WPI Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Computer Science Department
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CS 1101 A Term 2010
Introduction to Program Design

Objectives | Why DrRacket? | Staff&Contact Information | Where&When | Textbook&Software | Grading | Policies | Schedule&Assignments



What this course is about

What drives someone to write a program? Once you have an idea for a program, what do you do next? What skills does it take to write useful programs? How does computer science interact with other disciplines? And what do computer scientists do besides programming anyway? CS 1101 introduces students to the worlds of computing and programming. Through a series of programming and information design exercises, students will learn how programmers view the world and how to turn problems into working programs. We'll study the various aspects of program design and write some fun programs along the way. This course assumes no prior programming background and is designed for both potential CS majors as well as curious students from other majors. Additional information about the course can be found in the WPI undergraduate catalog course description for CS 1101.

Course Objectives

CS 1101 is designed to help you identify problems that programs can solve and to learn how to design programs that solve problems. Program design involves a series of smaller skills, including information design, logic design, testing, and documentation. Improving your skills in these areas should help you with general problem solving even when you aren't programming.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

Mapping of Course Outcomes to CS Department Outcomes


Why DrRacket?

Why isn't CS 1101 taught using C/C++/Java...? None of the courses in the Computer Science department are intended to just teach you a programming language. Our courses use one or more programming languages to teach Computer Science concepts. DrRacket (a close cousin of the programming languages Lisp and Scheme) is particularly well-suited for teaching beginning programmers the essential concepts of program design, because its regular syntax makes it easy to learn how to program in the language and its simplicity means that students can begin writing complete programs from day one. Once you've mastered program design concepts, you'll find that additional languages can be learned more easily. And don't be fooled into thinking that DrRacket is a language for academics only. Some of the following readings provide details on Scheme (and Lisp) programming in academia and in the real world:


Staff

Instructor: Glynis Hamel (GH)

Teaching Assistants: Sahel Mastoureshgh (SM), Yumeng Qiu (YQ), Salman Saghafi (SS), Mingrui Wei (MW)

Senior Assistants: Richard Brown (RB), Austin Noto-Moniz (AN), Ryan Price (RP), Jen Spinney (JS), Joanne Zhang (JZ)

Office Hour Schedule

(Note: TA/SA office hours will be held in FL A22. Glynis Hamel's office hours are held in FL 132.)


Day/Time 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00
Sunday         RP   YQ    
Monday       GH JZ   SM AN  
Tuesday RB   GH GH RB     AN  
Wednesday RP         JS      
Thursday     JZ AN JZ   JS JS  
Friday     GH SS RB RP      

CS 1101 Tutors

There are also tutors for CS 1101 available at the Academic Resource Center. The MASH tutor for CS 1101 for A-term is Jonathan Kelly. Check out Jon's hours on the tutoring schedule for A-term. (.pdf)


Class Discussion Board and Email

A discussion board for CS 1101 has been set up on myWPI. You are responsible for all announcements and information posted on the myWPI site - check it on a daily basis.

If you have a question regarding your grades in the course, send email to cs1101-staff *at* cs.wpi.edu. Mail sent to this address goes to the instructor and to the TAs. Include your section number in all correspondence.

The instructor's email address is ghamel *at* cs.wpi.edu. Please restrict your use of my personal email address to issues of a confidential nature. You will get a quicker response if you post your questions to the class discussion board.


Lecture and Lab Times

Lectures MTRF from 9:00 - 9:50am, and from 10:00-10:50am in FLPH-UPR. You should attend the lecture for which you are registered.

Labs meet on Wednesdays according to the following schedule:

Section Time Location Lab Assistants
A01 8 - 8:50am SL 123 RP, JZ
A02 9 - 9:50am SL 123 RP, JZ
A03 10 - 10:50am SL 123 RP, JZ
A04 11 - 11:50am SL 123 AN, RB
A05 12 -12:50pm SL 123 AN, RB
A06 1 - 1:50pm SL 123 RB, JS
A07 2 - 2:50pm SL 123 AN, JS
A08 3 - 3:50pm SL 123 RB, JS


Textbook and Software

Textbook: The textbook for the course is How to Design Programs by Matthias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shriram Krishnamurthi. MIT Press, 2001. You may use the online version or purchase a hard copy.

