Course Announcements

The CS 1371 Help Desk Lab (Bunger-Henry Room 119) is officially
closed for the semester, but the manila Breakout Section envelopes
containing unclaimed exams and mini-quiz papers have been placed out
on a table in the Bunger-Henry mail lobby to make it convenient to
pick up your graded papers.

There will be approximately 11 problems on the Final Exam. Once
again, please bring your GT BuzzCard to the final as photo ID.

The average score for Exam 3 was 82.0, with a std. deviation of
14.0. There were 28 students who scored a perfect 100%.

You may pick up your Exam 3 papers in person (as well as any other
unclaimed exam, mini-quiz and homework papers) at the CS 1371 Help
Desk Lab during regular lab hours this week (Bunger-Henry Room 119,
M-F 3-8 PM). This is the last week the CS 1371 Help Desk Lab will be
open and staffed with TAs this semester.

**********************************************************

There are two CS 1371 Final Exam Review Sessions scheduled for
this coming weekend (held by volunteer TAs, so please let them
know that you appreciate them):

Saturday 4/24 3:30-5:30 PM    CoC 16      David Rennie tophat@cc.gatech.edu
                                                                    Vig Kalyanasundaram gtg121p@mail.gatech.edu

Sunday 4/25    3:30-5:30 PM    CoC 16       Zen Mehra gtg828f@mail.gatech.edu
                                                                    Mohit Jain mjain@cc.gatech.edu
                                                                    Abhinav Tiwari gtg826f@mail.gatech.edu
                                                                    Sid Krishnan gtg811f@mail.gatech.edu
                                                                    Karan Chopra gtg825f@mail.gatech.edu

**********************************************************

The CS 1371 Final Exam (35%) is scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday of final exam week, depending on your course section:

   - http://www.oscarweb.gatech.edu/spring/oscar/finals.html

   - Wed 4/28 8:00 am CoC 16 - Frank Dellaert's 9:30 am class
   - Thur 4/29 2:50 pm Phys L4 - Jim Rehg's 8:00 am class
   - Fri 4/30 8:00 am IC 103 - David Smith's 12 noon class
   - Fri 4/30 11:30 am Phys L1 - David Smith's 1:30 pm class

If you are not in the 9:30 am lecture section, and would like to
take the CS 1371 final exam at one of the earlier exam times, you
may volunteer to do so. Since we will need to keep a head count of
students in each session, please send e-mail to danc@cc.gatech.edu
by Fri 4/24 indicating that you are volunteering to take the final
exam earlier than your regularly-scheduled time. If you happen to
miss this new time, you will still be permitted to take the later
final exam.

There will be no lecture during the first breakout hour during the week of
April 18 - 23, and there will be no mini-quiz. TAs will be available in
the second hour for review discussions.

1. The assignment has been updated to repair a problem we encountered today.
2. The file now includes OffRoad.java, DirtRoad.java and StopSign.java as
discussed in lecture.
3. When developing your code, keep your new class file in the same
directory as Custom.java. Only the "system" files should be in the traffic
subdirectory.
4. the docs subdirectory contains the updated documentation. Open
index.html in your browser.
5. When your code is compiled and running, but behaving badly, you can
enable the printing to the debug.log file by adding the line:
Global.DEBUG = true; // not Global.debug as stated earlier
A good place to put it might be in the constructor of your class so that
diagnostics start when an object of your class is created.

1. To run the traffic program, set the Matlab directory to the location of
Traffic.class and enter '!java traffic'. You will be asked to select a
file. BasicTraffic.data will work until you add your own streets or
intersections.

2. To enable diagnostic printout, put the following line of code where you
want printout to start (like, in the constructor for your new class):
Global.debug = true;
You will see all kinds of output in a file called 'debug.log'. To disable
output later, set Global.debug to false.

3. To compile all your new stuff automatically, compile the Custom.java
class after you have changed it to refer to your new code.

For those of you who were unable to attend the info session
on Monday, we are holding a second info session:

Lab 4 has been posted on the main page. It is due Sunday,
April 18 at midnight with a grace period until Monday, April 19
at midnight.

The CS1371 final exams are scheduled late in finals week as follows:
- Wed 8 am Frank Dellaert's 9:30 class (CoC 16)
- Thur 2:50 pm Jim Rehg's 8:00 class (Phys L4)
- Fri 8 am David Smith's 12 noon class (IC 103)
- Fri 11:30 am David Smith's 1:30 class (Phys L1)

If you are not in the 9:30 lecture, and would like to take the CS1371 final
at one of the earlier exam times, you may volunteer to do so. Since we will
need to keep a head count of students in each session, please send e-mail
to danc@cc.gatech.edu indicating that you are volunteering to move your
exam time.

If you happen to miss this new time, you will still be permitted to take
the later exam.

Due to the success of the GT Basketball team this weekend, we have
reorganized the CS1371 class schedule. The exam listed for Tuesday, April
6th will be administered on Thursday, April 8th. The lecture scheduled for
April 8th will be delivered April 6th.

For those of you interested in being a TA for this class in the fall, you can
apply through this webpage here

There will be a review session for Exam 3 held in CoC Room 16
on Sunday, April 4 from 4-6 PM. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

HW 10 is on WebWork in draft form. It will be updated as necessary to
clarify any questions.

For Monday, March 29, you are to turn in the Bucket.java file,
as well as the Design document describing the functionality of
your cartoon, as the example document shows. The Cartoon.java
file is due the following Monday, April 5.

