General Information

Course description

Operating system is the software foundation of a computer system. This class covers the principles and practice of operating system design. Includes abstraction, resources management, scheduling, concurrency, file systems, protection, security, command languages, and system performance.

Textbooks

Class

  • When: MWF 8:30am-9:20am
  • Where: Zoom (you can find the link on iLearn)
  • Special Note: all lectures will be recorded

Labs

  • When: Monday 11:00am-1:50pm and 2:00pm-4:50pm, Thursday 2:00pm-4:50pm, Friday 2:00pm-4:50pm
  • Where: Zoom (you can find the link on iLearn)

TA and Office hours

  • Our TA is Ali Nowraiz Khan, Zhenxiao Qi. and Xuezixiang Li.
  • My office hours are MWF 11am-12pm or by appointment (you can find the link on iLearn)
  • TA’s office hours are
    • Ali: Wednesday 3pm-5pm
    • Zhenxiao: Tuesday 4pm-5pm
    • Xuezixiang: Thursday 4pm-5pm

Grading policy

  • Labs: 3 x 12% = 36% (in group of two)
  • Homework: 4 x 7% = 28% (INDIVIDUALLY, not in group)
  • Mid-term exam: 10%
  • Final exam: 20%
  • Class and lab participant: 6%
  • Bonus: 5%
  • Note: you must pass both labs and the final exam to pass the class

Late policy

  • There are no slack days.
  • Lecture and lab attendance will be collected through quiz.
  • We will use the iLearn/GradeScope submission timestamp to determine the days. Please note that deadlines are end of day (11:59:59pm), if you submit at 12:00am, it is considered as late.
  • For group assignments, both team members need to submit so as to provide the grade. But only one member needs to submit before deadline.
  • 10% penalty for every late day and the maximum penalty is 50%.

Getting Help

During instructor or TA office hours, please feel free to stop in any time without an appointment. Any other time, please call or email the instructor to make an appointment at some other mutually convenient time. You may also try to “drop in” for help, but please keep in mind that we may not be able to accommodate you.

Please come to us early if you feel you are having trouble keeping up. If you do your part (put in the effort, start early on assignment, come to class), we will do our best to help you stay on top.

Online discussion is strongly encouraged and it will help you a lot in solving project problems. Please join Piazza and post your questions, ideas and thoughts.

Misconduct Policy

Academic integrity is fundamentally about ethical behavior. We strictly follow the academic integrity policies and procedures of UCR (read more).

Important

Cheating vs. collaboration

Appropriate collaboration and research of previous work is an important part of the learning process. However, not all collaboration or use of existing work is ethical. The overarching principles which should guide you when determining whether or not it is appropriate to use a source or collaborate with a classmate involve answering these questions:

Does this fit within the spirit of the assignment/activity?
In any ethical decision there is always judgment involved. Some assignments and activities involve collaborating with a team, in others you are asked to work individually. You are expected to have some common sense and to use it.
Does this help me or someone else in the class to improve our skills and/or understanding of class material?
As a guiding principle, talking about concepts is usually good, talking about specific answers or approaches to problems is usually not.
Does this misrepresent my own (or someone else’s) capabilities and understanding of materials for the purpose of grading?
Attribution of sources is a key idea here; if you use work which is not your own, that work should be cited. For this class, citation is not required to be in a specific format, but any citation should clearly identify the author and source of any work which is not your own. Refer to the university policy on plagiarism and cheating.
Have any specific instructions been given for this assignment?
Not all assignments are the same. On some you will be given explicit instructions about what level of collaboration is appropriate, and you are expected to abide by those restrictions even if you disagree with them.

If you are at all uncertain about an action, whether it be working with another student, researching existing code, or something else, you are always welcome to ask the instructor for clarification.

The severity of sanctions imposed for an academic integrity violation will depend on the severity of the transgression and ascertained intent of the student. Penalties may range from failing the assignment to failing the course. Again, actions will adhere to the Academic Honesty policies of BCOE and UCR.