Textbook

Recommended Textbook Discrete Structures by Harriet Fell and Javed A. Aslam. You can find the PDF free online. We’ll cite relevant readings each week, and we recommend reading them before or after lecture.

Gradescope

Sign up for our Gradescope page: https://www.gradescope.com/courses/378800. Access code 74YR6G.

We'll use Gradescope for all homeworks, exams, and quizzes. You should be automatically signed up, but make sure you're all set before the first deadline! Any questions about gradescope, post on Piazza and let us know how we can help.

Piazza

Sign up for our Piazza page: https://piazza.com/northeastern/fall2022/cs1800.

Piazza is here for you to ask clarifying questions on homework assignments, which the course staff is happy to answer. You should also feel free to jump into questions from others and engage in conversation.

Because this is a theory course, and solutions sometimes rely on one particular, specific insight, we have a few rules governing our CS1800 Piazza page:

  • You may not post solutions to problems.
  • You may not post a single, simple insight that enabled you to solve a problem (e.g., “Use Cantor’s diagonalization”), but you may post general approaches (e.g., “I thought this homework problem related to the class discussion on infinite binary sequences”).
  • You must be respectful of and courteous towards your fellow students and the teaching staff.
Violations of these rules will result in our closing the Piazza page.

We'll also use Piazza to post course announcements, so make sure your email settings are turned on!

Office Hours

Office hours are a great place to get clarification on concepts and have conversations with TAs and professors. You can schedule one-on-one meetings with professors, and learn how to join the TA office-hours queue, on the course home page.

It’ll be important that you come to office hours having already made an attempt on the homework. We will be happy to help guide you on concepts and provide clarification. We cannot provide you with answers to problems.

Classroom Environment

In the lectures and office hours, please ask questions, and answer questions! In computer science, we seldom get anything right on the first try. We see how an attempt turned out, and we try again. We like our classroom to reflect that approach as well; so please answer a question that's been posed, even if you're not sure of the answer.

To create and preserve a classroom atmosphere that optimizes teaching and learning, all participants share a responsibility in creating a civil and non-disruptive forum for the discussion of ideas. This includes all ways you interact with classmates and course staff -- in lectures, office hours, Piazza, etc.

Evaluation

  • Homework: 45%
  • Exam #1: 20%
  • Exam #2: 20%
  • Recitation Quizzes (one dropped): 15%
All quizzes and homeworks have the same weight regardless of the number of points allocated. The percentage score of each is computed in your final average -- for example, if you get 9/11 on Quiz 1, and 9/10 on Quiz 2, then the average of those two is (9/11 + 9/10) / 2 = (81.8% + 90%) / 2 = 85.9%.

Letter Grades

Your final grade for CS1800 will use the following breakpoints when we convert from letter to number grades.
A
94 - 100
A-
90 - 93
B+
87 - 89
B
83 - 86
B-
80 - 82
C+
77 - 79
C
73 - 76
C-
70 - 72
D
60 - 69
F
59 and below

Communication

Piazza is the best place to ask general questions, get clarification on a homework spec, ask a follow-up from lecture, etc.

Email is the best tool for specific questions or concerns about your experience in class, or anything sensitive in nature. Instructors will respond to emails within about 48 hours, but don't expect a response after 9pm oron weekends.

Office hours are the best place for talking through your approach to a homework problem. We're not here to give you answers, of course, but to be your fellow computer scientists thinking through a tough problem with you. Expect us to ask more questions than we answer.

Course Feedback

Your thoughts and concerns about this course are important. We invite you to give feedback throughout the term. You can reach out to any instructor or TA directly over email, or fill out our feedback form: https://forms.gle/VC5R7KCoaLnDQShW8

You will also be asked to fill out a formal course evaluation at the middle and end of the term.

Homework

All homework assignments will be submitted on Gradescope. You can type up your solutions, or write them by hand and then scan with your phone. If you submit a PDF, submit only a single file. If you submit images, submit one per page!

Draft rubrics will be released with each homework, ensuring transparency around what we’ll be looking for when grading. The rubrics may change slightly when we grade the homeworks after submission, but we promise they won’t change much. It is your responsibility to read the homework assignment itself and the accompanying rubric to make sure you’ve covered all required parts of every question.

Homeworks will be scored and returned to you, on Gradescope, within one week. After getting your homework back, you have the option to file a regrade request. under one of the following categories:

  • Clarity -- you’re not sure why points were taken off, even though you’ve read the rubric and your grader’s comments.
  • Mistake -- your grader mistakenly took points off.
When filing a regrade request, specify which category the request belongs in. You’ll receive a response, and possibly an updated score, from your grader. After that, if you still have concerns or questions about your grade, email laneys@northeastern.edu.

