Computer Science 1016S - 2024 Notes to Students

Course Description
Computer Science 1015F/S and 1016S (or 1010H and 1011H) together constitute a complete
Computer Science curriculum for first year students, offering an introduction to the
development of algorithms and writing of computer programs, along with other selected
topics in Computer Science.

Prerequisites
CSC1015F (or at least 70% for CSC1017F).

Staff
Course Convenor: Mr. Aslam Safla aslam@cs.uct.ac.za
Lecturers: Prof. Sonia Berman sonia@cs.uct.ac.za
Tadiwa Magwenzi MGWTAD001@myuct.ac.za
Rhett Flanagan FLNRHE001@myuct.ac.za
Francois Meyer francois.meyer@uct.ac.za

Teaching Assistants (TAs): Fatsani Phiri PHRFAT003@myuct.ac.za

Tutors: (will be announced on Amathuba)

Textbook and Notes

The highly recommended textbook is as follows:
Absolute Java, (International/Fifth edition or later) by Walter Savitch, Pearson / Addison-
Wesley, ISBN: 9780273764793

Class notes (copies of slides) may be available for selected sections and announced by the
relevant lecturer(s). Electronic copies of lecture slides will be made available on Amathuba.

Amathuba
Amathuba (http://amathuba.uct.ac.za) is the university-wide online learning management
system that gives you access to resources to assist in the learning process. The class website
for all courses will be located on the Amathuba system.
Lecturers, TAs and tutors may be consulted through Amathuba – this is preferable since any
questions that are answered may benefit other students as well. Amathuba is used for the
submission of ALL practical assignments and practical tests and for providing students with
marks for assignments and tests, and feedback where appropriate. All students will be
expected to consult the website on a daily (Monday-Friday) basis for updates on assignments,
marks, hints, deadlines, etc.

Please refrain from posting anything of the following nature anywhere on the website, as it
may violate the university’s Appropriate Use of Computer Facilities policy (see ICTS
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 website), necessitating disciplinary and/or legal proceedings: sexist, racist or otherwise
discriminatory comments, flame wars, troll; segments of program code (other than something
provided by the instructor) ; solutions to graded work (or part thereof) before or after
submission; or illegal material.

Lectures

Lectures are held in Leslie Social Science LS2A in the 4th period (11h00-11h45) and in NEW LT in
the 5th period (12h00-12h45) Mon -Thu every week and some Fridays. You may attend either
lecture, space permitting.

Tests
There will be 2 closed-book 40 minute theory tests. All theory tests will be conducted over
Amathuba. Venue details will be communicated to you closer to the test.
There will be 2 open-book 40 minute practical tests. Each practical test will be offered 2 times
– you may write one or both of them and the maximum mark obtained for each first try in
that test week will be used for each test.
See the schedule for test dates.

Assignments
Assignments will be done on your own laptop computer. All Assignments will be submitted to
the Automarker on Amathuba, except the Final Assignment (SIPP Essay), which will be
submitted to the Assignments tab on Amathuba.

Questions and Submission

All questions for assignments, along with all related files, will be available on the class
website on Amathuba. Practical assignments must be submitted electronically via Amathuba
ONLY. The online submission system used to receive your assignments will provide the
official timestamp used to determine whether a program is on time. Marks will be deducted
automatically for automatically-marked assignments that are submitted late.

Marking

Most assignments will be marked automatically based on test cases and the marks will be
uploaded to Amathuba. Tutors will manually mark randomly-chosen practical assignments
during the semester.

Equipment and Programming Language

All programming will be done in Java (JDK v1.8.0 or later) unless otherwise stated. The
tutors will compile and test programs on JGrasp running on MS-Windows. Assignments that
are automatically marked are marked using JDK v1.8.
It is the responsibility of the student to submit a program that will successfully compile and
execute on the specified platform. Any student who works on their own equipment must
ensure that all assignments will compile and execute on the university equipment before
submission – no discussion will be entered into after submission.
It is ALWAYS the student’s responsibility to ensure that adequate backup copies are made of
all work in progress and all work already completed. Loss of data or programs is not an
acceptable excuse for non-submission or late submission of assignments.
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Quiz
Weekly quizzes will be conducted on Amathuba. The quiz for the week will be conducted in
the first 30 minutes of your allocated practical session. All quizzes will be timed, so you will
get 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the number of questions. The first quiz will be during
Week 2 of the term.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

Refer to attached document on the departmental plagiarism policy, especially regarding
academic dishonesty and computer program submissions. This policy will be strictly
enforced.
All assignments, tests and examinations are done individually – there is NO group work
allowed in this course. It is acceptable to discuss the questions for assignments with peers but
not the specific details of the solutions. When in doubt, speak to a tutor or TA.

