UCR CS 10: Introduction to Computer Science I

Winter 2005

Overview

Basic information

Lecture schedule

Midterm

Final

General course features and policies (please read these carefully)

• Material covered: You'll be responsible for learning material covered in lecture, in the textbook, and in lab. We expect you to read the textbook; lecture only emphasizes key material, but does not cover all required material alone.
• Collaboration policy (TA/instructor may override for particular assignment):
  • Midterm, final, quizzes, lab practicals -- Obviously no collaboration
  • In-lecture exercises -- Dependent on instructor instructions for particular exercise.
  • Homework -- Collaboration strongly ENCOURAGED. Study groups are great. You should still do your own solution, and should not turn in *identical* solutions as others, but similar solutions are O.K. Remember though -- these are designed to help you on the assesment items, so relying too heavily on others will hurt you during assessment. Also, we may give homework problems whose answers are in the book. That's so you get quick feedback; you should submit your answers, not merely copies of the book's answers.
  • In-lab exercises -- Collaboration strongly ENCOURAGED. If you complete an exercise, feel free to help others -- teaching enhances your own learning.
  • At-home programming assignments -- Collaboration strongly ENCOURAGED. You will be working in teams, but programs must represent YOUR OWN original work. Teams should work on the algorithm together and help debug/test each others code. However, copying code from ANY source (any book, current or past students, past solutions, the web, etc.) is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. Code between teamates will be similar, but you are not allowed to just copy a teamate's solution.
• Academic dishonesty: cheating is strongly punished.
  Read the CS department's policies and rules regarding academic dishonesty. Pay special attention to "Programming Assignments" and "Active and Passive Cheating".
  Report cheating (anonymously if you wish) at: https://www.cs.ucr.edu/cheating/.
  Note: we use a powerful commercial tool that automatically compares all programs (this quarter and from past quarters too), neglecting changes in variable names, spacing, etc., and detects copied code. If you are smart enough to outsmart the tool, you are smart enough to write the program yourself. We regularly catch several cases of copying in CS 10 EVERY QUARTER, with severe penalties given.
  PLEASE, don't risk it!!
  
  A couple more notes.
  Lying to an instructor in order to be able to make up a missed exam or in other ways to obtain a better grade can be treated as academic dishonesty. During exams, cell phones must be stored away in a place not visible (e.g., inside a backpack).
• Regrade policy: regrade requests must be submitted in writing and within one week of the distribution of the graded material. Grade-database errors should also be pointed out within one week of posting.
• Communicating with the instructors and TAs: when sending electronic mail to the instructors or TAs, please remember that many students have the same name, and your instructor may be teaching other courses too. So please give your full name and list the course you are referring to, and preferably include your student ID number along with your lec and lab section numbers. We prefer that you use your UCR email account so that you get used to it (remember that UCR sends many official notices now only by email). Please try to be polite and professional, and use reasonable grammar and formatting.
• Programming assignments: All turned-in assignments will be turned in electronically. Assignments turned into the wrong folder may not be graded. If they are graded, there will be a 20% penalty. Each file should begin with our report template header. Source code should comply with professionally accepted coding standards. Please remember that successfully writing a computer program that compiles and runs correctly is not something anyone can do in just a few minutes, even when it looks easy. Debugging typically takes three times longer than figuring out how to write it. So don't leave your programming assignments to the last minute!
• Lab attendance : is required for the full 3-hour lab. If you finish early, help others (teaching increases your own learning), read ahead, work on your at-home program assignments, etc.
• Lab enrollment : To reduce disruptions and provide for the best educational environment, all persons in lab during scheduled lab time should be formally registered in that section. In general, no swapping sections and no unregistered people in the lab are allowed, even if there are extra computers.
• Switching/adding/dropping lab and lecture sections: all add, drop, and section changes of all lower division Computer Science courses, after the period when students can do so electronically is over, are done through the College of Engineering's Student Affairs office. Neither the instructors nor the CS department itself can sign any add/drop forms, nor can they arrange for section changes. Please go to Student Affairs, Bourns Hall A159, for any such changes.
• Late policy for at-home programs:
  • Late penalty for at-home programs: 10% for 1-day late, not accepted after 1 day late.
  • "Day late" is defined as 24 hours after the due time.
• Time Requirements: This is a four-unit CS course. As such, you should expect to spend 3 hours/week in lecture, 3 hours/week in lab, and 6 to 10 hours/week doing individual study (readings, homeworks, programming, lab preparation, etc) -- no exaggerating here! Please don't underestimate the time you will need to spend on this course. These are real time amounts spent by successful past students. Computer Science and Engineering are challenging disciplines requiring extensive time to master -- it's worth it in the end (great jobs, great pay, respect, etc.), but those things don't come for free. So practice, practice, practice! Work hard in school, then reap the rewards of a great career.
• Final Exams are scheduled by the University, not by the instructor, and are correlated to the course sections. This means you take the final exam scheduled for the section you are enrolled in.
• Final grades: Per university policy, changes to your final grade will be made only in the event of a clerical error. Asking your instructor how far you were from a cutoff and what extra work you can do to improve the grade is not appropriate.

Personalized Answer Sheet

Electronic turn-in

Anonymously report suspected cheating

Additional Resources

• UCR CS department's Online Documentation page.