Contents

Course Details

Course Code COMP1917
Course Title Computing 1
Units of Credit 6
Course Website http://cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1917
Handbook Entry http://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/undergraduate/courses/current/COMP1917.html

Course Summary

The objective of this course is for students to develop proficiency in programming using a high level language. Topics covered include: fundamental programming concepts, program testing and debugging, the underlying memory representation of data, programming style. Practical experience of these topics is supplied by laboratory programming exercises and assignments.

Course Timetable

Lectures:

Monday 10:00 12:00 Burrows Theatre
Tuesday 13:00 14:00 Mathews Theatre A

The complete course timetable is available here .

Course Aims

The objective of this course is for students to develop proficiency in programming in a high level imperative language and to develop a background of relevant knowledge and skills on which to base further study of computing.

Topics covered include:

  • fundamental programming concepts
  • program testing and debugging
  • the underlying memory representation of data
  • programming style

Practical experience of these topics is supplied by laboratory programming exercises and assignments.

Student Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, students should:

  • be able to design, construct, document and test C programs that accurately comply with a given specification.
  • have an understanding of memory allocation and data storage.

This course contributes to the development of the following graduate capabilities:

Graduate Capability Acquired in
scholarship: understanding of their discipline in its interdisciplinary context lectures, assignments
scholarship: capable of independent and collaborative enquiry tutorial work, lab work, assignments
scholarship: rigorous in their analysis, critique, and reflection assignments
scholarship: able to apply their knowledge and skills to solving problems tutorial work, lab work, assignments
scholarship: ethical practitioners all course-work, by doing it yourself
scholarship: capable of effective communication tutorial work, assignments
scholarship: information literate everywhere in CSE
scholarship: digitally literate everywhere in CSE
leadership: enterprising, innovative and creative tutorial work, assignments
professionalism: capable of independent, self-directed practice tutorial work, lab work, assignments
professionalism: capable of operating within an agreed Code of Practice lab work, assignments
global citizens: culturally aware and capable of respecting diversity and acting in socially just/responsible ways interaction with your fellow students

Assumed Knowledge

There is no assumed knowledge for this course.

Teaching Rationale

As with playing a musical instrument, computer programming cannot be learnt by simply watching and listening. Hands-on experience emphasised through lab work and assignments is essential in mastering the skills taught in this course.

The course follows a problem-based learning approach.

The course is structured so that each week's content builds on the week before. For this reason, students are advised not to fall behind in their lab work.

Teaching Strategies

  • Lectures ... introduce concepts, show examples
  • Tutorials ... reinforce concepts and provide additional examples
  • Lab Work ... introduce technology required for the assignments
  • Assignments .. allow students to solve significant problems

Assessment

The assessable components of the course are:

Component Mark
Assignments 30%
Lab Exercises 9%
Tutorial Presentation 1%
Prac Exam 1 6%
Prac Exam 2 9%
Prac Exam 3 15%
Written Exam 30%
Total 100%

All submitted programs (Lab work and Assignments) must adhere to the Course Style Guide.

To pass the course, you must achieve:

  • at least 15/40 for [Assignments + Labs + Presentation]
  • at least 12/30 for the Prac Exams [1,2,3]
  • at least 12/30 for the Final Exam (Written)
  • at least 50/100 overall

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own . UNSW and CSE treat plagiarism as academic misconduct, which means that it carries penalties as severe as being excluded from further study at UNSW. There are several on-line sources to help you understand what plagiarism is and how it is dealt with at UNSW:

Make sure that you read and understand these. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism.

Course Schedule

The following course schedule is a draft only and is subject to change throughout the semester.

Week Topics
1 Course Introduction
Essential Bash
Compiling and Running
Data Types
Math
scanf
2 Conditionals
Logical Operators
Random Number Generation
Assignment 1
3 Loops
Functions
Defining Constants
Debugging 1
4 Arrays
Strings
Pointers
5 Revision / Catch-up
6 Binary and Hexadecimal
Git
7 Structs
typedef
Dynamic Memory Allocation with Arrays
Linked Lists
8 Linked Lists (continued)
Debugging 2

9 ADTs
Makefiles
10 File I/O
11 Recursion
12 Revision
13 No Lectures


Resources for Students

The recommended textbook for this course is:

  • Alistair Moffat, Programming, Problem Solving, and Abstraction with C, Pearson Educational, Australia, 2003, ISBN 1-74103-080-3

Other resources:

Need Help?

  1. Check the comments section on the topic related to your question (eg if you have a question about Assignment 1, read through the comments at the bottom of the Assignment 1 page).
  2. Ask your question in the comments at the bottom of the related page.
  3. Ask one of your COMP1917 peers.
  4. Ask your tutor.

Course Evaluation and Development

This course is based on one which was created in response to student feedback from the course COMP1911 in 2006/07. When it ran for the first time in Session 1, 2008, students expressed satisfaction with the course, but felt that the workload was a bit too heavy. We have therefore made changes to the course, and we believe that the workload is now appropriate. In response to feedback from 2008 and Session 1, 2009, the 3-hour written exam has been replaced by a 2-hour practical exam plus a 2-hour written exam.

Student feedback for this course will be obtained via electronic survey at the end of session, and will be used to make continual improvements to the course. Students are also encouraged to provide informal feedback during the session, and to let the lecturer in charge know of any problems, as soon as they arise. Suggestions will be received constructively, and every reasonable effort will be made to address them.

Resource created Wednesday 13 July 2016, 04:02:32 PM, last modified Monday 17 October 2016, 10:19:35 AM.


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