CMSC421 -- Principles of Operating Systems

Syllabus

Instructor

Instructor:    Gary Burt
Webpage:       http://www.umbc.edu/~burt 
Office:        ECS 202B
Office Hours:  by appointment or walk-ins when my door is open.
E-mail:        burt@cs.umbc.edu

Please do not call me on the telephone. I normally have a line of students waiting to see me and I will not stop helping people who have been waiting in line to answer the phone. I think that is very disrespect to the students standing in line.

Teaching Assistant:  TBA
Webpage:             http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~xxx
Office:              ECS-334
email                xxx@csee.umbc.edu
Office Hours:        TBA

Class Time and Place

Section 101: TTH 2:30 - 3:45 pm SS 111
Section 201: MW 5:30 - 6:45 pm ACIV 150
Section 301: TTH 5:30 - 4:45 pm SS207

Textbook

Required

Operating Systems Concepts by Abraham Silbershcatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Grep Gange, 2002
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, Stevens, Addison-Wesley, 1992

Course Homepage

This course has a homepage where assignments and grades will be posted. Many of the handouts will also be available off of the homepage. The URL is:
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/CMSC421/fall02/burt
The easiest way to get to it is to go to my webpage, and follow the link.

Grading

a number of projects	200-300 points each
a number of pop-quizzes	5 points each
a number of homework assignments	50 points each
term paper	100 points
midterm	200 points
final exam worth	400 points

Your final letter grade is based on the standard formula:

90%+       A
80%+       B
70%+       C
60%+       D
Below 60%  F

Your grade is based on timely work accomplished during the semester; incomplete grades will only be given for medical illness or other such dire circumstances.

Project Submission and Grading

The critical skills cannot be learned simply by attending the class. You should budget enough time to work on the projects as well. This course requires a significant amount of work on your part. Late assignments will be penalized 10 percent per day up to a maximum of five days late. Any project not turned in will receive a grade of -100%.

You will be turning in your assignments electronically, using the Blackboard system. It is located at http://blackboard.umbc.edu. If you do not know how to use it, get the UMBC Internet CD 2003 from ECS-020, which has a Blackboard Basics Tutorial.

When submitting something on Blackboard, you must label what you are submitting with the last four of your SSN and what it is: 1234 -- Project 1

I grade the Midterm, Final and written reports. Everything else is graded by the TA. Grading for the projects will be done on the basis that you must precisely follow instructions on projects and exams. If it says you are to show sixteen bits and you only provide eight, it is wrong. You must comment the programs as required or you will lose points.

Project Policy

All projects must be completed by your own individual, creative effort. You should never have a copy of someone else's project either on paper or electronically under any circumstance. Also, you should never give a copy of your project, either on paper or electronically, to another student. This also means that you cannot "work" on the project together. Cases of academic dishonesty will be dealt with as severely as allowed by University policy.

If your project is turned in by someone else, both you and the person copying your project will receive a -100% for that project. This includes "substantially similar" projects. Furthermore, all parties concerned will have their prior projects checked for cheating. So, if you cheat on Project 4, you can lose all the points from Projects 1 through 3 as well, even though you may have done all the work and just "let" other people copy from you.

Academic Conduct Policy

The following is taken from the UMBC Student Handbook:

DEFINITIONS OF ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

Academic misconduct may include but is not limited to the following:

Cheating: knowingly using or attempting to use unauthorized material, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.
Fabrication: Intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another commit an act of academic dishonesty.
Plagiarism: Knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise, including works of art and computer-generated information/images.

POLICY FOR RESOLVING CASES OF ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

Individual faculty members have the right and responsibility to deal directly with any cases of academic misconduct which arise in their courses. Instances of academic misconduct may be identified in one of two ways. If a faculty member believes a student has committed an act of academic misconduct--for example, by direct observation of student behavior, by comparing the contents of an assignment with that submitted by another student, or by reviewing notated sources or references--the faculty member, in consultation with the Chair of the Academic Conduct Committee, will assess the student's alleged misconduct and the faculty member's options. If a student believes that academic misconduct has occurred, the student will notify either the faculty member or the Chair of the Academic Conduct Committee.

It is particularly important that the Chair of the Academic Conduct Committee be consulted. The Chair can provide knowledge and insight for the faculty member. Communication of instances of academic misconduct also protects the integrity of the university by providing a means of recording infractions that may be repeated by a particular student, or which may prove endemic to a particular course or department. Consultation with the Chair of the Academic Conduct Committee provides a formal record of the infraction and resolution, protecting the student, professor, and university should any questions later arise.

The student will have the opportunity to respond to an accusation of academic misconduct.

Communications

All communications with the instructor and the TA must have your name and the last four of your Social Security Number (last four). Too many of you have email that shows up with a fancy alias and we can't figure out who "Joe Snuffy" is! This includes all email, projects, homework, written reports, etc. Except for in-class work, all material must be typed (or printed on the computer). Too many of you have handwriting that would qualify you to be a medical doctor!

Lectures and Readings

You are expected to attend all classes. (Attendance is not a part of your grades.)
You are responsible for all material covered in the lecture, even if the material is not in the textbook. You are responsible for the material in the readings, even if they are not covered during lecture. (I recommend you have a study team and help each other with getting any material from lecture.)
There will be supplemental material on the course webpages that you are will have to master in addition to the material in the book.
You need to monitor the course web pages daily. All new material will be marked with a yellow icon and the word new, along with the date the material was modified. That icon will remain for at least one week. If it is on the web page for 48 hours, I will penalize you for not following instructions.

Exams

The exams will be closed-book and closed-notes.
There are quizzes, tests, a Mid-term Exam, and a Final Exam.
You must show a photo ID for the Mid-term and Final Exams.
I do not tolerate cheating in any form. Copy from any one is cheating. Likewise, copying from a book any any assignment is cheating! You must do your own work.

Written Report

The is one written report required for this class. For this report, you will locate four articles (published on hard-copy or electronically) on some aspect of Operating Systems. Your report will summarize the article and you will present your analysis of the article. The report must be printed on the computer, using a font of 12 points and double spaced. It will be four full pages plus an additional title page which provides your name, SSAN (last four), title of the article and section number. Graphics may be used, but does not count as a part of the page requirement.

Out-of-Class Help

You will have some difficulties in this class and will need some extra help. This is normal. You can come to me or the TA for this help. The sooner you come to us for help, the easier it is for you to catch up. Don't wait until you are totally and hopelessly lost. Work the exercises in the book, even when it is not homework, because you can not learn this material only by reading it. You must write programs to learn all these concepts. The TA's primary responsibility in this course is to help you. Don't waste this opportunity.

In the past, I have had students who would visit me as much as four times a week for assistance. Then again, I have had former students come back and visit for assistance in other courses. Don't be afraid of upsetting me because you ask for help too often.

Some times students use the Internet to ask for help on something. For instance, we have a Linux User's Group here at UMBC which is extremely helpful. If you ask them for help, you MUST start your request with a statement that says you are working on a class assignment. You may not give them the whole assigned question and ask for the answer, but you can tell them that the question involve a subject and ask for locations to look for more information about that subject.

ADA Compliance

We recognize that some of you might have disabilities that require special attention from the instruction staff. Please make us aware of them so that UMBC can make suitable arrangements.

Cell Phones and Pagers

All cell phones and pagers must be either turned off or set to vibrate.

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