The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada
Department of Computer Science

CS 1027a - Computer Science Fundamentals II
Course Outline – Fall Term 2011

Course Description

This course serves as a continuation for both Computer Science 1025a/b and 1026a/b. Major emphasis is placed on the organization and manipulation of abstract data types, such as lists, stacks, queues, and trees. In addition, various high-level language implementations of the abstract data types are examined. Object-oriented design principles are emphasized throughout the course.  Additional topics include sorting, searching, recursion, and the analysis of algorithms.  Java is the programming language used in this course.

Prerequisites

  • Computer Science 1025a/b or 1026a/b
  • Unless you have either the prerequisite for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you will be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

Instructor

Instructor

Vadim Mazalov

Office

Middlesex College 327

Office Hours

To be announced

Phone

519-661-2111 ext 83741

E-Mail

vmazalov<at> uwo.ca

Texts

Required TextbookJava Software Structures: Designing and Using Data Structures, Lewis and Chase, Addison Wesley, 3rd edition, 2009

Course Website

The course website is located at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS1027a. All course materials including lecture notes will be posted at this site. It is the student’s responsibility to check the course website on a frequent and regular basis.

Lecture Notes

Copies of the lecture slides will be available on the course website well before each lecture, so that you can bring them to class. These are copies of the instructor's slides, and are intended to aid note-taking during lectures. They are not necessarily complete course notes, and are not a substitute for attending lectures!

Lecture Topics

  • Collections
  • Abstract Data Types: Stacks, Queues, Lists, Trees
  • Inheritance
  • Recursion
  • Analysis of Algorithms
  • Sorting and Searching

Lecture and Lab Schedule

The timetable for lectures and labs is posted at https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/timetables/mastertt/ttindex.cfm

There are 3 lecture hours per week and 1 weekly lab hour. The purpose of the labs is to introduce or expand on the core material of this course, and to provide programming exercises in course concepts. Lab instructions are posted on the course website, and include material that must be read before the lab. Attendance at labs is a required part of the course.

TA Consulting:  to be announced on the course website.

Computing Facilities

Each student enrolled in CS1027a is given an account on the Computer Science Department First Year Teaching Environment (FYTE). In accepting an account, a student agrees to abide by the department's Rules of Ethical Conduct.

After-hours access to some Computer Science lab rooms is granted electronically by student card. If a card is lost, a replacement card will no longer open these lab rooms, and the student must bring the new card to a member of the Systems Group in Middlesex College Room 346, or to the I/O Counter in MC 352.

Email Contact

We occasionally need to send email messages to the class or to students individually. Email is sent to your UWO email address as assigned to you by ITS (Information Technology Services).  It is your responsibility to read this email frequently and regularly.  You may wish to have this email forwarded to an alternative email address. See the ITS website for directions on forwarding email. 

You should note that email at ITS  and other email providers may have quotas or limits on the amount of space they dedicate to each account. Unchecked email may accumulate beyond those limits and you may be unable to retrieve important messages from your instructors.

You are encouraged to contact the course instructor via email, with concise and appropriate questions you may have regarding course and lecture materials or clarification of assignments.  Note that email sent from accounts other than ITS may not reach its destination; hence you must send your questions from your UWO account.

Student Evaluation

Component

Weight

Schedule (tentative)

 Workload

 Assignment 1

5%

 Due Thurs. Sep. 29

 Medium

 Assignment 2

10 %

 Due Thurs. Oct. 20

 Heavy

 Assignment 3

10 %

 Due Thurs. Nov. 10

 Heavy

 Assignment 4

10 %

 Due Tues. Dec. 6

 Heavy

 Labs

10%

 Weekly

 

 Midterm Exam

20 %

 Tuesday Nov. 1 (in class), 1 hour 45 minutes

 

 Final Exam

35%

 During the Dec. exam period, 3 hours

 

If for any reason the assignment schedule given above cannot be adhered to, the assignment marks will be pro-rated. (The 4 assignments are worth 35 % of the overall mark for the course. If an assignment has to be cancelled for any reason, the remaining assignment weights will be prorated to add up to 35 %. ) 

There will be no makeup midterm exam, except for students requesting a Special Midterm Exam for religious reasons. These students must have notified the course instructor and filed documentation with their Dean's office at least 2 weeks prior to the midterm exam.

