CSCE 315 Programming Studio:
Summer 2014

Syllabus

NEWS: 6/26/14, 12:06PM (Thu)
  • [6/26] Project 3 announced.
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  • [6/20] Project 1 code review next Tuesday: ALL teams will present (15 minutes each, including code walkthrough and demo). No lecture on next Monday (lab will meet).
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  • [6/14] Project 2 and 3 design doc due changed from Tuesday to Wednesday.
  • [6/14] Week 4 lecture schedule changed from MWF to TWR.
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  • [6/11] Project 2 anounced
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  • [6/09] Gary Marcus, on the Turing test
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  • [6/06] First computer bug
  • [6/06] VisiCalc design: grandfather of all spreadsheets.
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  • [6/05] Report any team issues ASAP! (not showing up at meetings, not being responsive to email/text, etc.)
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  • [6/03] Today we'll cover API design and design in general (swap with Wednesday's material)
  • [6/03] Parsing: one of the simplest and easiest to implement parser is the recursive descent parser. Look up on the web.
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  • [6/01] Project 1 anounced
  • [6/01] Project tips, Neat compiler trick
  • [6/01] All submissions will be compared against current and historical code base to check for plagiarism. We will use MOSS.
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  • [5/30] Version control system for the class: http://github.tamu.edu. See Git Basics. Also see the instructions in github.tamu.edu.
  • [5/30] Two quizzes are now online on ecampus. Take both by 7/8 11:59pm (hard deadline).
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  • [5/28] Team assignment: Read-Only Board
  • [5/28] Fill out the programming proficiency survey ASAP so that the teams can be assigned prior to the first lecture.
  • [5/28] Course web page goes online
  • --------------
  • [LINKS] •News archiveGradesCodesLecture notes
Read-Only Bulletin Board.: 5/28/14, 02:43PM (Wed)

Page last modified: 7/6/14, 12:40PM Sunday.

General Information Resources Weekly Schedule Credits Lecture Notes Example Code Read-Only Board

I. General Information

Instructor:

Dr. Yoonsuck Choe
Email: choe(a)tamu.edu
Office: HRBB 322B
Phone: 979-845-5466
Office hours: MWF 1:00pm-2:00pm

TA:

Noah Larsen
Email: nlarsen(a)tamu.edu
Office: HRBB 322A
Office hours: MTWRF 8:00am-8:30am, MTWR 1:30pm-2:00pm

Peer teacher:

Grant Uland
Email: ulandgrant(a)tamu.edu
Office: HRBB 127
Office hours: 10am-12pm MTWR

Prerequisite/Restrictions:

This class is intended for students who have completed CSCE 314 - Programming Languages, and are concurrently taking CSCE 313 - Intro to Computer Systems. It is meant to be somewhat of a "capstone" course for the lower-level computer science courses, before taking courses in the upper-level tracks.

Lectures:

MTWRF 2:00pm–3:35pm, HRBB 126

The course is listed as 2-credit lecture, and 2-credit lab, however it has been intentionally scheduled for 3-credit per week of lecture (as well as the lab). A normal load during a 5-week course during the summer is 1:15 hours per lecture, 5 days a week. To adjust for the course load, the following schedule will be used:

Final exam period will be used for project presentation.

Labs:

MTWR 4:00pm–5:20pm, RDMC 111C.

Due to similar reasons, the lab will meet MTWR, but the time reduced to 1 hour 15 minutes per day to adjust for the credit hour. You can use the remaining time for team activity.

Goals:

This course is intended as an intensive programming experience that integrates core concepts in Computer Science and familiarizes students with a variety of programming/development tools and techniques. Students will primarily work in small teams on a couple-of-week-long projects emphasizing different specializations within computer science. The course focuses on honing good programming techniques to ease code integration, reuse, and clarity.

The primary goal for this class is to have students emerge with strong programming skills, able to address both individual and team programming challenges competently. The class is meant to allow students to improve their programming skills through significant practice.

