COMP2511 Notices

COMP2511 (22T3) Supplementary examination at 2-5pm Monday, February 6, 2023

Posted by Ashesh Mahidadia Saturday 04 February 2023, 10:42:59 AM.

The COMP2511 (22T3) Supplementary examination will be held on Monday, February 6, 2023, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The school should have sent you an email regarding this. Please send an email to the class account ( cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au ) if you have not received such an email.

Please note that you can only take the supplementary exam if you are offered the supplementary exam; otherwise, you cannot take the supplementary exam.

Wrapping it all Up 🎄

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Friday 23 December 2022, 11:58:06 AM.

Hi everyone,

Now the course is all finished we would just like to say a quick thank you and goodbye :)

We want to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you for a fantastic 22T3 and a huge congratulations on completing the course.

We first want to congratulate the top ten performing students, in order:

1. Stathakis, Nicholas
2. Nair, Sai
3. Berlee, Ryan
4. Codd, Jason
5. Reyes, Franco
6. Mah, Anders
7. Godwin, Benjamin
8. Nguyen, Vincent
9. Beckett, Kobi
10. Chen, Alexander

Thanks so much for the positive comments that people shared in myExperience and the feedback form. Some of you really put a smile on your tutor's face when they read it. And thanks to all those who provided us with constructive criticism as well, we read through every single piece of feedback and take it into consideration because we want to make this course the very best it can be.

As a final note – we see COMP2511 as playing an important role in turning you from programmers into software designers ready to go out and take on the world. The fact that you’ve all come so far to complete the course is a testament to your dedication, commitment and tenacity, and the uphill battles you’ve gone through mean that now you can move mountains.

It was a pleasure teaching all of you in T3 – in the lectures, the tutorials, on the forums.

Have a great Christmas, and all the very best for 2023 and beyond.

Ashesh, Nick and the COMP2511 22T3 Teaching Team

Assignment III Marks Released

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Saturday 10 December 2022, 05:27:25 PM.

Hi everyone,

Your Assignment III marks have been released and are available to view on Sturec (WebCMS Grades is not currently working). Markers have put their feedback either in your GitLab repo or Confluence blog. If you've got any questions about your marks please make a private post on the forum . Any requests for reviews of results can result in your mark going up, down, or staying the same.

Remember the assignment is 5% core, 5% bonus which can be used to make up lost marks in other assignments.

Final Exam Arrangements

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Thursday 01 December 2022, 07:46:45 PM.

Hi everyone,

The big day is almost here!! You've all been working incredibly hard this term and deserve a huge congratulations for how far you have come since we first journeyed in to the world of Java and Software Design.

A few final notes about the exam:

• The exam is open-book, for specific questions please see this megathread
• You will be able to use your phone to 2FA yourself into GitLab/Confluence at the beginning of the exam, after which your phone goes under your desk. If you need to use 2FA again, please raise your hand to ask an invigilator for permission to use your phone.
• Issues with your personal device during the exam are NOT grounds for any extra time or Special Consideration. We can't guarantee we'll be able to assist you with personal device issues during the exam either, so it's your responsibility.
• You will have some time to get your environment ready between going into the exam room and the start time, but please make sure you are ready to go before the exam. We are on a tight schedule and can't award extra time for setup issues.
• You can use your personal device OR the lab computer - not both during the exam.
• No comms platforms at all - no discord, messenger, etc. - only the Edstem forum

Any other questions please post on the megathread.

The spec will be on this Confluence page:

https://unswcse.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/cs2511/pages/63111216/Exam+Spec

At the moment you shouldn't be able to access it - you will be able to access once your allocated exam time starts.

See you tomorrow, and GOOD LUCK!!!!

Change in Exam Conditions

Posted by Ashesh Mahidadia Tuesday 29 November 2022, 06:18:09 PM, last modified Tuesday 29 November 2022, 06:18:33 PM.

After a long covid break, the school is running lab exams for a few courses! Based on the feedback from the lab exams conducted so far this term, we have decided to change the exam conditions as below. These revised exam conditions will also address issues raised regarding exam equity.