1. For the Bucket class, you don't have to write the code to display it;
just the code that returns the size of the visible rectangle.

2. You don't have to use a Bucket in your cartoon; the instructions clearly
state that "If you went wild and tried to use it ..."

Homework 9, the cartoon group project, is now available on Webwork.
If you haven't already, you'll need to form groups of 2-3 students for this assignment,
preferably with students within your breakout section.

Problem 2:
    recursiveDivide( ) should round up to the highest whole number.
        ex) recursiveDivide(5,3) would return 1 -- (3 goes into 5 only once)
    in the quad( ) method, b^2 should be b*b.

Problem 4:
getProduct( ) should return 0, not null, if there are no more products left.

Problem 5:
getEarnings() should return a double, not an int.
typo -> cokeMahine.java should be cokeMachine.java

A few students asked me if their project groups could
be made up from different breakout sessions, and I told them it would be
OK. However, I have since been convinced that the logistics of grading
will make this very hard to do. So we have to insist that your groups be
from the same breakout sessions. Sorry for the hardship this might cause to
those of you who were looking forward to working with their friends. I
would add that working with friends on projects can be quite stressful on
the relationships; you're better off working with strangers ...

The missing java files from Homework 8 have been added. You can
get the updated file on Webwork.

A blue and gray MP3 player was found in the Bunger Henry room
on the Friday before spring break. If you have lost it, please contact
David Smith

Homework 8 has been released on webwork. It is due Tuesday, March 23 at 6AM
with a grace period until noon.

Please see the FAQ section with information on how to set up Java with
MATLAB from cluster computers on campus.

The due date for Lab 3 (EXCEL) has been extended to 6:00 AM on
Monday 3/1. Homework 7 is due by midnight on Friday 3/5, before the
start of Spring Break.

The average score for Exam 2 was approximately 81.23. Scores will
be available via WebWork by noon on Friday 2/27, and exam papers
will be handed back and reviewed by your TAs during next week's
Breakout sessions. You may also pick up your exam paper in person
at the CS 1371 Help Desk Lab (Bunger-Henry Room 119) during regular
TA hours next week (M-F 3-8 PM).

Midterm grades (S/U) for the course are due in to the GT Registrar
by noon on Friday 2/27.

Lab 3 has been posted on the main page. It is a very short lab, and it is due Friday, February 27
at 6AM with a grace period until noon.

On homework 6 problem 2 in the Examples section, the original numbers
given did not fit the problem specifications. The examples have been
changed to accurately reflect the problem statement. Sorry for any
confusion.

There will be a review session for Exam 2 from 4-6 PM on Sunday in room 16
of the CoC. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Also, there will be no office hours in dorms this weekend.

Here is a histogram with the overall grade averages calculated from the current grades. It
should give you an idea of how you are doing relative to the rest of the class.

"....To be conformable for matrix multiplication, the number of __columns__
in A must equal the number of __rows__ in B."

Grades in Webwork should include all assignments including homework 1-4,
lab 1, and test 1.

Your overall average should reflect your grade for all the current
assignments listed above. The formula used to obtain this grade is

Overall Grade = (hw_average * 15% + lab_average * 5% + test_average * 45%)
--------------------------------------------------------
65

This formula automatically takes into consideration that you have not
taken the final exam. This formula also does no calculation to determine
your grade includig miniquizes.

For homework 4, you can safely ignore the End Note that says you should
submit an "answers.txt" file.

There should be no "answers.txt" file for this homework. All other files
should be submitted for this assignment.

Homework 4 has now been posted to Webwork under the Course Materials. It
is due at 6:00am Feb. 3, 2004.

The Help Desk is now located in the Bunger-Henry Building on the first floor in the glass room. The
Bunger-Henry Building is located right down the street from the CoC, across from the Van Leer
Electrical Engineering Building.

There was confusion over the directions in this problem. The instructions file has been updated on Webwork.

TA office hours, as well as additional off-site help are now available. You can check the schedule here

For homework 3 problem 5, you may not use the SUM function to solve this
problem. An updated version of homework 3 will be placed on WebWork to
reflect this change.

Before things get out of hand, here are some suggestions for using the news groups effectively:

1. Use the news groups, especially git.cc.class.cs1371.rec - they are great ways to get "after hours" help.

2. Use them wisely - read other related posts and the answers before you post your own question.

3. To help other students to review the questions and answers, be very specific about the title:

4. Also check the FAQ page on the TA Info Swiki - if a question keeps recurring, we will post it there.

Lab is fully operational. There are some important ideas to exercise. The due date is next Tuesday, Jan 20th, at 6am.

Homework 2 is now available from WebWork under Course Materials. When you select the homework, you will receive a zip file. Extract all the contents to a working directory and open the instructions file.

The CS1371 TAs are now available to help from 3pm to 8pm Mon - Fri. The location is in the Commons area of the CoC in the NE corner.

The WebWork system student roster has been updated to include students who registered for CS 1371 this past week. If you are still not able to set up your personal WebWork account, you will not be penalized for late submission of HW1, but please send email to dmsmith@cc.gatech.edu with your GT# and we will resolve the problem.

Please re-read the lecture schedule carefully. The previous version had Spring Break a week early. The revised schedule has Exam 2 and Exam 3 a week earlier than previously.

Welcome to the Spring, 2004 semester of CS1371 - the Engineers' escape from Scheme. Please review the course syllabus carefully.