Bryn Mawr College
CS 110: Introduction to Computing
Fall 2017

Professor Douglas Blank

General Information

  • Instructor : Douglas Blank
  • Office hours : 9:30am - 11:00am MTWR, and by appointment, Park 205
  • E-Mail : dblank@cs.brynmawr.edu
  • Website : http://cs.brynmawr.edu/cs110
  • Lecture : Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:55PM - 2:15PM
  • Room : Park 338
  • Phone : (610) 526-6501
  • Open Labs : Park Science Building, room 231 (not 338)
    • Tuesdays 2:25PM - 3:15PM
    • Thursdays 11:55AM - 12:45PM
  • TA Hours : TA sessions are in Park Science, room 231
  • Grades : http://moodle.brynmawr.edu/
  • Jupyter, login : https://jupyter.brynmawr.edu/

TA Schedule

Day Time TA Location
Mondays 6-8pm Kennedy Ellison Park 231
Mondays 7-9pm Ruby Malusa Park 231
Mondays 8-10pm Jocelyn Dunkley in Hilles 110 at Haverford
Tuesdays 6-8pm Kellie Dinh Park 231
Tuesdays 7-9pm Sonya Fucci Park 231
Wednesdays 6-8pm Kellie Dinh Park 231
Wednesdays 7-9pm Jocelyn Dunkley Park 231
Thursdays 6-8pm Kennedy Ellison Park 231
Sundays 6-8pm Ruby Malusa Park 231
Sundays 7-9pm Sonya Fucci Park 231

Syllabus and Schedule

Course Description: An introduction to the nature, subject matter and branches of computer science as an academic discipline, and the nature, development, coding, testing, documenting and analysis of the efficiency and limitations of algorithms. Also includes the social context of computing (risks, liabilities, intellectual property and infringement).

This semester, we will be exploring the creative aspects of coding as a context for learning the above concepts. You will exercise your creativity by designing programs in a language called, Processing. Processing is a new language/environment built upon the programming language Java. Processing was created by artists, designers, and computer scientists to explore ideas of creative coding sing computer algorithms. We will also cover a variety of other topics, from bioinformatics to robotics. We will cover much of the entire text during this semester.

Schedule

Week DOW Date    Topic Assignment
1 Tues 9/5 Introduction Lab1 - fetch from Assignments tab
Thur 9/7 Notebooks
2 Tues 9/12 Parametric Drawing: Stick Person Lab2; Discuss Chapter 1, up to Quick Tour; Discuss Chapter 2, up to Face Implementation
Thur 9/14 Discuss Chapter 2, Face Implementation
3 Tues 9/19 No class - Doug out of town Lab3 Chapter 3
Thur 9/21 No class - Doug out of town
4 Tues 9/26 Movement Lab4
Thur 9/28 No class - Doug out of town
5 Tues 10/3 Animations: Rocket Lab4
Thur 10/5 if/if else/else
6 Tues 10/10 loops: LoopingFish Lab4, continued
Thur 10/12 Review 1
7 Tues 10/17 Fall Break
Thur 10/19 Fall Break
8 Tues 10/24 Review 2 Lab5, robot control
Thur 10/26 Midterm Exam
9 Tues 10/31 Object-Oriented Programming and Arrays Chapters 5, and 6 Lab6, Read Chapter 6 regarding OOP.
Thur 11/2 OOP: Practice Read chapter 5 regarding arrays and min/max.
10 Tues 11/7 Algorithms: Sorting Lab7, Read Chapter 7 regarding sorting; read chapter 5 regarding algorithms.
Thur 11/9 Projects; review Sorting Lab7
11 Tues 11/14 AI and 20 Questions Project
Thur 11/16 Image Functions, Image Functions 2 Project
12 Tues 11/21 Divide and Conquer No labs this week
Thur 11/23 Thanksgiving Break
13 Tues 11/28 Image Functions
Thur 11/30 Collisions and Visualizations
14 Tues 12/5 Object Oriented Programming - Inheritance, and review
Thur 12/7 Review - Algorthms, Sorting, Images, OOP, Functions, Flow of Control, Loops, Arrays
15 Tues 12/12 Presentations - 16 @ 5 minutes each
Thur 12/14 Presentations - 8 @ 5 minutes each, Final Paperwork Write-up due by 5pm

