ECE 3822: Engineering Computation II (Software Tools For Engineers)

ECE 3822: Engineering Computation II
(Software Tools for Engineers)
Syllabus
Contact Information:

Lecture	MWF: 09:00 - 09:50 AM (ENGR 312)
Lecturer	Joseph Picone, Professor Office: ENGR 703A Office Hours: (MWF) 7:45 AM - 8:45 AM, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Phone: 215-204-4841 (desk); 215-954-7076 (cell - preferred) Email: picone@temple.edu Google Hangout: joseph.picone@gmail.com Skype: joseph.picone
Teaching Assistant	Nabila Shawki, PhD Student Office: ENGR 702 Office Hours: (R) 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM Phone: N/A Email: tuk02200@temple.edu@temple.edu
Peer Mentor	Adam Pienkowski, BSEE Student Office: ENGR 702 Office Hours: (W,R) 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Phone: N/A Email: tuj05689@temple.edu
Social Media	https://www.facebook.com/groups/temple.engineering.ece3822/ temple.engineering.ece3822@groups.facebook.com
Email	Google Group URL: http://groups.google.com/group/temple-engineering-ece3822 Google Group Email: temple-engineering-ece3822@googlegroups.com
Website	http://www.isip.piconepress.com/courses/temple/ece_3822
Textbook	Google Search :)
Reference Textbooks	This book, as the title suggests, is a good overview of the basics of Linux: E. Siever, S. Figgins, R. Love and A. Robbins Linux in a Nutshell, 1st Edition O'Reilly Media; Sixth Edition October 2009, 944 pages ISBN: 978-0596154486 URL: Linux in a Nutshell (6th Edition) This is an excellent introduction to Python: Mark Lutz Learning Python O'Reilly Media; Fifth Edition July 2013, 1648 pages URL: Learning Python This is a great book for learning about many data analysis tools available in most Python distributions: Wes McKinney Python for Data Analysis O'Reilly Media; First Edition July 2013, 550 pages URL: Python for Data Analysis
Other Reference Materials	Lynda.com: an online subscription library that teaches the latest software tools. Log in through the TU Portal. Free Linux Online Training: a wide range of Linux tutorials are available. LearnPython.org: many excellent interactive tutorials. Stack Overflow: where you can find answers to almost any programming question.
Prerequisites	C- or better in ECE 2011; C- or better in CIS 1057

Grading Policies:

Item	Weight
Exam No. 1	10%
Exam No. 2	10%
Exam No. 3	10%
Final Exam	10%
Homework Assignments	30%
Quizzes	30%
TOTAL:	100%

Catalog Course Description:

The primary goal for this course is to teach engineers how to solve problems of scale using a variety of computer tools. The three main goals for this course are: (1) introduce students to the hierarchy of software tools (e.g., scripting languages, interpreted languages, compiled languages) used to solve engineering problems; (2) introduce the basics of Python, a scripting language that is a dominant tool in engineering; and (3) introduce Java, object-oriented design, and a number of Java-related software tools that automate testing, documentation and cross-compilation into web applications. A common thread throughout these topics is the decomposition of large-scale problems into smaller problems that can be solved using reusable modules. Good software engineering practices will be stressed throughout the course. The latter part of the course will involve developing a significant computer simulation of a real-world engineering system that involves real data and utilizes both Python and Java.

ABET Criteria:

See the course title page for a summary of the ABET criteria this course addresses. You can also view these here.

Course Overview:

With the advancement of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and app programming on portable devices, students often no longer learn the basics of computing. Whether your job is to manage vast amounts of data or mine information from the Internet to advance your understanding of a product or business, computers allow us to automate and solve problems of immense scale. However, to be effective at doing this, one must understand how computers work and how to program them effectively.

In this course, we will first focus on learning the basics of the Linux operating system. Linux is the dominant operating system for most compute intensive applications. Though a Linux desktop exists, we will focus mainly on learning about the shell and the command line. Some operating systems, such as a Mac, give you direct access to a terminal window as part of the OS (which is a modified version of Unix/Linux). For Windows users, we will install VirtualBox and Linux under VirtualBox. Please see the resources page for more information about this.

In the second part of the course, we will focus on learning C/C++ programming. Students are expected to be familiar with basic syntax. Our focus will be pointers, data structures, function calls, classes, and, most importantly, how you write good, clean, structured code. This will help you better appreciate some of the pros and cons of scripting languages such as Python.

In the third part of the course, we will focus on learning an emerging programming language known as Python. This is a useful language because it supports both interpretive and compiled modes. In the final part of the course we will learn a variety of software engineering tools and discuss strategies for decomposing large problems into a hierarchy of smaller ones.

This course will be very hands-on. Anyone can learn this material, but it takes practice, practice and more practice. Hence, lectures will be very interactive. We will attempt to use WebEx so that students can follow along on their own laptops. YOU MUST BRING YOUR LAPTOP TO CLASS EVERY DAY.

We will have three in-class exams in this course and a comprehensive final. Each in-class exam will be closed books and notes. You will be allowed one page (double-sided) of notes for the in-class exams. For the final exam you will be allowed four pages of notes, presumably the same notes you used for the in-class exams.

Unannounced quizzes will be given periodically throughout the course to encourage you to attend lecture classes and keep up with the daily work. If you miss a quiz without a prior excuse from the instructor, you receive a zero for that quiz with no exception. Make-up quizzes will not be given. The same policy applies to in-class exams and the final exam as well.

A series of computer assignments will be given as homework. Solutions will be prepared as a Microsoft Word document and submitted electronically via email as a pdf file. See the instructions below in the section titled "Homework" for further details.

