UP ONE LEVEL: ENEL 315 Home Page

The University of Calgary
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ENEL 315: Introduction to
Data Structures and Software Development

Course Outline for the 1996 Winter Session

Author: Steve Norman
Date: 3 January 1996

Contents

Revision History

The original version (including paper copies handed out in the first lecture) had incorrect information about the lab schedule. This was corrected Mon, Jan 8 at 11:45am.

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Preface

This document is the official course outline, as specified in the U of C Calendar. It contains information about
  • who the lecture and laboratory instructor is;
  • where and when the lectures and labs take place;
  • course content;
  • policies for assignments, exams, tests, and course grading.

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    Lecture and Laboratory Instructor

    Dr. S. A. Norman
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Office: EN A 229F
    Phone: 220-8642
    Email: norman@enel.ucalgary.ca

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    Lectures

    Lectures are Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00am in EN E 239.

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    Laboratory Sections

    NOTE: The information below is now CORRECT. There were errors in the original version of this document. 
    DAY     TIME            SECTION         LAB INSTRUCTOR

Wed     2:00-3:50pm     B01		Dr. Norman

Fri	3:30-5:20pm     B02		Dr. Norman

    Please note the number of your lab section. (``B01'' stands for ``laBoratory section 1''.) You should write your lab section number on every assignment you hand in and type it into every file of source code you work on.

    Laboratory sections meet in EN C 01 and EN C 07.

    Laboratory sections begin Wednesday, January 10. You will have a lab section almost every week. You will be given more precise information about the laboratory schedule as the term progresses.

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    Course Content

    NOTE: the list below does NOT give the order in which topics will be covered. Most programming exercises will involve ideas from four or five of the categories listed below.

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    Laboratory Assignments

    Some assignments are to be completed by each individual student and others are to be completed by groups of students. A note near the top of each lab handout will specify whether the assignment is to be done by individuals or by groups.

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    Get Help, But Don't Cheat!

    Do the individual assignments by yourself. If you copy someone else's work or let someone else figure out all the difficult exercises for you, you will not learn very much.

    This does not mean that you should not get help from others while you are doing your assignments. You are encouraged to discuss the assignments with instructors and fellow students, since this is one of the best ways to learn the material. However, you should not let anyone write your programs for you. When you hand in your assignments, ask yourself two questions:

    Do I understand every line of code I wrote?
    Could I do this assignment over again without any help?
    The answer to both questions should be YES.

    Computers allow electronic copying of programs, which makes it very easy to cheat in a course like ENEL 315. If you are caught cheating you may be reported to the Undergraduate Studies Office for appropriate discipline. If you cheat and don't get caught, you are still in trouble, because examination marks count much more than assignment marks in your final course grade.

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    Essays

    You will write and hand in two very short essays on topics related to software development. The purpose of assigning these essays is to get you to do some reading and thinking about software development, and to give you some practice in written communication.

    Essay topics, due dates and other details will be announced later.

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    Examinations and Course Grading

    There will be one mid-session test. It will probably take place one evening in the week before Reading Week. When the details are known, they will be announced in lectures.

    The mid-session test and the final examination will be closed-book - you may not bring any books or notes. You may not use electronic calculators or computers during either the mid-session test or the final exam.

    Here is the weighting that will be used to assign grades: 

       Lab assignments:    20%
   Essays:              5%
   Mid-session test:   25%
   Final examination:  50%

    Regardless of your assignment and midterm marks, if you score less than 40 percent on the final exam you will fail the course, and if you score between 40 and 50 percent on the final exam your grade will be D+ or lower.

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    Other Course Information

    You are strongly encouraged to use the World Wide Web to look up course information. For example, you will be able to use the Web to read
  • this outline;
  • information about course texts;
  • information about the teaching assistants;
  • all lecture-related handouts;
  • all lab handouts;
  • some lab solutions.
    • (Not much of this information will be available right at the beginning of the term. The set of course pages will grow as the term progresses.)

    The URL for the ENEL 315 Home Page is 

       http://www.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/Norman/enel315
    If you use Mosaic in the Common Core DECstation Lab, you will find a convenient link from the DECstation Lab home page to the ENEL 315 home page. If you use Netscape or Mosaic on the Electrical Engineering Unix system, first use the link from the Electrical Engineering home page to ``Undergraduate Courses''; from there it should be easy to find the ENEL 315 home page.

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