COMP 053: Data Structures


Course Description | Administration | Learning Objectives | Course Material and Schedule | Grading and Attendance Policy | Exams | Assignment Guidelines | Academic Honesty | Accomodation for Students with Disabilities | Nondiscrimination Policy

Course Description

The course continues the development of program design and problem solving techniques. Topics include development of fundamental data structures and their associated algorithms as well as array-based algorithms, recursion, lists, generics, dynamic memory, binary trees, and associative structures

Prerequisites: COMP 051 or COMP 061 with a "C-" or better.
When enrolling in this course, you should be relatively proficient in basic programming with C++: variables, conditionals, loops, functions, recursion, and input/output streams.

Website: Syllabus, Canvas LMS

Credits: 4 units

Course Catalog: https://catalog.pacific.edu/search/?search=COMP+053&caturl=%2Fstocktongeneral%2F




Administration

Instructor: Sepehr Amir-Mohammadian
Email:
Lecture: MW 9:30AM-10:45AM, CTC 214
F 9:30AM-10:45AM, on Zoom (The link is shared on Canvas.)
Office hours: MW 8:00AM-9:10AM, CTC 122
Students need to request alternate meeting times outside of scheduled office hours through email.

Teaching Assistant: Ben Ung
Email: b_ung1@u.pacific.edu
Office hours: TR: 12:00PM-1:00PM



Learning Objectives

The vision for this course is: What do I, as a computer scientist, need to understand about the fundamental concepts and abstractions in programming and what are the different structures to store and retrieve data by which I can design and implement programs that are appropriate in a given project?

You will have many different opportunities to gain this knowledge through:

After taking this course, you should be able to:

University of the Pacific Core Competencies: This course reflects the following university-wide core competenceies in the undergraduate program:

Outcomes for COMP program: The assessment plan for this course comprises the following outcomes identified by ABET:

Collection of Work for Assessment: Student work may be retained to assess how course learning objectives are being met and for accreditation purposes.




Course Material

We will use the following zyBook along with additional resources that are referred through the semester. In order to use the zyBook follow these steps:

The slides, assignments, supplementary material, etc. will be provided through Canvas LMS.

Major topics that will be covered in the course are:




Grading and Attendance Policy

Grades for the course are assigned on the scale below:
A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D F
[93,100] [90,93) [87,90) [83,87) [80,83) [77,80) [73,77) [70,73) [67,70) [60,67) [0,60)

Final grades will be assigned based on several performance factors. These factors and their quantitative contribution to the final grade are as follows:

Attendance: Class attendance and participation is necessary and expected. There will be numerous activities in class, and these activities cannot be made up outside of class. Participation requires that you are properly prepared for classroom discussions and activities, and have completed all reading assignments before the relevant class. You will only be allowed three excused or unexcused class misses during the semester. The only acceptable excuses for missing a class, an assignment due date, or an exam are serious illness, family emergency or important professional, academic or athletic activities. Illness or family emergency may require documentation. Excuses for professional, academic or athletic activities must be approved by the instructor in advance. Students missing a class are responsible for making up the material discussed in that class on their own. Students are responsible for being aware of any announcements made during their absence.




Exams

Two exams will be conducted during the semester, a midterm and a final. The schedule will be announced in class and content and format will be discussed prior to the exams. Make up exams will only be scheduled in emergency situations.




Assignment Guidelines

Release and Submission

Solutions: Solutions to sample exam questions and midterm exam may be submitted electronically via Canvas, or in class on pencil-and-paper when appropriate.

Late submission policy: Deliverables for course projects will be accepted up to three days late, with a 5% per day penalty.
All assignments will be considered individual efforts unless otherwise specified (e.g., labs), and will be treated as such under the Academic Honesty Policy.




Academic Honesty

The Honor Code at the University of the Pacific calls upon each student to exhibit a high degree of maturity, responsibility, and personal integrity. Students are expected to:

Violations will be referred to and investigated by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. If a student is found responsible, it will be documented as part of her or his permanent academic record. A student may receive a range of penalties, including failure of an assignment, failure of the course, suspension, or dismissal from the University. The Academic Honesty Policy is located in Tiger Lore and online.

Course-specific Honor Code Policy: Engineering is generally a cooperative endeavor and collaborative learning can be a valuable experience for all involved. However, proper assessment (i.e., grading) requires that work be done by individuals. To balance these two requirements, the following policy will apply:

Marginal cases will be resolved by oral examination of the student(s) involved. If they each understand the material in the assignment, it will be considered honest collaboration. If they do not, then it will be considered academic dishonesty.

In many cases, it may be possible to identify reusable source code from textbooks, web sites or other resources that can help you with assignments. You are permitted to use such references provided that:

You are responsible for understanding the theory behind all algorithms or source code used, regardless of their source.


Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities is located in the McCaffrey Center, Second Floor. Phone: 209-946-3221. Email: ssd@pacific.edu. Online: pacific.edu/disabilities


Nondiscrimination Policy

The University of the Pacific does not discriminate in the administration of any of its educational programs, admissions, scholarships, loans, athletics, or other University activities or programs on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, handicap, sexual orientation or preference, sex or age.


The instructor reserves the right to change these policies and guidelines at any time, and students agree to abide by the most recent version of this syllabus.


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