CS109a Class Page
Introduction to Computer Science

(Winter Quarter 96-97)

This class is offered by,

Stanford University

Department of Computer Science

In association with,

SCPD/SITN

Contents of this page

• Late breaking news (see also the newsgroup)
• Objectives
• Prerequisites
• Information
• The People
• The Textbook
• The Lectures
• Grades
• Information Sources
• Schedules
• The Weekly Schedule
• The Syllabus
• The Handouts

Late Breaking News:

Change in Final Location

Thursday March 20th
12:15pm-3:15pm
Terman Auditorium

Objectives:

The two-quarter sequence of CS109A/B is intended to provide a broad introduction to the fundamental theoretical and mathematical issues of computer science. Many of you will come to CS109 from CS106 and/or CS107. CS109 is not about programming; rather we will present computer science from a much more abstract perspective. There will be a small programming component to these courses, but the programming we do will serve our main goal of exploring the theory and abstractions of computer science. Much of our work in CS109 will be devoted to reasoning about problems and problem solving, in terms of both the algorithms and data models involved.

Prerequisites:

The only real prerequisite for CS109A is a working knowledge of C and the programming process. If you took CS106B or CS106X here at Stanford or scored a 5 on the Computer Science AP exam you'll be very well prepared. If you don't have this sort of background, you should think carefully before starting the CS109 sequence. Although these courses will have a theoretical and mathematical focus, we expect that this will be the first exposure to material of this nature for most students, especially from a computer science perspective. You should, however, have a mathemical maturity to the level of advanced algebra and introductory calculus. For those of you who are still afraid of the "p" word, don't worry; it is my job to ensure that, by the end of CS109B, this will no longer be the case. Please feel free to discuss any of this with us if you are at all unsure about the suitability of your background for this course.

The People:

Instructor: Todd Feldman

E-mail: feldman@cs.stanford.edu,

Office Location: Gates 195

Office Phone: 725-5303

Office Hours: Mon/Wed 4:15-5:45 in Gates 195 (and by appointment)

Teaching Assistant: Michael Goldwasser

E-mail: wass@cs.stanford.edu

Office Location: Gates 482

Office Phone: 723-4532

Office Hours:

Mon, 10:00-11:00 in Gates 482

Thur, 11:00-12:00 in Gates 482

Teaching Assistant: Julien Basch

E-mail: jbasch@cs.stanford.edu

Office Location: Gates 376

Office Phone: 723-1604

Office Hours:

Fri, 4:15-5:15 in Gates 193D

Tues, 4:00-6:00 at the Coffee House

Teaching Assistant: Neetha Ratakonda

E-mail: neetha@cs.stanford.edu

Office Hours:

Wed, 10:00-11:00am in Gates 193B (723-6077)

Fri, 10:00-11:00am in Gates 193B (723-6077)

Staff Mailing List: cs109a@cs.stanford.edu

All four of us will monitor this mail, so please use this as often as possible, as you will likely get a quicker response.

The Lectures:

Class Lectures: Todd Feldman

Time: Mon/Wed/Fri, 3:15pm-4:05pm

Location: Gates B01

Live Broadcast: Stanford Channel E2

Recitation Sections: Michael Goldwasser / Julien Basch
Choice 1:

Time: Wednesday, 4:30-5:25pm

Location: 380-380F

Choice 2:

Time: Thursday, 10:00am-10:50am

Location: Terman 156

Live Broadcast: Stanford Channel E1

Choice 3:

Time: Friday, 2:15-3:05pm

Location: Education 115

For a summary of this, see the Weekly Schedule below.

The Textbook:

There is one required text for the course: Foundations of Computer Science (C Edition) by Aho and Ullman, (W.H. Freeman), 1995.

This book is available from the Stanford Bookstore and, although it'll set you back more money than you'd like, at least we'll use it next quarter in CS109B as well. We will probably distribute additional reading material from time to time.

Grades:

Course Grades:
Your final grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

Problem Sets: 65%

Midterm Exam: 15%

Final Exam: 20%

Late Policy: All assignments are due in class by 3:20 p.m. on the day that they are due. Late assignments will be accepted until the start of the next lecture (3:20 p.m.) at a penalty of 15%. Of course, I know that from time to time extenuating cirumstances do arise and in such cases extensions will be granted; requests for extensions should be e-mailed to cs109a@cs.stanford.edu.

Online grades: All of your grades will be available online using the Webclass software. To see your grades, go to the URL: http://csl.Stanford.edu/~webclass/class/cs109a/

Information Sources:

Newsgroup: su.class.cs109a
Discussions, common questions, important announcements.

Staff Mailing List: cs109a@cs.stanford.edu
For any homework questions, or questions of individual interest.

Math/CS Library:
Videotapes of lectures and sections

Web Page: www.stanford.edu/class/cs109a/
Course information, schedule, syllabus, online copies of handouts.

Online Grades: http://csl.Stanford.edu/~webclass/class/cs109a/
Grades, statistics.

CS Catacombs:
Handouts, prolog source.

FTP Site: ftp://ftp.stanford.edu/class/cs109a/
online copies of handouts.

leland: /usr/class/cs109a/
online copies of handouts.

Handout Bins:
Extra copies of all handouts will be placed in the handout bins in the lobby down the hall from Todd's office in the Gates building. If we run out of a particular handout, just let one of us know and we'll make more copies. However, copies of all electronically generated handouts will be available online, as mentioned above.

Weekly Schedule:

The Syllabus:

[Note: Topics of future lectures are subject to change.]

Handouts (how to read and print file formats):