CS 451/651


Fall Semester, 2008
University of Massachusetts at Boston
David Levine

Overview and Expectations


This class meets twice a week.  There will be weekly programming assignments (sometimes twice weekly),  working on a fairly large program which we'll grow each week.
 Keep Current:   Mostly, when people have trouble with this course, it's because they've gotten behind on the project, and they're now trying to do two or three weeks' worth of work at a time.  Because they're behind, they don't fully understand the material either, which makes for a lot of unnecessary stress.

  Projects may be done on your home computer or a UMB computer.  They will be delivered electronically, by copying them into a particular folder associated with your name and course on a UMB machine.

There will be an hour exam, in mid October, and a final exam, during finals week.

If you are unable to attend class, it is your responsibility to find out what happened, find out about the homework, etc.  If you will be unable to take an exam, you must notify the instructor before the beginning of the exam in order to make other arrangements.

Communication

Members of the class should join a Google group, at

       groups.google.com/group/umb-cs651

This will provide a way to distribute announcements, and also to share questions (and answers!) about issues that come up at any time.

Prof. Levine will have office hours in S-3-088 (the corner of the building nearest Healey Library) from about 5:30 to 6:30 every day before class;  also other times (earlier?) by arrangement.  He will also try to monitor email and group activity on non-class days, including weekends.  If you expect to be working at a particular time and feel it would be helpful to have support available then, please ask!


Grade Calculation

The homework projects are absolutely essential to learning the course material.  They will count for about 50% of the course grade.
HALF of the points for each homework will be awarded for it being submitted on time.  The on-time points will decline to zero after a week.

The other 50% or so of the course grade will come from the exams, with the final worth about two times as much as the hour exam. 

Note that this course is jointly listed as undergraduate and graduate.  Graduate students may be expected to do some additional work.  In addition, graduate students should note that they will be expected to perform at a higher level.  In particular, if the final calculation indicates a grade of "D", a graduate student will be given a failing grade.