The Final Exam will be in-class on Friday, 12/10. The final will be non-comprehensive, covering material since the midterm.

This course is a continuation of CSE115, in which heavy emphasis is placed on programming tactics and methodology. You will be expected to solve diverse problems using design and programming skills. Strategies will include Object Oriented methodologies, adaptive programming, applications (rather than applets), graphics, timers, event-driven programming, structured programs as well as OO, data structures as a programming “language”, Abstract Data Types (ADTs) as components, design patterns as tools, philosophies, attitude, personality, and solid software engineering.

Course Topics Prerequisites

 You must have passed CSE 115 with a minimum grade of C-, or have an equivalent background and receive permission from the instructor.

Computing Resources

You will be provided with a CSE undergraduate computing account. You may use the lab facilities in Baldy 19 and Baldy 21 during open hours. You can connect to yeager.cse.buffalo.edu remotely from other sites, on or off campus.

You are expected to become proficient at using the machines in the lab, the Unix system, the Java compiler, and whatever other software development tools the course requires you to use.  It is your responsibility to ensure that any programs you write for this course compile using the Java compiler installed on the department's machines.

You are also required to read mail sent to your CSE e-mail account. Any e-mail communication that you send regarding this course must be sent from your CSE e-mail account or your UB e-mail account. Under no circumstances will e-mail from non-UB accounts be acknowledged or answered. You must include an informative subject line in all e-mail, and include your full name in any e-mail correspondence.

All e-mail that we send in reply to your e-mail will be sent to the address from which you sent your e-mail. Our feedback on materials you hand in electronically will be sent to your CSE e-mail account only. Since you may request re-grades of work only within a set period from the time that the feedback was provided to you, it is in your best interest to read your CSE e-mail account on a daily basis.

Course organization

The course has both a lecture component and a recitation (lab) component. Each component plays a role in helping you achieve the objectives of the course. If you do not participate fully in both you should not expect to do well in the course.

Lectures
 
Some of the topics will be difficult. It is therefore absolutely essential that you ask questions whenever something is said which you do not understand.

You are expected to attend all lectures. If you are unable to attend a lecture because of sickness or similar reasons, make sure you get the notes from a classmate. If you are out of class for an extended period of time because of sickness, notify your instructor as soon as possible, and see your instructor immediately upon your return in order to determine how to catch up. If you have missed a significant portion of the semester due to illness, it is recommended that you resign from the course.

Recitations

The recitations are an integral part of this course.  Attendance in all recitations is mandatory and is critical to the success of the course project. Besides fulfilling the requirement for lab exercises (see grading, below), recitations provide you with an opportunity for hands-on practice applying the concepts and theoretical constructs discussed in class. The are also a time for review of lecture material and for asking more individual questions about the course material than can typically be addressed in lecture.  Some material needed to do the programming projects may be covered only in the recitations.

Recitations do not meet in the first week of classes.

Course evaluation

The following indicates the grade breakdown which I will use in assigning grades in the course. I reserve the right to make small adjustments to the breakdown if I feel it is necessary.

Midterm Exam: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
Programming Project 1: 20%
Programming Project 2: 20%
Lab Exercises (there will be 9, lowest will be dropped): 20%
    note: Quiz counts as 1 lab

Peer evaluation

One of the long programming projects is a team-based project. Each team member will evaluate the rest of the members of their team. More details on this peer evaluation procedure will be handed out during the semester. Your peer evaluation grade is an average of the evaluations you receive from your team members, and counts for a total of 5% of your overall course grade.

General Notes

 If you don't understand something covered in class, ask about it right away. The only silly question is the one which is not asked. If you get a poor mark on an assignment, quiz, or exam, find out why right away. Don't wait a month before asking. The instructor and teaching assistants are available to answer your questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions, or to approach the instructor or T.A. in class, during office hours, in the hallways, or through e-mail.

 This course is intended to be hard work, but it is also intended to be fun. Play with the computer, and have fun with the neat and elegant programming ideas covered in this course. We think computer science is interesting and exciting, and we want to convince you of this. Work hard, but have fun!

Academic Integrity

Source: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/academics-academic_integrity.shtml

The academic degrees and the research findings produced by our Department are worth no more than the integrity of the process by which they are gained. If we do not maintain reliably high standards of ethics and integrity in our work and our relationships, we have nothing of value to offer one another or to offer the larger community outside this Department, whether potential employers or fellow scholars.

 For this reason, the principles of Academic Integrity have priority over every other consideration in every aspect of our departmental life, and we will defend these principles vigorously. It is essential that every student be fully aware of these principles, what the procedures are by which possible violations are investigated and adjudicated, and what the punishments for these violations are. Wherever they are suspected, potential violations will be investigated and determinations of fact sought. In short, breaches of Academic Integrity will not be tolerated.

 Departmental Statement on Academic Integrity in Coding Assignments and Projects

The following statement further describes the specific application of these general principles to a common context in the CSE Department environment, the production of source code for project and homework assignments. It should be thoroughly understood before undertaking any cooperative activities or using any other sources in such contexts.

 All academic work must be your own. Plagiarism, defined as copying or receiving materials from a source or sources and submitting this material as one's own without acknowledging the particular debts to the source (quotations, paraphrases, basic ideas), or otherwise representing the work of another as one's own, is never allowed. Collaboration, usually evidenced by unjustifiable similarity, is never permitted in individual assignments. Any submitted academic work may be subject to screening by software programs designed to detect evidence of plagiarism or collaboration.

It is your responsibility to maintain the security of your computer accounts and your written work. Do not share passwords with anyone, nor write your password down where it may be seen by others. Do not change permissions to allow others to read your course directories and files. Do not walk away from a workstation without logging out. These are your responsibilities. In groups that collaborate inappropriately, it may be impossible to determine who has offered work to others in the group, who has received work, and who may have inadvertently made their work available to the others by failure to maintain adequate personal security In such cases, all will be held equally liable.

These policies and interpretations may be augmented by individual instructors for their courses.  Always check the handouts and web pages of your course and section for additional guidelines.

Departmental Policy on Violations of Academic Integrity

Any student accused of a violation of academic integrity will be so notified by the course director. An informal review will be conducted, including a meeting between these parties. After this review and upon determination that a violation has occurred, the following sanctions will be imposed. It is the policy of this department that, in general, any violation ofacademic integrity will result in an F for the course, that all departmental/financial support including teaching assistantship, research assistantship or scholarships be terminated, that notification of this action be placed in the student's confidential departmental record, and that the student be permanently ineligible for future departmental financial support. A second violation of academic integrity will cause the department to seek permanent dismissal from the major and bar from enrollment in any departmental courses. Especially flagrant violations will be considered under formal review proceedings, which may in addition to the above sanctions result in expulsion from the University.