Syllabus

Instructor:

• Ken Christensen (Associate Professor)
  Office: ENB 319
  Office Phone: 974-4761
  Email: christen@csee.usf.edu
  Web: http://www.csee.usf.edu/~christen

Teaching assistant:

• Xu Jainxuan (graduate student)
  Office: ENB 325
  Email: xjianxua@csee.usf.edu
  

Class location and time:

Class will be held in Physics 13 on Monday and Wednesday from 9:30am to 10:45am.

Office hours:

• My office hours are Monday through Thursday, 5:00pm to 6:00pm. Generally, my door is always open and you are very much welcome to stop by. I respond to email very quickly - but, I ask you to include the text string "CIS4930:" in the beginning of the subject line to make sure that I do not accidentally spam-purge your email.
• Xu's (the course TA) office hours are TBD

Course materials:

The course materials for this class come from three seperate places. They are:
1. Handout of course materials in the first lecture (each student will receive a folder containing administrative and miscellaneous itmes, and handout reading material for weeks #1, #2, #3, #5, and #6).
2. Course packet at ProCopy (this course pack contains the first four chapters of Simulating Computer Systems by M. Mac Dougall and CSIM19 software and manuals)
3. Papers via the web (the paper titles and links are on the course outline.)
This hopefully not too confusing three-way split of materials is intended to minimize the cost to the students as much as possible.

Prerequisites:

• Program well in C. Some understanding of probability theory and statistics (however, we will review this material).

Grades:

• A = 90% through 100%
• B = 80% through 84%
• C = 70% through 79%
• D = 60% through 69%
• F = Less than 60%

Submission of assignments by student pairs:

If you wish to complete and submit assignments by pairs, you may do so. This is in recognition that very often students learn best from each other. You may also submit assignments as individuals, if you prefer. It is your choice. If you choose the pair approach, then you select your own pairs. Everyone in the pair (obviously) gets the same grade for the single submission. If there is cheating (e.g., two pairs submit the same work), then everyone in the pair is responsible. So, pick your study partner carefully!

Academic honesty:

The concept of academic honesty is not a difficult one. When in doubt, ask... ignorance is not an excuse. Standard department rules hold. If you cheat you get an "FF" in the course and I have very little leeway on this by department rules. Copying of code and failing to attribute the source is very much a breach of academic honesty. Groups are expected to not share information or work together in any way (that is, inter-group cooperation is not acceptable, but intra-group cooperation is expected and is acceptable).

Submission of late work:

If you must submit work late you need to talk to me before the due date in question. Otherwise, late work cannot be accepted (because solutions will be posted in all cases immediately after the assignment submission date).

Getting an incomplete grade for the course:

Incomplete ("I") grades will only be given in the case of severe hardship including serious medical or legal troubles. Simply being overloaded and unable to complete your work is not grounds for an "I" grade.

Issues with grades:

If I make a mistake in grading your work, I will fix the mistake and apologize for it. However, please do not try to "negotiate" your grade. Grade negotiation is extremely demeaing to you the student and very discomforting to me. Be proud of the grade your earn even it is not an "A".

Note from the Provost regarding religious observances:

"Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to the observation of a major religious observance must provide notice of the date(s) to the instructor, in writing, by the second class meeting."