General
People
Instructors:
Instructors design and implement this class, lead lectures, create the labs, assignments, and exams. The instructors are here to teach from life.
TAs: Rohan Garg, David Corbett and Akshay Sawant.
TAs teach labs, grade the homework sets, hold office hours. In general, they are apprentice teachers and are here to learn how to run a course.
Tutors: Joe McGurk, Chris Beiser, Allison Alder, Phaelyn Kotuby and Rani Aljondi.
Tutors help in labs, grade the homework sets, hold office hours. In general, they are your peers who have taken the course and can see your problems from your perspective.
Communications
If you need help, you may talk to any of the instructors, the TAs or tutors during their office hours.
You can also post questions and look for answers to similar questions on Piazza. Here is a link to the Piazza site for this course. Do not post answers to assignments to Piazza.
Office Hours
blerner
WVH314
Mon
3:00-4:00 pm
Wed
3:00-4:30 pm
lrazzaq
WVH310B
Tue
10:00am-12:00 noon
Rohan Garg
rohgarg
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Tue
1:00--3:00pm
Wed
1:00--3:00pm
David Corbett
dcorbett
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Wed
12:00--2:00pm
Fri
2:00--4:00pm
Akshay Sawant
asawant
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Wed
3:00--5:00pm
Fri
4:00--6:00pm
Joe McGurk
jmcgurk
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Tue
5:00--6:30pm
Thurs
4:30--5:30pm
Chris Beiser
ctbeiser
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Mon
10:30--11:30am
Fri
3:30--4:30pm
Allison Alder
aalder
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Wed
12:30--1:30pm
Fri
3:30--4:30pm
Phaelyn Kotuby
kotubyp
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Mon
5:00--6:00pm
Tue
5:00--6:30pm
Rani Aljondi
seurat
3rd floor breakout, or WVH 102
Mon
10:30--11:30am
Tue
12:00--1:00pm
Communication
Use CCIS email (@ccs.neu.edu) to reach any of the course staff; usernames are given above.
General Policies
Late assignment policy: Late assignments will be accepted but will lose 20% per day. Speak to the professors in advance of a deadline if you cannot complete an assignment on time.
Laptop policy: No laptops in class.
Academic honesty: We will strictly enforce Northeastern’s academic integrity policy. You may discuss problems with other students, but you should not share or show code to anyone other than your assigned partner. Violations of academic integrity will be reported to OSCCR and will have a negative impact on your grade.
Lectures
Section 1: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 10:30am-11:35am
West Village H 108
Section 2: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 1:35am-2:40pm
Richards Hall 325
Lectures policy:
You are required to read the lecture material for the given lecture before coming to class. During the lectures we will discuss the material covered in the required reading, answer questions, provide additional examples and applications.
It is OK if you do not understand everything when you first read it, but reading about the new concept ahead of the time will give you a chance to anticipate the questions you may have and allow you to follow better the details of explanation during the lectures.
Labs
Labs are held in 212 WVH on
Thursdays at 11:45am–1:25pm
TA: Akshay
Tutors: Rani, PhaelynThursdays at 2:50pm–4:30pm
TAs: Akshay, Rohan
Tutor: JoeFridays at 9:50am–11:30am
TA: David
Tutor: ChrisFridays at 11:45am–1:25pm
TA: David
Tutor: Allison
Labs policy
The goal of the labs is to see in practice problems that illustrate the concepts covered in the lectures, and to prepare you for the next programming assignment.
There is a lot of technical detail related to running Java programs that will be covered in the early labs. Later labs will focus more on design questions and on good Java programming practice.
In-lab Quizzes
We will be running quizzes during some of the labs, possibly without prior warning. The goal of the quizzes is to see that you are familiar with the most basic concepts covered during the recent lectures, labs, and assignments.
Quizzes will be graded, and are counted as part of your exam scores (see Exams below). The intent is to assess your progress in the course in smaller chunks rather than just through lengthy midterm exams.
If you do not pass the quiz, you need to meet with the instructor within the next week, to identify the problems you may have and to help you get back on track. Failure to follow up on a failed quiz may lead to grade zero on the related programming homework.
Computing Environment
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.
You will use Web-CAT to work on your homework sets, to keep track of revisions, and to submit your homework.
Assignments
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: Tuesdays at 11:59pm, unless otherwise specified. We will not accept late homework.
Pair Programming
You must work on your problem sets in pairs. We will assign you a partner. Every few weeks, you will get a new partner.
Important With each assignment you must turn in 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. Add to each entry a note on what has been accomplished during that meeting.
Pair programming means that you and your partner work on the problem sets jointly. You read them together and you work on the solutions together. One of the lab’s purposes is to teach you how to work in pairs effectively; indeed, pairs are provably more effective than individuals in programming. The rough idea is this: One of you plays pilot, the other co-pilot. The pilot works on the keyboard and explains aloud what is going on; it is the co-pilot’s responsibility to question everything. After a problem is solved to the satisfaction of both, 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.
All programs must be completed strictly by you and your partner. You
are free to discuss the problem sets with others, so long as you
acknowledge discussants. However, you may not share code in any
way. Submitting code that is not your own will be considered a
violation of the University’s Academic Integrity Policy (pages 38—
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.
Exams
Midterm 1: Monday, September 29th, in class
Midterm 2: Monday, November 3, in class
Projects
There will be a substantial class project implemented over the last several weeks of the course. You will present your project to the class during the last two weeks of the course. You will also be required to comment on the projects presented by your peers.
Grades
You will get a GPA for your homework (including the project) and for your exams and quizzes. You must have both a passing homework GPA and a passing overall GPA to pass the course. For the final grade, we will assign a weight of 40% to the homeworks and the project grade and a weight of 55% to the exams and quizzes exams. The remaining 5% are up to the instructors’ whim.