CMSC 202, Fall 2001 -- Syllabus

Lecturers

Lecturer: Ms. Bianca Benincasa, sections 0201-0204
Office: ECS 218
Office Hours: TTh 4:00 - 5:15pm
Telephone: 410-455-3094
E-mail: bbenin1@cs.umbc.edu

Lecturer: Mr. Dennis Frey, sections 0101-0104
Office: ECS 222
Office Hours: MW 2:00 - 2:45pm, TuTh 1:00 - 2:00pm
Telephone: 410-455-3540
E-mail: frey@cs.umbc.edu

Teaching Assistants

Sections 0101-0102: Amit Choudhri
Office Hours: MW 10:45am-12:45pm
Email: amitc1@cs.umbc.edu

Sections 0103-0104: Amit Joshi
Office Hours: M 2:00pm-4:00pm, F 10:30am-12:30pm
Email: amit3@cs.umbc.edu

Sections 0201-0202: Vipul Hingne
Office Hours: TTh 1:00pm-2:00pm, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Email: vipul1@cs.umbc.edu

Sections 0203-0204: Sunder Parameswaran
Office Hours: M Th 10:30am-12:30pm
Email: sparam1@cs.umbc.edu

All TA office hours are held in room ECS 335A.

Class Times and Locations (by section)

[1596] 0101 TuTh.......2:30pm- 3:45pm (LH2 ...) Frey Tu 4:00pm- 4:50pm (SS 409) Discussion [1597] 0102 TuTh.......2:30pm- 3:45pm (LH2 ...) Frey Th 4:00pm- 4:50pm (SS 204) Discussion [1598] 0103 TuTh.......2:30pm- 3:45pm (LH2 ...) Frey Tu 4:00pm- 4:50pm (MP 102) Discussion [1599] 0104 TuTh.......2:30pm- 3:45pm (LH2 ...) Frey Th 4:00pm- 4:50pm (SS 409) Discussion [1600] 0201 TTh........5:30pm- 6:45pm (LH2 ...) Benincasa Tu 7:00pm- 7:50pm (SS 110) Discussion [1601] 0202 TTh........5:30pm- 6:45pm (LH2 ...) Benincasa Th 7:00pm- 7:50pm (ACIV305) Discussion [1602] 0203 TTh........5:30pm- 6:45pm (LH2 ...) Benincasa Tu 7:00pm- 7:50pm (MP 012) Discussion [1603] 0204 TTh........5:30pm- 6:45pm (LH2 ...) Benincasa Th 7:00pm- 7:50pm (SS 101) Discussion

Textbooks

Required

C++ How To Program, Third Edition by Deitel and Deitel, Prentice Hall Publishing

Data Structures and Other Objects Using C++ by Main and Savitch, Addison Wesley Publishing

Suggested References

Effective C++ Second Edition by Scott Meyers, Addison Wesley Publishing
More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers, Addison Wesley Publishing

Course Description

This course continues the development of programming and problem-solving skills, focusing on recursion, pointers, data abstraction, and procedural abstraction. Topics include: introduction to asymptotic notation; data structures including lists, stacks, queues, hash tables and elementary binary search trees; sorting and searching; and an introduction to the C++ language and to object-oriented programming. Programming projects for this course will use the C++ programming language. Prerequisites: CMSC 201 and MATH 151.

CMSC Gateway

For students who enrolled in college for the first time in Summer 1998 or later, you have two choices: pass both of CMSC 201 and CMSC 202 with a grade of B or better or don't graduate as a CMSC major. The registrar has very specific rules about repeating courses in sequence; for example, if you were to have a C in 201 and then take and pass 202 expecting to retake 201, you can't. Since the classes form a sequence, you cannot retake an earlier class in the sequence once you've passed a later one. Also, note that all University deadlines (for adding or dropping courses, changing grading method, etc.) will be strictly enforced.

Objectives

The objectives of this course are:

To learn and practice problem solving techniques
To learn to understand algorithm efficiency in terms of asymptotic analysis
To master some basic data structures, including: linked lists, stacks, queues and binary search trees.
To understand the fundamental programming concepts of abstract data types, recursion, memory allocation and functional parameters.
To gain familiarity with basic algorithms for searching and sorting, including: hashing, binary search, Merge Sort and Quicksort.
To learn programming in C++ and object-oriented programming.

Lectures and Readings

You are expected to attend all lectures and discussions for the section in which you are enrolled. Although both classes will cover the same general topics, you are responsible for the specifics given during your section. You may attend the other instructor's lectures for review purposes, but this is not a substitute for attending your section.

You are expected to attend all lectures and your weekly discussion session. You are responsible for all material covered in the lecture, even if it is not in the textbook. You are responsible for all material in the readings, even if it is not covered during lecture.

Assignments and Grading

Grading Criteria

Your grade in this course is based on projects (which will include homework assignments) and exams, which are discussed in more detail below. The grades are broken down as follows: 5 Projects (10% each) = 50% 2 Midterms (15% each) = 30% 1 Final Exam = 20% Letter grades will be on the standard scale: 0 <= F < 60 60 <= D < 70 70 <= C < 80 80 <= B < 90 90 <= A <= 100 Your grade is based on timely work accomplished during the semester; incomplete grades will only be given for medical illness or other such dire circumstances. Final grades will not be curved.