Lecture Schedule:

The lecture component of ECE 3822 meets three times a week and will cover the following topics:

Class	Date	Topic(s)
01	01/14	Introduction to Macs, Clusters, Virtualization and Clouds
02	01/16	The Login Environment, Shells, Environment Variables
03	01/18	Command Line History, Pipes, Redirection, Regular Expressions
--	01/21	Martin Luther King Day - No Class
04	01/23	Files, File Systems and Permissions
05	01/25	Scripting and Bash Programming
06	01/28	Processes, Tasks and Batch Computing
07	01/30	Emacs, Text Editing, Program Development and IDEs
08	02/01	Disks, File Systems and I/O
09	02/04	Archiving, Backups and Syncing
10	02/06	Gcc, Program Compilation, Make Files, Libraries and Linkers
11	02/08	C: Basic Data Types and Pointers
12	02/11	C: Memory Allocation and Scope
13	02/13	Exam No. 1: Linux Fundamentals (Lectures 01 - 10)
14	02/15	C: Functions and Scope
15	02/18	C: Input/Output (I/O)
16	02/20	C++: Classes
17	02/22	C++: C++ Examples
18	02/25	C++: Data Structures
19	02/27	C++: More About Data Structures
20	03/01	Review of C/C++ Data Types, Pointers, and Memory Management
--	03/04	Spring Break - No Class
--	03/06	Spring Break - No Class
--	03/08	Spring Break - No Class
21	03/11	Python: Basic Program Structure and Libraries
22	03/13	Python: Arrays, Lists and Other Useful Data Structures
23	03/15	Python: File I/O and Directory Traversal
24	03/18	Python: Classes and Object-Oriented Programming
25	03/20	Python: Unit Testing
26	03/22	Exam No. 2: C/C++ Programming (Lectures 11 - 20)
27	03/25	Python: Introduction to IDEs (Spyder)
28	03/27	Python: Exception Handling
29	03/29	Multithreading and Parsing
30	04/01	Python: Graphing and GUI Programming
31	04/03	Functional Programming: Map, Reduce and Filter
32	04/05	Functional Programming: Recursion
33	04/08	Introduction to Web Development
34	04/10	Relational and noSQL Databases
35	04/12	Git Concepts and Architecture
36	04/15	Dev Ops and IDEs
37	04/17	Agile Software Development
38	04/19	Software Licensing
39	04/22	Exam No. 3: Python (Lectures 21 - 32)
40	04/24	Software Distribution
41	04/26	Microsoft Excel
42	04/29	Final Presentations
43	05/06	Final Exam (08:00 AM - 10:00 AM): Comprehensive (Lectures 01 - 42)

Please note that the dates above are fixed since they have been arranged to optimize a number of constraints. If you have conflicts with other classes, such as too many exams within the same week, we need to resolve that the first week of classes.

Homework:

The homework schedule is as follows:

HW	Due Date	Item(s)
01	01/18	Command Line Programming
02	01/25	Text Processing
03	02/01	Shell Programming
04	02/08	More Shell Programming
05	02/15	Running Compute-Intensive Jobs
06	02/22	Command Line Compilation
07	03/01	File I/O
08	03/15	C++ Variables and Scope
09	03/22	Data Structures
10	03/29	Sparse Matrices
11	04/05	Python Scripting - Filename Processing
12	04/12	Python Scripting - Audio Processing
13	04/19	Python Practice
14	04/26	Functional Programming Practice
15	04/29	Map, Reduce and Filter

LATE HOMEWORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Keeping up with the homework in this course is critical to your ability to absorb this material in a meaningful fashion.

Homework assignments are emailed to the class teaching assistant using "ECE 3822 - Homework No. XX" as the subject line, and a pdf document named "lastname_firstname_hwxx.pdf" as an attachment (not a link or a Google Doc, but simply an email attachment). The filename should be all lower case. A Microsoft Word template for these assignments can be found here. The assignment code, "hwXX", will he "hw01", "hw02", etc. You are to prepare the assignment in Word using the template provided, convert it to a pdf, and submit the pdf by emailing the document to the class teaching assistant (listed above).

Your pdf document must be 1 Mb or less in size. This means text should not be included as bitmaps or screenshots, but instead inserted in textboxes as plain text. Be careful how you import screenshots and images. In this class we want you to be cognizant of the document size and to learn how to manage that so you don't waste too much disk space or email bandwidth.

Additional Resources:

The course notes will include links to a variety of helpful resources.

University Policy Statements:

Accommodations & Resources: Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a documented disability, including special accommodations for access to technology resources and electronic instructional materials required for the course, should contact me privately (via email, Canvas, or phone) to discuss your specific situation by the end of the second week of classes, or as soon as is practical to do so. If you have not done so already, please contact Disability Resources & Services (DRS) at 215.204.1280 or visit the office in 100 Ritter Annex to learn more about the resources available to you. I will work with DRS to coordinate reasonable accommodations for all students with documented disabilities.

Further, please be aware that Temple University offers free and confidential to all students at Tuttleman Counseling Services (counseling.temple.edu, 215.204.7276). It is common for students to experience times of stress, depression, anxiety, amongst other mental wellness issues. If you need help, do not be afraid to ask - we are all here to support you during your college journey!

Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are 2 inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has a policy on Student and Faculty and Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy #03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02.

Please review the university's academic dishonesty policy Students who are caught plagiarizing or cheating will receive a grade of 0 on the corresponding assignment for a first offense. A second offense will result in failure of the course.