Description: Computer science encompasses a wide range of topics and skills designing and building computer devices (e.g., your cell phone, laptop, weather censors, robots), designing and building programming languages (e.g., Java, Python, C) and the supporting software that control these devices (e.g., operating systems, compilers), and the actual applications themselves (e.g., reading an x-ray, video animation, voice mail). This course focuses on how to write computer programs that solve problems on a general purpose computer.

Programming languages are one of the key tools that computer scientists design and use to help themselves and others use computers to solve problems. This course will use a particular programming language, Java, to introduce you to how to use a computer to solve your problems. In this course, most of your learning will take place when you are putting in to practice the concepts from the book and lectures to solve more and more complex problems using more and more sophisticated programming practices. You will learn through doing.

Objectives: This is a first course in computer programming. The purposes of the course are to learn fundamental computer science concepts including algorithm development, problem decomposition, data types, variables, decision making, iteration, arrays, and 2D arrays. By the end of the course students are expected to be able to implement programs consisting of several programmer defined data types and several hundred lines of code employing non trivial algorithms.

Estimates of the required effort to pass the class are:

• 3-5 hours per week of studying
• 2-8 hours per week of programming (less early in the course, more later)
• 1000 lines of Java code.

Prerequisites: Credit with a grade of at least a C or registration for M305G, or equivalent score on the SAT Mathematics level 1 or level 2 test.

Lecture: Unique course IDs: 54005, 54010, 54015 Mon/Wed/Fri, 2 - 3 pm,  UTC 4.134

Discussion Sections:

Unique ID	Discussion Section Time	Discussion Section Location	Discussion Section TA
54005	Tuesday, 11 am - 12 noon	CS Department Teaching Lab Painter Hall 5.38 South end of lab	Rohit G.
54010	Tuesday, 12 noon - 1 pm		Rohit G.
54015	Tuesday, 1 pm - 2 pm		Rohit G.

Teaching Staff:

• Instructor: Mike Scott, email: <scottm AT cs DOT utexas DOT edu>, office: Painter Hall 5.68
  Office Hours: MWF 3:15 - 4:45 pm. Office hours will be held in the computer lab in PAI 5.38.
  If you can not make these times please email me to set up an alternate time.

• Teaching Assistant

  • Rohit Gupta, email on homepage

• Undergraduate Proctors:

  • Ron Allison, rallison AT mail DOT utexas DOT ...

  • Brian Armstrong, brain AT mail DOT utexas DOT ...
    (for the above email addresses replace ... with edu)

Required Textbook: Designing Java Programs by Stuart Reges and Marty Stepp. ISBN 978-0-321-38283-8, Pearson Education / Addison Wesley. Textbook homepage is http://www.buildingjavaprograms.com/.

Class web site: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs305j. Course materials and announcements are available there.

Class Listserv and email: One of the primary communications tools outside of class is the class listserv. A listserv is an electronic mailing list. You sign up to the listserv and will then be able to post messages to the listserv. All subscribers to the listserv get all messages posted.

• Go to this web page to log onto the UT lists system: www.utexas.edu/its/mailinglists/answers/subscriber_logon.php
• go to this web page and follow the instructions to subscribe to the listserv: www.utexas.edu/its/mailinglists/answers/subscribing.php
• The name of the list is cs305j-scott@utlists.utexas.edu and the subject is CS305j class mailing list.
• I strongly recommend you set up a filter in whatever email program you use to direct messages from the listserv to a separate folder as instead of your normal inbox.

All students should become familiar with the University's official e-mail student notification policy. It is the student's responsibility to keep the University informed as to changes in his or her e-mail address. Students are expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with University-related communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily, but at a minimum, twice per week. The complete text of this policy and instructions for updating your e-mail address are available at www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.php.

In this course e-mail will be used as a means of communication with students. You will be responsible for checking your e-mail regularly for class work and announcements.

Computing Facilities:

• Painter Hall Microcomputer Lab. PCs are available for assignments in the CS Department microcomputer lab located  in  Painter Hall, room 5.38. There are also public machines available in ENS rooms 1 and 2. You are free to work on your own computer if you wish.
• Students must obtain an account for the CS department microlab. Visit this website to request account: www.cs.utexas.edu/facilities/computing/ (Click on the request a new account link.)
• Accounts take at least a day for account to become active. Please request your account as soon as possible. Even if you do not work in the lab, you will use this account to turn in your homework.
• These accounts are only for the CS microlab, and not any other labs or networks at UT. This account is not the same as your UTEID or UT Direct account.

Software: Required software for programming assignments is described on this web page: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs307/software.htm. The recommended IDE is BlueJ. To work at home you need to download and install the Java SDK and BlueJ. See the software page for details.