Software: We will use DrRacket, version 5.0 for all coding projects in the course. DrRacket is installed on all CCC lab machines. You can also DrRacket, version 5.0download it to your own computer; it's free and supports the usual OS's (Unix, PC, Mac).


Grading

Exams (60%)

Three exams will be given. Exams are tentatively scheduled for September 13, September 28, and October 14. You must have a passing average on the exams in order to pass the course. (A passing average on the exams is usually around 60%. We may lower this threshold if the exam averages are low; the threshold will not be raised).

Exams are closed-book, closed-notes. You may bring in one sheet of notes (one paper, 8.5" x 11.5", both sides) to each exam. You may not use any computers, calculators, cellphones, headphones, or other electronic devices during the exams.

There are no makeups for exams. Absence from an exam will be excused only for medical or emergency reasons. A note from your doctor or from the Office of Academic Advising will be required. In such cases your final grade will be recorded as Incomplete and you will be allowed to take a makeup exam the next time the course is offered (C-term 11).

Homework (30%)

Eleven homework assignments will be given. Starting with Homework 3, homework assignments will be done in pairs. Most homework assignments will be due on Tuesday and Friday evenings at 5pm. No extra credit or makeup assignments will be given. Read Homework Expectations for details on how to prepare your homeworks. The graders will follow these grading guidelines when grading your homework.

Labs (5%)

Labs will be given during conference sections on Wednesdays. To get credit for a lab you must attend at your scheduled time, sign the attendance sheet, actively work on the assignment during the lab period, and use turnin to turn in your work at the end of the lab period. Each lab will be graded as either credit (1) or no credit (0). At the end of the term, your 5 highest lab grades will be used to account for 5% of your final grade. You will not get credit for a lab unless you attend the section for which you are registered. There are no makeups for labs.

In-class assignments (5%)

Several times during the term we will take a few minutes of class time for in-class group work. This will consist of one or two questions related to recently-covered lecture material or homework problems. Each assignment will be graded as either credit (1) or no credit (0). At the end of the term, five of these assignments will be chosen at random by the instructor, and these will count as 5% of your final grade. There are no makeups for group assignments.


Academic Honesty Policy

Please read WPI's Academic Honesty Policy.

Labs and In-class group work

Collaboration is encouraged for labs and in-class group work.

Exams

Collaboration is prohibited on exams.

Homework

Homeworks 1 and 2 are to be done individually.

Starting with Homework 3, you will be working with a homework partner. You may discuss problems in a general manner across homework pairs, but each pair is responsible for writing up their own solution from scratch.

As examples, each of the following scenarios would constitute cheating (this list is not exhaustive!):

In contrast, the following scenarios would not constitute cheating:

Cheating will not be tolerated. If you are unsure whether a given activity would constitute cheating, ask the instructor. Violations of the Academic Honesty Policy can result in an NR for the course, and violators will be subject to the procedures outlined in section 5 of the WPI Judicial Policy.

Late Policy

Late assignments will not be accepted without prior consent of the instructor (the TAs are not allowed to grant extensions). Extensions will be granted only in the event of unforseen and documentable emergencies, or extenuating circumstances that you discuss with the professor well in advance. One pair member forgetting to turn in an assignment will not be considered an acceptable excuse for an extension. No extra credit or makeup homework assignments will be given.

Homework Submission Policy

Homework must be submitted using the web-based turnin program. Homework submitted by any other means (paper, email, etc.) will receive a grade of zero.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accomodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Services Office (DSO) as soon as possible to ensure that such accomodations are implemented in a timely fashion. The DSO is located in Daniels Hall.


Schedule & Assignments

Note: the instructor reserves the right to change the order of topics or the dates of the exams, if necessary.

