COS126

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Syllabus

Description. This course is an introduction to computer science in the context of scientific, engineering, and commercial applications. The goal of the course is to teach basic principles and practical issues, while at the same time preparing students to use computers effectively for applications in computer science, physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, and other disciplines. Topics include: programming in Java; hardware and software systems; algorithms and data structures; fundamental principles of computation; and scientific computing, including simulation, optimization, and data analysis.

Prerequisites. None.

Video lectures. Available online.

Class meetings. Class meetings are held twice per week, on Tuesdays & Thursdays.

Precepts. Precepts meet twice a week, on either Tuesdays & Thursdays or Wednesdays & Fridays.

	Required reading. R. Sedgewick and K. Wayne, Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Addison–Wesley Professional, 2016. ISBN 978-0134076423. We will be referencing this text all semester. The lectures are based on its contents. (Labyrinth)

Staff

Below you will find our contact information, but please keep in mind that it is almost always more appropriate to post your question on Piazza rather than emailing an individual staff member. Our office hours and precept schedule can be found on the Help page.

Need to switch into a full precept? Please contact Colleen Kenny–McGinley.

Kevin Wayne Faculty Instructor	Dan Leyzberg Faculty Co-Lead Preceptor	Alan Kaplan Faculty Co-Lead Preceptor	Ibrahim Albluwi Faculty Co-Lead Preceptor	Donna Gabai Faculty Preceptor
Lawrence Lin Graduate Student Preceptor	Kevin Boutarel Graduate Student Preceptor	Cyril Zhang Graduate Student Preceptor	Ashley Thomas Graduate Student Preceptor	Alex Beatson Graduate Student Preceptor
Yichen Chen Graduate Student Preceptor	Marc Leef Graduate Student Preceptor	Ashley Kling Graduate Student Preceptor	Natalie Wilkinson Graduate Student Preceptor	Bridger Hahn Graduate Student Preceptor
Niranjani Prasad Graduate Student ISC-only Preceptor	Brian Jo Graduate Student ISC-only Preceptor

Precepts

Precepts are an integral part of this course. We offer two formats: those intended for absolute beginners ("novice precepts") and those intended for beginners with some degree of comfort with computational/logical thinking ("regular precepts"). This entire course is designed to be approachable for students with no computing background, but some absolute beginners enjoy having extra time in precept to cover the same material.

If you miss your precept, you can attend any other precept section. All Tuesday/Wednesday and Thursday/Friday precepts contain the sameinstructional content. Just email both preceptors to let them know where you'll be.

80-minute novice precepts:
P01	Tuesdays & Thursdays	12:30-1:20pm	with Dan Leyzberg	in Friend 108
P01A	Tuesdays & Thursdays	12:30-1:20pm	with Lawrence Lin	in Friend 109
P01B	Tuesdays & Thursdays	12:30-1:20pm	with Marc Leef	in Friend 110
P01C	Tuesdays & Thursdays	12:30-1:20pm	with Bridger Hahn	in CS 302
P01D	Tuesdays & Thursdays	12:30-1:20pm	with Yichen Chen	in Friend 009
P02	Tuesdays & Thursdays	1:30-2:20pm	with Ashley Thomas	in Friend 110
P02A	Tuesdays & Thursdays	1:30-2:20pm	with Natalie Wilkinson	in Friend 111
P03	Tuesdays & Thursdays	2:30-3:20pm	with Ibrahim Albluwi	in Friend 110
P04	Tuesdays & Thursdays	7:30-8:20pm	with Kevin Boutarel	in Friend 108
P05	Wednesdays & Fridays	1:30-2:20pm	with Alex Beatson	in Friend 109
P05A	Wednesdays & Fridays	1:30-2:20pm	with Cyril Zhang	in Friend 110
P06	Wednesdays & Fridays	2:30-3:20pm	with Ibrahim Albluwi	in Friend 109
P11	Tuesdays & Thursdays	1:30-2:50pm	with Dan Leyzberg	in Friend 108
P11A	Tuesdays & Thursdays	1:30-2:50pm	with Donna Gabai	in Friend 109
P12	Wednesdays & Fridays	1:30-2:50pm	with Alan Kaplan and Ashley Kling	in Friend 108
P13	Tuesdays & Thursdays	3:00-4:20pm	with Donna Gabai	in Friend 108
P14	Wednesdays & Fridays	3:00-4:20pm	with Alan Kaplan and Ashley Kling	in Friend 108
ISC-only precepts:
B01	Wednesdays	3:00-4:20pm	with Niranjani Prasad	in Icahn 200
B02	Thursdays	3:00-4:20pm	with Brian Jo	in Icahn 200

Resources

Help. COS 126 is a challenging course that requires a significant time commitment for most students. If you fall behind, please ask for help.