Objectives:

The expected accomplishments of the students are as follows:
  1. Become a confident software developer experienced in the full software development cycle.
  2. Become a capable and effective member in a small software development team.
  3. Become an effective communicator within the context of software projects.

Outcomes:

The students who take this course should be able to demonstrate the following upon the completion of this course.
  1. Knowledge of programming and debugging tools.
  2. Knowledge of various programming paradigms.
  3. Ability to design and refine large software systems based on rough system requirements.
  4. Ability to implement and test software system design.
  5. Ability to work as a member of a software project development team.
  6. Knowledge of various software development paradigms.
  7. Ability to manage software development projects.
  8. Ability to write technical documentation regarding software systems.
  9. Ability to communicate the overall design and details of software systems.
  10. Introductory-level knowledge in database systems, artificial intelligence, and software engineering.

Textbook:

We will be using the following textbook: Other books that may be drawn from, and that might be useful references include both the first edition of Code Complete, as well as:

Computer Accounts:

  1. Computer accounts: if you do not have a unix account, ask for one on the CS web page.

Topics to be covered:

Among the topics to be covered in lecture periods are: Though many topics will overlap, this course is not intended to be as in-depth or comprehensive as a standard software engineering course, which focuses more on project management - students may take the software engineering class after taking this class.

Note: You should expect to spend a significant amount of time (>20 hours/week) outside of class time on programming projects. This may require meeting with team members outside of the class/lab periods. Note that during the regular semester, each project runs for one month. Although the scope of the projects will be scaled down, you still need to complete each project within 2 weeks or so, so your absolute committment to this course is mandatory.

See the Weekly Schedule section for more details.

Grading:

There will be three major projects in the course, each counting for 28% of the overall grade. Specific grading practices for each project will be announced when that project is given out, but the grade may include factors such as evaluation of code clarity, teamwork, etc. Peer evaluation may be used as a significant contributing factor to these grades. The remaining 16% of the grade will be an individual grade based on individual exercises, quizzes, participation in the course survey, and an evaluation of class participation (which might include participation in code reviews).

The 16% of the grade will start off as being based totally on instructor judgement of class participation and effort. As the course progresses, any quizzes given out, individual assignments given out, or other specific graded material will note the portion of this individual grade which that quiz/assignment/etc. affects. The remainder of the individual grade will be based on the subjective class participation and effort grade. For example, if there are 8 quizzes at 1% each, one individual assignment at 4%, and participating in the course evaluation is 2%, then the remaining 2% is based on the subjective evaluation.

The grading scale expected to be used is A (>=90%) B (>=80%) C (>=70%) D (>=60%) F(<60%).

Academic Integrity:

AGGIE HONOR CODE: An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do.

Upon accepting admission to Texas A&M University, a student immediately assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor System. Students will be required to state their commitment on examinations, research papers, and other academic work. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the TAMU community from the requirements or the processes of the Honor System.

For additional information please visit: http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/

For this class, certain aspects of the honor code need to be clarified.

  1. There may be times in this course where you or your team make use of external code/software/libraries. Whenever this is done, you must make sure that, in addition to following any restrictions on that code itself, you clearly document what the source of the external code was, and how it was used.
  2. There may be cases in this course where you or your team seeks outside assistance related to one of the projects. Any assistance received from people other than members of your team, the professor, teaching assistant, or peer teacher needs to be clearly documented.
  3. You will be working in team environments in this course, and your work as a team will be used to determine grades. As such, it is your responsibility, when asked, to:
    • accurately describe the work that you have done on a team project. Claiming credit for work that you have not done or that others did instead is a violation of the code.
    • accurately describe (to the best of your knowledge) the performance of other team members. "Covering" for another team member (claiming they did more work than you know they did) or "spiking" them (claiming they did less work than you know they did) are examples of honor code violations.
    • prevent (as best you can) or report (known) violations of the honor code by your other team members. You share responsibility when a project is turned in; if you are aware of a teammate having violated the code in his/her work on the project, and do not report it, you are claiming credit for that violation yourself.
If there are any questions or concerns about whether an action is appropriate, you should check with the professor or teaching assistant first. If in doubt, assume that it is not appropriate.

