| Course Codes | COMP1511 |
| Course Title | Introduction to Programming |
| Units of Credit | 6 |
| Course Website | https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP1511/18s2/ |
| Handbook | COMP1511 |
| Lecturer In Charge/Course Convener | Ashesh Mahidadia (ashesh@cse.unsw.edu.au) |
| Admin | Mei Cheng Whale (meicheng@cse.unsw.edu.au) |
| Lectures | Tuesday 09:00-11:00 in Science Theatre (K-F13-G09) |
| Wednesday 15:00-17:00 in Science Theatre (K-F13-G09) | |
| Tut-lab | 3 hour slot selected when you enrol (weeks 1-13) |
All lectures will be recorded. Unfortunately UNSW's lecture recording system can only be accessed via Moodle. Moodle will not be used for any other course activities.
Sometimes urgent information may be sent to you by email. Make sure you pay careful attention to any email you receive.
All official email will be sent to your UNSW email address. It's essential you read this email address regularly. If you forward your email, please be careful to do so correctly and test the forwarding.
Additional information will be provided in the "Course Forum". You should check the course forum regularly. It is the best place to ask questions about the course.
Consultations times vary through session and are listed on the course home page.
COMP1511 has no prerequisites, and assumes no background knowledge.
This course introduces students to the basics of programming. Topics covered include:
The course aims for students to become proficient in programming using a high level language, C. By the end of the course, students should be able to construct C programs to solve problems.
COMP1511 is designed for computer science majors, and for any student with a keen interest in computing, regardless of their degree program.
COMP1911 is for students who are not computer science majors. COMP1911 covers a subset of the material in COMP1511 and moves at a more gentle pace.
If you are a computer science major, you must take COMP1511
If you are not a computer science major, but have an interest in computer science and think you may take further COMP courses, you also should enrol in COMP1511
And if you have previous programming experience - and enjoyed it - choose COMP1511
If you are not in a program which requires COMP1511 and are thinking of switching to COMP1911, it's best to make the decision in week 1. If you do swap to COMP1911 but discover that you enjoy computing and wish to take further COMP courses, you can take a bridging course, which will cover the material in COMP1511 which is not covered in COMP1911.
The following schedule is subject to change.
| Week 1 | Course Introduction, Introduction to C, Introduction to Linux and Programming Style. |
| Week 2 | Boolean Expressions, Conditional statements, Functions, Iteration |
| Week 3 |
Collection - Arrays (int, double, Strings), Collection - Struct
* Assignment-1 available |
| Week 4 | Memory maps, Pointers, passing values/arrays by references |
| Week 5 |
Software Design (top-down, divide and conquer approach, abstraction, etc.), Version control, Insecure C and Security (buffer overflow and other issues), Command Line Arguments
* Practical Exam - 1 (during lab, first one hour of the lab) |
| Week 6 |
Dynamic memory allocation (malloc,calloc), Structs, pointers to Structs
Collection: Linked Lists |
| Week 7 |
Linked List (operations: insert, delete, etc.),
Recursive functions * Assignment 1 due * Assignment-2 available |
| Week 8 | ADTs: Stacks and Queues |
| Week 9 | Searching, Sorting, Introduction to Complexity |
| Mid Semester Break | |
| Week 10 |
Professionalism, Codes of Conduct, Ethics for Programmers
* Practical Exam - 2 (during lab, first one hour of the lab) |
| Week 11 |
Reading and Writing Files
Revision |
| Week 12 |
Revision,
Exam preparation
* Assignment 2 due |
| Week 13 | |
| Exam Period | Final Exam |
Topics including development approaches, programming style, testing, debugging strategies and ethics will be discussed though the course as they arise.
This course has a heavy practical orientation. Lectures will revolve around live demonstrations of programming and use of tools. Labs and assignments form a key part.
Lectures will be used to present the theory and practice of the techniques and tools in this course. There will be extensive use of practical demonstrations during lectures. Lecture notes will be available on the course web pages before each lecture.
From week 1 you will also be expected to attend a one-hour tutorial session to clarify ideas from lectures and work through exercises based on the lecture material. You should make sure that you use them effectively by examining in advance the material to be covered in each week's tutorial, by asking questions, by offering suggestions and by generally participating. The tutorial questions will be posted on the Web in the week before each tutorial. There are no marks for tutorial attendance.
Following the tutorial class each week, there will be a two-hour laboratory class, during which you will work on a variety of small practical problems involving the tools introduced in lectures. Because this course is practical in nature, laboratory classes are a very important component. If you do not put a great deal of effort into the lab classes you risk failing the final exam.
Each week, there will be one or more exercises to work on. These exercises will be released in the week preceding the lab class. Labs will be done in pairs, and you and you partner should discuss the exercises before going to the lab, to maximise the usefulness of the class. Some of the exercises must be done in pairs, while others may be done individually: this will be explicitly noted with each exercise.