DP Requirement
A student is granted DP status (and may write the exam) in CSC1016S if the following
conditions is met:
• subminimum mark of 50% for practical test average
• (3/5 * Practical average + 2/5 * Practical test average ) >= 45%,
where Practical Average = 0.8 * Weekly Assignment Average + 0.2 * Weekly Quiz average

Final Examination
The examination timetable will be published sufficiently in advance of the final examination.
It is the student’s responsibility to take note of the correct time and place for the
examinations.
The examination will be cumulative, closed-book and closed-notes (i.e., you may not bring
your notes or textbooks into the examination room), and 2 hours in duration.
A final mark in CSC1016S will be calculated as follows:
Final = 0.10 * Practical average + 0.15 * Test average+ 0.15 * Practical test average + 0.60 *
Exam
In order to pass, ALL of the following requirements MUST be met:
• Final >= 50%
• subminimum mark of 50% for practical test average
• (3/5 * Practical average + 2/5 * Practical test average ) >= 45%
• (1/5 * Test average + 4/5 * Exam) >= 45%
Refer to the CSC1011H notes to students for the CSC1011H final mark calculation.

Supplementary Examinations
Students who do not pass but obtain a mark of 45-49 may be awarded a supplementary
examination; this is indicated either with xS (with 45 <= x <= 49) or OSS ['failed theory
subminimum'] in PeopleSoft. These are written in January and the exams office will contact
those eligible for it, including the exact time and date of the supplementary exam.

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 The final mark will be calculated as above, but then with the supplementary exam mark. The
system then converts this into a “UP” unqualified pass or “UF” unqualified fail if you had a
plain supp and into the 'June grade' if you had an OSS with the June exam.
Please also note the following (short version of some of the handbook rules): there is no supp
on a supp exam, no deferring a supp exam, no supp on a deferred exam, and no deferring a
deferred exam.

Grade Allocation

1 = 75-100; 2+ = 70-74; 2- = 60-69; 3 = 50-59; F = 0-49

Information Dissemination and Communication

Attendance and Absence
This is a face-to-face lecture course. While attending the lectures is not mandatory after the
first day, all marked work (assignments, tests and quizzes) will be based on the lectures.
Obviously, non-attendance at tests will result in a mark of 0 (zero).

Medical Notes and Short Leave

All students are expected to do all assigned work. If a student falls ill, they must submit a
medical certificate to the course convenor as soon as possible.
A valid medical certificate must be signed by a qualified medical doctor and clearly state the
days on which you were medically unfit to work. Please submit a copy of the original medical
certificate via email to sick-csc1016s@cs.uct.ac.za .
In other/exceptional circumstances, where a student would like to be away from their studies
for a short and defined period of time, the Short Leave Application form (under Amathuba
resources) must be filled out and submitted to the course convenor for recommendation and
HoD for approval.

Appeals Procedure
If a student feels that their marks are incorrect for any piece of marked work, they must first
approach the tutor or TA responsible for that test or assignment. Then, if need be, they may
appeal to the course convenor. Finally, they may appeal to the HoD.

Queries
Any queries about the content of the lectures MUST be directed to the lecturer teaching that
section.
Any queries about marks or marking of practical assignments must be directed to your tutor
or TA.
All marked work (whether in paper or electronic format) must be kept until the end of the
semester. In general, queries about marks MUST be made within a week of marked work
being returned. No queries about any marks will be entertained after the final examination.
Any queries about the administration of the course must be directed to the TA.
The course convenor must ONLY be contacted as a last resort unless otherwise indicated.

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Syllabus
Corresponding chapter numbers in the prescribed textbook (4 th edition) are indicated in
parentheses.
 Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Java syntax (Chapter 1/2/3)
 OO Design, UML I, Classes and Instances (Chapter 4/12)
 Methods, Variables, Constructors (Chapter 4)
 Statics, References, Aggregation/Composition (Chapter 5)
 Inheritance, Polymorphism, UML II (Chapter 7/8)
 Testing with Junit
 Abstract data types, Interfaces, Generics, Design Patterns (Chapter 12/13/14)
 Arrays, Linked lists (Chapter 6/15.1/15.2/15.3)
 Stacks, Queues (Chapter 15.4)
 Graphics, GUIs (Chapter 17/18)
 Human Computer Interaction

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Schedule of Lectures and Practical Work

The numbers indicate the corresponding chapter of the prescribed textbook.

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