CS 4: Introduction to Computing for Engineers

CS 4 (aka CS 39L)
Introduction to Computing for Engineers

Prof. Jonathan Shewchuk
[email protected]
(But send class-related mail to [email protected] so the TAs can respond too.)

Spring 2006
Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30 pm, 320 Soda Hall
Labs: Mondays 6:30-8:30 pm and Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm, 277 Soda Hall

The final exam takes place in lab (277 Soda Hall) on Thursday, May 18, 5-8 pm.

CS 4 (currently called ``CS 39L'' in TeleBears) is an introductory computer programming course for students with no (or little) programming experience. It is an alternative to CS 3 or E 77 that employs programming examples from engineering and science (as opposed to the symbolic computing emphasis of CS 3). The main programming language of CS 4 is Java (as opposed to Scheme in CS 3 or Matlab in E 77), which is used heavily in industry.

This spring, a pilot version of CS 4 is being offered as a freshman/sophomore seminar (CS 39L). This means you will receive individual attention that would be impossible in CS 3 or E 77. To sign up, just register for CS 39L in TeleBears before spaces run out.

CS 39L may be used (by petition) as a replacement for E 77 for students in Mechanical Engineering, IEOR, the Haas School of Business, and some areas of bioengineering. Of course, it may be used as a replacement for CS 3 for EECS students.

Textbook

Stephen J. Chapman, Java for Engineers and Scientists, Second Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. ISBN # 0-13-033520-7. The first edition is not recommended.

Information

Enter UC-WISE for labs and homeworks.
Course overview: prerequisites, laboratory sections, grading, cheating policies.
Online documentation for Eclipse. You can also install Eclipse 3.1.1 at home.
Online documentation for Gild. You can also install Gild 2.2.0 at home.
Online documentation for Dr. Java: the quick start guide or the complete documentation.
Online documentation on the Java compiler, GJDB, and Emacs: programming tools running under Unix.
The Java 1.4.2 standard libraries API: frames, no frames (maintained by Sun).
The Java language specification (maintained by Sun).
A brief man page for jdb, Sun's Java debugger.
Get tutoring from Upsilon Pi Epsilon, International Honor Society for the Computer Sciences.
Information on connecting from home.
User's Guide to Unix on EECS Instructional Computing.
Access the ucb.class.cs4 newsgroup. If that link doesn't work, try Instructional Computing's Web-based news reader http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/webnews, which even works from sites outside the campus network.

Lectures

The following schedule is tentative. There may be changes as the semester progresses, so check here periodically.

Some lecture notes can be obtained by clicking on the lecture titles (for ASCII) or the PostScript or PDF links (which save paper).

	Topic	Reading	Due
1: January 18	Overview; expressions & variables	Sections 1.1, 1.3-1.6, 2.10	.

2: January 23	Types & conditionals	Sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 3.4	.
3: January 25	Objects & methods	Sections 1.8, 1.9, 2.3	.

4: January 30	Defining classes	Sections 2.7, 6-6.2, 7-7.3	Homework 1
5: February 1	Constructors & pass by value	Sections 6.3, 6.5, 6.8	.

6: February 6	Loops & boolean operators	Sections 3.3, 4.1, 4.2	Homework 2
7: February 8	Physical simulations	.	.

8: February 13	Variables and scope	Sections 7.4, 7.7	Homework 3
9: February 15	Arrays	Sections 5-5.4	.

February 20	President's Day	.	.
10: February 22	2D arrays & ``for'' loops	Section 4.3, Chapter 11	.

11: February 27	``switch'', ``break'', ``continue''	.	Homework 4
12: March 1	Cellular automata	.	.

13: March 6	Software engineering, overloading, char	.	Homework 5
14: March 8	Object-oriented programming	.	.

15: March 13	Euclid's GCD algorithm	.	Homework 6
16: March 15	The stack & the heap	.	.
March 16	MIDTERM (in lab)	covers Lectures 1-14	.

17: March 20	Recursion	.	Homework 7
18: March 22	Binary search	.	.

March 27-31	Spring Recess

19: April 3	Collision simulation	.	Homework 8
20: April 5	Fractals & recursion	.	.

21: April 10	Rocket motion	.	Homework 9
22: April 12	Optimization	.	.

23: April 17	Nelder-Mead simplex optimization	.	Homework 10
24: April 19	Java interfaces & inheritance	.	.

25: April 24	More inheritance	.	Homework 11
26: April 26	Linked lists	.	.

27: May 1	Matlab	.	Homework 12
28: May 3	Performance	.	.

Eligibility

Prerequisites: High school algebra & trigonometry and physics.
Corequisite: Math 1A.
No computing experience required!

Grading

10% for the lab quizzes.
20% for the homeworks.
10% for the project.
25% for the midterm (Thursday, March 16, 5-8 pm, 277 Soda Hall).
35% for the final exam (Thursday, May 18, 5-8 pm, 277 Soda Hall).