COMP9020 Notices

Formatif task W4.P3

Posted by Paul Hunter 4 days ago.

Hi all,

This week's formatif task W4.P3 asks you to discuss your findings with your tutor. It is preferable that you do this in person (in your tutorial). So please make sure you attend your tutorials this week.

Thanks,

Paul

No HD formatif task this week

Posted by Paul Hunter 12 days ago.

Hi all,

Because of a number of complications with the planned Week 3 HD task, we have chosen to remove the HD task due this Monday.

We will update it with an extra HD task which will be due Monday week 5.

Paul

Lecture 2 additional content

Posted by Paul Hunter 26 days ago.

Hi all,

Because the end of lecture 2 was cut short (and a bit rushed) I have posted a follow-up recording to "Lecture recordings". This covers the last few minutes of the lecture, the proofs that were omitted due to time, and the last couple of slides of the topic.

I will be reviewing the last few slides again on Monday in case you have any questions/comments, but I encourage you to look at the recording as I was able to cover things with a bit more detail - including how to start writing proofs.

Paul

Formatif and Lecture recordings/livestreams

Posted by Paul Hunter 28 days ago.

Hi all,

You should now be able to access the COMP9020 course in formatif ( https://formatif.cse.unsw.edu.au ).

I have made a short instruction video here - you can also access this video by going to

Lecture Recordings → Additional material → Formatif instructions.

Apologies for the confusion with Wednesday's lecture recording - the system had been set up so that Monday & Wednesday recordings are stored in different places - which apparently we cannot change. You can see the two different places under Lecture livestream links - as this is where you need to go if you want to watch the lecture livestream. Following the lecture on Mondays the recording will be made available in the Wednesday lecture folder which is where Lecture Recordings points to.

I will shortly be uploading an "Extra content" video covering the material I missed on Wednesday in some depth. This includes the final few slides not reached - however I will also briefly cover these at the start of the lecture next Monday.

Paul

Formatif details

Posted by Paul Hunter 30 days ago.

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in getting the formatif system available to you, there have been some updates and the process has changed a little from previous years.

As soon as you are able to , please log in to formatif.cse.unsw.edu.au with your zid and zpass.

You will likely not see any courses available to you yet, but once you have done so, we will be able to add you the COMP9020 course, which we will do after today's lecture (we will send out an announcement once this has been done). You should then be able to see the COMP9020 course next time you log in.

The first week's formatif tasks are available on the course website, so you know what is expected of you. Note, the final deadline for these tasks is Friday Feb 28.

There have been a number of questions about submissions, so let me try to address most of them here:

• You should try to make a first submission on the Monday following the relevant week (e.g. Monday of Week 2 for "Week 1 tasks"). This is not (necessarily) a final submission, you will have opportunities to change your submission. The idea is that this submission should be a fair reflection of your understanding of the material (and how to go about the task) at that point . Honesty really is the best policy here - we cannot support you if we think everything is "fine".
• Following your first submission, your tutor will give you feedback and discuss the tasks in the tutorial. This is why it is important to make sure you make an initial submission, so that the tutor knows what does and does not need to be covered!
• Following the tutorials and direct feedback, you have until the Friday following the relevant week (e.g. Friday of Week 2 for "Week 1 tasks") to make a final submission . If your tutor believes you have adequately completed the task then the task will be marked as completed.
• You must submit a pdf, but it does not have to be typeset - a scan of handwritten work is fine (though please be sympathetic to your markers and ensure that it is legible)
• You may make multiple submissions, though it is advisable to add a comment so that your tutor is aware of any updates
• You can request a small extension in the formatif system up to 1 week. The teaching staff will be keeping track of your progress, and will make sure no-one falls too far behind (i.e. is requesting too many extensions).
• You can adjust your target grade at any point - the tasks you see and the feedback you receive will depend on this.

Please let me know if there are any other questions via the course forum or following today's lecture.

Paul

Welcome to COMP9020

Posted by Paul Hunter about a month ago, last modified about a month ago.

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.

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. I especially encourage you to have a look at the Puzzle Games section for some light entertainment (that may turn out to be educational!)

Lectures begin today (Monday Feb 17) at 14:00 in the Science Theatre [K-F13-G09]. Slides for the lecture will be available on the course website shortly.

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!

Tutorials will begin in Week 2 , run by our excellent tutorial team. The course admins, Varun Agarwal and Ronald Chiang will be helping me to make sure the course runs smoothly.

The course will be using the ed platform for course discussion. You should have received an email inviting you to join the ed forum for this course. Alternatively, you can register for the forum here .

There are several good textbooks covering the course content, my preferred choice is the freely available Mathematics for Computer Science by Lehman, Leyton and Meyer.

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 later today,

Paul Hunter
(Lecturer in Charge)