CSE21

Instructors

Russell Impagliazzo
Office Hours
When:	Tuesday/Thursday 3:30 to 5 PM
Where:	EBU3b (CSE) 4248; overflow room is EBU3b (CSE) 4258
Contact
	To contact the CSE21 instructional team, post a question on Piazza.

Janine Tiefenbruck
Office Hours
When:	Monday/Wednedsay/Friday 11 AM to 12 PM
Where:	EBU3b (CSE) 4204
Contact
	To contact the CSE21 instructional team, post a question on Piazza.

Teaching Assistants and Tutors

TAs

Anwaya Aras

Radheshyam Balasundaram

Marco Carmosino

Mayank Dhiman

Shibu Lawrence

Amer Sinha

Tutors

Timothy Chang

Vyom Shah

Mandy Shieh

Anusha Varadharajan

Contact

To contact the CSE21 instructional team, post a question on Piazza.

Office hours posted on Google calendar above.

Welcome Message

Welcome to CSE21! This course is intended to introduce you to the broad field of algorithms and give you the mathematical tools needed to study algorithms and their efficiency. This quarter, we will learn about sorting and searching, asymptotics, recursion, graphs, enumeration, data representation, and discrete probability. Understanding these topics and being able to work out related problems will be essential to your work as a computer scientist.

Course Description:

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
In-class and final exams	60%
Homework	35%
Reading quizzes	5%

In-class and final exams will be the most important indicator of how well you have mastered the content of this course. There will be two in-class exams given during the usual lecture time in the usual lecture room. You must attend the lecture for which you are registered. No makeup tests will be given. No calculators or note sheets are allowed for the tests. The in-class exams will cover all material covered up to the day of the exam, unless otherwise noted.

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

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

MAX ( (Final 30%, Best Exam 15%, Other Exam 15%), (Final 45%, Best Exam 15%)).

You must have a passing score on the final exam to pass the course.

Homework will be assigned, collected, and graded weekly, except for during exam weeks. It is essential that you do the homework since this is the only way that you can gain mastery of the techniques we will study. When computing the homework portion of the course grade, the lowest of your eight homework scores will be dropped and the average computed using the remaining seven assignments.

Students should solve and write up all homework assignments in groups of size one to three. All names should appear on the assignment, and all will usually 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, not divided up between group members. 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, but if there is a problem where you did not participate at all, even in verifying someone else’s solution, you should put a disclaimer to that effect next to your name on the assignment. You will not receive credit for these problems, but you also will not bear responsibility for them. If you are claiming credit for a problem, you do bear responsibility for the integrity of the group in obtaining the answer.

Homework must be typed and handed in via TurnItIn on Ted by the due date by a single representative of the group. Late homework is not accepted. 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.

Students should not look for answers to homework problems in other texts (i.e., other than the course text, the optional text, and class notes) or other sources (e.g. wikipedia, Internet discussion groups). However, students may use other texts or sources as a general study tool, and may accidentally see solutions to homework problems. In this case, the student should write up the final solution without consulting this text or source, and should give an acknowledgement of the text or source on the first page of their solutions. Such a solution may be given partial or no credit if it too closely follows the text. Not giving an acknowledgment is academic dishonesty, and will be treated as such. This rule applies to any material found on the internet, and to conversations with or written material from other people, whether or not they are students in the class. However, it does not apply to material in the class textbook, handed out in class or on the class web-page for this year, or to conversations with the instructor or teaching assistants.

Reading quizzes will be short weekly quizzes available on Ted. These short quizzes are based on the definitions introduced in the textbook section for the week. To receive credit for each quiz, you should read the relevant sections of the textbook and then complete and submit the quiz by 5pm on the due date, usually Wednesday. We will drop your lowest score and take the average score for the remaining reading quizzes.

iClicker Participation: There will be frequent opportunities for structured active participation during lecture and discussion section (solving problems, responding with clickers, critiquing proofs, 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. You must register your iClickers on Ted.

After your weighted average is calculated, letter grades will be assigned based on the following grading scale (updated 1/19/14 to be more generous):

A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-
95	90	85	80	75	70	65	60	55

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.  Please note that you must pass the final exam in order to pass the course.

Standards for evaluation:

Your assignments 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 recorded. Please be prompt (less than 7 days from when the assignment grade was posted) in reporting to the TAs any errors in the grading of your work, or in the recording of the grade. Regrade requests for homeworks should be made by private post to the instructors using our Piazza site, with subject "Regrade HW" followed by the homework number. For exams, requests for regrades should be made by returning your exam to your TA on the day you get it back in discussion section, before ever leaving the room with your exam.

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, schedule an appointment with your instructor by Monday of Week 3 to ensure that reasonable accommodations can be arranged.

Academic Integrity:

The Jacobs School of Engineering code of Academic Integrity is here. You should make yourself aware of what is and is not acceptable by reading this document. Academic integrity violations will be taken seriously and reported immediately. Ignorance of the rules will not excuse you from any violations.

Key facts about academic integrity related to CSE21:

• Do not discuss homework problems with people outside your group (except during office hours, with the instructional team).
• Do not share written solutions or partial solutions with other groups.
• Prepare your final written solution without consulting any written material except class notes and the class text.
• Acknowledge all supplementary texts or sources that had solutions or hints for homework problems. A source can be a person, document, website, text message, billboard, video, etc.

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