The exercises will need to be submitted, and will be assessed with a series of automated tests, which will assess correctness of your solutions. During the lab, your tutor will provide feedback on your approach to the problem and on the style of your solution.
Tutors will facilitate you forming pairs in your week 1 lab (which is not assessed). The pairs will change several times during session.
There will be more lab marks available than necessary to obtain full marks for the 10% lab component. In other words, you can miss 1 lab without affecting your mark. Total lab marks will be capped to 10 marks (that is 10% of the final marks)
There are two assessable programming assignments. Assignments give you the chance to practice what you have learned on relatively large problems (compared to the small exercises in the labs). Assignments are a very important part of this course, therefore it is essential that you attempt them yourself.
The assignment weighting and deadlines may change a little when the assignment designs are complete.
Late assignments submissions will be penalized. The exact penalty will be specified in the assignment specification - often it is 2% reduction in maximum mark for every hour late.
There will be a three-hour primarily practical exam, to be held in the CSE labs during the exam period. This will be centrally timetabled and appear in your UNSW exam timetable.
It will contain implementation tasks which will require you to write C programs. It will also contain sections which require you to read code or answer questions.
During this exam you will be able to execute, debug and test your answers. The implementation tasks will be similar to those encountered in lab exercises
COMP1511 has two hurdle requirements on the final exam.
Hurdle Requirement #1: on the final exam you must solve a task by writing a program that uses an array. The final exam will contain multiple questions (clearly marked) which if answered successfully will meet this hurdle requirement. Answering any one of these questions will meet this hurdle requirements.
Hurdle Requirement #2: on the final exam you must solve a task by writing a program that uses a linked list. The final exam will contain multiple questions (clearly marked) which if answered successfully meet this hurdle requirement. Answering any one of these questions will meet this hurdle requirements.
You can not pass COMP1511 unless you achieve both the above hurdles. However you will be offered an additional chance to pass the hurdles in the supplementary exam, if you achieve a mark of 50+ but do not pass both hurdles.
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Lab Work | 10% |
| Assignments (Assignment-1 : 12%, Assignment-2 : 13%) | 25% |
| Practical Lab Exams during week-05 (5%) and week-10 (10%) | 15% |
| Final Exam (everything - exam period) | 50% |
Students will be offered a supplementary exam if they miss the original exam due to (documented) illness or misadventure.
Students who will be automatically offered supplementary assessment if they achieve a final mark of 50+ but fail to meet the hurdle requirement, if they have attended 7+ tut-labs, achieve > 30% in the lab exams and have made reasonable attempts on all assignments (achieving > 45%)
Students with final marks in the range 40-49 (whether they have met the hurdle requirement or not) will also be offered supplementary assessment if they have attended 7+ labs, achieve > 30% in the lab exams and have made reasonable attempts on all assignments (achieving > 45%)
The supplementary exam will be centrally timetabled, it is your responsibility to be in Sydney and available for the supplementary exam. Importantly, NO alternative will be offered.
The Student Code of Conduct (Information, Policy) sets out what the University expects from students as members of the UNSW community. As well as the learning, teaching and research environment, the University aims to provide an environment that enables students to achieve their full potential and to provide an experience consistent with the University's values and guiding principles. A condition of enrolment is that students inform themselves of the University's rules and policies affecting them, and conduct themselves accordingly.
In particular, students have the responsibility to observe standards of equity and respect in dealing with every member of the University community. This applies to all activities on UNSW premises and all external activities related to study and research. This includes behaviour in person as well as behaviour on social media, for example Facebook groups set up for the purpose of discussing UNSW courses or course work. Behaviour that is considered in breach of the Student Code Policy as discriminatory, sexually inappropriate, bullying, harassing, invading another's privacy or causing any person to fear for their personal safety is serious misconduct and can lead to severe penalties, including suspension or exclusion from UNSW.
If you have any concerns, you may raise them with your lecturer, or approach the School Ethics Officer, Grievance Officer, or one of the student representatives.
All work submitted for assessment must be your own work.
Lab exercises must be completed by you and your partner.
Assignments must be completed individually.
Submission of other people's work as your own (plagiarism) has a major impact on learning so we use plagiarism detection software to search for multiply-submitted work.
Please note:
Make sure you read:
Every semester, COMP1511 student feedback is requested in a survey at the end of this course using UNSW's myExperience online survey system. This feedback is used to improve the course materials and their delivery.
In the most recent session feedback was very favourable probably as a result of changes based on the previous session's feedback. Feedback from surveys for COMP1511's past offering has resulted in changes to COMP1511 delivery, including introduction of Lab tests. Some lab exercises and lecture material will be updated to better reflect current practice and incorporate the feedback.
Students are also encouraged to provide informal feedback during the session, and to let the lecturer in charge know of any problems, as soon as they arise. Suggestions will be listened to very openly, positively, constructively, and thankfully, and every reasonable effort will be made to address them.
Other resources: