CompSci 6, Spring 2010
Syllabus

Professor: Susan Rodger

  • Office: LSRC D237
  • Office Hours: Wed 1-2, Thu 1-2 and sometimes Mon afternoons and
    Friday mornings. (You can also come by anytime for a quick question,
    I'm usually in Mon-Fri til 2, sometimes later on Mondays and Thursdays.)
  • Email:

  • Phone: 660-6595

Graduate TA: Jie Xu

  • Office: North 207
  • Office Hours: Monday 4:10-6:10pm, Tuesday 8:50am-9:50am
  • Email: xu AT cs.duke.edu
  • Phone: 660-4020

Undergraduate TAs

Course Meeting Time

  • LECTURE: Tuesday and Thursday: Physics Room 130, 10:05am-11:20am

Text

Reading

In general you should read the text in order to be prepared to ask and answer questions in class. If you've looked at material before it's discussed in class you'll get much more out of the class discussion. This is especially true once class has been going for a while.

There will be reading quizes on blackboard due before many classes! They must be completed before class time, there will not be second chances.

Web page

Many of the materials for this course (including this page) are available on http://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/spring10/cps006/

Bulletin Board

You should regularly read the bulletin board as it may contain announcements, hints, and information relevant to this class.

Classwork

Class attendence is required. We will work on problem solving (with and without computers) during class. Many times classwork will need to be completed outside of class. This is homework that will count as part of your classwork grade.

Computing projects

All computing projects will use Java 5 or 6, the Eclipse environment and Ambient for submitting. See Resources for installing these.

All computing projects should include names as a comment in the program and a separate README text file that gives information such as name of authors, how long it took to work on the project, and anyone you received help from.

LATE POLICY: Projects turned in up to 2 days late are 10% off (Sunday does not count as a late day). Projects turned in after 2 days are 20% off. Projects must be turned in within one week late. See Prof. Rodger immediately if you are having difficulty with this.

Collaboration

Unless otherwise stated, computing projects should be your own work. If you are assigned a partner to work with, you can work together and help each other, but you still both have to write the code. In both cases you may consult with one or two other students (and as many times as you want with TA's and Prof. Rodger). Consult means you can discuss the project before writing it, and get help with debugging your project, but you should write your own code. Writing one world and making multiple copies of it is not acceptable! For each assignment you are expected to include a list of the people with whom you have consulted (including students, TA's, tutors, professors). Finally, you may not consult with the same CompSci 6 students on two consecutive assignments.

Tests must be your own work.

Grading

classwork/participation 15%
readingquizzes 5%
assignments 25%
two exams 30%
final exam 25%

There will be two exams (dates on the calendar), and a final exam on Thursday, May 6, from 7pm-10pm.

Grading is done on an absolute, but adjustable scale. This means that there is no curve. Anyone earning 90% or more of the total number of points available will receive a grade in the A range (A+,A,A-); 80% = B, 70% = C, 60% = D. This scale may go down, but it will not go up.

NOTE: For 10% of your classwork/participation grade you must drop by and introduce yourself to me in my office. This must be completed by Spring Break. Remind me to check you off for this requirement when you drop by.

The tests and final exam will be closed-book.