CS 101
Fall 2024
Instructor(s):
- 102 (9:30am) - Prof. Deepti Jindal djindal@ycp.edu
- 103 (11:00am) - Dr. Joe Villani, jvillani@ycp.edu
- 101 (2:00pm) - Dr. David Babcock, dbabcock@ycp.edu
Section(s) Instructor Office hours 102 (9:30-10:45AM KEC123) Deepti Jindal, djindal@ycp.edu by appointment 103 (11:00-12:15AM KEC123) Joe Villani, jvillani@ycp.edu by appointment 101 (2:00-3:15PM KEC123) David Babcock dbabcock@ycp.edu KEC 117 M 11am-1pm, T 9:30-11am, W 1-2pm, R 9:30-11am, or by appointment
Course description
This course introduces the fundamental techniques of algorithm design and program construction using procedural constructs. Topics will include problem analysis; algorithm design; and implementation and debugging strategies using good programming practices. The course will cover basic data structures including variables, arrays, strings, records, and pointers; and control structures including decisions, iterations, functions, and file I/O. The course will focus on applications from computer science and engineering using C/C++.
Prerequisites
None
Textbook
Kochan. Programming in C. Sams Publishing, 4th Edition, 2014, ISBN 9780321776419
Course Structure and Expectations
Class meetings will be primarily a discussion of various programming concepts illustrated through sample code in C. It is important to come to class prepared to ask questions related to the topic and/or work on the lab exercises which are designed to reinforce the concepts from the lecture notes. There will be a series of homework programming assignments to be completed individually.
All the programming assignments are cross platform using C, see the Resources page for instructions on installing the necessary components if you wish to use your own machine.
There will be three midterm exams, and an optional comprehensive final which may replace your lowest midterm exam score.
We will be covering a significant amount of material in the course at a rapid pace, so it is imperative that you keep up by participating in the class meetings.
Learning outcomes
The basic objectives of this course are to provide the student with enough programming tools and methods to feel comfortable writing C / C++ / C# programs that solve problems encountered in computer science and engineering. The following topics will tentatively be covered:
- Be able to create, compile, and run C programs using the Gnu C/C++ compiler
- Be able to declare variables of various types and write programs that do basic arithmetic operations
- Understand and apply control structures such as conditionals and loops
- Understand and use arrays
- Understand and be able to write functions
- Understand and be able to define and use structure types
- Understand and be able to use character strings
- Understand and be able to use pointers
- Use top-down design to decompose complex problems into simpler problems
Policies
Grades
Your course grade will be determined as follows:
- Labs: 10%
- Homework (programming assignments): 20% (*)
- Exams (3 midterms and 1 optional cumulative final exam, lowest score dropped): 70% (†)
(*) You must demonstrate significant effort on all homework assignments in order to receive a passing grade the course regardless of your overall course average. The very important Outcome CO12 (Use top-down design to decompose complex problems into simpler problems) cannot be assessed based on exams alone. This will be demonstrated via homework assignments. Failure to demonstrate this outcome on homework assignments will be grounds for failure even with a high exam average.
(†) You must pass (receive a grade of 70 or higher) on at least one exam, and have an average of 60 or higher on your three highest exam grades, in order to receive a passing grade for the course regardless of your overall course average.
Grading scale
The grading scale for the course is given below. Please note that this grading scale represents the most stringent criteria the students will have to meet to get a particular grade. Each instructor reserves the right to reduce (i.e. curve) the grade scale based on the final course performance.
Grade Range 4.0 (A) ≥ 90 and < 100 3.5 (B+) ≥ 87 and < 90 3.0 (B) ≥ 80 and < 87 2.5 (C+) ≥ 77 and < 80 2.0 (C) ≥ 70 and < 77 1 (D) ≥ 60 and < 70 0 (F) < 60
Course website
Please check the course web page, https://ycpcs.github.io/cs101-fall2024/, regularly for important announcements.
Reading assignments
It is strongly recommended that you look over the material for each day before coming to class, see Course Schedule.
