COMP3222 Notices

How to do well at OR how not to flunk COMP3222

Posted by Oliver Diessel Thursday 10 December 2020, 05:11:41 PM.

Dear COMP3222 Class of 20T3 - I have just finished marking - phew! Unfortunately, we're not allowed to reveal marks, but I can say that overall the class did very well, all things considered. There was (for me) a pleasing correlation between motivated and engaged students and good performance. There were a few mishaps, but not as many as usual, or as expected, given the remote nature of things this term. It did look like there was more effort and better results in the practical exam than the theory exam. A good number either completed or came close to completing a perfect solution! So I'm glad that on the whole you appear to have learnt a few new tricks.

I was thinking: it would be really helpful to have you guys tell your side of the story. What makes for a good experience and success in COMP3222, or if you now think you should have changed your ways a little, what would you do differently to do better at COMP3222? If you care to let me know below, I will anonymise your comments and provide them to next year's class. Alternatively, if you would prefer not to put your name to your comment below, I would love to hear from you by email, or you could ask someone else to pass your message along anonymously... I think your feedback would help future students. So thanks in advance for your thoughts. And all the best for your future studies!

Returning your lab kit

Posted by Oliver Diessel Monday 07 December 2020, 11:38:55 AM.

Would you please return your lab kit (if you have borrowed one) to Vicki in the CSE School Office on level 1 of K17 as soon as you can? Please attach a sticky note with your name on it to the box.

The CSE School Office is open 9am – 4pm on weekdays. Please ensure you have returned your kit by 4pm on Friday, 18 ^th December.

As mentioned in the Course Outline, if you do not return your kit we may have to ask for a financial block to be placed on your zID, which can prevent you from enrolling in courses, delay graduation and block the issue of transcripts.

Exams added to course web page

Posted by Oliver Diessel Wednesday 18 November 2020, 12:00:14 PM, last modified Tuesday 24 November 2020, 11:15:08 AM.

An Exams menu item has been added to the COMP3222/9222 website.

The menu provides access to practice theory and practical exams and instructions for the final exams to be held on the afternoon of 30 November.

Access to the practice exams will be disabled at 1:00 pm on 30 November.

No lecture Wednesday; last lecture Friday

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 17 November 2020, 01:08:23 PM.

There will not be a lecture tomorrow. The final lecture for COMP3222/9222 will be on Friday. I expect to be able to discuss the upcoming final Theory and Practical exams at that time.

Quiz 4 this Wednesday

Posted by Oliver Diessel Monday 09 November 2020, 03:56:52 PM.

Quiz 4 covers lecture material from Weeks 1 - 8 of the course.

The quiz will be available on Moodle over a 24 hour period commencing at 00:01 (Sydney time) on Wednesday 11 November.

You will be allowed 15 minutes to complete the quiz.

Lab 7, 9 & 11 submissions

Posted by Oliver Diessel Monday 02 November 2020, 05:42:13 PM.

Please take care to submit the correct files for these labs - we have had a spate of incorrect submissions for lab 4. If you become aware that you have made an erroneous submission before the deadline, please re-submit, otherwise, please email the lecturer.

Week 6 tutorial to be covered during Wednesday lecture this week

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 27 October 2020, 10:13:25 AM.

Due to the flexibility week last week, we will cover the tutorial that was planned for Week 6 during the lecture on Wednesday this week.

Quiz 3 on Wednesday this week - 15 minutes allowed to complete

Posted by Oliver Diessel Monday 26 October 2020, 05:23:12 PM, last modified Tuesday 27 October 2020, 10:05:10 AM.

Quiz 3 covers lecture material from Weeks 1 - 5 of the course.

The quiz will be available on Moodle over a 24 hour period commencing at 00:01 (Sydney time) on Wednesday 28 October.

You will be allowed 15 minutes to complete Quiz 3 and Quiz 4.

Week 7 lecture and Week 8 lab videos available

Posted by Oliver Diessel Saturday 24 October 2020, 06:16:15 PM.

These resources are now available on the course website.

Week 9 lecture and lab resources still to come.

lab02 marked

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 13 October 2020, 06:41:16 PM.

The marks and feedback for lab02 can be collected from WebCMS3.

REMINDER: Week 5 Quiz (Quiz 2) this Wednesday

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 13 October 2020, 10:48:18 AM, last modified Tuesday 13 October 2020, 03:07:28 PM.

