General
People
Instructor: Viera K. Proulx
Instructor designs and implements this class, leads lectures, creates the labs, assignments, and exams. The instructor is here to teach from life.
Tutors: Michael Ravert, Matthew Clamp, James Klein.
Tutors have, in the past year or two, mastered the material of this course; they teach in labs, hold office hours, grade assignments, and can remember what it’s like to be lost. They are here to gain a deeper understanding by teaching what they know to others.
Office Hours
vkp
WVH322
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Monday
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1:30pm-2:30pm
Wednesday
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2:00pm-3:00pm
Thursday
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2:00pm-3:00pm
Michael Ravert
ravert1
WVH102
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Thursday
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5:00-7:00pm
Matthew Clamp
mclamp
WVH102
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Monday
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6:00-8:00pm
James Klein
kleinjm
WVH102
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Monday
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12:30-2:30pm
Communication
Use CCIS email (@ccs.neu.edu) to reach any of the course staff; usernames are given above.
Lectures are held Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 10:30am-11:35am in 130 Forsyth
Labs are held Thursday in 212 WVH at 11:45am-1:25pm
Policies
Late policy: there is no late policy; solutions to assignments as they exist at the time of the deadline will be graded.
Laptop policy: no laptops in class.
Academic honesty: we will strictly enforce Northeastern’s academic integrity policy. You may discuss problems with other students, but you should not share or show code to anyone other than your assigned partner. Violations of academic integrity will be reported to OSCCR and will have a negative impact on your grade.
Computing Environment
You will complete your assignments (other than the first one) using the Eclipse IDE. Though, if you feel more comfortable, you may choose to use another IDE (e.g. NetBeans) or work directly from the command line, but you and your partner must both be comfortable with the chosen programming environment, and the staff may not be able to assist you with issues encountered in other environments.
You will use Web-CAT to work on your homework sets, to keep track of revisions, and to submit your homework.
Assignments
There will be one problem set each week, comprised of two parts: practice problems and pair-programming problems.
The practice problems will be a series of practice problems that every student must be able to solve. You should work out these problems on your own, and keep your solutions as an electronic portfolio. You may ask the instructor to give an informal review your portfolio at any time, but there will be a formal review at least once during the semester.
In the pair-programming problems you and your partner will apply the concepts from lectures and labs. The problems will consist of structured programming assignments that may be based on the work done in previous weeks, and may also include more creative projects where you can practice your design skills.
Due Date: Thursday at midnight, unless otherwise specified. We will not accept late homework.
Pair Programming
You must work on your problem sets in pairs. We will assign you a partner. Every few weeks, you will get a new partner.
Important With each assignment you must turn in a log/calendar documenting the times you and your partner met and worked together and when you plan to meet next. If the planned meeting does not happen, write down an explanation. Add to each entry a note on what has been accomplished during that meeting.
Pair programming means that you and your partner work on the problem sets jointly. You read them together and you work on the solutions together. One of the lab’s purposes is to teach you how to work in pairs effectively; indeed, pairs are provably more effective than individuals in programming. The rough idea is this: One of you plays pilot, the other co-pilot. The pilot works on the keyboard and explains aloud what is going on; it is the co-pilot’s responsibility to question everything. After a problem is solved to the satisfaction of both, you must switch roles.
Every partner must be able to solve every homework problem in the end. In other words, You must be able to solve every homework problem on your own.
All programs must be completed strictly by you and your partner. You are free to discuss the problem sets with others, so long as you acknowledge discussants. However, you may not share code in any way. Submitting code that is not your own will be considered a violation of the University’s Academic Integrity Policy (pages 38—
40 of the 2011-2012 Underaduate Student Handbook). Violations of academic integrity will be reported to OSCCR and will have a negative impact on your grade. If you are having difficulties working with your partner, please inform your instructor. Bring in your log of meetings with your partner to help explain the problems you may have.
Exams
Midterm 1: 10/3, in class
Midterm 2: 10/31, in class
Midterm 3: 11/27, 6-9pm Room 422 SL
Projects
There will be a substantial class project implemented over the last several weeks of the course.
Grades
You will get a gpa for your homework (including the project) and for your exams. You must have both a passing homework gpa and a passing gpa to pass the course. For the final grade, we will assign a weight of 40% to the homework grade and a weight of 55% to the three exams. The remaining 5% are up to the instructors’ whim.