- Professional
- Taught at Tennessee
Technological University for a
year after graduation from other UT
- Worked at small software
engineering company in
Knoxville for several years
- Lecturer at
UT-Austin since 2000
How
to
Succeed
in
CS
312
"I would like to offer some advice about how you can best learn [this
subject]. You will learn the most by actively working exercises. I
suggest that you solve as many as you possibly can. After working the
exercises your instructor has
assigned, I encourage you to solve additional exercises..."
-- Kenneth H. Rosen, in foreword of his textbook Discrete Mathematics and Its
Applications
"The key question to keep asking is,
Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you
have."
-- Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
- Do the exercises, rework the examples and take your own
notes
- You cannot learn to program by just listening in
class and reading the text!
- Don't just look at the exercises - do them.
- Ask for help:
- instructor, TAs, proctors, tutors
- other students (not on programming assignments!)
- Run the code examples yourself
- Experiment. Change Things. Break the Code!
- Come to Class. Pay Attention. Participate.
- Study regularly - most will need to invest at least
6-10 hours a week outside of class.
- Do the reading assignments.
- Start programming assignments early - most of your
learning comes from working on programming assignments and other
programming exercises
- Do the practice problems. Do the Javabat and
Practice-It exercises.
- Get to know your classmates. Talk to them about the
course material and study with them.
- Come to office hours. The TAs, proctors and I will all
hold our office hours in the elements lab, PAI 5.38
CS
312:
A
First
Course in Programming
What Do We Cover?
- Solving problems with computers
- Creating algorithms to solve problems
- Implementing our algorithms in computer
programs
- We will use the Java programming language
- The programming language is not so
important - in other CS classes, you will use other languages
CS 312
Prerequisites
- Formal prerequisite: co-registration in calculus
- I assume you have basic computer skills:
- email
- find a file on a computer
- navigate the web
- install programs on your computer
- I assume that you have NEVER, EVER
written a computer program
Course Materials
and Procedures
- This is very important!
- If this is your first semester in college, you may be
surprised at how much responsibility is placed on you for knowing what
to do in a class.
- Read the information on the course webpage and the
syllabus carefully, so that you know what is expected in this
class.
- website
- www.cs.utexas.edu/~eberlein/cs312/
- most class materials are on website: software
information, class schedule, assignments, study materials, link to
discussion board
- schedule
- schedule of class topics
- reading assignments
- links to in-class slides
- discussion meeting assignments
- syllabus
- very important
- like a contract between instructor and students
- class policies
- textbook
- required
- reading assignments and practice problems
- lecture
- MWF 10-11 or 11-12 with instructor
- Introduce concepts, examples, questions welcome
- NO laptops or phones out during lecture
- discussion section
- with teaching assistant on Thursdays
- required
- Q&A on assignments
- practice problems
- quizzes very likely
- NO laptops or phones out during discussion
- discussion board - piazza
- sign up for discussion board immediately (link on
course webpage)
- post questions about class procedures and material
- answer classmates' questions
- announcements from me
- NO chunks of code are allowed on board
- assignments
- assignments are posted on assignments webpage
- see assignment page for guidelines
- submitted using turnin
(a website you use to submit your assignment)
- creating problem solutions using Java
- writing complete Java programs
- usually done individually (sometimes with a partner,
as indicated in assignment description)
- assignments must be done alone unless I tell you
otherwise
- Sharing solution code is cheating --> F in course
- graded by TA or proctor
- scores posted on blackboard
- you will be given a week to do most projects - start
early
- exams
- two midterms and a final exam
- study materials posted on class webpage
- scores posted on blackboard
- lab accounts
- request an account today - see syllabus for
instructions
- turn in programming assignments via the turnin program
Labs
- CS lab in PAI 5.38
- need your CS account to log in
- class software available on machines
- PAI 5.38S has machines that are both Unix and Windows
- work in Windows - to switch, press the silver button on
the little black box (ask TAs during discussion next week if you can't
find it)