CS 221: Introduction to Computer Science for Engineers

Fall 2011

Instructor: Prof. Kenneth L. Calvert, calvert@netlab.uky.edu, 257-3961, office 102F Davis Marksbury.

Complete Syllabus (PDF)

Link to CS Portal

Announcements

Lab Exercises

• Lab exercises are to help you learn the material through hands-on experience.
• Lab exercises must be completed in your lab section.
• Each lab exercise is due the second lab meeting after it is posted. Lab exercises will be posted no later than Wednesday of the week before they are due.
• Once your TA has signed off on your demonstration, you may upload your work via the CS Portal. This serves as a backup evidence that you completed the lab exercise.
• If you miss a lab section for a valid reason (e.g., unexpected illness), contact your TA about getting your exercise signed off.
• Because of the limited time available in Lab, in general you will need to work on the lab exercise outside class. You will still need to demonstrate your completed lab for the TA in class in order to get credit.

1. Lab Exercise 1, out 31 August, due 8 September.
2. Lab Exercise 2, out 7 September, due 15 September.
3. Lab Exercise 3, out 14 September, due 22 September.
4. Lab Exercise 4, out 21 September, due 6 October (one week later than usual due to Lab Quiz on 29 September).
5. Lab Exercise 5, out 5 October, due 13 October.
6. Lab Exercise 6, out 12 October, due 20 October.
7. Lab Exercise 7, out 19 October, due 27 October.
8. Lab Exercise 8, out 26 October, due 10 November (one week later than usual due to Lab Quiz).
9. Lab Exercise 9, out 9 November, due 17 November.
10. Lab Exercise 10, out 16 November, due 8 December.

Problem Sets

1. Problem Set 1, Due Wednesday 21 September. Grading Guidelines for Problem Set 1.
   • Solutions for Part 1 (Problems 1-4)
   • Solution for Problem 5 (Excel);
   • Solution for Problem 6 (Excel).
2. Problem Set 2, Due Friday, 21 October. Grading Guidelines for Problem Set 2.
   Solutions for Problem Set 2.
3. Problem Set 3, Due Monday, 7 November. Grading Guidelines for Problem Set 3.
   Solutions for Problem Set 3.
4. Problem Set 4, Due Wednesday, 16 November.
   Solutions for Problem Set 4.
5. Problem Set 5, Due Saturday, 3 December, but can be turned in until 9 December.
   Solutions for Problem Set 5.
6. Extra Credit Problem 1, Due Sunday, 11 December.
7. Extra Credit Problem 2, Due Sunday, 11 December.

CS Concepts

• variable, data type, operator, expression
• precision and accuracy
• algorithm
• hardware, software, programming language, interpreted vs. compiled languages
• control flow; flowchart
• conditional statement; boolean expression
• iterative control flow; for-loops; while-loops
• procedural/functional abstraction

Useful Information

TA Office Hours

Slides Used in Lecture

• 30 August: Course/Syllabus Overview, Analytic and "Algorithmic" (Numerical) Solutions (Projectile Example)
• 6 September: CS Concepts: binary representations, decimal-binary conversions, accuracy and precision, variables and expressions, MATLAB and Excel paradigms.
• 13 September: Boolean Logic and MATLAB Fundamentals
• 20 September: DeMorgan's Laws, Model of Operation, MATLAB Topics
• 27 September: Quiz Example Problems, Flowcharts, Arrays in MATLAB
• 4 October: Functions, arrays and iteration (while-loops) in MATLAB
• 11 October: if statements, fprintf, looping over the elements in an array, for-statements
• 18 October: more for-loops
• 25 October: Plotting/Graphing
• 1 November: Root-Finding Methods
• 8 November: More Root-Finding: Goal Seek in Excel; Fixpoint methods: Matrix operations Publisher's Slides on Matrix operations
• 15 November: Solving Systems of Linear Equations; Quiz Coverage
• 22 November: Numerical Integration
• 29 November Least-squares Regression (Curve Fitting)
• 6 December Optimization Problems, Image Processing, audio processing. The "blurring" function I demonstrated is here. (Here is an interesting exercise: time the execution of the blurring function on a 200-pixel-square window with a span of 10, using tic and toc. Then edit the function to remove the "uint32()" type-conversion calls -- just take them out. Then time the same call again. You will find that it takes several dozen times longer. This is because MATLAB has to convert the uint8 values in the image matrix to doubles to do the arithmetic, and converting an integer to floating-point is very expensive.)

In-Class Quiz Solutions

• Quiz 1: Version a, Version b, Version c.
• Quiz 2: Version a, Version b.
• Quiz 3: Version a, Version b.

Instructions for online turnin of assignments

1. Go to https://www.cs.uky.edu/csportal (Note: https -- this is important!)
2. Log in using your Link Blue user ID and password.
3. Click on Courses in the menu bar at left. That will bring up a table of courses in which you are currently enrolled.
4. Find the area for your CS 221 section (it will say "CS22100x", where "x" is your section number), and the row for the assignment or lab exercise you are submitting. (You should also see a brief description for each assignment.) Click on the link under submit in that row. A window for uploading files will appear. You can either click browse (recommended) to find the file using a standard "chooser" dialog, or you can type in the pathname for the file -- that is, a full name, starting with a drive letter, like this:

   C:\Documents and Settings\calvert\Desktop\CalvertKenneth-HW0.zip
   

   It doesn't matter what the file is called on your system -- the turnin system will generate a unique filename from your name and student number, the assignment number, and how many times you have already turned it in.
5. Once you have identified the file to be uploaded, click the "submit" button to upload it. If the upload is successful, a confirmation number will be displayed. Copy down and save this number -- it is your receipt, and the only acceptable proof that you turned in the assignment.
6. If a submission is found to contain a virus, or is damaged in some way (e.g., it is not a valid zip file), it will be rejected. At that point you will need to check for viruses yourself and/or verify that you constructed the zip file correctly.
7. You may upload a revised version after you have already submitted. The system records the date and time of your most recent submission; the latest submission will count. Submissions after the deadline will be counted late.

Instructions for Creating a "zip" File

1. Start Windows Explorer (note: NOT Internet Explorer) and navigate to the folder containing the files you want to include in the zip archive.
2. Select all the files you want to include. (You can either select them using shift-click, if they are contiguous in the list, or select one and then use control-click to add files to the selection.)
3. When all the files to be included are highlighted, right-click on one of them. Select the entry "Send to..." from the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click. That menu item expands to a list, which includes an item "Compressed (zipped) Folder" -- select it. A new zip file, containing the selected files, will appear. It will have the same name as one of the included files, but will have the suffix ".zip".

1. In the Finder, select the items you want to include in the zip file.
2. Under the "File" menu, select "Compress items" (where n should be the number of items you have selected). A file "Archive.zip" will appear.

Miscellaneous

• MATLAB tutorials from The MathWorks