• You can bring your device (laptop computer)
• The exam is an open-book exam. You can access the web. You can access your personal notes/solutions on your computer or CSE account. However, you must not communicate with other students in any way, and you must not request/receive help from contract cheating sites (e.g., Chegg).
• All answers you submit must be your original work .

All the best for your exam on Friday.

Exam Revision Livestream + myExperience

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Wednesday 23 November 2022, 03:18:05 PM.

Hi everyone,

See you at 4pm for the livestream in Ainsworth G02 or online!

Click here to join the livestream on MS Teams .

Also... we are at 74% completion for myExperience - 11% more to go and only one day left!!

End of Week 10 Updates 🐚

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 20 November 2022, 03:06:56 PM, last modified Sunday 20 November 2022, 03:07:57 PM.

Hi everyone,

We did it!!! We're at the very end and just under two weeks away from the course finishing up entirely. We hope you have enjoyed the finish working on Assignment III and the last few labs. We're in the process of marking your work and preparing for the exam to make everything as smooth as possible for you.

MyExperience

We are at 65% completion of myExperience which is fantastic - 20% more to go!!! That bonus course mark is so close you can almost taste it :)

Exam Revision

- please come and join us in person!

• Solutions to the Lab 09 Exam Revision Theory Questions are now available on this Confluence page .
• Solutions to the Sample Exam will be made available after the livestream - we strongly recommend you attempt the Sample Exam before attending/watching the livestream - as mentioned in the exam information page , the exam will assess your ability to think and solve problems rather than rote learn answers.

Exam Admin

Next week you will be given your session and seating allocation by CSE.

It's really important that you prepare your CSE account beforehand so that the exam day is nice and stress-free - this includes:

• Setting up VSCode (2511 code) to work on the CSE machines (you can do this via VLab or on the lab computers) - including setting up all your extensions .
• Checking Gradle is working using 2511 gradle
• Referring to the troubleshooting guide if you run into any problems
• Clearing off other files you don't need from your CSE account so that you don't run out of memory during the exam. VSCode extensions take up quite a bit of space, so it is good to be on the safe side here.

Make sure to read the exam page with all the information to complete the exam as well .

Release & Finalising of Marks

• Assignment II Automarking results will be released to your repositories this afternoon. Please read the specification carefully with regards to reruns - if your group wishes to apply for a rerun you can do so via this form . This form will close on Friday 25th November at 5pm .
• We will release your final Assignment II marks to you on Friday evening ;
• Your coursework marks (tutorial + lab) will also be finalised this week by your tutors, if you have any questions regarding this after next Sunday please email both of them.
• Assignment III marks will not be released until after the exam.

Happy stuvac, and see you on Wednesday!

End of Week 9 Updates 💡

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 13 November 2022, 02:35:26 PM.

Hi everyone,

Not too much from us today - we hope your end of term is going smoothly and you're looking forward to what will be a well deserved summer break very soon!

Week 10 Lectures

On Monday we will be playing a recording of a guest lecture from last term given by a Guest Industry Speaker from Nine Publishing - George Wright, who is a Senior Engineering Manager of the Product Performance team in Nine's Product and Technology Division. George has been involved with CSE for several years and has kindly given his time to impart a few pearls of wisdom on Software Design to you.

After that we will discuss the format and structure of the exam.

There is no lecture on Wednesday .

Exam

There is information already about the in-person exam on the Exam page , with more information to come tomorrow. A sample exam (the 22T2 exam) will be made available in the next couple of days as well.

There are also a series of revision exercises, a mix of past lab exercises and past exam questions inside Lab 09 (all non-assessed) for you to sink your teeth into.

We'll also have an exam revision lecture on Wednesday of Week 11, time to be confirmed.

Lab 09 & Gratitude

Lab 09 is the last lab and is due tomorrow at 8am - make sure you have a go at the Gratitude exercise - which we ask that you do, post a summary comment and also read through and comment on other people's posts as well.

