Bryn Mawr College
CS 110: Introduction to Computing
Spring 2013
Course Materials
Prof. Deepak Kumar & Prof. Paul Ruvolo

Information
Texts  Important Dates  Assignments  Lectures Course Policies Links

General Information

Instructors:

Deepak Kumar
246-B Park Science Building
526-7485
dkumar at brynmawr dot edu
http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar		 Paul Ruvolo
250 Park Science Building
pruvolo at cs dot brynmawr dot edu

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays , 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Room: Park 338
Lab: Wednesdays 1:30p to 3:30p in Room 231 (additional lab hours will also available, see below)

Laboratories:

Lab Assistants: The following Lab assistants will be available during the week (names and schedules will be posted by the end of this week) for assistance on lab assignments.

  1. Angie Chen (Thursday 4pm-6pm, Saturday 4pm-6pm)
  2. Juliette Kingsberg (Monday / Thursday 6pm-8pm)
  3. Bryce Lewis (Tuesday / Thursday 8:45am-10:45am)
  4. Hanna Organick (Saturday / Sunday 10am-12pm)
  5. Mengjie Pan (Monday / Friday 2pm-4pm)

 

Texts & 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 (This software is already installed in the Computer Science Lab). The software is also available for your own computer from Processing web site (www.processing.org).

 

Syllabus

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 a language called, Processing. 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 blurb 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.

From: Learning Processing, by Daniel shiffman, page ix.

We will cover the entire text during this semester. Please refer to the text for more details.

 

Important Dates

January 22 : First lecture
March 7: Exam 1
May 2: Last lecture/Exam 2

Assignments

  1. Assignment#1: (Due on January 29)
  2. Assignment#2 (Due on February 12)
  3. Assignment#3 (Due on Thursday, February 21)
  4. Assignment#4 (Due on Tuesday, March 4)
  5. Assignment #5 (Due on Tuesday, April 2)
  6. Assignment#6 is posted (Part 1 Due on Thursday, April 11, Part @ on Thursday, April 18) 
  7. Assignment #7 (Due on Tuesday, April 30)

Lectures

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 and supported by your Academic Dean.

Late submissions will receive a penalty of 15% for 0-24 every hours it is past the due date and time (e.g., assignments turned in 25-48 hrs late will receive a penalty of 30%). No assignments will be accepted after two days it is past due.

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:

If you have any questions as to what types of collaborations are allowed, please feel free to ask.

Links

Shiffman text web site

A database of color names

 

Created on January 4, 2013.