Posting and submission of assignments and labs
Assignments and (some) labs will be posted as zip files on the course web page.
Assignments will be submitted using the Marmoset server. You will receive an email containing the username and password for the Marmoset server. NOTE: This server DOES NOT use your YCP credentials.
Late policy
Assignments may be submitted up to two days late, with a penalty of 20% per day late. No credit will be given for assignments submitted more than 2 days late.
Important: As mentioned above in the Grades section, you must make a good faith effort to complete all of the homework assignments in order to receive a passing grade for the course.
Homework policy
Programming assignments will be assigned periodically. Discussing programming assignments with other students is acceptable and encouraged only for high level conceptual design. You must write and understand all of the code you include in your program. Verbatim copying of someone else’s code (including electronic transmission or using code from websites) is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN under any circumstances. You must actively contribute to the process of understanding and solving the problem posed in the homework assignment. Tutoring will be available if you need assistance in writing code.
When you collaborate with another student, you must add comments to the code you turn in stating
- who you worked with, and
- what the nature of your collaboration was
For example, if you worked with Alice Smith, you might add a comment as follows:
// I worked with Alice Smith. We worked together on
// constructing the loop in the compute_temperatures function.
When you collaborate with other student(s), you must make sure that everyone involved in the collaboration properly acknowledges everyone else who collaborated. In the example above, Alice would need to acknowledge working with you.
Violations of the policy, such as failing to cite collaborators or electronic copying of code, will be considered a violation of academic integrity subject to sanctions described below.
Exams
Exams will be closed-book, closed-notes and will include a programming component. The programming portion must be done on the lab computers.
No make-up exams will be given without approval of the instructor prior to class unless proof of extreme emergency or illness is provided.
You must receive a score of 70+ on AT LEAST ONE exam and an overall exam average of 60 or higher to earn a passing grade for the course.
The optional comprehensive final may be used to replace your lowest midterm exam score.
Labs
Students will work on labs during most class meetings.
To receive credit for a lab, you must:
- Get a sign-off for completing the lab’s design artifact; make sure you have this at the beginning of class on the day we work on the lab
- Get a sign-off on the completed program; full credit if you get this sign off by the end of the next week (after the day we work on the lab), 80% of full credit if you get the sign-off before the next exam, and no credit after the exam.
Attendance and participation
Do not miss class! If you do not attend class, show significant effort on the lab assignment by the end of the day, or if you are seen doing non-lab activities before finishing a lab, you will be considered absent. The first absence will result in a 1 percentage point deduction from your final grade. The total percentage point deduction for 2 or greater absences will be calculated using the following formula:
2(absences - 1)
where absences is the number of times you were absent. Therefore, with 5 absences (2.5 weeks), you will have a 16 percentage point deduction, which will automatically drop you 1.5 to 2 letter grades. If you have an emergency and cannot attend your section, you may come to another section with permission from the instructor of that section. Always notify the instructor before the class if you have to miss class. It is the student’s responsibility to get notes, announcements, and homework assignments from other students or the instructor if a class is missed. An absence will be excused only with written proof of an illness or other emergency.
Professionalism
I expect you to conduct yourself as a professional in this course. Professionalism includes:
- Respect for and courteous interaction with peers, faculty and facilities;
- Integrity, which includes at its core honesty, responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions;
- Sensitivity and appreciation for diverse cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences;
- Constructive evaluation, which means that criticism is offered and accepted in a productive manner;
- Self-reflection and identification of one’s own strengths and weaknesses;
- Responsibility for one’s own education and learning;
- An attitude that fosters professional behavior in colleagues and peers;
- Punctuality at meetings and class sessions;
- Attentive behavior during class sessions, avoiding personal or social use of cell phones, laptops, or other electronic devices;
- Acknowledgement of the Kinsley Engineering Center as a professional workplace, and treatment of this facility as a business or office space, not as an informal space.
I reserve the right to enforce this code through the York College Code of Student Conduct.
Academic Integrity Policy (Philosophy Statement)
For the full policy, go the the Academic Standards section of the current Course Catalog https://www.ycp.edu/about-us/offices-and-departments/registrar/catalogs/.
