EE160 Programming for Engineers

Lecture Times at MSB 114:

• MWF 04:30pm-05:20pm (instructed by Zhao (Alan) Li)

Lab Times at POST 214:

• Section 1, Tue 07:30-10:15am (instructed by Jeremy Young)
• Section 2, Tue 03:30-06:15pm (instructed by Thomas Knapp-Ramos)
• Section 3, Thur 07:30-10:15am (instructed by Jeremy Young)
• Section 4, Thur 03:30-06:15pm (instructed by Thomas Knapp-Ramos)

Tentative (Check Piazza for latest information) Class Calendar:

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=hawaii.edu_omqg9q794icl9j26r09el0ggj0@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Pacific/Honolulu

Previous EE160 Text (this along with online resources should be sufficient for this class):

• Bharat Kinariwala, Tep Dobry; "Programming in C"

Additional Reference Text:

• B.W. Kernighan, D.M. Ritchie; "The C Programming Language", 2nd edition
• Any other book or online material on ANSI C

Office Hours:

• online at Piazza
• If answers on Piazza isn't sufficient, then feel free to email me to set up an appointment
• Lab instructors will have their own office hours
  The tentative office hour time and locations are:
  • Section 1:
    • At Holmes Hall 490
    • Thur @ 01:30pm - 03:30pm
    • contact Jeremy Young for the most current details
  • Section 2:
    • At Holmes Hall 488
    • Fri @ 09:30am - 11:30am
    • contact Thomas Knapp-Ramos for the most current details
  • Section 3:
    • Holmes Hall 490
    • Thur @ 01:30pm - 03:30pm
    • contact Jeremy Young for the most current details
  • Section 4:
    • At Holmes Hall 488
    • Fri @ 09:30am - 11:30am
    • contact Thomas Knapp-Ramos for the most current details

Announcements:

• Class announcments will be made on Piazza

Development Environment:

The place where you write your programs, like Microsoft Word is the environment/program where you write documents

• Any computer that can compile C
• Recommend using Cloud9 IDE to make it easier:
  • for instructors to help troubleshoot your issues and answer your questions
  • for you to start working by reducing the amount of "setup" work (like installing libraries and programs) you need to do
  • for everyone to share knowledge by reducing the amount of environment discrepancies
  • for you to work on your code from any machine (as well as giving you all the other benefits of the cloud)

Lecture Notes:

• Hosted by Github at http://zhaol.github.io/ee160
• Please feel free to correct any mistakes/typos by emailing me or submitting a pull request (extra kudos for a PR)
• During lecture, instructor will be using a Cloud9 workspace located at https://ide.c9.io/zhaol/ee160
• Students are free to review at a later time or ask questions or make comments through the workspace during lecture in real time

Fellow Students:

• Collaboration is encouraged (except on midterms and finals)

• "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

  • Teaching a fellow student will enforce your own understanding
• A fellow student who has just learned a concept will be aware of the "assumptions" and "gotchas" involved
• Peer-to-peer is a powerful way to learn and share knowledge, just like how social media can powerfully share information and data
• Collaborating does not mean cheating; do collaborate; don't cheat
• Make sure you understand the material and concepts when collaborating; don't just get the answer

Fellow Humans:

• Search online with Google or any other search engine
• Post a question on question and answer forums, like StackOverflow (it's one of the better programming Q&A sites)
• this satirical article makes fun of how often programming professionals need to leverage off of the knowledge of others
• being able to read and learn from others as well as understanding your peers is a soft skill that is necessary in any profession
  • eventually, you should be able to write and teach others as well as express your thoughts and ideas to your peers

Breakdown:

Grading Breakdown

	Percentage
Homework	7.5%
Lab	10%
Midterm 1	27.5%
Midterm 2	27.5%
Final	27.5%
Total	100%

Homeworks:

• Will count for 7.5% of final grade
• Homework assignments are randomnly chosen to be graded but students are required to do all required homeworks
• Use homeworks to understand the material for the labs and exams
• Students need to do the homeworks to do well on the exams
• Homeworks will be submitted via Laulima
• Homework submission program will also allow you to self-check your program and give you an idea (close but not exact) of your homework grade
• Homework assignment due dates are listed in Laulima
• Late homework assignments are not accepted
• Improperly submitted assignments will receive 0 points
• Homework submissions that do not compile will receive 0 points
  • If you cannot get your program to work, comment out the code that is breaking your program before submitting to ensure the entire program at least compiles
• Homework submissions with the wrong filenames will receive 0 points
  • username is the first part of email address (username@hawaii.edu)
  • homework submission and self-check program does not validate your username for you

Labs:

