People:

Instructor: Prof.
Viera Proulx (Office Hours (222 Egan): WTh 8:00 - 9:00 am) ,

Teaching Assistant: Aleks Portnova

Tutors: Andrea Mutz-Mercier, Chis Burns

Everyone on the course staff is available for consultations to every student.

For the Teaching Assistant and the Tutors, the office hours are listed on a separate office hours page. Please consult this page for finding help.

Class:

Lectures: The course has one lecture section:

Section	Location	Professor
MoTuTh 1:35pm	SH 325	Proulx

You must rattend this section on a regular basis.

Labs: The course also has lab sections. The labs start on Tuesday, April 1. You must sign up for a lab section during your first lecture, and you must make an effort to attend this lab section on a weekly basis. The purpose of labs is to give you some hands-on experience with the actual tools, and to explain some of the principles from lecture with hands-on examples.

Computing Environment: You will do your assignments in Java 1.4, using the JPT library developed at Northeastern University. Some assignments will require the use of additional Java classes that will be available to you. The programming environment in the labs will be the Metrowerks CodeWarrior, but you can run your project under the Unix, Linux, or MacOS system as well. You may install the appropriate system on your computer at home and work there.

Assignments: There will be a problem set each week. The problem sets consist of several problems, drawn from the supplementary Web page. We will drop the worst homework grade from consideration for the final grade. You may therefore choose to skip one homework set; we'll just assign a zero (0) for this homework.

Due Date: Paper copies of your homeworks are due on Monday at 12:00pm (noon) in class. Electronic copies must be submitted via Blackboard (see below) by Monday at 12:00pm (noon).

Getting Credit for Assignments: There will be a simple quiz each week, graded only on a pass/fail basis. The goal of the quiz is to determine that you have worked on the homework set and understand the basic concepts in this problem set. You must pass the quiz to get the credit for the corresponding homework.

Pair Programming: You must work on your homework problems in pairs. Please introduce yourself to others in class and find a homework partner as soon as possible.

Pair programming means that you and your partner study the problem sets individually and possibly even sketch out solutions. Then you meet and jointly develop solutions to each problem. One of you--the driver--types, and the other one--the co-pilot--looks over the driver's shoulders. When something isn't clear, it is the co-driver's responsibility to question the approach. You must switch roles during such a problem solving session. Every partner must be able to solve every homework problem in the end.

Warning: You must be able to solve every homework problem on your own.

Are you sure you have read the warning?

You are free to collaborate at will with others on the problem sets. If you do so, you must acknowledge all collaborators on your cover page. Failure to do so may result in reductions of your homework grade.

Exams: We will have two three hour exams to assess your progress. The exams will take place on April 22, 6-9pm, and on May 20, 6-9pm. The exams will take place in rooms TBA

The exams will test material similar to that assigned in weekly homeworks. You will take the exams by yourself. Collaboration is not tolerated. If you make sure that you can do every the homework problem on your own, the exams will be easy. If not, you will probably have a difficult time with the exams.

Grades: You will get a grade for your homework and a grade for your exams. Both must be passing grades; otherwise you cannot pass the course. For the final grade, we will assign a weight of 35% to the homework grade and a weight of 60% to the two exams. The remaining 5% are up to the instructors' whim.