CS 220X D Term 2015
Application Building with Object-Oriented Concepts

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What this course is about

This course is intended for non-CS majors who have successfully completed a first course in programming, such as CS 1004 or CS 1101. CS 220X provides the foundation for continued study in Computer Science, for students looking to complete a Computer Science minor or for those who need additional programming experience for their major. The emphasis in CS 220X is on building applications relevant to the student's discipline.

Additional information about the course is available in the WPI undergraduate catalog course description for CS 220X.

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Staff

Instructor: Glynis Hamel

Teaching Assistant: Maryam Hasan

Senior Assistant: Chris Hanna

Office Hour Schedule




Day/Time	9:00	10:00	11:00	12:00	1:00	2:00	3:00	4:00
Monday		Chris			Glynis
Tuesday		Maryam	Maryam		Chris	Glynis
Wednesday
Thursday		Chris	Maryam
Friday	Glynis

TA/SA office hours are in FL A22. Glynis Hamel's office hours are in FL 132.

Additional office hours with Glynis Hamel are available by appointment on Thursdays.

Announcements, Class Discussion Board and Email

A discussion board for CS 220X has been set up on myWPI. You should visit the Discussion Board and check the Announcements on a daily basis.

Questions about the homework should be posted on the Discussion Board. If you have a question regarding your grades in the course, you may send email to cs220x-staff *at* cs.wpi.edu. Mail sent to this address goes to the instructor and to the TAs. Include your section number in all correspondence.

The instructor's email address is ghamel *at* cs.wpi.edu. Please restrict your use of my personal email address to issues of a confidential nature. You will get a quicker response if you post your questions to the class discussion board.

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Lecture and Lab Times

Lectures MTRF from 8:00am - 8:50am in AK 219.

Labs meet on Wednesdays according to the following schedule:

Section	Time	Location	Lab Assistants
D01	1 - 1:50pm	KH 203	Chris, Maryam
D02	2 - 2:50pm	KH 203	Chris
D03	3 - 3:50pm	KH 203	Chris
D04	4 - 4:50pm	KH 203	Chris

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Textbook and Software

Textbook Big Java (5th Edition) by Cay Horstmann, 2013. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-43111-5. There's a 4th edition of the textbook which can be used instead, which you might be able to obtain as a less-expensive alternative.

Software: Instructions for course assignments will be given using the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE). We'll be using the Java JDK version 7 or higher. Additional software packages may be required for specific assignments. All software used in this course is available for download without cost.

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Grading

A total of 1000 points can be earned as follows:

Exams (550 points)

Three exams will be given:
• Exam 1 (200 points): Tuesday, March 31
• Exam 2 (200 points): Friday, April 17
• Exam 3 (150 points): Monday, May 4
You must have a passing average on the exams in order to pass the course. (A passing average on the exams is usually around 60%. We may lower this threshold if the exam averages are low; the threshold will not be raised).

Exams are closed-book, closed-notes. You may bring in one sheet of notes (one paper, 8.5" x 11.5", both sides) to each exam. You may not use any computers, calculators, cellphones, or other electronic devices during the exams.

There are no makeups for exams. Absence from an exam will be excused only for medical or emergency reasons. In such cases your final grade will be recorded as Incomplete and you will be allowed to take a makeup exam the next time the course is offered (B-term 2015).

Quizzes (50 points)

Most lecture meetings will feature a short (5-10 minute) quiz on recently-covered lecture material. Quizzes may be done in pairs. They will be graded as follows:
• 0.0 (quiz not submitted or submitted with no demonstrated understanding of material)
• 0.5 (quiz submitted but answer(s) incorrect)
• 1.0 (quiz submitted with correct answers)
The lowest 25% of your quiz grades will be dropped (e.g., if 20 quizzes are given over the duration of the term, the 5 lowest quiz grades will be dropped). The average of your quiz grades will be worth 5% of your total grade (50 points). There are no makeups for quizzes, for any reason.