Please participate in this week's Quiz 2, which covers the lecture material of Weeks 1 - 4 and will be open from midnight this evening until midnight tomorrow night.

The organisation and style is identical with that of Quiz 1, i.e. 5 questions, 10 minutes to complete, sequential access to questions. Please note that you will need to have a JavaScript-enabled browser to access the quiz. To enhance accesability, the need to have a JavaScript-enabled browser has been removed.

Late lab submissions

Posted by Oliver Diessel Wednesday 07 October 2020, 04:36:37 PM.

Please note that late lab submissions will no longer be accepted. We schedule and process our work based on what is submitted at the due date. If you have *A VERY SPECIAL REASON* for being late, please contact me to explain your situation.

Lab 1 marked

Posted by Oliver Diessel Wednesday 07 October 2020, 10:59:21 AM, last modified Wednesday 07 October 2020, 10:59:54 AM.

Lab 1 has been marked and feedback that has been provided for you is ready to be collected. This is most readily done by clicking on the Collect Submission tab on the Lab 1 additional guidelines and questions resource web page.

The approach we have taken to marking is to award a mark for a correct solution, 0.5 marks for a partially correct/partially complete solution and 0 marks for missing/completely incorrect solutions. Feedback may be sparse, but is primarily aimed at guiding you towards the expected solution. If you have a question regarding the way your lab mark was determined, please come to a lab drop-in session attended by the demonstrator who marked your submission. For concerns about the marking scheme, please contact me.

Please note that there will be a total of about 40 marks (it may be slightly more or less than 40) available for the 7 lab submissions anticipated for the course. These will then be scaled to 40 to arrive at the lab component of your final mark in the course.

REMINDER: Quiz being held today

Posted by Oliver Diessel Wednesday 30 September 2020, 09:51:16 AM.

In case it has slipped your mind, or you have missed the announcements, the first COMP3222/9222 Quiz is being run today!

Please complete "Quiz 1" (not to be confused with the Practice Quiz) on Moodle by midnight tonight, Sydney time.

Week 3 Quiz

Posted by Oliver Diessel Thursday 24 September 2020, 04:55:04 PM.

The first of 4 online quizzes (in Weeks 3, 5, 7 & 9) on the lecture material covered in preceding weeks will be held next Wednesday. The quizzes are open book.

The quiz will be hosted within the COMP3222/9222 Moodle page and will be enabled for 24 hours commencing at midnight Sydney time on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. You may take the quiz at any time on Wednesday (Sydney time). It will take 10 minutes to complete.

Each quiz will count 5% towards your grade in COMP3222/9222.

A Practice Quiz will be available from 7pm this evening (Sydney time) on the Moodle page for the course. The Practice Quiz is exactly like the real quiz in format, style, instructions and conditions. Please read the explanations regarding the quiz carefully before you attempt the Practice Quiz as you are only allowed one practice attempt. Note that your score in the Practice Quiz does not count towards your grade in COMP3222/9222.

It goes without saying that the integrity of the grading in this course is of utmost importance. Copying will not be tolerated. You will be referred to the university administration if suspected of cheating. So please do the right thing.

Good luck with the quiz!

Lecture recordings

Posted by Oliver Diessel Thursday 17 September 2020, 02:10:27 PM.

I will link to lecture recordings within the Lectures/Week XX section of the course website. Yesterday's recording is already linked.

First online lecture & lab sessions tomorrow

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 15 September 2020, 09:13:10 AM.

You will have received Microsoft Team invitations for the first online lecture and lab sessions starting at 2pm on Wednesday 16 September, Sydney time.

Online lectures will review the main points of the provided lecture material, go over exercises, and provide a live Q&A forum on the course. Please prepare for these by viewing the lecture recordings or reading the lecture slides provided on the course website prior to the online sessions.

Online lab drop-in sessions are provided to assist students having difficulty with any aspects of the labs. As there are only three drop-in sessions per week, we recommend you read the lab instructions and prepare for the lab prior to attending these. Lab submissions are generally due on the Monday after the week in which a lab is scheduled. The assistance we provide will generally only be for the currently scheduled lab. For this week, I expect you to complete the installation of Quartus on a computer you will have access to for the term and to complete the Introduction to Quartus tutorial exercise linked to the Week 1 lab section of the course website.

Collecting lab kits in Week 1 - LAST CHANCE

Posted by Oliver Diessel Thursday 10 September 2020, 05:38:06 PM.