After each grade is returned, there is a grace period of one (1) week during which you may speak to to your instructor about any problems you have with your grade. After that time, your grade will stand.

Projects

The critical programming skills cannot be learned simply by attending the lectures. You should budget enough time to work on the projects as well. Projects are due by midnight of the due date. If you fail to turn in a project on time, a late penalty will be assessed (even if it's only a few seconds late -- no excuses, no exceptions). Projects are accepted up to 48 hours past the due date; there is a 10% penalty for 24 hours late and a 25% penalty for 48 hours late. After 48 hours, no project submissions will be accepted -- no exceptions.

Projects will be graded according to three criteria: correctness of observable behavior, adherence to project requirements, and (to a lesser degree) adherence to course style/coding standards. Note: All projects must compile in order to receive any credit, so make sure to allow ample time for debugging. (Exceptions may occasionally be made in cases of simple, last-minute compiler errors such as forgetting to include a semicolon or close a comment; however, you will be responsible for finding such errors and bringing them to your instructor's attention.) Further details will be provided with the first project assignment. Each project will also include a homework assignment, as described below, to be worth a variable amount of each project grade.

There will be five graded projects, as discussed above. In addition, Project 0 is a mandatory ungraded project. The purpose of Project 0 is NOT to make sure you know how to use the submission system, but rather to make sure that the submission system is prepared to accept projects from your account. If you fail to submit Project 0, no future project submissions will be possible and your grade for those projects (which ARE graded) will suffer.

Network and computer failures at UMBC are a fact of life. They are out of your control and out of our control. However, they are not an excuse for a project to be submitted late, nor are they a reason for project deadlines to be extended, even if the outage occurs on the due date. Plan accordingly. Waiting to submit your project 5 minutes before your project is due is a recipe for disaster. In the event of network outages or computer failures that last less than two weeks, you are still responsible for submitting your projects on time. There are labs on campus even if your dialup or ResNet connections are down. Also, it is your responsibility to take care of any problems with your account, such as quota overages, which interfere with your ability to complete and submit projects for the course.

Exams

There will be three (3) exams -- two midterm exams worth 15% each and the final exam worth 20%. (Note that the last exam is given during the scheduled final exam time for the class.) Make-ups for exams are given under only the most dire circumstances (such as hospitalization). Exams must be taken with your lecture session.

Midterm exams are not cumulative; the final exam is cumulative. Note that you may be required to use skills from earlier in the semester (or even a previous course) while solving problems on an exam, but each midterm exam will focus on material that has not been tested on previous exams.

Unless otherwise noted, all exams are closed-book, closed-notes.

Homeworks

Associated with each project will be a homework assignment. The purpose of the homework is to spend some time thinking about the design of your project before actually implementing it. Generally, the homework for a project will be due a week before the project itself. You will be graded not only on the merits of your design, but on whether or not you actually follow your design in the implementation of the project. Homeworks will be submitted electronically just like projects; late homeworks are not accepted. More details will be provided with the first project assignment.

Project Policies

All projects must be completed by your own individual effort. You should never have a copy of someone else's project either on paper or electronically under any circumstance. Also, you should never give a copy of your project, either on paper or electronically, to another student. This also means that you cannot "work" on the project together. Cases of academic dishonesty will be dealt with severely.

If you need help with your project, see your instructor, your TA, the Computer Science Help Center, room ECS 332, or tutors provided by the Learning Resource Center.

Having someone else's project in your possession, even briefly, is forbidden. Safeguard your account password; you are responsible for the actions of anyone else you may allow to log into your account.

Your project will be checked for similarities with all other student projects. If your project is found to be "substantially similar" to that of another student, or if it is determined that someone else wrote your project for you, both you and the other student (if applicable) will receive a grade of 0 for that project. Furthermore, all parties concerned will have their prior projects re-checked for cheating. A second incident will result in a grade of 'F' for the semester.

Any act of dishonesty may be reported to the University's Academic Misconduct Committee for further action.

Email Policies

Email is great -- much better than voice mail. If you need to contact your instructor about this class outside of lecture and office hours, email is much better than the telephone. You should, however, observe the following etiquette:

Do not include your programs unless requested. Email is good for lots of things, but it is horrible for debugging. You should use your instructor's office hours, the TAs' office hours or the Help Center for debugging help.
Use your real name. Email from "Hot Stuff" gets deleted without being read.
Use only the email addresses listed above.
Include a meaningful subject line, something like "CMSC 202 Project 2 question."
Send email in text format only (no HTML, MS Word attachments, etc.)
Know the difference between "reply" and "reply to all".
Know how to include a plain text file in an email message without sending it as an attachment. It is rare that a plain text file needs to be sent as an attachment, and not all email programs allow attachments to be read.
In addition, due to the volume of student email during each semester, please note the following:
- Do not expect responses during holidays or weekends, late in the evening, or on the evening a project is due.
- Do not expect an immediate response to your mail. As a rule of thumb, expect two business days turnaround time. This means ask your project questions WELL BEFORE the due date, if you expect an answer in time to help you.
- Do not wait to submit a project because you are waiting for a response to your email. Once you receive a response, you can resubmit an updated version of your project if you so choose (subject to the late penalties and policies outlined above).