Introduction To Computer Science

Instructor: Chris Fischer
E-mail: cfischer@cis.udel.edu
Office hours: Before Class and by Appointment
Web: http://www.cis.udel.edu/~cfischer/

Teaching Assistant: Xiaolin Yang
E-mail: xiaolin@udel.edu
Office:
Office hours:

Grades

You can also expect that I will provide you a LOT of resources to succeed in this course. I will provide as many outside references and sample code as I can. I will also make myself available for questions as much as possible. If possible, reach me by email, during the week. I will usually get back to you very quickly. However, I do have two rules.

1. I am not here to debug your programs. That is a part of the assignment. Do not email me your program saying "It doesn't work, what's wrong?". This does not mean I'm not going to help you, I will, but ask specific questions, not "what's wrong with this".
2. I get very unsympathetic to questions the night before/day of/after the project due date. They should really be done by then.  I also am unsympthetic towards people that email questions but don't come to class.

Other important points:
You are strongly encouraged to come to class. While I will put some material up on the web, it will be hard to do well in this course without coming to class. Reading the relevant chapters ahead of time is also a good idea. Last semesters class convinced me to post the Powerpoints ahead of time. I'll do that again, but only if people show up regularly for class.

Special Rule: Your final grade cannot be more than one letter grade higher than your exam average. This ensures that your final grade reflects your mastery of the basic concepts of the course.

Lab/Project submission: All Labs must be submitted to the TA, either in person on in their mailbox. All Projects must be personally handed to the TA - if you place it in their mailbox, you will receive a zero on it.

Homework Submission: Homeworks should be submitted to me. If the homework involves a programming assignment, it has to be done on a computer, with appropriate test runs.
All papers MUST be stapled. Unstapled papers will lose 10 points.

Coding conventions: I will go over coding conventions in the second or third lecture. Your code should generally follow it, or you will lose points. Code that can't be followed clearly by other people is far less useful (more on this later.)

Lateness: Assignments are due by the end of class on the date they are due. After that, they lose 5%/day, up to a maximum of 7 days late. Labs can be turned into my or the TA's mailbox, with the DATE and TIME of submission clearly marked on it. Any paper that doesn't have the date and time clearly marked on it on the first page (Either circled, if the printout shows a timestamp, or otherwise written) will lose 10 points.

Academic Dishonesty: DO YOUR OWN WORK. You as specifically NOT permitted to discuss solutions to problems with other students or share code.

I haven't been out of school long enough to forget how rampant cheating is. So before you think about sharing solutions, know this much going in.

1. I am a professional Software Engineer - I stare at code all day long. I've also TA'ed this course 3 times, and this is my 5th time teaching it. So if anyone can spot copied code/cheating, it's p6obably me.
2. The tests will have a large amount of the material that comes straight from the homeworks/projects. This will make them fairly easy for students who have completed and understood the projects on their own, and very difficult for those that haven't.

Grading Policies: I'm going to grade on the standard curve (>93=A, >90=A-, >87 B+, etc.). This is guaranteed. Depending on class performance or other factors, I might adjust this scale down (to help everyone) I will never adjust it up.
Also, all your grades will be posted online (via a code name) so that you always know exactly where you are throughout the semester. Please check online and make sure all your grades are correct.

Your grade for the semester will be based on:

Tests:		50% of final grade
Projects:		25% of final grade
Labs + Homeworks		25% of final grade

Class participation can positively affect a borderline grade. 

Textbooks

Schedule

Resources