Instructor: Matthew Ekstrand-Abueg

TA: Sachin Venugopalan

Course Lectures and Labs:

Lectures	M, W, Th	10:30 am - 11:35 am	in 233 Richards Hall	Matthew Ekstrand-Abueg
Labs	Th	11:45 pm - 1:25 pm	in WVH 212	Sachin Venugopalan

You must attend Lectures and Labs.

Lectures: Lectures are just interactive group learning sessions. You must bring paper and a pencil or a pen, so you can work out the questions posed during the lecture.

Labs: The lab CS 2511 is an integral part of the course. The labs start on Thursday, September 8th and meet in 212 WVH. You must attend all labs. The purpose of labs is to give you some hands-on experience with the actual tools, and to illustrate some of the principles from the lectures with hands-on examples. You must finish all the lab work - at home, if you do not have enough time during the lab hours. This work should be included in your electronic portfolio.

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.

The first few weeks we will use a subset of Java syntax to introduce the basic concepts. Throughout the course we will use additional libraries to support testing, the design of interactive games, and playing of sounds and music.

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: Thursdays at 10:00 pm, unless otherwise specified. We will not accept late homework.

You must work on your homework problems in pairs. You will select/be assigned a homework partner during the first lab. Homework pairs may change in the middle of the semester.

Keep 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.

Pair programming means that you and your partner study the problem sets individually and possibly even sketch out solutions. Then you meet and jointly develop a solution to each problem. One of you (the pilot) types, and the other one (the co-pilot) makes sure that everything is understood. When something isn't clear, it is the co-pilot's responsibility to question the approach. 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.

You are free to discuss the problem sets with others, but if you do, you must acknowledge discussants. Failure to do so will result in reductions of your homework grades. All programs/code must be completed strictly by you and your partner.

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.

We will have three exams to assess your progress. The first two exams will be for 65 minutes during the lecture on Thursday, October 6th and November 3th. The third exam is currently scheduled for Thursday, December 1st, but that time may be subject to change.

The exams will test material similar to that assigned in weekly homeworks. You will take the exams by yourself. Collaboration is not permitted. If you make sure that you can do every the homework problem on your own, the exams will be relatively easy.

You will get a grade for your homework and a grade for your exams. Both must be passing grades; otherwise you cannot pass the course. For the final grade, we will assign a weight of 40% to the homework grade, a weight of 55% to the three exams (10%, 15% and 30% respectively), and 5% for class participation.