Hi all,
I have finally finished marking your exams and submitted your results for your final grade. It is against university policy for me to release final grades before the official release, but you should know them in a day or so.
Your assignment and [updated] quiz marks should now be viewable on sturec:
https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~give/Student/sturec.php
Please let me know if there are any major omissions - although these are the marks that have been submitted for your final grade, it is still possible to make amendments for significant omissions even after your grades have been released.
I am always happy to answer any questions you have about any assessment grade.
Thank you all for a fantastic term of COMP9020. I love engaging with my students, and it was great to see so many of you still coming to the lectures and consultations at the pointy end of the term - we had upwards of 20% of the cohort coming to the consultations by the end, and nearly the same coming to the final lectures (who knew so many of you would be willing to listen to me waffle for hours).
Before we finish with the course, there is one last (one-question) poll for you. When filling it out, have a think about where you were at the start of the term, and what (if anything) you've learned from this course - big picture ideas, rather than things like "what a reflexive relation is"... I'd love to hear your thoughts (ed/email/in person/scrawled in icing on a chocolate cake).
There are two things I personally hope you take away from the course:
All the best in your future endeavours,
Paul
Hi all,
The final exam for COMP9020 will begin in a little over 30 minutes.
Good luck all,
Paul
Hi all,
Apologies for the late notice, but tonight's consultation will begin at 8:30.
Paul
Hi all,
Apologies for the late notice, but tonight's consultation will now begin at 8:30pm.
Paul
Hi all,
Today's review lecture recording was beset with problems - and I did not cover any example problems in the time. (For those wondering, I did manage to be on time to pick up my daughter from school).
I will record a walkthrough of the example questions in the lecture slides,
tomorrow (Thursday)
from 8:30pm
on the Consultation zoom channel. The recording will be posted to the "Lecture recordings".
The review of the course was covered today after the lecture recording finished. What was said is already nicely summarized in the slides, but I will start the recording tomorrow by re-recording this (approximately 15-20 minutes).
Exam details can be found in today's slides, but I will post a summary of the key points as a notification shortly.
One important point I did cover after the recording:
Consultations will continue as normal until the exam
. That is, there will be consultations on Wednesdays and Sundays as usual (except for today) for the next two weeks.
Pau
Hi all,
So that the next consultation can be used for the final quiz, it will now be at 8:30pm on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
Paul
Hi all,
I can confirm that there will be a revision/review lecture on
Wednesday November 23, 12-2pm,
at
ChemSc M17
(not the usual place for the Wednesday lecture). It will be recorded for those that cannot make it, and I will have the Teams chat active. There will be an informal gathering from about 11:30 onwards beforehand (just outside) where I'll bring a few pizzas to celebrate the end of the course!
This lecture will review the course content; provide details about the exam (and answer any associated questions); and I will go through some sample questions - there is a
poll here
to gauge which topics you would most like me to cover (please only select 3-5 options so that I get a clear preference). I will try to cover as many topics as I can.
A sample exam is available for you to look at/attempt/practice with. It can be found on the course website under "Additional material → Sample exam"
The upcoming exam will be similar to this - with slightly fewer questions (10 questions, 25 parts instead of 15 questions 28 parts); covering material up to and including expected value. I will provide more details at the revision/review lecture.
Paul
Hi all,
The final quiz is now available on the course website. Because I wasn't able to get it out much earlier, the deadline has been moved until the start of the revision lecture - that is, it is due at
12 noon, Wednesday November 23 (AEDST)
.
Paul
Hi all,
I'll be re-recording the post-recording content from today's lecture on the Consultation zoom channel from 4pm today if anyone wants to join "live". It should take about 30-60 mins and will cover independence, recursive probability calculation and expected value - the remaining assessable content of the course.
Paul
Hi all,
The ninth quiz is now available on the course website. It is due at 3pm, Tuesday November 15 (AEDST) .
The tenth quiz will be activated a bit earlier than usual - to give students ample opportunity to complete the quiz before the end of Week 10. It will still be due on Tuesday of Week 11 to accommodate any students that work to the existing schedule.
Paul
Hi all,
The questions for the third assignment are now available on the course website. I will be updating the assignment sheet with Objectives and a Guide (as I did with the second assignment) as well as setting up the inspera version of the assignment after tonight's consultation.
The assignment is due at
12 noon, Monday 21 November (AEDST)
.
