ECE 650: Systems Programming and Engineering — Spring 2023

Class meeting time and location: TuTh 10:15–11:30am and 12:00–1:15pm (2 sections) — FITZPATRICK SCHICIANO B 1466 and Wilkinson 132

• Boyi Wang (bw224) — Head TA
• Charlene Han (yh317) & Enmiao Feng (ef141) — Head TAs for projects
• Qiheng Gao (qg45) — Head TAs for autograder development
• Hao Wu (hw269) — Head TA for grading (ECE Graduate Program 2022-2023 Teaching Assistant Award)
• Eva Lin (yl734) — Head TA for online student questions
• Peiru Liu (pl202) & Xinyu Guo (xg77) — Head TAs for course improvement
• Hongming Zhang (hz223) — Head TA for plagiarism checking
• Zhiwei Zhou (zz252) — Head TA for practice sessions

Course Description

Learning Objectives

• program using multiple processes and threads, sockets, and SQL;
• describe the OSI and TCP/IP layers and some of their main protocols;
• create, manupulate, and interface with databases;
• describe the basic functionalities of operating systems; and
• critique academic research papers and write reviews about them.

Textbook and Other Course Material

Grading Policy

• Projects (50%): Five projects — long (start early!) — with the following tentative grade distribution:
  • Project 1: 7%
  • Project 2: 7%
  • Project 3: 11%
  • Project 4: 11%
  • Project 5: 14%
• Exams (40%):
  • Exam 1: 15%
  • Exam 2: 25%
• Paper reviews and discussions (10%): Short reviews of two papers related to course topics.
• Late policy: Late submissions are not allowed unless you have a valid excuse. In that case, email your instructor about it as soon as possible and wait for a decision (might involve a penalty, depending on the excuse). Refer to this list of common but unacceptable excuses borrowed from Dr. Bletsch's webpage.
• Regrading policy: Regrade requests must be submitted no later than one week after the assignment grade is released.
• Grading schema (minimum %):
  • 97: A+
  • 93: A
  • 90: A-
  • 87: B+
  • 83: B
  • 80: B-
  • 77: C+
  • 73: C
  • 70: C-
  • 0: F

Important Notes

***Extremely important advice:

• Start as early as you can! Leave ample time for testing!
• Review class lectures after every class (before the next one).
• Manage your time well and work on multiple assignments (in different courses) concurrently. Split bigger task into smaller (realistic) ones. Make sure you use a calendar and a to-do list.
• Use Git to keep track of previous versions of your work and use a cloud storage service to back up your work (GitLab, GitHub, etc.).
• Ask questions! We are here to help! We want you to succeed!

We can only grade what we receive. Always check what you are submitting and make sure you submit the right files.

Contacting the instructor and the TAs:

• For questions that can be answered by any TA or the instructor: use Ed Discussion
• To contact a specific TA or the instructor: use email (do not use texting, social media, ...)

Misconduct

• Academic misconduct will not be tolerated and will be taken very seriously.
• You are expected to complete the assignments individually unless otherwise stated.
• Students are encouraged to share ideas, learn from each other, and learn from online sources, but cheating is not tolerated.
• Any borrowed design/code/etc. — if allowed to be borrowed — should be properly cited.
• Students suspected violating the Duke Community Standard will be reported.
• In addition to the measures taken by the administration, the affected assignment(s) will receive zero credit, or possibly -100% in extreme cases.
• If you are considering this course of action, please see me instead and we can work something out! I want every student in my course to be successful.
• Note that programming submissions will be compared to one another and to previous semesters using state-of-the-art tools to detect signs of plagiarism.

Communications Support at Pratt

Tentative Schedule