Schedule: A schedule of lecture topics, reading assignments, and assignment distribution and due dates is available online, via the class web page, www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs305j/schedule.htm.  The schedule page contains links to slides for the lectures, assignments, and online readings. Readings are to be completed before class. The schedule is subject to change.

• Midterm 1 will take place in class on Wednesday, February 24.
• Midterm 2 will take place in class on Wednesday, April 7.
• The final exam is scheduled for Monday, May 17, 2 - 5 pm . The location will be announced at a later date.

Grading: Here are the class components used to determine your final average.

• Assignments, Javabat problems sets, and Quizzes can count no more than 350 points towards your final average. You will notice that the points for Assignments, Attendance, Javabat problem sets and quizzes add up to 399. Thus there are 49 points of "slack" in these non exam components. This slack (and slip days, see below) is to account for any problems that may occur during the semester that cause you to miss one of these non exam components. (Such as illness, family emergencies, hardware problems, etc.) Quizzes and javabat problem sets cannot be made up or completed after the fact. For assignments there is some leeway. See the explanation of slip days below.
• The final letter grades will be assigned based on your total points. The max possible point is 1000. The grade cutoffs are: <600 = F, 600 - 699 = D, 700 - 799 = C, 800 - 899 = B, >= 900 = A. Plusses and minuses (+ and -) will be assigned to scores within 25 points of the cut offs. So for example total points 875 to 899 earn a B+ and total points 900 to 924 earn an A-.
• Depending on the results of an exam, exam scores may be curved. If so, exam scores may stay the same or improve. Exam score will never get worse due to a curve. No other class component (assignments, Javabat problems, or quizzes) is curved.
• You have 6 slip days to use through out the term on your assignments if you are not able to turn an assignment in on time. See the assignments page for details on how slip days work. www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs305j/Assignments/index.htm. Slip days are to account for life circumstances (My hard drive crashed!! I got a virus downloading an mp3!!) and emergencies. Do not use your slip days frivolously. If you use up your slip days and then have an emergency of some type you will receive a 0 if you do not turn in an assignment on time.
• The required format and procedures for turning in assignments are available at www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs305j/Assignments/index.htm.Assignments that are not turned in to the correct directory in the correct format will cause you to use slip days, lose points, and/or receive a 0 on the assignment.
• Quizzes are given at the beginning of every discussion section. If you are not present when the quiz is completed you receive a 0 for that quiz. Quizzes cannot be made up under any circumstances. Quizzes are not curved. Quiz grading will be: 10 for a perfect quiz, 8 to 9 for minor mistakes, and 7 or less for little or no effort.
• If a student misses a midterm exam with a verifiable excuse the remaining exams will count for the missed exam.
• If you are dissatisfied with a grade you receive on an assignment or test, you must submit your complaint via email, along with supporting evidence or arguments, to your TA within one week of the date the teaching staff first attempted to return the assignment or test to you.
• Questions about your grade are to be sent to your teaching assistant.
• There are no opportunities for extra credit in this course.

The last time I taught the course in Fall of 2008 128 students enrolled in the course. 94 students got a C or better. 17 students got a D or F. 17 students dropped the course. The majority of students getting Ds or Fs missed 1 or more exams without an excuse, had a failing homework average, and a failing quiz average. (In other words they quit trying.)

No whining: Feedback and concerns about the course are always welcome; legitimate grading errors that are identified in a timely fashion will certainly be corrected, but whining is counter-productive and will only irritate those who evaluate your work to determine grades.

Important Dates for Changing Academic Status and Dropping the Course: Refer to the Registrar's academic calendar for the deadlines for changes in academic status. Highlights are:

• Friday, January 22: Last day of the official add/drop period; after this date, changes in registration require the approval of the department chair and usually the student’s dean.
• Wednesday, February 3: (12th class day) Last day to drop for a possible refund. Last day to add a course.
• Monday, February 15: (20th class day) Last day to drop a course without a possible academic penalty.
• Monday, March 29:(Half way point of semester) Last day an undergraduate student may, with the dean’s approval, withdraw from the University or drop a class (Q drop) except for urgent and substantiated, nonacademic reasons. Last day a student may change registration in a class to or from the pass/fail or credit/no credit basis. In practice I always grant approval for "Q drops" up to this date as long as their are no issues with academic integrity.
• After Monday, March 29, students must go to the non academic advisors in their college Dean's office. For CS majors go to WCH 1.106. To be eligible for an incomplete (UT uses the symbol X to indicate incompletes) you must have a letter grade of C or better and a written, verifiable excuse for missing the last test. This is a necessary but insufficient condition for receiving an incomplete.