Course website. This website contains a wealth of documents and online tools for you to practice and study computer science, including the course lecture slides, online programming activities (with solutions), a Java code visualizer, and an exam archive.

Booksite. The booksite is a resource that accompanies the textbook for use while online (for example, while programming); it contains the code from the book and solutions to selected exercises. The textbook is for your use when initially learning new material or reinforcing your understanding of that material (for example, when reviewing for an exam).

Piazza. Piazza is an online forum where you can ask and answer short questions.

Blackboard. You can check your assignment and exam grades on Blackboard.

Course software.This course has an associated software package called introcs that provides a complete Java programming environment. Install it on your computer by following the instructions for your operating system: Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux.

Cluster computers.For students who may not have a computer or for students whose computers fail during the semester, OIT cluster machines are available in Friend Center 017. Click here for information on using the labs.

GRADING

Course grades. Course grades are comprised of nine weekly programming assignments (40%), two written exams (35%), two programming exams (15%), a final programming project (10%), and staff discretion (to adjust borderline cases).

Curve. We do not "curve" graded work or course grades. For example, the cutoff for an "A−" will be approximately 90% of the available points.

Midterm exams. There are two two-part exams during the semester. One pair will be given in the middle of the semester; the other pair in the last week or so of classes. The exams have a written portion and a programming portion. There is no final exam. No makeup exams will be considered without a Dean's recommendation and our pre-approval.

Programming assignments. There are nine weekly programming assignments, all equally weighted.

Final project. The final project is a large programming assignment, approximately the length of two weekly assignments. It is due toward the end of Reading Period.

Late work. Assignments are due on Monday nights at 11:59pm. Submissions made at 12:00am will be marked late. If any part of an assignment is submitted late, the entire assignment will be marked late. To submit an assignment late, mark the checkbox on our online submission system, Dropbox, that indicates that your work is incomplete. If the deadline has passed and the checkbox is not marked, we will grade any submitted work as-is. We will not accept any work after Dean's Date without a Dean's recommendation.

Penalties for late work. Late assignments are assessed a penalty equal to 20% of the possible points on the assignment per day or partial day that it is late. The penalties for your first four late days are automatically waived. (This waiver applies only to programming assignments, not the final project.) Additional late penalties will be waived only in the case of a medical or personal emergency, as documented in a note from a Dean, Director of Studies, or McCosh Health Center.

Regrades. If you feel we have made a mistake while grading your work, write a short note describing the potential mistake and attach it to the graded work. Return it to your preceptor within two weeks of the work being handed back.

Auditors. Auditors must identify themselves to the lead preceptors via email as soon as possible. Auditors will receive only automated feedback on work. To earn audit credit, you must successfully complete all of the programming assignments and the final project, using at most four late days. Auditors do not take exams in this course.

Collaboration Policy

This course permits (and encourages) many forms of collaboration, including with course staff, classmates, and lab TAs. However, you must be careful to collaborate only as authorized below. Here is an executive summary:

YOUR
PARTNER COURSE
STAFF COS 126
GRADS CLASS-
MATES OTHER
PEOPLE

DISCUSS CONCEPTS WITH: ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

ACKNOWLEDGE COLLABORATION WITH: ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

EXPOSE YOUR CODE/SOLUTIONS TO: ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘

VIEW THE CODE/SOLUTIONS OF: ✔ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘

COPY CODE/SOLUTIONS FROM: ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘ ✘

	YOUR PARTNER	COURSE STAFF	COS 126 GRADS	CLASS- MATES	OTHER PEOPLE
DISCUSS CONCEPTS WITH:	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
ACKNOWLEDGE COLLABORATION WITH:	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
EXPOSE YOUR CODE/SOLUTIONS TO:	✔	✔	✔	✘	✘
VIEW THE CODE/SOLUTIONS OF:	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘
COPY CODE/SOLUTIONS FROM:	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘

Your solutions. You must individually compose all of your solutions. The term solutions refers to any of the products created when completing a programming assignment, such as source code (including comments) and the readme.txt file. It includes both finished and unfinished products, regardless of correctness or completeness.

You must never expose solutions to anyone who is taking COS 126 now or who might take COS 126 in the future. For example, you may not place your work in a public location (such as a website, a public code repository, or a printout left in a lab). If you leave your computer unattended, be sure to protect it with a password.
You must never give your solutions to anyone, except course staff.
You must never receive or view someone else's solutions to a programming assignment (or variant of an assignment).

These rules continue to apply even after this semester is over.