We have been climbing and moving mountains together this term and it's important to recognise, praise and show gratitude to ourselves and others, as well as taking some time to reflect on how we can improve.

myExperience + BONUS MARK

... speaking of which - please tell us how we can improve by filling out myExperience! Your tutor should give you some time to this week at the beginning of the tutorial to complete it.

If 85% of the cohort fills out myExperience, every single student in the course will receive 1 bonus course mark .

That means if your final course mark was 61 it will become 62, 71 -> 72, 84 -> 85.... so fill it out and encourage each other to fill it out as well.

Last term we got to 83% - so it's definitely achievable!!

See you tomorrow for the last lecture!

End of Week 8 Updates 🎃

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 06 November 2022, 08:10:03 PM.

Hi everyone,

Congratulations on completing Assignment II. We are now well and truly on the home stretch of the course and your hard work throughout the term will pay dividends now and later.

Assignment II

During your lab time this week or in Week 10 you and your partner will have a short (~ 10 minute) interview with your tutor regarding the design of your assignment. This will function in the exact same way as it did for Assignment I.

If you are unable to attend your lab in either Week 9 or Week 10, please let your tutor know so they can interview you on the other week. If you are unable to attend your lab in both Week 9 and Week 10 please email cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au explaining your situation and we will arrange a substitute interview at an alternative time.

Assignment II will be returned to you with marks and feedback by the end of Week 11.

If you are submitting the assignment late, remember that the hard deadline is Week 9 Friday, 5pm . Submissions won't be accepted after that time.

Labs

Lab 08 is due Week 9 Friday, 5pm . It contains content which will be directly covered in the exam.

Lab 09 is due Week 10 Monday, 8am . These two deadlines are close together since we need to finish marking all your labs in Week 10. Remember that you have one get out of jail free card to use and skip a week's labs!

For those doing Assignment III please reach out on the forum if you need any support.

We will be in touch with information regarding the final exam soon as well.

See you in the lecture tomorrow, where we'll start to wrap up our discussion of Software Design!

End of Week 7 Updates 🪔

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 30 October 2022, 02:45:40 PM.

Hi everyone,

We hope that Assignment II is going smoothly for you and your partner! It always marvels me how many fantastic questions there are on the forum and it's awesome to see you diving into the problems with so much commitment.

Lots to go over today, please read carefully!

Assignment I Marks Released

Your Assignment I mark has been released and is available to view under the Grades section on WebCMS.

Your marker has provided feedback in a branch called feedback on your assignment repository.

Your automarking results for the assignment are also available. You can look at them under the automarking branch in your assignment repository.

Some of you submitted code that failed to compile and received 0 in the automark. If you wish to rectify this you can make a patch of less than 20 lines difference and submit the form below to request a re-run. A re-run will incur a 20% penalty to the final automark, unless the change is trivial (e.g. BlackoutController was in the wrong folder). We will take up to a week to process all re-runs.

Here is the form to request a re-run .

If your code compiled but you have failed a large number of autotests and are unsure why, please make a private post on the forum with your name, zID and query. We will only re-run submissions that failed to compile.

If you have any questions regarding the manually marked component of your assessment, please email your marker (they will be the committer on the feedback branch). If you still have further queries after this correspondence, please forward the email chain to cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au . Any reviews of results directed to the class account can result in the mark decreasing, increasing or remaining the same.

Assignment II

Assignment II is due Week 8 Friday, 5pm. Make sure you've finalised all aspects of your submission, including your pair blog post , individual blog posts and of course your final code changes by the deadline.

To give you some flexibility, the late penalty is very lenient (2% off the maximum mark per day).

A small reminder that we'll give you some formative feedback on the correctness of your solution so far on Tuesday, so make sure to have any work you want tested on your assignment-ii master branch by 8am on Tuesday morning .

Please also make sure to make your pair blog post private on Confluence so that only you, your partner and cs2511-22t3-staff can access it.

Assignment III

Assignment III will be released on Wednesday morning - it is worth 5% core and 5% bonus. We'll go through the content relating to Assignment III in Wednesday's lecture.

