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Course Syllabus - Introduction to Computer Science

Introduction to Computer Science
New York University
Department of Computer Science

Course description

How to design algorithms to solve problems and how to translate these algorithms into working computer programs. Experience is acquired through projects in a high-level programming language. Intended primarily for computer science majors but also suitable for students of other scientific disciplines. Programming assignments.

Credits

4 credits

Meeting pattern

Two class sessions per week, 1 hour and 15 minutes each session.

Learning objectives

Upon completing this course, students will be familiar with some of the foundations of computer science, including:

Instructor

Amos Bloomberg
WWH 424

Getting help

Help resources available to you are listed in order of urgency of your problem:

Messaging

Our course will use a team messaging app (link to be distributed in class) as its main communication channel for announcements and discussion. This is a good place to ask questions that anyone - other students, graders, tutors, or the professor - can answer. This is a resource best used when the answer is not required urgently.

Tutoring

Tutors for this course are waiting to answer your questions during dedicated tutoring hours. Use tutoring for more involved questions and when you prefer a more immediate answer.

Schedule (all times Eastern):

MONDAY:

TUESDAY:

WEDNESDAY:

THURSDAY:

FRIDAY:

SATURDAY:

SUNDAY:

Talk with the instructor

For any issues at all, contact the instructor:

Additional tutoring resources

Additional academic support is also available through the University Learning Center.

Attendance & participation

Attendance is mandatory and absences may be penalized up to 10% of the total grade. Students who are present for only a small fraction of a class session will be marked absent. In-class and online message board participation is encouraged. Anecdotally, students who do not attend class regularly and who do not participate in discussions tend to do poorly.

Textbook

Helpful readings will be given from following textbook, which is recommended, but not required:

Introduction to Java Programming, Brief Version, 11th Ed.
by D. Liang;
ISBN-10: 0-13-359220-0, ISBN-13: 978-0-13-359220-7

Required software and hardware

All students require access to a computer on which they can write programs using a specific set of applications. Computers at any of the university’s computer labs will do, as will any laptop or desktop computer.

Computer labs

Windows and Mac computers are available to you in the ITS labs. You do not need your own computer nor do you need to purchase any software. However, you will be learning how to use various programs and may wish to have access to them at home or on your laptop. In this case, you must purchase your own license or use a trial version, which is sometimes available from the publisher. You can download software provided by ITS to all students, including SFTP programs, by going to the ITS software page.

Saving your work in the lab

You will be able to save your work in the ITS labs on your own flash drive, or online cloud storage services such as Box.com or Google Drive. Although you can write to the storage drives of the machines in the labs, you cannot be sure that you will have access to the same machine the next time you enter the lab and the drives in the lab are frequently erased.

Grading

You will receive a grade calculated mechanically on the following rubric.

Attendance may be taken into account in the final grade.

Letter grades

The final class grade will be assigned as follows:

Grade Range Letter Grade
93-100% A
90-92% A-
87-89% B+
83-86% B
80-82% B-
77-79% C+
70-76% C
60-69% D
0-59% F

Quizzes

Quizzes are completed outside of class. You must be logged into Google with your NYU Net ID account in Google in order to view the Quizzes. If you see an error message indicating you do not have permission to view a Quiz, it is because you are not logged into the correct NYU Net ID account.

Quizzes are submitted by submitting a Google Form, i.e. click the Submit button.

Late policy

All assigned work is due before class on the due date indicated on the schedule

Extensions

Students are automatically granted 2 late assignment extensions of up to 3 days late each, with the exception that all assignments must be submitted before the last day of regular classes before the final exam period.

Regrade requests

If a student requests a regrade of any work, we will regrade the work in full, not just the part that the student believes has been mis-graded.

Inspirational quote

Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.

– Edsger Dijkstra

Disability disclosure statement

Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities. Please contact the Moses Center for Student Accessibility (212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu) for further information. Students who are requesting academic accommodations are advised to reach out to the Moses Center as early as possible in the semester for assistance.

Student wellness

In a large, complex community like NYU, it’s vital to reach out to others, particularly those who are isolated or engaged in self-destructive activities. Student wellness is the responsibility of all of us.

The NYU Wellness Exchange is the constellation of NYU’s programs and services designed to address the overall health and mental health needs of its students. Students can access this service 24 hours a day, seven days a week - wellness.exchange@nyu.edu; (212) 443-9999. Students can call the Wellness Exchange hotline (212-443-9999) or the NYU Counseling Service (212-998-4780) to make an appointment for Single Session, Short-term, or Group counseling sessions.

Academic Integrity

Working with others and leveraging all resources available to you is a prerequisite for success. This is different from copying, cheating, plagiarism, and mental laziness. All submitted work must be your own. There are very reliable systems we use to detect plagiarism in computer code, such as moss and compare50. If you submit any work that is not your own, you risk failure or worse.

Please read the Computer Science department’s policy on academic integrity and the University-wide policy which supercedes it.