Collaboration with course staff. You are welcome to discuss your solutions with course staff members (instructor and preceptors) in office hours or via private Piazza posts. Do not post or email us your code; instead, submit it via the course submission system.

Collaboration with classmates. We encourage you to discuss common concerns with classmates either private via personal interactions or publicly in the Piazza course forum. These discussions must be kept at a general level, without exposing your solutions. For example, you may ask about:

How to interpret an error message. For example, "What does StackOverflowError mean?"
How to use a feature in DrJava, Terminal, or Command Prompt. For example, "How do I copy text from the Terminal?"
The definition of a piece of Java syntax. For example, "What are the parts of a for loop?"
Clarifications for the lecture videos, lecture slides, readings, or the assignment specifications.
Discussion of book/booksite/precept exercises or old exam questions.

But, for example, you you may not:

Look at another classmate's solutions (or show another classmate your solutions).
Lead a classmate step-by-step through any part of the assignment (or allow a classmate to lead you step-by-step through any part of the assignment).

Collaboration with COS 126 graduates (including lab TAs and peer tutors). Anyone who successfully completed COS 126 in a previous term (including lab TAs) may assist you in the following ways:

They may look at your code.
They must not write, type, or dictate code (in short, "hands in pockets").
They may help debug, but they must not give step-by-step directions on how to complete the assignment.
They should give thought-provoking suggestions rather than dictating what to change.
While helping you, they must not look at any other solutions, including their own.

Other individuals may help you under these same conditions, provided they are not taking COS 126 now and never will in the future.

Collaboration with a partner. On certain assignments the collaboration policy is relaxed to allow working with a partner, subject to the following rules:

Choose a partner whose skill level is close to your own.
Employ pair programming, where one partner (the driver) types; the other partner (the navigator) reviews the work, identifies bugs, and asks questions; and the two partners swap roles every 30 to 40 minutes, taking breaks from coding to brainstorm and discuss high-level ideas.
Complete all work for the assignment with your partner, sharing the same computer screen. This includes debugging, testing, commenting, writing the readme.txt, and submitting the files.
Go to office hours or the lab with your partner; one partner may not edit the code without the other partner present.
Keep a copy of your final submission, even if your partner submitted it.
Use email attachments or flash drives to transfer files with your partner. File-sharing or pastebin-like web services are prohibited.
Do not log in to Dropbox from your partner's machine; do not give your partner your Dropbox password.

If two students begin working on an assignment as partners and cannot complete it together, at least one student must contact a lead preceptor to request a partnership dissolution.

Collaboration with yourself. If you took COS 126 (or part of it) during a previous term, then you may refer to your solution for an assignment from the previous term provided that (1) you composed the solution individually, (2) you don't partner on that assignment this term, and (3) you acknowledge it in your readme.txt. However, in our experience, redoing the assignment from scratch will significantly increase your chance of success in the course.

Collaboration acknowledgment. You must acknowledge any collaboration (whether authorized or unauthorized) in the readme.txt file for that week's assignment. Using and acknowledging unauthorized collaboration will typically result in a grade of 0 for the assignment (but no further penalty).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism and abetting plagiarism are serious academic infractions. Programming is a creative work and the academic regulations that apply to plagiarizing prose also apply to plagiarizing code. Princeton's Rights, Rules, Responsibilities defines plagiarism as "the use of any outside source without proper acknowledgment." It ranges from "verbatim copying" (e.g., cutting-and-pasting code) to "thorough paraphrasing" (e.g., changing variable names or rearranging code).

Outside sources and citations. Copying or adapting code that is not yours is permitted only if it comes from the course materials (i.e., the course textbook, companion booksite, programming assignment specifications, checklists, lecture slides, lecture videos, and precepts). If you do so, you must cite any code that you copy or adapt (with the exception of code that is included with the assignment).

Plagiarism detection. We use sophisticated software tools to detect plagiarism. For example, we compare each submission (including interim submissions) against a code database, which includes all submissions from this offering and previous offerings of the course. While we take no pleasure in bringing cases to the Committee on Discipline; it is our duty to keep the playing field level for the overwhelming majority of students who work very hard in this course and follow the rules.

Penalties. We refer alleged academic violations (including plagiarism and abetting plagiarism) to the Committee on Discipline. If found responsible, the typical penalty is an F as a course grade plus whatever penalty that the CoD imposes. (The typical CoD penalty for plagiarism is suspension from the University for one year.) Violators of course policies that are not adjudicated by the CoD will receive penalties based on the severity of the violation, ranging from a warning (for violations that are both unintentional and innocuous) to an F in the course (for violations that are both intentional and serious).