During your tutorial this week, please let your tutor know if you are completing the assignment individually or as a pair (either way is up to you).

Final Exam

We know you have many questions about how the exam will be running! We are still in the process of co-ordinating with CSE and we'll come out with some more information soon on the specific details.

End of Week 5 Updates 🍰

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 16 October 2022, 05:58:22 PM.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the end of Week 5 - we hope you're looking forward to a well deserved break next week. Catch up on sleep, do something fun, go outside and see people - have a rest and recharge before we head into the second half of term :)

Before we head into flexibility week, we just want to give you a few updates.

Assignment II

Well done to all the pairs that have gotten straight into Assignment II - this assignment is something that you will need to chip away at and complete in small increments over the next few weeks in order to succeed in as a team.

• The specification is available on Confluence ;
• We have lots of help sessions over the next few weeks to support you completing the assignment;
• Remember to communicate proactively about any teamwork issues as they arise - with each other and your tutor so that they can be resolved.

Coursework Marks

Your coursework marks for Weeks 1 - 3 should be available under the Grades Section on WebCMS. If you have any questions about your lab marks, please email your tutor and lab assistant.

We've added a field called forum_bonus under the Grades section which shows your current standing for bonus marks on answering forum questions. More information can be found on the coursework assessment page . If you have any questions regarding this please post on the forum.

Also a small reminder that you can skip one weeks' worth of labs for the term without it affecting your overall coursework mark.

Make sure to also check out the Lab Retrospectives if you want to go back and have a look at a solution at previous lab exercises.

We'll see you on Monday of Week 7 - where start to move into the next phase of the course, discussing more Design Patterns and Generic Programming.

Have a fantastic flexi week!

End of Week 4 Updates 🎸

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 09 October 2022, 07:52:06 PM.

Hi everyone,

Well done on making it to the end of Week 4 – we’re almost halfway through the course! And a massive congratulations on completing Assignment I – it was no easy feat and it was excellent to see you all tackling the problem on the forum, in help sessions and the labs.

Labs

Lab 04 is due Week 5, Friday 5pm – you have this week during your lab time to catchup having any previous labs marked.

Lab 05 is due Week 7, Monday 8am . Lab 05 is designed to get you refactoring, using Design Patterns and working with a real-life problem, and we recommend you set aside some time towards the end of next week to complete it so that you can focus on Assignment II over Week 6.

Part of Lab 05 also involves a check-in blog post – we want you to take some time to pause, reflect before moving into the second half of term, and read about how others are going as well :)

Assignment I

During your lab time this week or in Week 7 you will have a short (~ 5 minute) interview with your tutor regarding the design of your assignment. Further information can be found in the Assignment I spec .

If you are unable to attend your lab in either Week 5 or Week 7, please let your tutor know so they can interview you on the other week. If you are unable to attend your lab in both Week 5 and Week 7, please email cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au explaining your situation and we will arrange a substitute interview at an alternative time.

We will aim to have Assignment I returned to you with marks and feedback by the end of Week 7.

Assignment II

The Assignment II specification will be released tomorrow morning on Confluence.

If you are not sure who your partner is for Assignment II please contact your tutor so they can help you out - it'll be really important that you can hit the ground running and get started with your partner.

We'll be going through the assignment during the lecture.

See you tomorrow!

End of Week 3 Updates ⛵

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 02 October 2022, 12:01:53 PM.

Hi everyone,

We hope Assignment I is going well for you! A few updates from us.

Assignment I

Assignment I is due next Friday (Week 4) at 5pm. Make sure to mark your submission with a tag and push to GitLab. Any commits on master after the deadline will be taken as a late submission , so make sure to push everything before 5pm.

Make sure to push your code to the master branch of your repository as well as the submission tag . The tag is just a marker on the commit, not a branch of its own.

We have lots of Help Sessions over the next week up until the deadline to support you completing the assignment, plus asynchronous help via the Course Forum! We've also added one extra in-person help session on Tuesday.