Paul
Hi all,
Apologies, there is a typo in Quiz 8, T2
The line
x = x + myFunc(5)
should be
x = x + myFunc(0)
Paul
Hi all,
The eighth quiz is now available on the course website. It is due at 3pm (AEDST) Tuesday 8th November .
Paul
Hi all,
There is a typo in Quiz 7 question M2 which produces an ambiguous answer.
The option
T(n) = 2 T(n/2) + 2n log(n); T(1) = 1
Should have been
T(n) = 2 T(n/2) + 2n; T(1) = 1
to remove any ambiguity. When it comes to the final mark for this question, I will be accepting any sequence consistent with the question as currently posed.
Paul
Hi all,
Quiz 7 is now available on the course website. It is due at
15:00 (AEDST)
on
Tuesday November 1
.
WebCMS seems to be a bit slow at the moment - so
here is a direct link
. You can also access the quiz through the course's moodle site.
Paul
Hi all,
Just a reminder that the sixth quiz is up and due on
Tuesday October 25 at 15:00 (AEDST)
[Apologies for the late reminder]
The file for Assignment 2 has been updated with Examples and Expectations for Problems 5-7.
For those wanting to draw diagrams in LaTeX, the LaTeX source for the Petersen graph has been added under "Assignments → LaTeX source for Petersen graph". The LaTeX source for the binary tree can be found in the sample LaTeX file under "LaTeX resources".
Paul
Hi all,
For anyone that hadn't already noticed it posted during the weekend, the second assignment is available on the course website. It is due
Monday 31 October 12:00 noon (AEDST)
.
A reminder that there is the possibility of a 3-day extension but only if enough students attempt the 2nd Challenge Problem before tomorrow's lecture (currently only 42 students have been successful). Charlie has posted a
walkthrough on the forum
, so there's really no excuse.
The delay in announcing the assignment release is because, following a workshop I attended last week, I have been working on making the assignments more transparent - with the addition of an "Objectives & Outcomes" section and an assignment-specific guide (currently only covering Problems 1-4). Historically these have been part of my post-solution walkthrough and pre-submission consultations, but there's no reason why they shouldn't be included up-front. I hope that these additions do not make the assignment too unwieldy - I have tried to keep them out of the way, and make it so that it is easy to view the purpose and guide for each question individually so you can focus on any particular part of the assignment you were curious about.
This is a new system that I am trialing, so I am keen for your feedback. There's a short poll that will let me know which parts (if any) you find beneficial, and which parts (if any) I should include in future assignments.
Paul
Hi all,
The fifth quiz is now available in inspera (accessible from the course website). It is due on Tuesday Oct 18, 15:00 (AEDST)
The extra 24 hours are because next week is flexibility week, and I want you to have a reasonable opportunity to attempt the quiz before flex week starts.
Paul
Hi all,
The fourth quiz is now available on the course website. It is due by 3pm Tuesday October 11 (AEDST)
Paul
Hi all,
For those that do not know, Sydney is now in Daylight Savings time. This means that the lecture tomorrow will be at 3pm (AEDST) [one hour earlier than last week].
Tonight's consultation will also be at 8pm (AEDST) - however I will likely be still around at 9pm for those that turn up late.
The deadline for the current quiz and assignments was stated as AEST (i.e. non-Daylight Savings time) because I forgot about Daylight Savings. These deadlines will still stand according to the originally stated timezone . That is, the quiz is due tomorrow at 4pm (AEDST), and the assignment is due at 1pm (AEDST).
Paul
Hi all,
Some of you may have received an email about the final exam, suggesting that you have to take it in person.
The final exam for COMP9020 will be online for every student.
It will be run on inspera, so if you have been able to do the quizzes then you will be able to do the final exam.
I hope that alleviates any concerns.
Paul
Hi all,
The first assignment is now available on the course website. It is due on
Monday
10 October at 12:00 noon (AEST)
.
I will talk about it briefly in Tuesday's lecture, and release a video with more detailed commentary shortly.
Please note, the referenced "Proof Assistant" page is not currently active. It should be activated by Tuesday's lecture.
Paul
Hi all,
The second quiz is now available on inspera (also on the course website under Course Work → Quizzes). It is due Tuesday 27 September 15:00 (AEST) . Please make sure you are attempting the quiz on inspera, not webCMS.
The first assignment will be released later today - I will send out a notice when it is available.
