COMP9024 Notices

Feedback

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 07 December 2017, 11:58:50 AM.

Dear COMP9024 Student,

Thank you for your broad-based and very detailed feedback on UNSW's myExperience. Besides the obvious wishes (more chocolate) you made a number of thoughtful suggestions that I will take on board next time, such as providing/utilising links to youtube videos that explain some algorithms further and incorporating the weekly programming exercises into the course assessment. Some of you would have liked to see many more algorithms covered, which I'd very much like to do; however, I need to take into account that the course is meant to provide the foundations of data structures and algorithms for everyone who has not studied them before.

All in all your feedback was more enthusiastic than any lecturer could expect and hope for, and so I was happy to see that (almost) everyone enjoyed the course as much as I did. It seems that most of you agree with the Tao of Programming, Book 2, that "After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless." But please don't also forget that a good book, movie or even piece of art can explain the world in ways that algorithms, or Science, can't.

That's all from me. Please continue to provide feedback to my colleagues for your future courses and, above all, do make the best of your time at UNSW.

Michael

Final Results

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 23 November 2017, 11:45:23 AM.

Your result in the final exam, grade and rank in the course are now available from WebCMS3 or your CSE account using

9024 classrun -sturec

• Final exam marks: You will find marks for the multiple choice questions and the four open questions.
• Grade: This is your final mark and grade for this course. Your final mark is the sum of the marks for the exams and the two assignments, provided that examTotal ≥ 35. To pass the course, your final mark must be ≥50.
• Rank: Your relative rank in the class.

In addition, you can obtain detailed feedback on the marking criteria for the final exam from your CSE account using

9024 classrun -collect final

If you want to further discuss your marks with me, please come to see me tomorrow (Friday, 24 November), from 2-4pm.

If you did not pass but achieved an overall score ≥47, then you are eligible to sit the supplementary exam, in which you have to score ≥50% to pass with a final mark of 50. The supplementary exam will be held on Wednesday, 6 December at 8:45am. Eligible students will receive an email with further details in due course.

Congratulations to the following students for scoring 90 or higher:

Zhang, Tianrun
Goddard, Christina Margaret
Gasparian, Ekaterina
Long, Joshua Charles
Qu, Jin
Wright, William Benjamin
Zhou, Chaoyi

Well done!

A special mention to Xiang Zhou (Erik) for having been the most prolific contributor to the forum throughout the course.

Have a great semester break, everyone, and best of luck with your future studies.

Michael

Assignment 2 Marks

Posted by Michael Thielscher Monday 13 November 2017, 05:12:04 PM.

The marks for assignment 2 have now been finalised. In some cases the auto-testing results and preliminary marks for the complexity analysis have been further adjusted. You can check your final mark on WebCMS3 or by using the following command:

9024 classrun -sturec

You can also fetch your marked assignment, with some feedback, from WebCMS3 or by using

9024 -collect assn2

There were cases of plagiarism, sadly, even though only very few. If your mark is shown as 0 and you cannot fetch your marked assignment anymore, then you can expect a separate email from me.

Pseudocode in the Final Exam

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 02 November 2017, 01:26:58 PM.

Some of you have asked me what statements are permitted in pseudocode. Generally speaking, this depends on the context and shared background of the writer and the reader. The writer of pseudocode should always make sure that sufficient detail is provided for the reader (a member of the programming team, a student studying a textbook, ...) to know exactly how to implement it and how to determine the time complexity.

Applied to the exam for this course, this means that:

1. You can use, as a single statement, any function from the lectures for which pseudocode was given and the time complexity discussed. An example could be the statement

tree = rotateLeft(node)

of which we have said that it requires constant time, O(1).

2. If your pseudocode uses any of the complex datastructures that we discussed, then the best strategy for you will be to write something like, for example,

I'm using a standard queue that should be implemented by a dynamic, singly-linked linked list in such a way that both enqueue() and dequeue() take O(1) time.

Pre-exam consultation and myExperience

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 02 November 2017, 01:16:29 PM.

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Friday) I'm offering a pre-exam consultation from 2-4pm in room 401K, K17.

Meanwhile, if you haven't filled out the myExperience evaluation yet, please note that today is the last chance for you to do so. I was very impressed and happy to see that the participation rate already has surpassed the 50% mark, and I thank everyone for your effort and participation.

Extra Material on Randomised Algorithms

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 27 October 2017, 06:34:51 PM.

Some of you expressed an interest in the additional topic that I would have presented if I hadn't had to cancel the lecture in week 11. I'll polish the draft slides that I had prepared, and I promise to add them to the webpage under Lectures -> Week 13 -- under one condition: I will do so as soon as the response rate for the myExperience evaluation has reached 35% (we're currently at 21.6%).

MyExperience

Please fill it out!

Extra Consultation on Monday 11:10-12noon

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 13 October 2017, 11:41:46 AM.

For anyone with questions about the assignment, there will be an extra consultation on Monday (16 October) from 11:10am to 12 in room G02 (ground level, building K17). This is in addition to the Help Lab on Tuesday.

No lecture tomorrow (12 Oct)

Posted by Michael Thielscher Wednesday 11 October 2017, 10:58:21 AM.