Homework (350 points)

There will be six homework assignments. Homeworks 1 and 2 will each be worth 35 points. Homeworks 3 - 6 will be worth 70 points each.

Homework assignments will be due on Tuesday evenings at 5pm. Each student is allowed to submit one homework up to 24 hours late with no penalty (see Late Policy, below). All programming assignments will be electronically submitted and will be due at 5pm on the due date. No extra credit or makeup assignments will be given.

Labs (50 points)

Labs will be given during lab sections on Wednesdays. To get credit for a lab you must attend at your scheduled time, actively work on the assignment during the lab period, and use web-based turnin to turn in your work at the end of the 50 minute lab period, even if you haven't finished. If you can't finish the lab within the lab period, you should complete the lab on your own time (you're not required to re-submit the finished product). Each lab will be graded as either credit (10) or no credit (0). You will not get credit for a lab unless you attend the section for which you are registered. Your lowest lab grade will be dropped. There are no makeups for labs.

Note that each student is allowed to miss a number of labs/quizzes with no questions asked, and is also allowed to submit one homework assignment late with no questions asked. Do not send email to the instructor or to the TAs requesting makeup or extra-credit work, or to ask for exceptions to the late homework policy.

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Academic Honesty Policy

Please read WPI's Academic Honesty Policy.

Labs and Quizzes

Collaboration is encouraged for labs and quizzes.

Exams

Exams are to be done individually.

Homework

Homework 1 is to be done individually. The remaining homework assignments may be done individually, or with a partner ( instructions on how to request a homework partner will be provided prior to Homework 2). For the following discussion, the two partners in a homework pair are allowed unlimited collaboration.

Students may discuss homework assignments with each other, but each individual/pair is responsible for writing up their own solution from scratch.

As examples, each of the following scenarios would constitute cheating (this list is not exhaustive):

• Two students (or two different homework pairs) share a solution to a single question on a homework assignment.
• Students sit side-by-side while writing up their solutions and one student copies down what the other student types up.
• One student sends the code for a completed homework question to another student "just so he can look at it to figure out how to do the problem".
• A student obtains a solution to a homework problem (or a problem similar to a homework problem) from on-line or from someone who took the course in a previous term.

In contrast, the following scenarios would not constitute cheating:

• Two students discuss an assignment (its goal, what it is asking you to do, what the challenging parts are, or how to approach the problem).
• You ask any member of the course staff (professor, TAs, or SAs) for help in understanding or completing an individual assignment.
• Students from the same homework pair share code to a solution.
• One student shows his/her code to another student and asks for help in understanding why their code is wrong. (This would become cheating if a reasonable amount of the solution was dictated or provided).

Cheating will not be tolerated. If you are unsure whether a given activity would constitute cheating, ask the instructor. Violations of the Academic Honesty Policy can result in an NR for the course, and violators will be subject to the procedures outlined in section 5 of the WPI Judicial Policy.

Late Policy

Late homework will be accepted within 24 hours of the due date. Each student will be allowed one late submission without penalty. Beyond that, late homework will incur a 25 per cent penalty. Any homework turned in after the 24-hour grace period will receive a grade of zero. No extra credit or makeup homework assignments will be given.

Do not send email to the instructor or to the TAs requesting special exemption from the late policy. The late policy is applicable for all possible reasons for late submissions. In particular, one pair member forgetting to turn in an assignment will not be considered an acceptable excuse for an extension. The best hedge against losing points due to the late policy is to start working on each homework assignment as soon as it becomes available - don't wait until the last minute.

Homework Submission Policy

Read Expectations on Preparing Homework. Homework must be submitted using the web-based turnin program. Homework submitted by any other means (paper, email, etc.) will receive a grade of zero.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accomodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Services Office (DSO) as soon as possible to ensure that such accomodations are implemented in a timely fashion. The DSO is located in Daniels Hall.