Week Reading Topics Assignments Extra Notes

Aug 26 - 27 HTDP Chapter 1
HTDP Chapter 2
Intro to Programming and Scheme
Expressions, Images, and Functions
Homework 1 (due: Tuesday, August 31)
Lecture 1 objectives
Lecture 2 objectives
Using Images
Creating Operators
Aug 30 - Sept 3 HTDP Chapter 3
HTDP Chapter 4
HTDP Chapter 5
HTDP Chapter 6
Function Composition
Conditionals
Symbols and strings
Structures
Nested structs
Lab 1, Wed 9/1
Homework 2 (due: Tuesday, Sept 7)

Lecture 3 objectives
Lecture 4 objectives
Lecture 5 objectives
Lecture 6 objectives
Symbols and Strings
Study Guide on Functions
Creating helpers (pen code)
Study Guide on Structures
tiger data definition (notes from class)
Sept 7 - 10 HTDP Chapter 7
HTDP Chapter 9

Mixed data (Unions) and the Design Recipe
Lists
Templates for lists
Lab 2,Wed 9/8
Homework 3 (due: Friday, Sept 10)
Homework 4 (due: Tuesday, Sept 14)

Lecture 7 objectives
Lecture 8 objectives
Lecture 9 objectives
Data Definitions and Templates for Structs[pdf]
Design Recipe Worksheet[pdf]
Exam preparation Guidelines
Sample Exam 1 [pdf]
Sept 13 - 17 HTDP Chapter 10.1
HTDP Chapter 10.2
Exam 1, Monday, Sept 13
Producing lists
Lists of Structs
Lab 3, Wed 9/15
Homework 5 (due: Friday, Sept 17)
Homework 6 (due: Tuesday, Sept 21)
Lecture 10 - Exam 1
Lecture 11 objectives
Lecture 12 objectives
Lecture 13 objectives
Data Definition and Template for List of Struct[pdf]
Solutions and additional problems from Lecture 12
Answers to the "CD Inventory" class problems (DrRacket file)
Sept 20 - 24 HTDP Chapter 14.1
HTDP Chapter 15.1
HTDP Chapter 15.2
Sorting
Trees
Hierarchies
Lab 4, Wed 9/22
Homework 7 (due: Friday, Sept 24)(due: Saturday, Sept 25)
Homework 8 (due: Tuesday, Sept 28)
Lecture 14 objectives
Lecture 15 objectives
Lecture 16 objectives
Lecture 17 objectives
Exam preparation Guidelines
Sample Exam 2 [pdf]
Tree Data Definitions (.pdf)
On filling in templates
Solutions to Friday's lecture problems
Sept 27 - Oct 1 HTDP Chapter 19
HTDP Chapter 20
More on hierarchies
Exam 2, Tuesday, Sept 28
Intoduction to higher-order functions
Filter/map
Lab 5, Wed 9/29
Homework 9 (due: Friday, Oct 1)
Homework 10 (due: Tuesday, Oct 5)
Lecture 18 objectives
Lecture 19 - Exam 2
Lecture 20 objectives
Lecture 21 objectives
Problems from Monday's lecture
Problems from Thursday's lecture
Problems from Friday's lecture
Oct 4 - 8 HTDP Chapter 31
HTDP Chapter 34
HTDP Chapter 35
HTDP Chapter 36
HTDP Chapter 37.1
Accumulating data
Introduction to set!
Program design with set!
Changing struct contents
Homework 11 (due: Tuesday, Oct 12)
Lab 6, Wed 10/6

Lecture 22 objectives
Lecture 23 objectives
Lecture 24 objectives
Lecture 25 objectives
Notes from Monday's lecture on accumulator-style programming
Notes from Tuesday's lecture on set!
Code for Vending machine (Thursday's lecture)
Sample Exam 3 [pdf] Notes from Friday's lecture (set-structure!)
Oct 11 - 14 HTDP Chapter 40.3
HTDP Chapter 40.5
More on set-structure!
Counting cycles
Wrap-up, course evaluations
Exam 3, Thursday, Oct 14
Lab 7, Wed 10/13 Lecture 26 objectives
Lecture 27 objectives
Lecture 28 - Exam 3
Code from Lecture 26
Code from Lecture 27




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