Lab Retrospectives

Lab 03 is due tomorrow at 8am - after which we'll release a retrospective video walking through the lab solution. You can view all retro videos on this Confluence page .

Public Holiday - No Lecture Tomorrow

With public holidays coming out of our ears, tomorrow there is no live lecture - you can find recordings from last term available under the Lecture Schedule page.

Looking Ahead

We’ve covered the foundational elements of the course – OO Concepts, some fundamental programming patterns and Design Principles. We now move into the wide and wonderful world of Design Patterns starting next week.

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

Public holiday on Monday, please watch video lectures

Posted by Ashesh Mahidadia Friday 30 September 2022, 09:27:48 AM.

Monday, October 3, is a public holiday, so we'll miss one lecture. To deal with this, I've uploaded video lectures on Refactoring and The Functional Paradigm from the last term. Please watch these lectures before Wednesday's live class. If you require clarification or further explanations on these topics, we can discuss them at the beginning of the Wednesday lecture.

End of Week 2 Updates 🚁

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 25 September 2022, 02:03:57 PM.

Hi everyone,

Updates from us this week:

Assignment I

Assignment I is out and it’s great to see many of you sinking your teeth into it and asking great questions on the forum. If you haven't already, we recommend you make a solid start over the next few days as much of the thinking and figuring out how the pieces fit together takes time.

Next week we’ll finish off talking about many of the concepts useful for you in the assignment – JUnit testing, Design Principles in lectures and UML diagrams in the tutorials.

Assignment II Pairs

Next week during your lab time your tutor will give you the chance to start to form pairs for Assignment II based on your preferences. Your tutor will do their best to make things work, but we can’t always guarantee we can give everyone their preferences :)

Exam

From the course outline:

International students who are not based in Sydney will be able to complete the exam online. Students who are in this position will need to email the class account describing their current residency. Students who are based in Sydney are required to take the exam in person, even if they have enrolled in online classes.

The exam date will be between the 25 ^th November and the 8 ^th December (the UNSW 2022 T3 Exam Period). If, for whatever reason you know that you will not be in Sydney during these dates at any point please email cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au with the following:

• Your full name and zID;
• Your reason for not being in Sydney during those dates; and
• Any documentation to support your reason.

We will take some time to process these emails and get back to you. We will not be able to immediately give you an outcome as to whether you can take the exam online until the exam date is released . Personal trips/family holidays will not be accepted as grounds to take the exam online.

For the rest of you – we understand that for many of you this will be your first in person exam at university, which we appreciate might be quite nerve-racking! We’ll release full information on the exam in Week 10 including what resources you’ll have access to and how the exam will run. You’ll also have a chance to visit the lab environment in advance and prepare yourselves.

We’re always open to any feedback on your experience with this, or any other aspect of the course via the forum, email or the feedback form .

See you in Week 3!

Public Holiday Substitute Class Location (Wednesday)

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Wednesday 21 September 2022, 08:12:38 AM.

Hi Thursday In Person Students,

Today's substitute class is in Ainsworth 102 from 9am - 12pm .

Public Holiday Substitute Class Location (Today)

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Tuesday 20 September 2022, 09:40:48 AM.

Hi Thursday In Person Students,

There will be a make-up in person tute/lab today from 1pm - 4pm in Civil Engineering G8 .

There is also another substitute class tomorrow from 9am - 12pm (we'll let you know where, we are just waiting on the location confirmation from CSE).

End of Week 1 Updates 🐤

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 18 September 2022, 01:01:49 PM, last modified Sunday 18 September 2022, 01:11:17 PM.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the end of Week 1! We hope you’re finding your feet in the course and have had the chance to get a feel for how things run.

Tutorial Solutions + Recordings

Every Friday on this Confluence page we release solutions and recordings to the week's tutorial. The Tutorial 01 solutions and recordings are now available.

Lab 01

The Week 1 Lab is due Monday at 8am . Make sure you push all your code to Gitlab under a submission tag as outlined in the lab instructions and post your blog posts on Confluence.

During your Week 2 lab time, your lab marker will mark your Week 1 exercises.

