CSE105

Instructor

Jeanne Ferrante
Office Hours
When:	Wednesday 9:30 to 11:30 am (updates will be posted on the Google calendar above)
Where:	EBU3b (CSE) 3102
Contact
	To contact the CSE 105 instructional team with any non-confidential question, please post your question on Piazza.

Teaching Assistants and Tutors

TAs

Dhivya Anandakrishnan

Radheshyam Balasundaram

Juliana Curtis

Nathan Speidel

Sandy Wiraatmadja (Head TA)

Tutors

Madhu Krishnan

Ben Levin

Maya Nyayapati

Asha Camper Singh

Edward Wong

Alex Zhu

Contact

To contact the CSE 105 instructional team, please post any non-confidential question on Piazza.

Office hours will be posted on Google calendar above.

Welcome Message

Welcome to CSE 105!
This course addresses fundamental questions about computing:

• What problems are computers capable of solving?
• What resources are needed to solve a problem?
• Are some problems harder than others?

It's a lot of fun to look at these basic questions, and you will be picking up some of the essential skills of a computer scientist, such as writing mathematically sound and clear arguments, from formal proofs to more informal explanations.

This website, Ted, and our Piazza site accessible through Ted, will provide you with the information you need to thrive in the class, so please check all of them often for important information, announcements, and course materials.

Course Description:

In this course, we will undertake an exploration of what it means to be "computable". We begin with a very simple model of computation, and work our way to the most powerful, the Turing machine, named after Alan Turing, who formalized the notion of "algorithm" in this last model. You'll also learn about the relationship of these models to some essential tools in a computer scientist's toolkit, such as regular expressions and context-free grammars. Finally, you'll develop your technical communication skills in writing formal arguments and proofs.

Please click here for a course description as given in the undergraduate course listing.

Grading:

Course grades will be computed using the following weights.

Grading
Midterm Exams and Final Exam	70%
Homework	20%
Class Participation	5%
Reading quizzes	5%

Midterm and Final Exams are the most important indicator of how well you have mastered the content of this course.

There will be two specially scheduled midterm exams outside of the usual lecture time and the usual lecture room. No makeup tests will be given. You should go to the examination room for your class section. No electronic devices, books, or written notes are allowed for these examinations. These exams will include all material covered up to the day of the exam, unless otherwise noted.

The final exam will cover all material from the whole quarter, though more emphasis will be given to material covered after the second exam.

It is highly recommended that you start preparing for an exam at least a week beforehand by reviewing class notes, the relevant textbook chapters, and most importantly, doing homework and similar problems. Each exam will include one problem taken directly from, and a second, additional problem similar to, the homework problems from the two most recent assignments to the exam.

There will be no make-up exams. The weighting of the exam scores will be

MAX ( (Final 35%, Best Exam 20%, Other Exam 15%), (Final 45%, Best Exam 25%)).

You must have a passing score (60%) on the final exam to pass the course.

Homework is the second most important component in learning this material, and it is essential that you do the homework to gain the skills we will study. Proof writing and clear technical arguments are skills that need practice, practice, practice. Proofs need to be logically sound, make precise use of mathematical language and terminology from the course, be clearly stated, and be concise but not lacking critical details.

There will be one online review self-test assignment (which counts as part of your participation), and six graded homework assignments. Homework assignments and solutions will be available on Ted. Depending on staff support, one or more of the homework problems on a graded assignment may be graded only for completeness and fair effort. When computing the homework portion of the course grade, the lowest of your six graded homework scores will be dropped and the average computed using the remaining five assignments.

Many students find it challenging to discern what the proper level of detail to be included is (i.e., how to be "concise but not lacking critical details"). The best way to acquire this skill is through repeated iterations of practice and feedback on your work, as well as being exposed to others' proofs to sharpen your proof reading skills.

Group Collaboration

In order to get peer feedback, students are allowed to solve and write up all homework assignments in groups of size one to three . Your homework partners can be in either class section. All names of the group should appear on the assignment, and all will get the same score on the assignment.

Members of a group are responsible for all parts of any assignment with their names on it. Problems should be solved by the group, and not divided up between group members. It is highly recommended that each member of the group try solving the problems individually on their own, before meeting as a group. Each member of a group should participate in discussions about each problem. Even proof-reading a solution of another student in your group counts as participation.

To succeed in this class, it is important that each student in a group be able to write and not just understand the solutions. Understanding a proof is very different from being able to write a proof yourself. To encourage full homework participation by all members, each exam will include one problem taken directly from, and a second, additional problem similar to, the homework problems from the two most recent assignments prior to the exam.

Logistics All names of the group should appear at the top of the homework submitted. Homework must be typed and handed in as a single PDF by a single representative of the group. Homework submission is via TurnItIn on Ted and is due by the time specified on the due date on the class schedule. You may submit updated versions of your homework up until the deadline. TurnItIn requires several confirmation steps before a file is submitted. You will get an electronic receipt at the end of the process; this is the most reliable indicator that you have actually submitted the homework. Late homework is not accepted.

Integrity Guidelines

Students should not look for answers to homework problems in other texts (i.e., other than the course text and class notes) or other sources (e.g. wikipedia, Internet, discussion groups). Not giving an acknowledgment of any other source you use is academic dishonesty, and will be treated as such. We'll be using TurnItIn via Ted for homework submission, which also checks for potential plagiarism. As well, students should not share answers to homework problems with others or on the internet.

