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 teach labs, oversee the grading of homework sets, help grade the exams, and hold office hours. In general, they are apprentice teachers and are here to learn how to run a course.

Tutors help in labs, grade the homework sets, and 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

Ben Lerner		blerner		WVH314		Mon		3:00--4:00pm
						Thu		3:00--4:00pm
Leena Razzaq		lrazzaq		WVH310B		Mon		1:00--3:00pm
Matthew Clamp		mclamp		WVH 102		Wed		9:00--11:00am
						Thu		1:30--2:30pm
Eric Kelly		ekelly		WVH 3rd floor		Mon		1:00--4:00pm
Jimmy Ly		jly		WVH 102		Tue		4:00--5:00pm
						Wed		9:30--11:30am
Deepen Mehta		dmehta		WVH 102		Fri		8:30--11:30am
Alex Narayanan		4l3x		WVH 102		Mon		11:00am--12:00noon
						Wed		1:45--3:45pm
Michael Ravert		ravert1		WVH 102		Tue		8:00--9:00pm
						Wed		8:00--10:00pm
Kenny Wong		kwong		WVH 102		Mon		2:45--5:45pm
Alex Berberi		berberi		WVH 102		Wed		4:00--5:00pm
						Sat		2:00--4:00pm
Mackenzie Denker		denkerm		WVH 102		Tue		5:00--6:00pm
						Wed		8:30--10:30am
Tommy Jenkins		tjenkins		WVH 102		Tue		4:00--6:00pm
				Outside WVH 102		Sun		10:00--11:00am
Rachel Jones		rjones		WVH 102		Mon		12:30--2:30pm
						Wed		1:00--2:00pm
Neil Locketz		yoda6678		WVH 102		Wed		2:00--4:00pm
						Sun		2:00--3:00pm
John Martin		jmartin4		WVH 102		Wed		3:00--4:00pm
						Fri		11:35am--1:35pm
Erika McVey		mcveye		WVH 102		Tue		4:00--6:00pm
						Wed		4:45--5:45pm
Brendan Ronan		bronan99		WVH 102		Tue		1:35--2:45pm
						Wed		11:00am--1:00pm
Dan Russotto		aqsfire		WVH 102		Tue		12:30--1:30pm
						Wed		10:30am--12:30am
Benji Smith		bnsmith		WVH 102		Mon		2:00--4:00pm
						Fri		11:00am--12:00noon
Ben Wheeler		wheelerb		WVH 102		Mon		3:00--4:00pm
						Wed		2:00--4:00pm
Zach Winkeler		zwink		WVH 102		Mon		10:30--11:30am
						Tue		3:30--5:30pm
Brandon Wong		bwong		WVH		Mon		11:30am--1:30pm
						Wed		2:45pm--3:45pm

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

Honors: Monday and Thursday at 11:45am–1:25pm
         International Village 019

Section 1: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 10:30am-11:35am
         International Village 019

Section 2: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 1:35am-2:40pm
         Shillman Hall 105

Section 3: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 4:35pm-5:40pm
         Shillman Hall 305

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 210 WVH on

• Mondays at 6:00-7:40pm (Honors section)
       TAs: Matt Clamp, Jimmy Ly
       Tutors: Brendan Ronan, Tommy Jenkins

• Tuesdays at 9:50–11:30am
       TAs: Mike Ravert, Jimmy Ly
       Tutors: Neil Locketz, Alex Berberi, Rachel Jones

• Tuesdays at 11:45am–1:25pm
       TAs: Mike Ravert, Alex Narayanan
       Tutors: Mackenzie Denker, Zach Winkeler, Benji Smith

• Tuesdays at 1:35–3:15pm
       TAs: Eric Kelly, Matt Clamp
       Tutors: Dan Russotto, Erika McVey

• Tuesdays at 3:25–5:05pm
       TAs: Eric Kelly, Alex Narayanan
       Tutors: Brandon Wong, John Martin, Ben Wheeler

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: Wednesdays 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 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—40 of the 2011-2012 Underaduate Student Handbook). Violations of academic integrity will be reported to OSCCR and will have a negative impact on your grade.

If you are having difficulties working with your partner, please inform your lab TA or your instructor.

Exams

• Midterm 1: Monday, Feb 23 in Snell Engineering. Prof. Razzaq’s students are in room 108; Prof. Lerner’s students are in room 168.

• Midterm 2: Thursday, April 9 in Snell Engineering. Prof. Razzaq’s students are in room 108; Prof. Lerner’s students are in room 168.

Projects

There will be two substantial class projects 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. The last two assignments include suggestions for extra credit, which we will count towards offsetting a poor exam grade.