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School of Engineering

Course Administration and Policies

There will be two 2-hour active learning sessions each week. A detailed list of course topics can be found in the course syllabus. All of the instruction will take place on-line, in the Freshman Engineering 6th floor computing lab BEH621 or in GS138. This class uses Cooperative Learning as it basic teaching method.

Each class will consist of a brief informal lectures, followed by an active-learning session in which you will be required to answer problems from the text book or inclass programming problems. The lecture setting is designed to introduce the material and provide the students with time for questions and answers. The group work will involve your Formal Groups organized in class. Thus, make sure you are sitting with your group.

A detailed list of course topics can be found in the course syllabus .

Assignments:

A number of different types of assignments will be used in this course. Some will be inclass programming problems that will be handed in at the end of the class. They will not be graded in detail, but must be completed successfully, using acceptable programming style. The course will also include weekly homework assignments and quizzes, and a number of design projects including a major writting assignment. A detailed list of course topics can be found in the course syllabus and a list of the assignments can be found under Assignments on the menu of the course web page. The design projects are to introduce the following topics:

  1. Use of spreadsheets (EXCEL) in problem solving,
  2. Use of software packages (MATLAB and C) in problem solving, and
  3. Use of software packages (WORD, POWERPOINT) in communications.
The homework projects are ill-structured in nature (you will have to decide exactly what to do). These projects are intended to tax your judgment and creativity as well as your problem-solving skills. You will be required to submit a team report on each homework project. The conference research project, will include a written and oral presentation.

There will be approximately 12 programming assignments, roughly one each week. The first few assignments will be easy but they will quickly become more complex . You can work with anyone in the class, including other student groups to figure out effective solution strategies. The actual programming assignments must be done by each group. For each assignment, you will be required to submit a copy of your program electronically on a disk. We will run these programs to verify that they do run correctly. Your grade will be based upon programming style as well as accuracy.

Quizzes/Exams:

All the daytime and evening sections will be given the same homework, exams and quizzes. Please be professional and don't ask other students in earlier sections for copies of the tests or quizzes. The goal is to have a quiz the last 15 minutes on Thursday of every week. The date and time of the 2 hour mid-term exam will be posted on the web site, the final exam is posted on the university web site. There will be two parts to each exam: a inclass computer test and a evening written exam.

There are no makeup exams, however we will have a second testing time for students with conflicts. An unexcused absence from an exam will result in an exam of 0.

Conference Information:

The conference will be Saturday April 4, 2009. It will take all day so make your plans now so there is no conflict. For a list of ideas review the Conference call for papers. The project will consist of Submitting an abstract, followed by an, Annotated Bibliography, then an Annotated Outline of the paper. You will then meet with your session chair for feedback, and write the paper for review. The first draft will be reviewed by the faculty and staff, plus there will be a peer review. The review comments will then be included into the paper and a final draft will be submitted. Your conference paper must follow the following formating guidelines. Each paper will be written by a student team of 2 students. In addition to the written paper, the project will also include a 16 minute power point presentation. The presentation will be given by both students at the conference. See the Conference call for papers for more details on the dates.

Grade Calculation:

The following is the break down of points associated with the above course topics. Note, you must complete the conference paper portion of this class to pass the course. You must complete all 5 topic areas to get a grade in the course.

MidTerm 25%
Final 25%
Homework/Inclass assignments 15%
Quizzes 15%
Conference Paper/Projects: 20%

Grade Calculation:

The final course grades will be based on the following percentage breakdown. Note, the instructor has the right to lower this final grade percentages, but not raise them.
Percentage Course Grade
100 - 99 A+
98 - 93 A
92 - 90 A-
89 - 87 B+
86 - 81 B
80 - 78 B-
77 - 75 C+
74 - 69 C
68 - 66 C-
65 D
64 and below F

Texts:

Budny, Introduction to Engineering Analysis, available at the Pitt bookstore.

Supplies:

You should obtain one or two jump drives, for saving your programs.

Software:

We will be using MATLAB 7.0 and MicroSoft Visual Studio.net in this course. It is available in the School of Engineering computer labs. A similar version is available in the CIS computer lab on the 10th floor. You may purchase a copy of MATLAB at the bookstore and the Microsoft C++ is available from CIS.

Attendance:

You are expected to attend all classes and participate actively in the interactive sessions. Your final grade will be lowered for chronic non-attendance, or for unsatisfactory fulfillment of the in-class programming assignments.

Benedum Hall

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