Lab kits will be dispensed at the following times next week in the John Lions Garden.

Monday 14 Sep, 12 pm
Tuesday 15 Sep, 4 pm
Thursday 17 Sep, 12 pm

As previously noted, we will not dispense lab kits after Thursday at 12.

Please be advised that the first lab is due at the start of Week 3. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Collecting a lab kit in Sydney

Posted by Oliver Diessel Friday 04 September 2020, 03:28:09 PM.

COMP3222/9222 will start in Week 1, commencing 14 September.

If you are in Sydney and would like to collect a lab kit next week (before term starts) you can come to the John Lions Garden in front of the main CSE entrance (Building K17) at the following times - I will be available at the times below to hand out lab kits for the term. Note that you will need to take care of these and return them when you complete or cease the course.

If you are overseas, you will need to purchase a DE0 board from Terasic directly, as previously advised (see notice on "Purchasing a lab kit"). Note that you will need to obtain a kit during Week 1 at the latest in order to submit the first lab exercise on time. Late submissions of lab solutions will not be accepted.

Times for collecting a lab kit in the John Lions Garden, K17 during 20T3 Week 0:

1 pm Monday 7 September
11 am Tuesday 8 September
5 pm Wednesday 9 September
3 pm Thursday 10 September

A further announcement will detail lab kit collection times during Week 1. Lab kits will not be dispensed after Week 1.

If you are overseas/not able to attend UNSW in person, please let me know by email your zID, name, location and tell me your plans for obtaining a lab kit.

Lab and Tute times for COMP3222 in 20T3

Posted by Oliver Diessel Friday 28 August 2020, 12:44:27 PM.

Please be advised that we have 3 online two-hour lab drop-in sessions scheduled per week to help with questions you may have regarding the current week's lab. You may attend any session or attend multiple sessions if you wish. The times for these sessions are:

Lab sessions: Wednesdays 4-6 pm,Thursdays 3-5 pm and Fridays 11-1 pm (all Sydney time)

If you don't have any questions, or don't feel you need help, you are not expected to attend any session.

We also have 2 online one-hour tutorial sessions scheduled per week. Again, you may attend one, two or none of these as you see fit. The weekly tutorial sessions are scheduled for:

Tute sessions: Thursdays 12-1 pm and Thursdays 5-6 pm (Sydney time)

Purchasing a lab kit

Posted by Oliver Diessel Wednesday 22 July 2020, 01:42:06 PM.

If you are a student based within easy access to Sydney, you may borrow a lab kit for 20T3 from CSE at UNSW.

If you are not based in Sydney, or you would still prefer to purchase your own lab kit, the kit you should purchase is the DE0 board from Terasic.

https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=165&No=364

If you are based in China you may wish to contact Terasic in Wuhan:

https://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=12&No=20

Welcome to 20T3 COMP3222

Posted by Oliver Diessel Tuesday 21 July 2020, 11:29:04 AM, last modified Friday 04 September 2020, 03:06:19 PM.

Hello everybody!

The web site for 20T3 is currently under development and contains numerous placeholders for content that is under revision. Please be aware that EVERYTHING you see or read here is currently subject to change!

What I can say is that COMP3222 will be on in Term 3; it will be taught in on-line mode; and that I will try to make this as easy and enjoyable as I can, bearing in mind that it's a huge shift for a course with a significant practical component. My plans are:

• to have asynchronous recordings of lectures; students are required to have viewed these, or read the lecture slides before attending bi-weekly 2-hour online, live lecture discussions to go over the main lecture points and discuss exercises;
• to have practical laboratory exercises that students can complete offline; this will involve obtaining a lab kit - either borrowed or bought - installing Windows-based digital design software, reading weekly lab exercises, viewing lab intro videos, completing the lab and submitting solutions for assessment; we will offer 3x two-hour online drop-in sessions each week to assist students with questions they have regarding the current lab; and
• to have weekly tutorial exercises supported through 2x one-hour online discussion sessions to go over problematic questions and difficulties students are having with lectures.

You may attend as many of the online sessions as you feel you need to. We are here to help.

I will develop these ideas further as the course start date approaches and will discuss all aspects with you, including the course assessment, in Week 1. Should you have specific questions not covered above, please feel free to email me in the meantime: o.diessel@unsw.edu.au

See you soon! Oliver