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Schedule

Note: the instructor reserves the right to change the order of topics or the dates of the exams, quizzes, or homework assignments, if necessary.

Week	Daily Objectives/Extras	Topics and Reading	Assignments
Mar 16 - 20	Lecture 1 objectives Lecture 2 objectives Lecture 3 objectives Lecture 4 objectives Java API Setting your PATH variable Java Coding Conventions	Intro to Java Data types, variables, operators, Strings Control flow - Boolean expressions and selection statements Control flow - loops Reading: Chapters 1 - 5	Lab 1, Wed 3/18 Homework 1 (due: Tuesday, Mar 24 at 5pm)
Mar 23 - 27	Lecture 5 objectives Lecture 6 objectives Lecture 7 objectives Lecture 8 objectives	Introduction to OO concepts and classes Using Javadoc Arrays and ArrayLists Interfaces Iterators Reading: Chapters 6 - 8	Lab 2, Wed 3/25 Homework 2 (due: Tuesday, Mar 31)
Mar 30 - Apr 3	Day 9 - catch up Day 10 - Exam 1: March 31 Lecture 11 objectives Lecture 12 objectives .zip file for ZooAnimals code	More on classes Inheritance and polymorphism Reading: Chapter 9	Lab 3, Wed 4/1 Homework 3 (due: Tuesday, April 7)
Apr 6 - 10	Lecture 13 objectives Lecture 14 objectives Lecture 15 objectives Lecture 16 objectives	Parameter passing; More on static Inner classes, Anonymous classes Unit testing and JUnit Exceptions GUIs - Labels, Panels, Frames, Layouts Reading: Chapters 10, 11.4, 19	Lab 4, Wed 4/8 Homework 4 (due: Tuesday, Apr 14 Thursday, April 16)
Apr 13 - 17	Lecture 17 objectives Lecture 18 objectives Day 19 - Catch up Day 20 - Exam 2: April 17	GUIs - Events, Buttons GUIs - Menus, Text fields	Lab 5, Wed 4/15 Homework 5 (.pdf file) (due: Tuesday, Apr 28)
April 20 - 24	Lecture 21 objectives Lecture 22 objectives	(no class Monday - Patriot's Day) GUIs - Model-View-Controller pattern (no lab Wednesday) (no class Thursday - Project Presentation Day) Encapsulation the equals() method	Homework 6(due: Tuesday, May 5)
Apr 27 - May 1	Lecture 23 objectives Lecture 24 objectives Lecture 25 objectives Lecture 26 objectives How to write an equality method in Java	Relational databases SQL and SQL commands Executing SQL commands from a Java program: JDBC Reading: Chapter 23	Lab 6 (.docx file), Wed 4/29
May 4 - 5	Day 27 - Exam 3: May 4 Day 28 - Exams returned; wrap-up	What we've learned

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Where can I find feedback on my homework assignments?

  A grade sheet will be filled out for every graded homework assignment. The grader will upload a copy of the grade sheet to the turnin accounts of both homework partners. You can access the grade sheet for a particular assignment by choosing the assignment in turnin, and clicking on the "Comments" submitted by the grader for the assignment.

• My classmate has received her homework feedback on turnin, but my feedback isn't posted. Why?

  There are multiple course staff members grading CS 220x homework assignments. The graders will be uploading your feedback as soon as they can, but expect that the feedback will be available at different times from different graders. We'll try to guarantee that the feedback for any given assignment will be posted within a week of the due date.

• What should I do if I think my assignment has been graded incorrectly?

  The feedback sheet for each homework assignment gives the name and email address of the assistant who graded your assignment. Contact that person first.

• Where are TA/SA office hours held?

  The TA office hour room is FL A22, in the sub-basement of Fuller Labs. The sub-basement is the bottom-most level of Fuller. Follow the signs to the "Zoo Lab", which is next door to the office hour room.


http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs220x/d15/index.html