Class Participation

There will be frequent opportunities for structured active participation during during lecture, discussion section, and online (solving problems, responding with clickers, critiquing proofs, Piazza participation, surveys, and group discussion), in which everyone is expected to participate. Additionally, alerting the instructor, TAs, and tutors when you are confused, lost, didn't hear something, or otherwise in need of additional explanation is strongly encouraged. For this reason, you will be required to have an iClicker for this course, and to bring it to lecture each day. For the same reason, do not use electronic media in class without explicit permission.

Reading Quizzes

Reading the textbook selectively in advance to get an overview of the definitions and theorems before they are discussed in class is an important tool for learning. To encourage you to do this, there will be 10 short online reading quizzes on Ted that will be graded on the correctness of your answers. If you do the suggested preparation, the reading quiz will be easy, and you will get an excellent grade nearly every time.

To receive credit for each quiz, you should read the relevant sections of the textbook and then complete and submit the quiz by the due time on the due date. Reading quizzes are open book, and you have as much time as you want, as long as you submit by the due date and time. Reading quizzes should be completed individually . We will drop your lowest score and take the average score for the remaining reading quizzes. Please note that reading quizzes are not scheduled before every class; you are responsible for checking the schedule for reading quiz due dates. There will be no makeups for missed reading quizzes.

iClicker Participation

You are required to have an iClicker for this course, and to bring it to lecture each day. You must register your iClickers on Ted.

Clicker discussion questions in lecture will be graded for participation only and not correctness of the response, unless otherwise noted. Full credit for clicker points for a given day will be awarded for clicking in at least 80/% of the time that day. Your four lowest lecture participation days will be automatically dropped. Forgetting your clicker counts as missing a class, so please remember to bring it!

After your weighted average is calculated, final letter grades will be assigned no stricter than the following grading scale, except that you must get a passing grade (60 % ) on the final exam in order to pass the course (regardless of total percentage):

A	B	C	D	F
90 - 100	80 - 89.9	70 - 79.9	60 - 69.9	< 60

Plus and minus to a letter grade will be assigned at the instructor's discretion. This includes but is not limited to: consideration of improvement over the course of the quarter, active class participation, and natural "breaks" in the distribution of scores.

We may adjust the above scale to be more lenient (depending on the overall class performance), but we guarantee that we will not adjust the scale to make it harder to get a better grade. We emphasize that you must pass the final exam in order to pass the course.

Standards for evaluation:

Your homework and exams in this class will be evaluated not only on the correctness of your answers, but on your ability to present your ideas clearly and logically. You should always explain how you arrived at your conclusions, using mathematically sound reasoning. Whether you use formal proof techniques or write a more informal argument for why something is true, your answers should always be well-supported. Your goal should be to convince the reader that your results and methods are sound.

Regrades:

All grades are fixed 7 days after being reported in Ted. Please be prompt (< 7 days) in reporting to the TAs any errors in the grading of your work, or in the recording of the grade on Ted. Regrade requests should be made by private post to the instructors using our Piazza site, with subject "Regrade HW" followed by the homework number.

Accommodations:

The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), an Academic Affairs department, is responsible for the review of medical documentation and the determination of reasonable accommodations based on a disability. Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letters are issued by the OSD and given to undergraduate, graduate, and Professional School students directly. If you have an AFA letter, meet with the CSE Student Affairs representative, and schedule an appointment with your instructor by Monday of Week 3 to ensure that reasonable accommodations can be arranged.

Academic Integrity:

The guidelines for this class may be different from other courses and professors, and may ban things that you personally don't think of as "cheating." If you have any questions about what is acceptable or not under this class' guidelines, please ask before it is too late. UCSD's policy is that "I didn't know" is not an excuse.

CSE 105 Academic Integrity policy:

• The only legitimate sources of help on submitted homework problems are:
  • Your designated homework partner or partners
  • the provided course readings, and
  • class instructors, TAs, tutors and Piazza discussion..
• Other websites, materials from previous classes, or assistance from other individuals listed above are not to be used in any way, not even for discussion prior to writing up your solution.
• Do not share written solutions or partial solutions with others outside your group, or on the Internet.
• Do not attempt to falsify clicker participation. This is considered a violation of academic integrity.
• Reading quizzes are open book, but should be taken individually. Do not collaborate with others on reading quizzes. This is considered a violation of academic integrity.

The Jacobs School of Engineering code of Academic Integrity, the UCSD Policy on Integrity of Scholarship (put in link) and this syllabus list some of the standards by which you are expected to complete your academic work, but your good ethical judgment (or asking us for advice) is also expected as we cannot list every behavior that is unethical or not in the spirit of academic integrity. You should make yourself aware of what is and is not acceptable by reading these documents. Ignorance of the rules will not excuse you from any violations. If you have any doubt as to whether a conversation you wish to have with someone or other activity might cross the line, please stop and go to the discussion forum on Piazza, wher, e we will be happy to help you, and where the integrity of the discussion can be monitored for everyone's protection.

Academic integrity violations will be taken seriously and reported immediately. If you are suspected of not following the guidelines, your case will be referred to the Dean of your college. Consequences may include an F in the course, no matter how small the affected assignment or exam question. Be aware that TritonLink will block you from dropping the course if your case is in process with the Dean, so you will not be able to avoid consequences by dropping.

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