Please note that there will be no lecture or consultation tomorrow.

I wasn't at my best last week when I got hoarse midway through the lecture. I have almost but not quite fully recovered. The good news is that you have more time now to finish your assignment. All essential topics will still be covered; I will skip the introduction to the design and analysis of randomised algorithms, which would not have been examinable anyway.

If you were planning on coming to the consultation to discuss your mid-term marks, you can still do so in week 12 or 13 of course

Mid-session exam scoresheet

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 03 October 2017, 08:15:19 PM.

To help you understand better your scoresheet, the maximum scores for each block are shown below.

Question 6

 a) Gives the correct answer
 b) Gives the correct vertex, correct degree
 c) Gives a correct answer
 d) Gives the correct answer                      3.00

 e) Shows current vertex and queue
 e) Vertices are added at end of queue
 e) Gives the correct visiting order
 e) Gives the correct states of the queue         5.00

Total                                             8.00 / 8.00

Question 7

 Uses appropriate pseudocode notation
 Uses correct program logic                       1.50

 Algorithm is correct and complete                4.00

 Gives the correct complexity
 Gives correct explanation                        1.50

Total                                             7.00 / 7.00

Mid-session Exam Result

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 03 October 2017, 02:42:21 PM.

Your result in the mid-session exam, including detailed feedback on the marks for your answers, is now available from your CSE account using

9024 classrun -collect mse

If you wish to further discuss your marks with me, please come to one of my next consultation sessions. You should also come and see me in case your overall score is below 12.5.

Congratulations to Xu, Feng; Yerneni, Tarun Prasad; and Chen, Anqi on scoring a perfect 25/25, well done.

Reminder: Help Lab

Posted by Michael Thielscher Tuesday 03 October 2017, 09:43:40 AM.

Just a reminder about the weekly help lab: If you are having any questions or problems with assignment 2, please come to CSE Clavier Lab (Room LG20, Building K14) on Tuesdays between 2 and 4pm. You can use the lab computers, and a tutor, Shanush, will be around to answer any questions you might have.

Assignment 2 Released

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 22 September 2017, 02:27:27 PM.

Assignment 2 has now been released. The main topic is problem solving with graph data structures and graph search. Since the assignment gives you a lot of freedom to develop your own approach to the problem, readability of your program will be very important. Please make sure to adhere to the principles of structured programming and use good commenting.

Pay heed also to the following advice from the Tao of Programming (Book 3):

Thus spake the Master Programmer:
"When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes."

Assignment 1 Marks

Posted by Michael Thielscher Monday 18 September 2017, 10:43:33 AM.

The marks for assignment 1 have now been finalised. In some cases the auto-testing results have been further adjusted manually. You can check your final result on WebCMS3 or by using the following command:

9024 classrun -sturec

You can also fetch your marked assignment with some feedback from WebCMS3 or by using

9024 -collect assn1

Mid-session Exam

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 14 September 2017, 02:57:21 PM.

Some information about the mid-session exam next week (21 September):

Please bring your Photo Student I.D. Card

Location:

• if your last name begins with A – M: Rex Vowels Theatre (Building F17)
• if your last name begins with N – Z: Physics Theatre (Old Main Building, K14/K15)

Please be there at 6pm, the test will start at 6:15pm

Format:

• 5 multiple-choice questions (5 x 2 = 10 marks)
• 2 open questions (7 + 8 = 15 marks)
• Time allowed -- 60 minutes + 5 minutes reading time
• One A4-sized sheet (double-sided is ok) of your own notes

Calculators, phones and watches are not allowed and must remain in your bag.

For complete instructions see: instructions.pdf

Assignment 1 Released

Posted by Michael Thielscher Friday 11 August 2017, 03:13:10 PM.

Assignment 1 has now been released. The main topics are C control structures, abstract data types and dynamic data structures. You will also have to provide the time complexity of some your implemented functions, which is going to be the topic of the upcoming lecture next week.

The assignment is due Wednesday 30 August at 23:59pm (week 6).

Help Lab

Posted by Michael Thielscher Monday 31 July 2017, 03:17:50 PM.

A reminder about the weekly help lab starting tomorrow (Tuesday). If you are having difficulties with any of the programming homework, please come to CSE Clavier Lab anytime between 2 and 4pm to use the lab computers for solving the exercises. A tutor, Shanush, will be around who will answer any questions you might have about them or the programs from the lecture.

Clavier Lab is room LG20 in Building K14 (Old Main). The easiest way to find it is to follow a sign outside Keith Burrows Theatre (Building J14) that points to "CSE Computer Labs".

Welcome to COMP9024: Data Structures and Algorithms

Posted by Michael Thielscher Thursday 20 July 2017, 12:05:37 PM.

Dear COMP9024 Student,

Welcome to this year's course.

This is a reminder that the course will begin in week 1 on Thursday (27 July) from 6-9pm in Rex Vowels (Building F17).

Meanwhile, have a look at the course webpage www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9024 . Read through the "Course Outline" to learn more about the contents of the course, the assessment and recommended textbooks.

See you next week,

Michael