Course Information and Catalog Description
Students learn to implement and analyze elementary data structures and the basic complexity classes of algorithms that use strategies such as greedy algorithms, divide-and- conquer algorithms, and backtracking algorithms. This analysis is especially applied to problems in searching, sorting, and parsing.
| Location: | HHS 2208 |
| Meeting Time: | Section 1, MWF 9:05-9:55AM |
| Section 2, MWF 10:10-11:00AM | |
| Prerequisites: | CS/MATH 227 and a grade of "C" or better in CS 239 |
| Course Web Page: | http://w3.cs.jmu.edu/spragunr/CS240/ |
| Required Textbook: | Data Structures and Algorithms Using Python. Rance D. Necaise, Wiley, 2011 |
Instructor Information
| Name: | Dr. Nathan Sprague |
| Office: | ISAT/CS 226 |
| Office Phone: | 568-3312 |
| Email: | spragunr@jmu.edu |
| Office Hours: | http://w3.cs.jmu.edu/spragunr/schedule.html |
You may use email to contact me. However, I encourage you to use Piazza to ask content related questions. You are welcome to call or stop by my office any time, with the understanding that I may or may not be available outside of my posted office hours.
Course Content and Goals
The focus of this course is on solving computational problems that involve manipulating collections of data. We will study a core set of data abstractions, data structures, and algorithms that provide a foundation for writing efficient programs.
Programming assignments in this course will be implemented using version 2.7 of the Python programming language. We will spend time at the beginning of the semester learning to program in Python. We will continue to develop programming skills such unit testing and documentation throughout the term.
At the conclusion of this course students will be able to:
- Describe, explain, and use abstract data types including stacks, queues, lists, sets, and maps.
- Implement those data types using both contiguous and linked representations. Contiguous representation mechanisms include arrays and hash tables. Linked representation mechanisms include singly and doubly linked lists and trees.
- Implement a variety of algorithms for searching and sorting, including linear search, binary search, insertion sort, selection sort, merge sort, quicksort, and heap sort.
- Read and write recursive algorithms.
- Understand when recursion is, and is not, appropriate.
- Describe the asymptotic performance of the algorithms studied in this course and understand the practical implications of that information.
Preliminary Course Schedule
A detailed schedule, including reading and homework assignments, is available on the course web page. That schedule will be updated throughout the semester and should be checked regularly.
| Week(s) | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Introduction to Python |
| 3-4 | Complexity Analysis |
| 5 | Python List Implementation, Python Unit Testing |
| 6 | Linked Lists |
| 7 | Queues, Stacks and Recursion |
| 8-11 | Searching and Sorting, Recurrence Relations |
| 12-13 | Sets, Maps, Hashing |
| 14-16 | Trees and Heaps |
Methods of Evaluation
Course grades will be based on two midterms and a final exam, in-class activities, homework assignments, programming projects, and quizzes. Assignment specifications and due dates will be posted to the course schedule page. The final grade will be computed as follows:
| In-Class Activities and Quizzes | 15% |
| Homework Assignments | 15% |
| Programming Assignments | 25% |
| Two Midterm Exams | 30% |
| Final Exam | 15% |
In-Class Activities and Quizzes
In-class activities will typically involve breaking into small groups to answer questions or work on programming exercises. Most activities will be preceded by a readiness quiz.
Homework
Homework assignments will include both written work and programming exercises. Written answers should be prepared using a text editor, and will be graded on the basis of both correctness and clarity.
Programming Assignments
There will be approximately five programming assignments over the course of the semester. These must be written in Python. Programs will be graded on correctness, efficiency, documentation, and overall code quality. All submissions must conform to the CS240 Python Style Guide.
Course Policies
Attendance and Participation
Attendance is not required. However, regular attendance and fully engaged participation is expected. Your grade will be partially based on in-class assignments and quizzes, so attendance will affect your grade.
Academic Integrity
It is expected that your work in this course will comply with the provisions of the JMU honor code: http://www.jmu.edu/honor/code.shtml. It is not a violation of the honor code to discuss assignments and solutions with other students at a conceptual level. However, all of the work that you submit must be written by you, based on your own understanding of the material. Representing someone else's work as your own, in any form, constitutes an honor code violation. It is also a violation of the honor code to "render unauthorized assistance to another student by knowingly permitting him or her to see or copy all or a portion of an examination or any work to be submitted for academic credit."
A key component of academic integrity is giving credit where credit is due. If you receive assistance, either from another student or from some other source, you must acknowledge that fact. To that end, all programming and homework assignments submitted for this course must include a statement that acknowledges any assistance you received and must contain the statement: "I certify that this work complies with the JMU Honor Code."
For example, if I were submitting this syllabus for credit, I would include the following statement:
I certify that this work complies with the JMU Honor Code. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Chris Fox. Dr. Fox provided me a copy of his CS240 Syllabus, which I have used as a template in preparing this document.
-Nathan Sprague
I will prosecute honor code violations if they come to my attention. If in doubt about what is allowed, ask me.
Missed and Late Assignment Policy
If you are unable to take an exam at the scheduled time because of illness or other problems, you must contact me beforehand to arrange to take the exam at a different time. Failure to make prior arrangements for a missed exam will result in a grade of 0 for the exam.
It will not be possible to receive credit for in-class work or quizzes that are missed due to absence. In recognition of the fact that absences are occasionally unavoidable, I will drop the two lowest scores in this category when calculating your final grade.
Homework and Programming assignments will be due at 9:00AM on the posted due-date. Late assignments lose 20% in value per weekday late (therefore assignments are worth 0 after 5 weekdays).
Unless there are extraordinary circumstances, I will not provide extensions for illnesses or other personal difficulties. Instead, you will have three "late days" which may be applied to any project or homework assignment (with some exceptions for assignments due at the end of the semester or immediately before exams). The use of a late day allows you to extend the deadline for an assignment by one weekday. You may apply all three days to a single assignment or distribute them across multiple assignments.
Adding/Dropping
Students are responsible for adding and dropping courses via MyMadison. The last day to add a course for Spring 2013 is Thursday, January 24, 2013 (signatures required after Tuesday January 15). The last day to drop a course for the Spring 2013 semester with a "W" grade is Friday, March 15th, 2013.
Disability Accommodations
If you need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, you should contact the Office of Disability Services (Wilson Hall, Room 107, www.jmu.edu/ods, 540-568-6705) if you have not previously done so. Disability Services will provide you with an Access Plan Letter that will verify your need for services and make recommendations for accommodations to be used in the classroom. Once you have presented me with this letter, you and I will sit down and review the course requirements, your disability characteristics, and your requested accommodations to develop an individualized plan, appropriate for this course.
Inclement Weather Policy
This class will operate in accord with JMU's inclement weather policy available at http://www.jmu.edu/JMUpolicy/1309.shtml
Religious Observation Accommodations
I will give reasonable and appropriate accommodations to students requesting them on grounds of religious observation. If you require such accommodations you must notify me at least two weeks in advance.