York College of Pennsylvania, as an institution of higher education, serves to promote and sustain the creation, acquisition, and dissemination of knowledge. In order to fulfill this purpose, an environment of integrity, dependability and honesty must be maintained by all members of the York College community. Without a foundation based on intellectual honesty and integrity, the very ability to uphold the academic endeavors that York College strives to pursue is inhibited.
Academic integrity involves two fundamental expectations:
- Anything you turn in as your own work is, in fact, your own work and your own words, completed without assistance, unless your instructor has given explicit permission otherwise.
- Anything you turn in is truthful. Lab data were generated in the lab (and not made up), hours worked for an internship or coop were actually worked, etc.
YCP’s academic integrity policy includes a non-exhaustive list of activities that are prohibited. Some of the commonly encountered prohibited activities include:
- Plagiarism (passing someone else’s words or ideas off as one’s own without proper attribution).
- Getting assistance from other students on non-collaborative assignments. You are permitted (and encouraged) to get assistance from your instructor and the Academic Success Center.
- Sharing papers, exams, homework assignments, etc. with other students (even if it wasn’t your intent to cheat).
- Ghostwriting (getting someone else to write a paper/assignment, whether it is a friend, an essay mill, or a generative AI tool).
- Using unauthorized assistance on exams (e.g., cheat sheets, websites, publisher test banks, other students).
- Buying/sourcing assignment answers from other people (whether it is other students, a website like Chegg, or other online sources).
- Turning in papers/assignments completed in other classes.
This is not a complete list of prohibited activities. Check out the policy in the catalog for a more comprehensive list. The onus is on you, the student, to verify that any exceptions are allowed in this class by your instructor.
Instructors have full discretion to assign a sanction up to and including a grade of 0 in the class for violations of the policy. Violations will be reported to the Associate Provost of Student Success as outlined in the policy. You cannot withdraw from a class if you have been charged with an academic integrity violation.
If at any point you are unsure whether something is allowed under the academic integrity policy, please ask your instructor!
Instructor’s policy
The following policy pertains specifically to all graded work in this course:
- All graded (individual) assignments are to be completed individually. I encourage you to discuss high level concepts with other students, but any work you submit must be yours alone.
- Direct copying of solutions or work from other students, web sites, or other sources is absolutely forbidden under any circumstances.
- Any sources (books, websites, articles, fellow students, etc.), except for the course textbook and lecture notes, that you consult in completing an assignment must be properly acknowledged. In general, I strongly discourage you from using any resource not explicitly listed in the course syllabus or on the course web page but rather asking the instructor or tutors for assistance.
- Exams must be completed individually using only the resources from the course.
You may work with other students on labs. However, we do expect you to complete and submit them, and they count towards your participation grade: see “Lab Policy”.
Use of Personal Technology in the Classroom
While York College recognizes students’ need for educational and emergency-related technological devices such as laptops, PDA’s, cellular phones, etc., using them unethically or recreationally during class time is never appropriate. The college recognizes and supports faculty members’ authority to regulate in their classrooms student use of all electronic devices.
Communication Standards
York College recognizes the importance of effective communication in all disciplines and careers. Therefore, students are expected to competently analyze, synthesize, organize, and articulate course material in papers, examinations and presentations. In addition, students should know and use communication skills current to their field of study, recognize the need for revision as part of their writing process, and employ standard conventions of English usage in both writing and speaking. Students may be asked to further revise assignments that do not demonstrate effective use of these communication skills.
Student Accessibility Services
York College of Pennsylvania offers a variety of academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities to ensure their success. To request accommodations, please contact Student Accessibility Services at (717)-815-1717 or sas@ycp.edu. Student Accessibility Services will discuss the confidential process of requesting accessibility services and establish the accommodations for which the student is eligible.
There is a possibility that during this course, classroom lectures may be recorded in accordance with York College of Pennsylvania policies for Student Accessibility Services.
Disclaimer
This syllabus is subject to change by the instructor.