We hope you’ve enjoyed diving into Java and OO Programming. If you are still having issues with setup, please go to a help session or post on the forum as we’ll be able to help you out.

Assignment I

The Assignment I specification will be released on Monday morning on this Confluence page and we will discuss it in the Monday lecture.

Week 2 Thursday Tutorials

Due to the public holiday, tutorials this Thursday are changing slightly.

There are no in-person tutorials or labs on Thursday . If your tutorial is online on Thursday, your tutor will still be running the class and you can optionally attend.

We have two make-up in-person tute-labs at the following times (Rooms TBA, will update in the next couple of days)

• Tuesday 1pm - 4pm
• Wednesday 9am - 12pm

Anyone who will be missing a Thursday in-person tutorial can attend either of the above classes.

For all Thursday classes, attendance is optional - you'll get your lab marked off in a later week in your normal tutorial otherwise.

In Person Tutorials Moved to Ainsworth

If you have an in-person tutorial - check that your tutorial room is the same for this week as it was last week, as CSE has moved most of our in person tutorials from the Squarehouse building into Ainsworth. You can check the the timetable here .

It has been wonderful reading your blog posts with your goals for the weeks ahead and insightful to read your predictions of the challenges you will face – if you’re feeling a degree of nervousness about what’s to come, remember that we are here every step of the way if you need a helping hand.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

⚡⚡ Welcome to COMP2511!! + First Lecture Monday 4pm⚡⚡

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Sunday 11 September 2022, 06:44:51 PM, last modified Sunday 11 September 2022, 06:47:19 PM.

Hi everyone!!

Welcome to COMP2511 for 22T3!! We hope you've had a restful and relaxing holiday and are ready to rock & roll for the term ahead! We have a myriad of exciting learning opportunities planned for you and a team of 34 passionate academic staff here to support you in undertaking your journey over the next 10 weeks.

Admin Tidbits

To help you get settled into the course, here are a few key pieces of information:

• Have a read of the Course Outline - it goes over in fine detail everything we expect of you, and everything you can expect of us!
• We are using Edstem for our Course Forum . If you're unable to access the forum please try logging in to Ed with your zID@unsw.edu.au (no "ad"). If you are still having access problems please email cs2511@cse.unsw.edu.au.
• We are using Confluence and GitLab for our coursework this term. If you're unable to access the Confluence space please try logging into Atlassian with your zID@ad.unsw.edu.au (this one with the "ad")
• We recommend the first thing you do is setup your Learning Checklist for the term - available at this Confluence page

First Lecture - Monday 4pm

Our first lecture is tomorrow at 4pm ! It will be in person at Central Lecture Block Theatre 7 , with an online alternative if you can't make it in person. We're incredibly excited to see you face to face, or online. You can join the lecture on Microsoft Teams via this link .

Tutorials + Labs

You can view your tutorial and lab locations and times here . Tutorials and labs start in Week 1. All labs for the course are available with the specifications on Confluence and repositories via GitLab.

You can also view the Help Session schedule for the course here which will become available tomorrow morning.

See you soon!

We hope you're excited for the term ahead - we'll give a full overview of the course during the lecture tomorrow. Enjoy the last hours of your holidays, and see you tomorrow at 4pm!

Welcome to COMP2511 22T3 🎡

Posted by Nick Patrikeos 🐾 Thursday 25 August 2022, 07:17:49 PM.

Welcome to COMP2511 for 22T3!!

Two major changes from 22T2 you should be aware of:

(1) There are now three assignments instead of an assignment and a project. Assignment I is still individual, Assignment II is completed in pairs, with another student in your tutorial and Assignment III is completed either in pairs or individually.

Please don't ask us if you can complete Assignment II in a group of three or individually, it will be in pairs. Please don't ask us if you can complete Assignment II with someone outside your tutorial group.

(2) The exam will be held in person, in the CSE Labs and invigilated.

More information on the course to follow soon with the course outline.

Enjoy your holidays + rest up for now!

Ashesh & Nick