CS 201

Spring 2021

Instructor: David Babcock, dbabcock@ycp.edu

Office Hours: M 1-3pm, T 2-3pm, W 11am-12pm, R 8:30-9:30am, or by appointment

Section	Days	Time	Room	Final Exam
101	Tues/Thur	11:00-12:15	KEC 123	Tues, May 11, 10:15am-12:15pm
102	Tues/Thur	12:30-1:45	KEC 119	Thur, May 13, 10:15am-12:15pm

Course Description

This course introduces advanced object-oriented constructs such as abstraction, virtual methods, and generic classes. Advanced data structures including arrays, linked lists, queues, stacks, trees, heaps, and hash tables will be discussed both natively as well as through standard template libraries. Fundamental sorting and searching algorithms will be introduced. Basic analytical and proof techniques will be used to characterize the data structures and algorithms discussed. The course will focus on implementing applications from computer science and engineering using languages such as C++/C#/Java.

Prerequisites

CS 101 with a grade of 2 or better

Textbook

Mark Allen Weiss, Data Structures & Problem Solving Using Java, 4th ed.

Course Structure and Expectations

Class meetings will be a mix of lecture/discussion and in-class lab exercises designed to illustrate the concepts we are covering. A series of programming projects in the Java programming language will be assigned at approximately 1-2 week intervals, to be completed individually. Written homework assignments may be assigned.

We will use the Eclipse IDE for labs and programming assignments in Java. This is available for free from www.eclipse.org. (You will also need the Java Development Kit (JDK).)

There will be three midterm exams and one comprehensive final exam. The dates are shown in the Schedule.

We will be covering a significant amount of material in the course, and it is very important that you keep up. If you have any questions, please ask me in class, office hours, or through email. I’m here to help!

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Use an object-oriented programming language effectively
2. Understand and use abstract data types such as lists, stacks, queues, maps, and sets
3. Understand and use fundamental data structures such as arrays, linked lists, trees, and hash tables
4. Implement basic array- and list-based data structures
5. Understand and implement fundamental algorithms such as searching and sorting
6. Analyze algorithms to determine their asympotic running time
7. Express upper bounds using big-O notation
8. Understand and use recursion
9. Solve recurrences
10. Use proof by induction

Policies

Grades

Grades are assigned on a 100-point scale:

Numeric Range	Letter Grade
90-100	A (4.0)
87-90	B+ (3.5)
80-86	B (3.0)
77-80	C+ (2.5)
70-76	C (2.0)
60-70	D (1.0)
0-60	F (0.0)

Your overall grade for the course will be determined as follows:

• Homework and programming assignments: 30%
• Exams (3 midterm exams and 1 comprehensive final exam - lowest dropped): 65% ^*
• Labs, attendance/participation: 5%

^* Note that you must earn a score of 70 or above on at least one exam and have at least a 60% average on your top 3 exam scores in order to receive a grade of 2.0 or higher for the course.

Course website

Please check the course web page, regularly for important announcements.

Reading Assignments

Reading assignments are posted in the Schedule at the end of this syllabus. We expect you to do the reading before class. When we give a lecture, we will assume you have done the reading. We encourage you to use class time to ask questions about parts of the reading you did not understand to your satisfaction.

Homework assignments

You must make a legitimate attempt to complete every homework assignment. We reserve the right to fail any student who does not make a good faith effort to complete all of the homework assignments.

Posting and submission of assignments and labs

Assignments and labs will be posted as zip files on the course web page.

Assignments and labs will be submitted using the Marmoset server. If you do not already have an account, you will receive an email containing the username and password for this server.

Lab Policy

In order to receive credit for completing a lab, you need to get a sign-off from your instructor or a tutor by demonstrating your completed lab in person (or virtually if you are fully remote). Note: Simply submitting the lab to Marmoset is not sufficient. There are two options for this:

1. For 100% of full credit: Get a sign-off by the end of the next class that your cohort is in the lab (i.e. the class that follows the two from the prior in class session), or if you are fully remote following the Cohort A (Tues in-class) schedule. Please refer to Canvas for the list of students in each cohort.
2. For 80% of full credit: Get a sign-off prior to the class before the next exam.

Any labs not completed by the exam they precede will receive no credit.

We strongly recommend that you work on the labs before you come to class, so that when you come to class, you have made a good start on it and are ready to ask questions about it.

Late Assignments

Late assignments will be marked down 10% per day late. No credit will be given for assignments that are more than two (2) days late. NOTE: Even though you will not receive any graded credit for submissions more than 2 days late, you must still submit a good faith attempt for the assignment before the final exam.

Exams

No make-up exams will be given without approval of the instructor prior to class unless proof of extreme emergency or illness is provided. All exams will be open book and notes.