The final assignment of the semester is a second-chance homework. You can use Homework 9 to re-submit one of your earlier assignments, and we'll re-grade it. It's a chance to re-do a homework that didn't go as well as you'd hoped, or submit one where you'd missed the original deadline.

Your homework score will be the average of HW1-8.

Exams

There are two exams this semester, and they will be administered remotely, but during your scheduled lecture. You’ll take and submit the exam on gradescope, similar to a homework.

Exam dates:

  • Exam #1: Friday, October 14th
  • Exam #2: Tuesday, November 8th

It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with these dates and ensure you are available for exams and have a quiet space to take them. If you don’t have access to an appropriate space to take the exam, we’ll make the classroom available for a limited number of students (but be careful if you choose this option, because our classroom has small desks that make it hard to have a laptop and paper open at the same time).

The exams are designed to be completed in less time than we have designated for lecture, so that no one feels rushed. Take your time on the exam problems and ask any questions that come up.

If you have a DRC accommodation, make sure that you have emailed your letter to k.mclaughlin@northeastern.edu well before the first exam. If your accommodation is for extra time, we’ll allocate that directly in gradescope. If it’s for a distraction-free environment, you’ll need to coordinate directly with the DRC to book a time to take the exam in their office.

Towards the end of the semester, we’ll provide an opportunity for a second-chance exam question. You’ll be able to re-do a single exam question from exam #1 or exam #2 for a limited number of points.

Academic Integrity

Exams are solo endeavours; no books, notes, phones, or other devices are permitted.

On the other hand, homeworks can be collaborative. We expect that you might study with friends and work out solutions to problems together, but you must write up your own solutions, in your own words. Copying solutions from a classmate or online source is a violation of our academic integrity policy and will be referred to OSCCR.

Here are some concrete guidelines.

  • Never look at someone else's homework solutions. Otherwise you might turn in overly similar work.
  • If you produce a solution together, don't simply copy it down afterwards. You must, on your own, write your own solution in your own words.
  • If someone explains an answer to you, do not write down their exact words; instead, on your own write up your solution afterwards.
If you collaborate with (or get help from) any other student, then write their name on the the first page of your assignment at the top.

The university's academic integrity policy discusses actions regarded as violations and consequences for students: http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academic-integrity

Late Policy

You may submit homeworks up to 24 hours late with no penalty, and 24-48 hours late with a 5% penalty. This policy exists for those times you're having a tough week, are feeling sick, or are falling behind in your work; we won't make any exceptions to this policy.

For quizzes, we’ve added a small buffer into Gradescope, so if you submit between 8-9pm we’ll still accept your quiz submission with no penalty.

Lecture Attendence & Videos

Lectures and recitations are in-person and attendance is expected. We don't want or expect anyone to come to class when they're sick, though, so we'll post supplementary videos each week that you can use to catch up on any missed material. If you miss class for any reason, we recommend watching the videos for that week and stopping by professor office hours to get caught up.

These supplementary videos were recorded in previous semesters. They will not use the same examples or cover material in the same order as we'll do in our lectures. We hope they're helpful for days when you need to miss class, but they will definitely NOT be an identical experience!

Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects individuals from sex or gender-based discrimination, including discrimination based on gender-identity, in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Northeastern’s Title IX Policy prohibits Prohibited Offenses, which are defined as sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship or domestic violence, and stalking. The Title IX Policy applies to the entire community, including male, female, transgender students, faculty and staff.

If you or someone you know has been a survivor of a Prohibited Offense, confidential support and guidance can be found through University Health and Counseling Services staff (http://www.northeastern.edu/uhcs/) and the Center for Spiritual Dialogue and Service clergy members (http://www.northeastern.edu/spirituallife/). By law, those employees are not required to report allegations of sex or gender-based discrimination to the University.

Alleged violations can be reported non-confidentially to the Title IX Coordinator within The Office for Gender Equity and Compliance at: titleix@northeastern.edu and/or through NUPD (Emergency 617.373.3333; Non-Emergency 617.373.2121). Reporting Prohibited Offenses to NUPD does NOT commit the victim/affected party to future legal action.

Faculty members are considered "responsible employees" at Northeastern University, meaning they are required to report all allegations of sex or gender-based discrimination to the Title IX Coordinator.

In case of an emergency, please call campus police.

Please visit http://www.northeastern.edu/titleix for a complete list of reporting options and resources both on- and off-campus.

Students with Disabilities

Students who have disabilities who wish to receive academic services and/or accommodations should visit the Disability Resource Center at 20 Dodge Hall or call (617) 373-2675. If you have already done so, please provide your letter from the DRC to Kayla McLaughlin (k.mclaughlin@northeastern.edu) early in the semester so that we can arrange those accommodations.