(rev. 2016/02/16)

Course Description
for Seminar in Computer Science (CS 4960)

TERM: Spring 2016

ADVISORY REGARDING CONTRACT DISPUTE:
The California Faculty Association (the CFA) is a union that represents all of the faculty at all twenty-three campuses of the California State University (the CSU). The CFA is in the midst of a difficult contract dispute with the managers of the CSU. It is possible that the CFA will call a strike or other work stoppage this term. I will inform the class as soon as possible of any disruption to our class meeting schedule.


CLASS INFO FROM SCHEDULE:
20557 CS 4960 003 Seminar in Computer Science 1.0 Thursdays 15:30-16:20 P-113
INSTRUCTOR: John Sarraillé, Professor of Computer Science

OFFICE: P-286, Professional Schools Building (aka DBH), Cal State Stanislaus

OFFICE HOURS: (The first day of scheduled office hours is Tuesday, February 02, 2016, and the last is Wednesday, May 18, 2016.)

E-MAIL: john@ishi.csustan.edu

HOMEPAGE: http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/js.html

PREREQUISITES:

Senior standing and consent of instructor.
(This course is for senior computer science majors.)

COURSE OBJECTIVES: REQUIRED TEXT: None.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: GRADING:

Assuming you fulfill all the requirements listed above, I will base your grade on four components:
  1. the quality of your efforts during the topic selection and topic proposal phase,
  2. your grade on your written report,
  3. your grade on your oral presentation, and
  4. your participation grade.
Each of the components above will get equal weight.

To a significant degree, I will judge all work on the extent to which you follow directions, meet deadlines, and observe time constraints.

In addition, I'll grade your topic selection and proposal based on their quality; I'll grade your paper and oral presentation based on the thoroughness and depth with which you address your topic, as well as the clarity, accuracy and style of your presentation. You'll get a grade between 0 and 100 for each component.

You'll get one participation credit for each time you attend a presentation and turn in an acceptable feedback form. I'll compute your number of satisfactory feedback forms as a percentage of the number possible, and this percentage will be your participation grade (unless your total number of documented questions is less than three).

You'll receive credit (a grade of "CR") for the course if
  1. you receive a a score of 60 or above in each of the four components, and
  2. your average over the four components is 70 or above.
Otherwise you will receive no credit ("NC").

RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN WORK: NETWORK AVAILABILITY OF COURSE MATERIALS:

I will make course documents available on the world wide web. To access the on-line CS 4960 materials, you can open the URL:

http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/Classes/CS4960/

There is also a miscellaneous collection of information that you may want to use from time to time. It is located here:

http://www.cs.csustan.edu/~john/Classes/General_Info/