Attendance and Participation

We expect you to attend class and participate regularly in class activities. If you miss a class, please notify me in advance. You are responsible for all material covered in class, regardless of whether or not you were present. If you attend and participate in class regularly, you can expect to receive full credit for attendance and participation. Frequent absence and/or lack of participation will reduce the credit you receive for attendance and participation. You are responsible for keeping up with the reading assignments as described in the schedule below.

Professionalism

We 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.

We reserve the right to enforce this code through the York College Code of Student Conduct.

Academic Integrity Policy (Philosophy Statement)

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. The Spartan Oath embodies the expectation that all members of the York College community foster an environment of integrity and responsibility. Recognize that adhering to an ethical standard of honesty leads to professional, mature and responsible citizens, and enables society at large to trust our scholarship, research, and conferred degrees. Thus, each member of the York College community must be truthful, honest, personally and professionally responsible, and respect the intellectual contributions of others.

The following academic integrity policy pertains to all individual assignments:

Because the individual assignments are essential for working towards and demonstrating the achievement of the course outcomes, and outcomes 1–3 in particular, you must solve them on your own. You may discuss the problem and high-level (pseudo-code) approaches to solving the problem with other students. You may not, under any circumstances, discuss or share concrete implementation techniques or code. Examples of forbidden types of collaboration include, but are not limited to: looking at another student’s code, allowing another student to see your code, viewing and/or using code from an external source such as a web page, discussing the use of specific API functions to solve a problem, giving or receiving help debugging specific code.

Exams must be completed individually.

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” below.

Definition of Academic Dishonesty

Engaging in academic dishonesty is a violation of the school’s academic integrity policy and is not tolerated at York College. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, cheating on assignments or examinations, plagiarism (i.e. passing someone else’s words or ideas off as one’s own without proper attribution), improper paraphrasing, fabricating research, falsifying academic documents, handing in material completed for another course, and submitting work not done independently (unless part of an explicitly collaborative project).

Academic Integrity Procedure – Reporting

• When a faculty member believes a student has violated the Academic Integrity Policy, the faculty member is encouraged to discuss the incident in person with the student promptly, identifying the sanction he or she is going to apply. The faculty member should then reiterate the charge and sanction in writing to the student.
• The faculty member has full discretion to determine a suitable sanction, such as a “0” on the assignment in question, up to a course grade of “0”. In the case of an egregious first offense, the faculty member may request that the Student Welfare Committee conduct a hearing and determine a sanction, which may involve academic probation, suspension, or dismissal from the College.
• The faculty member has ten days from the written notification to the student to report the incident to the Department Chair and Associate Provost of Academic Services. The faculty member must submit as part of the report: 1) a detailed description of the incident, 2) a course syllabus, 3) an assignment sheet or assignment instructions, 4) the assignment in question, and 5) supporting documentation, such as copied material. The documentation will be kept on file in the student’s permanent record.
• Students cannot withdraw from a course in which they have been accused of academic dishonesty, until the accusation is withdrawn by the faculty member, or is overturned by the Student Welfare Committee or the Associate Provost of Academic Services. Academic Integrity Procedure – Appeals
• Students who believe they have been unjustly charged or sanctioned have ten days after receiving written notification from their instructor regarding the incident to file an appeal with the Student Welfare Committee by submitting a formal letter to the Associate Provost of Academic Services.
• If an appeal is filed, the Student Welfare Committee will schedule a hearing which includes inviting the student and faculty member to attend to provide additional information or clarity regarding the incident. The Student Welfare Committee will then review the charge and/or sanction.
• If the Associate Provost of Academic Services determines that the incident of academic dishonesty is the student’s second or subsequent offense, he or she will provide written documentation to the student, faculty member, and Department Chair. The Student Welfare Committee will automatically conduct a hearing to review the charge and decide on an appropriate sanction: academic probation, suspension or dismissal from the College.
• Academic Services will receive written notification of the Student Welfare Committee’s decision. Students who are unsatisfied with the decision may submit a second and final written appeal to the Associate Provost of Academic Services within 72 hours of receiving notification of the Student Welfare Committee’s decision. All decisions made by the Associate Provost of Academic Services will be final.

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

In accordance with the provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, York College and its faculty are obliged to make reasonable classroom and physical accommodations for students with disabilities. If you are a student with a disability in need of classroom accommodations and have not already registered with Linda Miller, Director of Student Accessibility Services, please contact her at 815-1785 or lmille18@ycp.edu to discuss policies and procedures related to disability services and to establish the accommodations for which you are eligible.

Disclaimer

This syllabus is subject to revision by the instructor.