CISC 130 Syllabus Problem Solving in Natural Sciences (C Programming) Spring 2009	Dr. Rick Smith Computer and Information Sciences
Dr. Smith Home | Research | Classes | Blackboard | Cryptosmith | QMCS Home | UST A-Z | UST Home last update: January 28, 2008 Syllabus URL: http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/resmith/c/cisc130/c9sp/syllabus.html Course Home Page: http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/resmith/c/cisc130/c9sp/index.html

• General Information
• Course Objectives
• Course Topics
• Grading
  • Participation Points
  • Late Work
• How the Class Works
  • Computer Resources
  • Asking for Help
• Missing Classes
• Cheating
• Special Needs Students

General Information

If I need to distribute copyrighted material to the class, it will be on the Blackboard system. I may also use it for tests, but I'm still thinking about that.

Course Objectives

"Understanding" Objectives

1. Understand computer hardware, software, and their differences
2. Understand programming languages and application packages and their differences.
3. Understand the philosophy of the C programming laguage and the Matlab application package and their differences.
4. Understand the process of investigation and problem solving.
5. Understand data aquisition, storage, processing, and output.

"Skill" Objectives

1. Design, write, document, and debug C programs.
2. Use Matlab to solve a variety of mathematical, science, and engineering problems.
3. Investigate alternative methods for solving the "same" problem, assessing effort, effectiveness, and machine efficiency.
4. Employ varied methodologies to solve problems in a general sense.
5. Assess the appropriate use of computer tools to solve any particular problem.

Course Topics

Here is the basic outline for course topics and readings. A detailed, up-to-date course schedule is kept on the course home page.

• Basic Computer Arithmetic (Matlab)
  • Writing expressions, syntactic issues
  • Variables and identifiers, computational state
  • Functions, functional notation
• Writing programs for compilation (C)
  • Difference between compiling and interpreting
  • Composition of a C program
  • Declaring and using integer
• Conditional statements (if, else, ? :)
  • Boolean tests
  • Compound conditionals
  • Flow charting
  • Comb structure
  • Floating point
• Writing functions
  • Header, return values, "return" statement
  • Void functions
  • Using versus declaring
  • Scope of variables
• Loops
  • Ints vs characters
  • Input of chars
  • Do Loop
  • Flow chart for loop
  • Character conversion
  • While loop
  • For loop
  • Leading decision vs trailing decision
  • Rewriting one with the other
• Arrays
  • Arrays: numbers
  • Arrays: chars; strings
  • Pointers, call by reference
• Files
  • Files for input
  • Files for output
  • File management
• Problem Solving in Matlab
  • Vectors, arrays, matrices
  • Comparison of C and Matlab
  • Handling input and output
  • Writing Matlab functions

Grading

The key to getting a good grade in this course is to do all of the work. A student who has worked every problem and handed in the results will generally earn at least an A-. This is not a "policy," this is just how it works - if you do the work, you do well on exams and earn a good grade.

The grade in this class is made up of the following:

• Homework/Lab Work - 35%
• Project - 25%
• Exams - 40%

Homework and lab work is graded as follows:

• Check Plus - Work was completed neatly, thoroughly and correctly
• Check - Overall the work is complete and correct
• Check Minus - Assignment was mostly completed, but important parts are missing or incorrect
• No Credit - Significantly incomplete assignments

I expect labs to work as follows: I will hand out a set of lab exercises to perform. I will do related examples on the board at the beginning of class. You will be expected to complete the examples, print out the programs and results, and hand them in to me. In an ideal world, you will finish the lab exercises before the end of the lab section. This leaves you with nothing but reading as homework.

Here is my recommended strategy on assignments and labs: do some part of every thing requested on an assignment. If the assignment has 5 separate problems, be sure take a stab at each one. This will maximize both your learning and your grade.

Exams and projects are reviewed in detail for correctness and are graded on the degree to which they get all the details correct.

Exams, whether in-class or take-home, are to be done entirely by individual students without asking for advice from others. However, I generally allow the use of reference materials on exams (i.e. 'open book' exams).

Late Work

Work due on "lecture" days is submitted at the beginning of class. Work due on "lab" days may generally be handed in after class that day.

In general, I do not accept late work. However, I recognize that because of illness or other important, unavoidable reasons, students may need to hand things in late. If you submit late homework or in-class work, you need to submit it with a written explanation of why it is late. The explanation should be clear, honest, and to the point.

Under no circumstances do I accept work that is more than a month past its due date, nor do I correct grade errors that are more than a month old.

How the Class Works

We will be doing a lot of hands-on work with computers. Some of it will be during class and some will involve homework you finish outside of class.

I recommend that you schedule the time after class to work on homework assignments. I am on campus most afternoons and I will be available then to answer questions. The amount of time to schedule for homework depends entirely on how well you pick up the techniques.

Computer Resources

Everyone who participates in this class must have a UST user account. If you don't have one, you must get one ASAP.

You should save all of your work on your personal "U" drive (provided with your UST account) or on a personal USB flash drive. If you use a flash drive, however, you can run into trouble if you forget to bring it to class!

You can probably do the work on any computer you can find that has a C compiler, and that includes PCs, Macs, and Linux machines. It simply has to support "ANSI standard C."

If you want to install a C compiler at home, click here for instructions.

Note that all examples in class will take place on an Windows PC, with TextPad configured to do the compiling and running. While program texts should be the same regardless of the system you use, the details of running the compiler and the appearance of windows may change from one system to another.

Asking for Help

The University has several computer labs whose computers contain all the software we will use this semester. The labs in OSS will usually be staffed with people who are familiar with the software we will be using this semester.

You can also ask any QMCS faculty member for help. Faculty offices are on the 4th floor of OSS, around the corner from the classroom.

I strongly encourage you to ask each other for help, too. If someone asks you, try to help them out if you can. There's no better way to learn something yourself than by helping someone else learn it. On the other hand, keep in mind that students must do their own work. See Cheating for more information on this.

Missing Classes

If you miss class, you will lose participation points unless you provide me with a written explanation of why you missed class. The explanation should be clear, simple, and honest.

If you need to miss class to participate in sports or other intercollegiate competitions, I will need a note from your coach. This is especially true of exams.

If you miss an in-class exam, I will need a written note from a third party explaining why it was impossible for you to attend the exam. For example, the note could be from the University clinic indicating that you were felled by the flu.

Cheating

All work handed in to the instructor and all tests must be put together exclusively by the student whose name it carries. If I see any of the following, I will not grant credit, and I may contact the administration about a possible case of cheating:

• Word-for-word identical material handed in by people who should be working independently. In this case, both students receive no credit for the assignment.
• Substantially identical computer printouts that differ in little more than the students' names and other superficial details. In this case, neither student receives credit for the assignment.
• Material that identically matches published answers for assignments.
• Material that matches some published or posted information so as to suggest that the material was not the student's own work.

These are some obvious examples. The bottom line is that I expect you to do your own work. Otherwise you're wasting your time here.

Special Needs Students

In compliance with the University of St. Thomas policy and disability laws, I am available to discuss academic accommodations that you may require as a student with a disability.  Students are encouraged to register with the Enhancement Program-Disability Services office for disability verification and for determination of academic accommodations.  Please do so within the first week of J-Term.  

Appointments can be made by calling 651-962-6315 or 800-328-6819, extension 6315. Telephone appointments are available as needed. You may also make an appointment in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center, room 119. For further information, you can locate the Enhancement Program on the web at http://www.stthomas.edu/enhancementprog/.

This work by Dr. Rick Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.