Academic Dishonesty: Taken from the CS department Code of Conduct.

"The University and the Department are committed to preserving the reputation of your degree. It means a lot to you. In order to guarantee that every degree means what it says it means, we must enforce a strict policy that guarantees that the work that you turn in is your own and that the grades you receive measure your personal achievements in your classes:

Every piece of work that you turn in with your name on it must be yours and yours alone unless explicitly allowed by an instructor in a particular class. Specifically, unless otherwise authorized by an instructor:

• Students may not discuss their work with anyone except the instructor and other members of the instructional staff (TA, section leader, or lab proctor).
• Students may not acquire from any source (e.g., another student or an internet site) a partial or complete solution to a problem or project that has been assigned.

You are responsible for complying with this policy in two ways:

1. You must not turn in work that is not yours, except as expressly permitted by the instructor of each course.
2. You must not enable someone else to turn in work that is not theirs. Do not share your work with anyone else. Make sure that you adequately protect all your files. Even after you have finished a class, do not share your work or published answers with the students who come after you. They need to do their work on their own.

The penalty for academic dishonesty will be a course grade of F and a referral of the case to the Dean of Students. Further penalties, including suspension or expulsion from the university may be imposed by that office.

One final word: This policy is not intended to discourage students from learning from each other, nor is it unmindful of the fact that most significant work in computer science and in the computing industry is done by teams of people working together. But, because of our need to assign individual grades, we are forced to impose an otherwise artificial requirement for individual work. In some classes, it is possible to allow and even encourage collaboration in ways that do not interfere with the instructor's ability to assign grades. In these cases, your instructor will make clear to you exactly what kinds of collaboration are allowed for that class."

For CS305J the policy on collaboration is modified as follows: You are encouraged to study for tests together, to discuss methods for solving the assignments, to help each other in using the software, and to discuss methods for debugging code. Essentially if you talk about an assignment with any one else you are okay, but the moment you start looking at someone else's source code or showing someone else your source code you have crossed the line into cheating. You should not ask anyone to give you a copy of their code or, conversely, give your code to another student who asks you for it. Similarly, you should not discuss your algorithmic strategies to such an extent that you and your collaborators end up turning in exactly the same code. Discuss high level approaches together, but do the coding on your own.

Understand the difference between cheating and collaboration. Collaboration is allowed, cheating will lead to failure in the course.

Examples of cheating are many, but include accessing another student's account, looking at someone else's solution code, copying or downloading someone else's solution code, or allowing others to copy of access your solution code. This means you shall not look on the internet for code to solve your problems.

Examples of allowable collaboration include discussions and debate of general concepts and solution strategies and help with syntax errors.

The code you can reuse in this course are:

1. You may use any code you develop with the instructor, TAs, or proctors.
2. You may use code (with attribution) from the recommended textbooks, the class slides, and the class coding examples.
3. You may share additional test cases and expected results of test cases.

You shall not make use of code you find from other sources including the world wide web. Materials from the web should only be used for educational purposes. Thus, you can read about linked lists and look at examples of linked list code, but you must not copy any code from the web or be looking at any of this code from the web when writing anything you turn in. If you discuss an assignment with another students or look at examples from the web you should employ the Gilligan's Island Rule: after a discussion with another student or looking at example code you should do something that has nothing to do with computer science or programming for al least half an hour. Watching an episode of Gilligan's Island or other similar activity.

You are also allowed to post short segments of code (3 lines or less) of code that are giving you syntax errors to the class listserv in order to get help on fixing the syntax error.

If you have any doubts about what is allowed ask the instructor.

Plagiarism detection software will be used on assignments to find students who have copied code from one another. 

For more information on Scholastic Dishonesty see the University Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty
 

Religious Holy Days: A student who is absent from an examination or cannot meet an assignment deadline due to the observance of a religious holy day may take the examination on an alternate day, submit the assignment up to 24 hours late without penalty, or be excused from the examination or assignment, if proper notice of the planned absence has been given. Notice must be given at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates the student will be absent. For religious holy days that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, notice should be given on the first day of the semester. It must be personally delivered to the instructor and signed and dated by the instructor, or sent certified mail, return receipt requested. Email notification will be accepted if received, but a student submitting such notification must receive email confirmation from the instructor. A student who fails to complete missed work within the time allowed will be subject to the normal academic penalties.

Disability Related Needs: Please notify me of any modification/adaptation you may require to accommodate a disability-related need. You will be requested to provide documentation to the Office of the Dean of Students in order that the most appropriate accommodations can be determined. Specialized services are available on campus through Services for Students with Disabilities, SSB 4th floor, A5800, 471-6259,  TTY 471-4641