Fall 2005 Syllabus
CISC181: Intro to Computer Science (honors)
Sections 080

Instructor

Phillip T. Conrad, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Office

447 Smith Hall

Postal Address

Department of Computer & Information Sciences, 103 Smith Hall, Newark, DE 19716 USA

Phone

(302) 831-8622 (email is preferred).

Fax

(302) 831-8458

Email

pconrad@udel.edu (Please cc your TA unless you have a specific reason not to, and try to send from your udel email address; mail from AOL, Yahoo etc. often gets blocked as spam)

Web

http://copland.udel.edu/~pconrad/cisc181h

Office Hours

Monday and Wednesday, 2:30-3:30PM.
Tuesday and Thursday 10:15-11:15AM.

Or by appointment (send email to pconrad@udel.edu request an appointment,
To avoid delays, put "CISC181 Appointment Request" in the subject line.

No office hours on days when UD classes do not meet or are cancelled due to weather, etc.
Any other adjustment to office hours will be announced via email to the class.

TA: Kevini Owocki, <ksowocki@udel.edu>, office hours 2:15-4:15 Monday, Pearson 115B.

Required Textbooks and Materials

(1)  C++ How to Program, 5th Edition
Harvey Deitel, Paul Deitel
ISBN: 0-13-185757-6 Prentice Hall 2006
[Books are like cars... the 2006 editions come out in Fall 2005]

(2) Just Enough Unix, 5th Edition, Paul K. Andersen.
ISBN: 0-07-295297-0 McGraw-Hill, 2006
[You must have the 5th edition, not the 4th edition. You can get online access to the 5th edition for around $36, a lot cheaper than buying a paper book. See http://ebooks.primisonline.com Click on "McGraw-Hill Ebooks", then "Next", then "Science Engineering and Math", then "Computer Science". It will be the first book on the list].

(3) Smart Card for Sun Rays (available at UD Bookstore for $6)

Catalog Description:

Principles of computer science illustrated and applied through programming in the object oriented language C++. Programming projects illustrate computional problems, styles and issues that arise in computer systems development and in all application areas of computation.

Additional Goals:

Mastery of basic Unix commands, and shell scripting.

Required Background:

Prerequisites: Grade of C- or better in CISC105 or equivalent programming experience in a high level language.
Corequisites: One of the following: MATH115, MATH 117, MATH171, MATH221, MATH241. 

Grading:

Midterm Exam 1 15%
Midterm Exam 2 15%
Final Exam 20%
Projects 30%
Labs/Homeworks/Quizzes 20%

See the course calendar for scheduled dates of exams (available on the web site).

Special Rules: 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.

Attendance will be taken. Three unexcused absences (after the end of free drop/add) will result in a failing grade in the course.

Letter grades will be determined by the following scale, which may be altered (in your favor) at the discretion of the instructor, depending on the final grade distribution.

grade >= 93 A   73<= grade < 77 C
90 <= grade < 93 A-   70<= grade < 73 C-
87 <= grade < 90 B+   67 <= grade < 70 D+
83<= grade < 87 B   63<= grade < 67 D
80<= grade < 83 B-   60<= grade < 63 D-
77 <= grade < 80 C+   grade < 60 F

Course Policies

Lab Policies are at the following link, and are included herein by reference:
http://copland.udel.edu/~pconrad/cisc181h/05F/work/labs/lab_policy.html

A summary is as follows:

  1. Show up for lab.
  2. Bring your lab homework to lab
  3. Observe due dates
  4. Respect late penalties.
  5. Do honest work.
  6. Treat people with respect.

Reading Assignments are posted on the course calendar. The assignments are listed on Sundays on the course calendar (to avoid cluttering the course days in the week), along with the days that that material will be covered (roughly) in lecture. You are responsible for checking the calendar periodically and staying on top of the reading; additional announcements/reminders about the reading assignments might or might not be made in lecture.

Exams are closed book; however I allow one sheet of notes to be brought into your exam. This should be one 8.5x11 sheet of paper only, you must write your name on it, and you must turn it in with your exam. You may not use any notes whatsoever for quizzes.

Quizzes Both pre-announced and unannounced quizzes may be given at any time. Quizzes will be counted Missed quizzes due to unexcused absences will be counted as a zero. For excused absences, the instructor will substitute a default grade which is the nearest integer approximation of the students average so far at that point in the course (i.e. the quiz neither helps nor hurts the grade). A perfect score will be substituted if a quiz is missed before any other grades are recorded.

Lab attendance is required. Attendance will be taken. If you have a standing conflict with the lab time, you need to transfer into a different section... one with which you don't have a standing conflict (because the rule won't be any different there!)

Follow instructions in assignments regarding submission. Pencil/Paper homework must be submitted in lab. Some work must be submitted on paper, while electronic submission may be acceptable for other work. However, you must follow the submission instructions in the assignment; you may not submit electronically if the assignment specifically requires paper submission. Paper submission may only be done in person in lecture for lecture hwk, and in lab for lab homework and lab assignments, (unless you have prior permission from the TA via email with a CC to me; this should be done only in unusual, rare, special circumstances.)

No makeup for daily homework except for "official excused absenses". Official excused absences include those where there is a note from the athletic department (e.g. for intercollegiate sports teams) or from the Dean's office (e.g. for serious illness or family emergency). For occasional cold or flu, one or two missed assignments are not going to seriously impact your grade, as long as you don't make it a habit.

Academic Honesty: You are required to comply with all University policies regarding Academic Honesty and to familiarize yourself with those policies. See the lab policy page (at the link listed above) for more detail, and academic honesty page for more details (also found at the policy link shown below). Suspected violations of academic are prosecuted through the office of Judicial Affairs, and may result in probation, deferred suspension, suspension, or expulsion. We catch people all the time. Do honest work; to do otherwise will cheapen your own self-image, and it isn't worth the risk..

Additional Course policies may be found at this link, and included herein by reference: http://copland.udel.edu/~pconrad/cisc181h/05F/policy

ADA Accomodations: If you have a disability that requires special accommodation, please contact me by email (pconrad@udel.edu) or by phone (831-8622) within the first week of classes.

Disclaimer: Information in the syllabus is subject to change as the instructor sees fit, or as required by Departmental, College, or University policy, provided that reasonable notice is given to the class.

Invitation: Please contact me by email, phone or during my office hours if you would like to discuss any aspect of the course; I welcome the opportunity to be of assistance.

Phillp T. Conrad, Fall 2005