MAIN COURSE WEBSITE: https://learnuw.wisc.edu
ALTERNATE SITE: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~cs310-1
This site has only general course content. News and content specific to this semester is found on main Course Website.
INSTRUCTOR: Deb Deppeler, 5376 Computer Sciences, 265-9452, deppeler@cs.wisc.edu
OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday and Thursday: 11:00-12:00 noon, Wednesday: 1:30-3:30pm, and by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Gives engineering students an introduction to programming and analytical skills to use in their subsequent course work and
professional development. Discusses several methods of using computers to solve problems, including the use of symbolic
manipulation languages and elementary programming techniques. Techniques will be illustrated using sample problems drawn from
elementary engineering. Emphasis on introduction of algorithms with the use of specific tools to illustrate the methods.
Prerequisites:
Math 222.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
TEXTS: There is no required textbook for CS310 as the course content is provided online. However, students expecting to use MatLab or Maple outside of this course may wish to purchase any of the many language reference books available for these tools.
GRADING:
There are several components to each student's grade in CS310. Each component is worth a certain percentage of the student's overall percentage in the course. The final percentage is calculated by weighing each student's percentage in each component by the following percentages:
After all grading has been completed, student's are ranked according to their final overall percentage and letter grades are assigned so that students with very similar percentages are awarded the same letter grade. Students in CS310 tend to perform at or near the standard grade percentages, so there is usually not much of a curve in this course.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance/Participation: Attendance is recommended at all class meetings and will be recorded for Team Labs (Tuesday and Wednesday) sessions. Students will earn 14% of their final grade based on their Team Lab attendance and participation. Students who arrive late, leave early, take a phone call during lab, text message, or do not participate fully throughout the lab will not receive full credit for this component. Each student may miss one team lab over the course of the semester and still get the full 14% for this grade component.
Writing Style and Expectations: Students are expected to follow standard professional writing style guides and document and properly cite sources in their solution to problems. The problem being solved should be briefly restated in the student's words preceding the solution work. Graders should not need to refer to an assignment document to know which problem is being solved or what step is being completed. In general, all work to get the final solution must be visible on the final paper that is printed and submitted. There are some exceptions to having to show all numeric results: for example, when data sets with dozens of points are plotted visually it is often not necessary to also print the decimal values of those data points.
In Maple worksheets, the problem should be restated as a comment before the solution work. Each step of the solution should be clearly identified and correctly labeled.
MatLab functions and program scripts should include comments that document clearly and concisely what the following code block or function does. Another programmer (or the grader) must be able to understand, maintain, and troubleshoot the code.
Hardware and Software: The course is taught on the Windows XP machines in 187 CAE and B540 Engr Hall. The current software used is MatLab (Rel 2009) and Maple 13. Any workstation with MatLab and Maple may be used to complete the work. Be sure that work is completed on a workstation that is connected to a printer or that it is possible to successfully transfer the work to a workstation that can be used to print hardcopies.
Academic Support: http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/classes/tutoring
Approach to Teaching and Learning: This course focuses on problem-based learning. A variety of medium to complex problem types that require multiple step solutions are presented. Students are expected to use their first and second semester calculus skills to develop solution algorithms for the problem and then implement and present each of those steps as part of a complete solution in the target language or environment.
Students are expected to practice problem solving techniques individually and in small groups to ensure their understanding and ability to apply the solution techniques presented to the given problem and to other similar problems. Students must demonstrate their knowledge and skills by solving problems during lecture, team labs, and individual labs, and by completing graded homework assignments, online quizzes, and written examinations.
INSTITUTIONAL POLICIES: Plagarism is a serious offense. All sources and assistance used in preparing your work must be precisely and explicitly acknowledged. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagarism, please read the following information http://www.wisc.edu/students/saja/misconduct/UWS14.html#points or come talk with me. Ignorance of what constitutes plagarism is not a defence. It is your responsibility to be sure. The web creates special risks. Cutting and pasting even a few words (or retyping them) or paraphrasing material without reference constitutes plagarism. If you are not sure how to refer to something you find on the internet, you can always give the URL. It is generally better to quote than to paraphrase material from the web, because in the absence of page numbers it can be hard to find passages that are paraphrased rather than quoted. For more information on writing and source citation, the following may be helpful http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Acknowledging_Sources.pdf.
Disability Accomodations: If you are a person with special circumstances that you believe will affect your class performance (for example, visual, hearing, or learning disabilities, or language differences), please let us know as soon as possible so that we may work together to develop strategies to for adapting assignments to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. The McBurney Disability Resource Center (263-2741) provides resources to students with disabilities. You will need to provide documentation of disbility to them in order to receive official university services and accomodations. Also please let us know if you have any trouble accessing or using the technologies being used in this course.
TOPIC LIST: numeric computation vs symbolic computation, linear systems, data interpolation and approximation, programmed solutions to complex problems, successive numeric approximation algorithms, min/max problems, volume of revolution problems, introduction to ordinary differential equations, introduction to programming in ForTran.
CLASS SCHEDULE: Please see the course web site for details about which topics are covered in which weeks of the semester.