Paul
Hi all,
A small error on the quiz. For Question M2, it should read n<m, rather than n≤m.
Paul
Hi all,
Tomorrow's consultation will be delayed and will now start at 9pm (AEST).
Apologies for the inconvenience,
Paul
Hi all,
The first quiz will be made available at 3pm today (AEST) , and will be due at 3pm (AEST) on Tuesday Sept 20th .
To access the quiz, go to:
and log in with your zID/zpass (if needed). You should see the quiz in your dashboard, and have access to it from 3pm.
I have also set up a link directly from the course website (under "Course Work → Quizzes") and there is also a link available on the course's Moodle page.
Please let me know if you are unable to see the quiz (after 3pm). If you are newly enrolled in the course, you might not be on the system yet, so there may be a small delay. This is the first time I have used the inspera platform for quizzes, so there may be some other teething issues that I am unaware of.
You have 72 hours to complete the quiz. It should save your progress, so you can come back to it at any time. It will submit automatically at 3pm on Tuesday . If you manually submit prior to this, you can resubmit as often as you like before the final deadline (your last submission will be the one that counts), but I am still working through enabling resubmission and this may not be automatic. If you find you cannot resubmit, please let me know and I'll fix it asap.
A reminder that collaboration/consultation on the quizzes is permitted. These assessments are intended to give you timely (and low stakes) feedback on how well you are understanding the material.
Paul
Hi all,
I have uploaded two "How to" videos on doing proofs:
As I mentioned in lectures, LaTeX is a program especially designed for typesetting mathematics. The learning curve is quite steep, but it can be worth it in the end. It is not necessary for this course, but, if you have the time, it can be worthwhile as it can take out a lot of the headaches involved with writing mathematics.
The videos can be found in the "Additional content" folder in "Lecture recordings"
Paul
Just a quick reminder about the pre-course poll and pre-course questionnaire that will help me make this course work best for you.
Hi all,
Live-streaming for the lectures has now been set up.
For those unable to attend today's lecture in person, the lecture will be livestreamed. You can access the stream via the following link (just click on the relevant lecture)
https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/mod/lti/launch.php...
(This is also the link for the lecture recordings, which will be made available shortly after the lecture)
I have set up a Microsoft Teams Meeting for chat (this is easier for me to monitor during the lecture), the link for that is here . (This is also available on the course website under "Links for online content → Lecture chat").
There is a dedicated COMP9020 Team , but you do not have to join this Team to access the chat stream, it is only being used as a placeholder for the live lecture chat. In particular, please use the course forum for course-related discussions to help keep them limited to a single site.
Looking forward to seeing you later,
Paul
Hi all,
Welcome to COMP9020 Foundations of Computer Science. This is just a brief announcement to introduce you to various aspects of the course: the website, the learning interfaces, and the staff (me!).
I encourage you to familiarise yourself with the course website:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9020
as it provides the starting point for all aspects of the course.
Lectures begin on Tuesday (Sept 13) at 15:00. For those who will be on campus it will be in Matthews Theatre A. For those of you who are unable to make the lectures in person, I hope to have the lecture live-streaming set up. You can access the live-stream (if it is available) by going to the "Lecture Recordings" from the course website and clicking on the lecture in question. There will be a Teams chat set up so that students viewing the live-stream can interact with me during the lecture.
Regardless, lectures will be recorded, and the recording will be available shortly after the lecture finishes. No assurance is made about the quality/completeness of the recording - so the only way to ensure you have best lecture experience is to attend the lectures!
There are no tutorials or classes for this course.
The course will be using the ed platform for course discussion. You should shortly be receiving an email inviting you to join the ed forum for this course. Alternatively, you can register for the forum
here
.
In lieu of office hours, I have set up online consultation hours twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday evenings, 8pm and 8:30pm respectively). These are intended to be student-driven and generally group-based. The course forums also provide a platform to ask questions and discuss the course material.
There is currently a pre-course, one-question poll available here . It is meant to be light-hearted, and is by no means compulsory. There is no right/wrong answer - I am primarily interested to see how (if at all) your perspective changes after taking this course.
There is also a short questionnaire available here - a little more serious than the poll, but again it is not compulsory. Its purpose is to help me best tailor the course to the current cohort, and to identify/address some of the main concerns that often arise at the start of the course.
Looking forward to meeting you on Tuesday,
Paul Hunter
(Lecturer in Charge)