Computer Science 101 - Computer and Information Technology
Fall 1996

Instructor: Steven Skiena

Office: 1411 Computer Science Building

Phone: 516-632-9026

Email: skiena@cs.sunysb.edu

Office Hours: 5-6:30PM Monday-Wednesday and by appointment.

Course Time: 3:25PM-4:45PM Place: 102 Light Engineering

Teaching Assistants:

• Baoqiu Cui, email: cbaoqiu@cs.sunysb.edu, office: 1204 CS Building, phone 2-7674, office hours: Tuesday 11:00AM - 2:00PM.
• Lan Huang, email: lanhuang@cs.sunysb.edu, office: 1310 CS Building office hours: Thursday 7:30PM - 10:30PM.
• Yannan Wei, email yannan@cs.sunysb.edu, office: 1208 CS Building phone 2-7678, office hours: Tuesday 7:30PM - 10:30PM

All office hours will be held in the course laboratory, initially Engineering 104.

Textbooks: Shelly, Cahsman, and Waggoner, Using Computers, a Gateway to Information: World Wide Web edition Boyd and Fraser, 1996.

Grauer and Barber, Exploring Microsoft Office Professional, Prentice-Hall, 1996.

• Grading: Grades will be assigned based on the following formula, with cut-offs determined by my opinion of students on the boundary.

  Lab Exercises - 25%

  Projects - 25%

  Midterm 1 - 15%

  Midterm 2 - 15%

  Final - 20%

• Projects: There will be four creative projects over the course of the semester. The first will be on job search: resume writing and cover letter generation. The second will use the WWW for term paper research. The third project involves spreadsheet design and programming. The final project will be the creation of your own personal WWW pages.
• Laboratory Exercises: These will consist of fairly routine drill exercises to gain familiarity with such major software applications as Excel and Word, as well as using the Internet. These may be completed at your own pace, during your scheduled laboratory periods or other open lab hours.

Rules of the Games:

1. I will lecture from slides, which I will make available in the CS library after lecture. If there is sufficient demand, we may also make them available through BASIX or a print shop off campus.
2. The WWW page for the course is http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/ skiena/101/cse101.html. All course handouts and notes are available there, along with the latest announcements. Please check it out.
3. Students must get at least two high-density 3.5'' disks for storing laboratory files on. It is advisable to use the second diskette to make a copy of the files on the first one, due to the non-permanent nature of diskettes. Additionally, there may be a few times when diskettes are collected in order to grade lab exercises and projects.
4. Because a primary goal of the course is to teach professionalism, any academic dishonesty will be viewed as evidence that this goal has not been achieved, and will be grounded for receiving a grade of F. (See CEAS Procedures and Guideline Governing Academic Dishonesty, 1/81.)
5. If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), Room 133 Humanities, 632-6748/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.
6. The course laboratory will be, at least initially, in room Engineering 104. There is a good chance we will have to move to a different laboratory in Harriman Hall sometime mid-semester. Of course, you are free to work on whatever machines you have access to. Other sites on campus offering similar configurations apparently exist.
7. I understand that everyone gets into a time bind now and then, and that accidents and troubles befall even the most dedicated student. Thus every student will get one free extension on a project for up to a week without a late penalty. You do not have to ask for this - just write that you are using your free extension when you turn it in. Don't waste this extension or feel obligated to use it, since you will get a very dirty look if try to get another one even with a good excuse.
8. Project assignments will be due at the beginning of class. The penalty will be 20% per day.
9. I hope to establish as much personal contact with each of you as is possible in a class this size. Don't be afraid to stop by during office hours to ask questions or say hello. To facilitate interaction, every few weeks there will be 'Pizza with the Prof'. Outside my office will be a sheet for you to sign-up to join 5-10 other students from the class for a pizza lunch (on me). I look forward to getting to know you.

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