Final Exam - self-scheduled during exam period, Dec 17 - 22

Academic Calendar

  • September 4, Labor Day (no classes)
  • Septmber 5, Classes begin
  • October 13, Fall break begins after last class
  • October 22, Fall break ends at 8 a.m.
  • November 22, Thanksgiving break begins after last class
  • November 26, Thanksgiving break ends
  • December 14, Last day of classes
  • December 15–16, Review period
  • December 17–22, Examination period

Text and Software

Processing: Creative Coding & Generative Art in Processing 2 by Ira Greenberg, Dianna Xu, Deepak Kumar, Friends of ed, 2013. Available at the Campus Bookstore. Also at amazon for \$40.94 A Kindle eBook is available for those comfortable learning from an eBook (Amazon price is \$20.00). The Bryn Mawr Bookstore price is $44.99.

Processing Software (This software is already installed in the Computer Science Lab). The software is also available for your own computer from Processing web site (http://www.processing.org). Download the latest stable 2.X or 3.X version for your own computer/Operating System.

Course Policies

Participation

Attendance and active participation are expected in every class. Participation includes asking questions, contributing answers, proposing ideas, and providing constructive comments.

As you will discover, we are proponents of two-way communication and we welcome feedback during the semester about the course. We are available to answer student questions, listen to concerns, and talk about any course-related topic (or otherwise!). Come to office hours! This helps us get to know you. You are welcome to stop by and chat. There are many more exciting topics to talk about that we won't have time to cover in-class.

Although computer science work can be intense, please stay in touch with us, particularly if you feel stuck on a topic or project and can't figure out how to proceed. Often a quick e-mail, phone call or face-to-face conference can reveal solutions to problems and generate renewed creative and scholarly energy. It is essential that you begin assignments early, since we will be covering a variety of challenging topics in this course.

Grading

There will be about seven assignments, weighted equally in the final grading. Assignments must be submitted according to the Assignment Submission instructions. You should pay careful attention to the Code Formatting Standards and Grading Policy when doing your assignments. The grading structure for individual assignments is broken down in the Grading Policy.

At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated as a weighted average of all grades according to the following weights:

Item Percentage
Exam 1 20%
Exam 2 25%
Assignments 45%
Project 10%
Total 100%

Incomplete grades will be given only for verifiable medical illness or other such dire circumstances.

Labs

Submission and Late Policy

All work must be turned in either in hard-copy or electronic submission, depending on the instructions given in the assignment. E-mail submissions, when permitted, should request a "delivery receipt" to document time and date of submission. Extensions will be given only in the case of verifiable medical excuses or other such dire circumstances, if requested in advance and supported by your Academic Dean.

No assignment will be accepted after it is past due.

No past work can be "made up" after it is due.

Exams

There will be two exams in this course. The exams will be closed-book and closed-notes. The exams will cover material from lectures, homeworks, and assigned readings (including topics not discussed in class).

Study Groups

We encourage you to discuss the material and work together to understand it. Here are our thoughts on collaborating with other students:

  • The readings and lecture topics are group work. Please discuss the readings and associated topics with each other. Work together to understand the material. We highly recommend forming a reading group to discuss the material -- we will explore many ideas and it helps to have multiple people working together to understand them.
  • It is fine to discuss the topics covered in the homeworks, to discuss approaches to problems, and to sketch out general solutions. However, you MUST write up the homework answers, solutions, and programs individually without sharing specific solutions, mathematical results, program code, etc. If you made any notes or worked out something on a white board with another person while you were discussing the homework, you shouldn't use those notes while writing up your answer.
  • You should not show your code to other students before it is submitted. After it has been submitted, we will share and demonstrate code.
  • You may discuss high-level code ideas with others.

If you have any questions as to what types of collaborations are allowed, please feel free to ask.