• Will count for 10% of final grade
• Use labs to understand the material for the exams
• Students need to do the labs to do well on the exams
• Labs will be submitted via Laulima
• If lab instructor wishes to grade within Cloud9 IDE, then please get detailed instructions from your lab instructor

Midterms/Finals:

• The 2 midterms and 1 final will count for 82.5% of final grade
• Midterm 1 will count for 27.5% of final grade
• Midterm 2 will count for 27.5% of final grade
• Final will count for 27.5% of final grade
• Exams will be in the same room as lecture and conducted with paper and pencil (sorry no computers)
• Automatic deductions on exams:
  • -20 points for students who take an unfair amount of extra time on the exam
  • -20 points for students who has to take a makeup exam after the scheduled exam dates
    • makeup exams must be scheduled prior to the exam date
    • final exam makeup caveats:
      • the makeup for the final exam must occur before the scheduled final exam date and time
      • final exam makeups after the scheduled final exam time will not be allowed because of the University's deadlines for grade submission
      • having multiple final exams on the same day will not be accepted as a reason for taking the final early
        • the University of Hawaii's final examination schedule is already posted, so please choose your courses accordingly
    • This penalty will be waived for students who coordinates with instructor early and can provide documentation certifying one of the following:
      • medical emergency accompanied by a note from a certified physician
      • required (i.e. spectating does not count) participation in a University of Hawaii sponsored event (e.g. speaker at a UH symposium, athlete competing at a UH sporting event) accompanied by a note from the event sponsor or coach with a valid @hawaii.edu email address
• Tentative midterm dates are already posted so please schedule accordingly

• Examination Goals

  C Programming Language	Problem Solving
  Understand C syntax	Understand the requirements of the problem
  Read and follow a C program (or snippets of C code) to determine the program intent and output	Engineer an algorithm (or pseudo code) to solve the problem
  Write a C program to solve the problem

• Program tracing problems will be graded using the following procedure, actual point values will vary:
  • ${correctly\;traced\;outputs} / {total\;possible\;outputs}$
  • if grader can follow the student's train of thought and can see that it was a minor mistake that caused mistraced outputs, then points may be added back
• Writing your own program problems will be graded using the following procedure, actual point values will vary:
  • Points will be given for correctly satisfying the major requirements of the problem
  • Points will be deducted for syntax errors

• Example Exam Scoring

  Item	Points
  Problem 1 (Tracing Problem: 40 possible points)
  8 out of 10 outputs correctly traced	$(8 / 10) * 40 = 32$ points
  1 missed output was due to a minor arithmetic error (not programming related)	add back 2 points
  Problem 2 (Write Your Own Program Problem: 60 possible points)
  Major programming concept A (worth 25 points): perfect	25 points
  Major programming concept B (worth 20 points): near perfect	15 points
  Major programming concept C (worth 15 points): missed	0 points
  3 minor typos	subtract $(3 * 1) = 3$ points
  2 syntax errors	subtract $(2 * 3) = 6$ points
  Total Exam Score	$32+2+25+15-3-6=65$ points (out of 100)

Final Grade:

• Grading Scale

  Average	Grade
  85% or greater	A or better
  70% or greater	B or better
  55% or greater	C or better
  40% or greater	D or better

• The +/- grading system will be used in this course
• Grade boundaries will be set to whole numbers (i.e. 82 not 82.3)
• Precision and rounding will be handled by Laulima

• Lectures introduces the basics of a concept
• Homework assignments practice the basic concepts from lectures
• Lab assignments further the understanding of the concepts by applying the concepts
  • students will be expanding upon the basics covered in lecture and homework
• All lectures, homework, and labs assume the student has completed the previous assignments
• Gaps in knowledge from lectures, homework, and labs are covered by questions and answers on Piazza
• Exams will test knowledge of programming concepts as well as the ability to apply programming concepts

• Lectures:
  • questions are encouraged
  • lectures are optional
  • students skipping lecture are acknowledging that they understand the material
• Class Questions and Answers on Piazza:
  • "learn how to learn"
    • learn when to ask questions
      • certain concepts are intentionally skipped give students the opportunity to learn how to figure things out
      • however, the intent is not for students to be stuck forever
      • please ask questions if you cannot complete your assignment
    • learn how to ask questions
      • do your research before posting/asking a question, i.e. help yourself before asking for help
      • sometimes when researching and forming the question, students are able to answer the question themselves
      • asking well-formed questions (i.e. giving details on what has been tried) will help instructors and fellow classmates understand the question and be able to provide better responses
  • Instructors will answer questions as quickly as possible
    • it is understood that having prompt feedback can facilitate learning
    • please post questions early to allow ample time for responding
  • Practice empathy
    • please respect each other's posts and comments as we are all here trying to learn new and difficult concepts
    • please do help others who are having a hard time

    • "It is harder to be kind than clever." Jeff Bezos