Students who do not write the midterm exam will have the midterm weight shifted to the final exam, which will then be worth 55%. Students who write the midterm, but who do better on the final exam than the midterm, will also have the midterm weight shifted to the final.

To be eligible to receive a passing grade in the course (50% or higher), your mark on the final exam must be at least 45% and the weighted average of your four assignments must be at least 45%. Otherwise your maximum course grade will be 45.

To be eligible to receive a grade of 65% or higher in the course (i.e. to be eligible to go on in a Computer Science module), your mark on the final exam must be at least 50% and the weighted average of your four assignments must be at least 50%. Otherwise your maximum course grade will be 60.

Labs

Lab instructions will be available on the course website in advance, and students must bring a hard copy to the lab. It is expected that students will come prepared to the labs by reading the lab instructions and performing the preparatory work in advance.

  • There will be a total of 11 or 12 labs (to be announced).
  • Each completed lab is worth 1% of your final grade. Since there are more than 10 labs in total and only 10% of your final grade is allocated for labs, your lab mark will be based on your best 10 lab marks.
  • You must attend the lab session for which you are registered. There are no make-up labs and students who are absent for a lab do not have the option of attending another lab. We encourage students who encounter serious health or personal difficulties to contact their Dean's office.
  • Students must bring their UWO identification to all labs.

Assignments

  • Assignment descriptions, including updates and clarifications, will be posted on the course website. 
  • Instructions for the submission of assignments will also be posted on the course website.
  • Your assignments may be prepared on a computing system other than the one provided by the Computer Science Department. However, students must ensure that their submitted programs run correctly on the Computer Science Department equipment.
  • Assignments are due at midnight (24:00) on the due date.
  • Late assignments will have a penalty of 10% of the maximum mark for the assignment deducted for each day late.  An assignment which is more than 2 days late will not be accepted.
  • No extensions will be given for assignments. Workload, exams, minor illnesses, and home computer problems are not valid excuses for being unable to complete an assignment within the allotted time. However, in the event of serious medical or compassionate grounds, you should follow the procedure for Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness as given below.
  • It is the student’s responsibility to keep up-to-date backups of assignment files in case of system crashes or other unforeseen events.
  • Assignments are marked by teaching assistants. 
  • If you have any questions regarding an assignment mark, you must first contact and discuss your concerns with the TA who marked the assignment. If the matter remains unresolved, you may then take your concerns to your course instructor.
  • The marks for all assignments will be posted by the end of the term. It is your responsibility to ensure that the posted marks are correct.

Exams

  • There is a midterm exam and a final exam. Both exams are closed book. No reference materials, calculators or other electronic devices are allowed. 
  • Students must bring their UWO identification to the exams. 
  • The final exam is scheduled by the Office of the Registrar during the final exam period. Students are advised not to make travel plans until they have consulted the final exam schedule.
  • Computer-marked multiple-choice exams may be screened for similarity by software that checks for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.

Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness

If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately.  It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed. In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For further information please see: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf

 

A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here: https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/medical_document.pdf

Accessibility Statement

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 661-2111 x 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

Tutoring

The role of tutoring is to help students understand course material. Tutors should not write part or all of an assignment for the students who hire them. Having employed the same tutor as another student is not a legitimate defense against an accusation of collusion, should two students hand in assignments judged similar beyond the possibility of coincidence.

Ethical Conduct

Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a scholastic offence, at the following website: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.

All assignments must be completed individually. You may discuss approaches to problems with other students; however, the work handed in must be your individual effort.

Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a serious and major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).

Assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will, for the student's first offence, be given a mark of zero with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment. Students are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on Scholastic Offences  and Rules of Ethical Conduct .

The University of Western Ontario uses software to detect cases of plagiarism.