
In addition to submitting your assignment for grading, you are
required to upload your assignment to the course showcase on Open
Processing. Open Processing is a website designed to share
Processing sketches with people all around the world. The
course showcase is beneficial for two reasons: (1) you will be able
to see the interesting things you peers are doing with Processing
and (2) you can show off your own works of art! The course
exhibition is available at: http://www.openprocessing.org/classroom/1972
Quizzes
There will be a number of short open-book/open-notes quizzes
(approximately 4-8) over the semester. They will not be
announced ahead of time, and will be given in the first few
minutes of class (so be on-time!). If you miss a quiz, you
will not be able
to make it up. At the end of the semester, we will drop your
lowest quiz grade.
They will cover material from lectures, homeworks, and assigned
readings (including topics not discussed in class). So, keep
up with those readings!
Exams
There will be two exams in this course. The exams will be
closed-book and closed-notes. As with the quizzes, the exams
will cover material from lectures, homeworks, and assigned
readings (including topics not discussed in class).
Study Groups
We encourage you to discuss the material and work together to
understand it. Here are our thoughts on collaborating with other
students:
- The readings and lecture topics are group work. Please discuss
the readings and associated topics with each other. Work
together to understand the material. We highly recommend forming
a reading group to discuss the material -- we will explore many
ideas and it helps to have multiple people working together to
understand them.
- It is fine to discuss the topics covered in the homeworks, to
discuss approaches to problems, and to sketch out general
solutions. However, you MUST write up the homework answers,
solutions, and programs individually without sharing specific
solutions, mathematical results, program code, etc. If you
made any notes or worked out something on a white board with
another person while you were discussing the homework, you
shouldn't use those notes while writing up your answer.
- Under ABSOLUTELY NO circumstances should you share computer
code with another student. Similarly, you are not
permitted to use or consult code found on the internet for any
of your assignments.
- Exams, of course, must be your own individual work.
If you have any questions as to what types of collaborations are
allowed, please feel free to ask.
Links