Contract

If you wish to earn a grade in this course, you must perform two tasks immediately. First you must figure out how to send email to Richard C. with

1. your last name,
2. first name,
3. your preferred email address,
4. and the last four digits of your NU student number

in the body of the email by the end of the first week. Second, you must print this page, sign it at the top-right, and drop it off at Richard's desk also by the end of the first week. Your signature acknowledges that you have read this page, the page on programming (Projects tab), and the rest of the site, and that you recognize this web site as contract between you and us.

Tuesdays and Fridays @ 1:35-3:15 in WVH 108

Matthias Felleisen (West Village H 308B)
Richard Cobbe (West Village H 330)

The course is a "studio" course, an idea that originated in art schools. In a studio course, the instructor presents basic techniques, discusses domain knowledge for specific projects, and then teaches with the help of student presentations.

The purpose of student presentations is for everyone to learn to reason about problem analysis, designs, and code. The presenter will learn to present products to a team, to defend the product, and to take note of weak spots. Conversely, the listener will learn to analyze and to critique a product, helping the presenter uncover flaws. For details on how we will conduct the presentations, see the Project page.

The final grades are based on three factors: your project points (50%), your active presentations (20%), your panel participation (20%), your journal (5%), and the whim of the instructor (5%). Each project comes with a variable number of points, which in turn are assigned to separate parts. You will not need 100% of the project points to obtain a maximal score for the project grade; you can thus learn to pick and choose from the list of project parts to maximize on a project's success (see Beck). In contrast, you will need all presentation and panel points to obtain a full score on these parts; missing a presentation as a presenter or listener just won't do.