Course Policy:

Students with Disabilities:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities, in Cain Hall or call 845-1637.

II. Resources

  1. Supplementary slides for the lab (by Aalap Tripathy)

III. Weekly Schedule and Class Notes

Week
Date
Lecture
Lab
Notices
Deadlines (11:59pm)
Notes
1 6/2 Introduction; Project 1: Database ; [Reading: Chapter 1 and 3, 9.1 and 9.2] Project 1 design Project 1 announced   slide01
slide02
slide03
1 6/3 API design; Software Design Principles Setting up GIT;
Project 1 Basic parsing [Reading: Chapter 23]
    slide07
slide08
1 6/4 Project 1: SQL; DB implementation Unit testing;
Project 1 table storage, table formatting;
  Project 1 design docs due slide04
slide05
slide06
1 6/5 Testing; Test-Driven Development Naming/Style/Commenting;
IDE, Debugger [Reading: Chapter 11.1, 11.2, 31];
    slide09
slide10
lab01
lab02
lab03
1 6/6 Debugging; Software Design Approaches [Reading: Chapter 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3] ---     slide11
slide12
2 6/9 Agile Development Project 1 status check   Project 1 parser code due slide13
2 6/10 Project 2: Introduction to AI Project 1 status check     slide14
slide15
2 6/11 Project 2: Game search Project 1 status check     slide15
2 6/12 Project 2: Network protocols and Socket programming (Socket programming slides are by Jon A. Solworth at UIC) Project 2 design preview     solworth-sockets
2 6/13 Machine Learning; Advanced AI: Neuroevolution; [General Reading: Chapter 6.1–6.4] --- Project 2 announced Project 1 DB core function code due slide16
slide16-ml
3 6/16 Collaborative Software Development;
Design patterns [Reading: Chapter 21]
Makefile;
gcc, gdb
  Project 1 final version due slide17
slide18
3 6/17 Code portability; Code performance; Code tuning [Reading: Chapter 24, 25, 26] Project 2: Socket library   Project 2 design docs due slide19
slide20
slide21
3 6/18 Project 3: Intro to Android development (slides are from Dr. Jaerock Kwon @ Kettering University, former student, TAMU CSE) Project 2 AI game-search   Project 2 design docs due kwon-android01
kwon-android02
3 6/19 Project 3: Android development (cont'd); XML Android SDK installation and usage     kwon-android03
slide22
3 6/20 SOLID principles;
Web-programming case study
---     slide23
slide24
4 6/23 --- Project 2 client-server (use of telnet)@   Project 2 game mechanics code due
4 6/24 Project 1 top team code review and demo: ALL teams (15 minutes each) Android SDK IDE;
Project 2 client-server code
   
4 6/25 Project 2 code review (volunteers welcome) and status check: ALL teams (15 minutes each), review game mechanics code. Android SDK: User Interface;
Project 2 status check
   
4 6/26 Project 3 announcement Android SDK: graphics;
Project 2 status check
     
4 6/27 --- --- Project 3 announced Project 2 AI code due
5 6/30 --- Project 3 status check   Project 2 final version due (includes client-server)
5 7/1 --- Project 3 status check   Project 3 design docs due
5 7/2 --- Project 3 status check   Project 3 design docs due
5 7/3 ---     (last day of class for 1st term) Project 3 status check    
5 7/4 --- ---   Project 3 user interface code due Friday 7/4 Saturday 7/5 11:59pm
67/7Final: Project presentation 3:30--5:30pm, HRBB 113126 (final grades due 7/10)--- Project 3 final version due

IV. Credits

Most of the course content and lecture slides were originally developed by Prof. John Keyser. Thanks to Long Mai and Allen Hurst at Improving Enterprises for valuable feedback.

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