Notices for Computer Tools for Engineers

This page contains miscellaneous notices to the students of Computer Tools for Engineers. Watch this page for changes in office hours, availablility of materials, and other administrative and class-related notices.

11/21/99 - Some office hour updates:

Christensen
- Tuesday 11/23 - 9am to noon, no office hours in afternoon
- Wednesday 11/24 - 9am to noon, no office hours in afternoon
- Sunday 11/28 - 1pm to 5pm
Zhou
- Tuesday 11/23 - 4pm to 5:30pm
- Wednesday 11/24 - No office hours
Vaidya
- None this week (Thursday and Friday are holidays)

11/10/99 - The following are the instructions as they should appear on exam #2:

Welcome to Exam #2 for Computer Tools for Engineers. Read each problem carefully. There are 10 required problems (each worth 10 points) and one extra credit problem (worth 5 points). This is a closed book exam with the exception of a cheat sheet comprising a photocopy of the unaltered inside covers of your textbook You may have with you paper, pencil, blank sheets of paper, eraser, calculator, lucky rabbit's foot, photo id, the aforementioned cheat sheet, and nothing else. You have exactly 105 minutes (11:00pm to 12:45pm) to complete the exam. At 12:45pm I will ask everyone to stop writing, anyone writing after 12:45pm will lose points and/or not be able to submit their exam L. If you come to the exam late, due to the large size of the class, I cannot give you extra time (sorry!). Calculator sharing (or sharing of anything) is not permitted. Please answer all questions in the space provided or on a blank sheet of paper, one problem per sheet of paper, following the instructions given in the problem. Put your name all sheets of paper and submit the exam with the exam sheets on top and work sheets of paper below. Please do not fold your exam in any way or bend the corners of the exam sheet. There is no stapler available in the classroom. Note that each problem has a listed "suggested time" for completion. Use these suggested times to pace yourself.

11/10/99 - Here is a review of Mathcad 2000 from PCWeek... review. This is a mainstream corporate America tool... not just a "geeks only" tool.

11/02/99 - For the week of 11/8 to 11/12 the following extended office hours (all in ENB 329) will be in effect (note that Thursday is a holiday):

Li Zhou - MTW 10-12, F 2-3, 4-5
Sujit Vaidya - MTWF 12-2

11/01/99 - Grading of quiz #4 will include consideration of good programming practice including:

Use of a header
Use of comments for code blocks
Use of meaningful variable names
Correct indenting for loop and IF blocks
Prompting for all input
Output to include proper units, etc. as appropriate

These items will be noted on a "tip list" and will be worth probably 2 pts each (for each problem) for quiz #4. For quiz #5 and exam #2, the value of these items will increase. So learn them!!!

11/01/99 - Quix #4 will consist of one "old" problem and one "new" problem. The assignment description of how the new problem will be selected is rather confusing. Here's how it will work (and why):

Student rolls a die
IF ((die = 1).OR.(die = 2).OR.(die = 3)) THEN
  The corresponding chapter #3 problem is selected
  (i.e., die = 1 selects 3.3, die = 2 selects 3.4, die = 3 selects 3.9)
  and then TA selects a new loop problem where the loop problem is NOT from
  the book.
ELSE IF ((die = 4).OR.(die = 5).OR.(die = 6)) THEN
  The corresponding chapter #4 problem is selected
  (i.e., die = 4 selects 4.1, die = 5 selects 4.2, die = 6 selects 4.5)
  and then TA selects a new IF problem where the IF problem is a problem
  from the book.
ENDIF

Any new loop problem will not come from the book. The reason for this is that the book problems are harder (other than the initial problems) than I want to give you at this time (for the area of loops). Note that your assignment #5 has two hard loop problems.

10/24/99 - The lecture this week (week #10) will cover IF and most of loops. Week #11 will introduce functions and subroutines, and week #12 will introduce arrays. Please update your outline and reading plan accordingly. The lab this week (exercise #6) is a very important lab... it is our final lab and we will be covering a lot of neat material.

10/12/99 - For the three or four students with blank quiz #2 diskettes (and hence "zero" grades)... I will give a retake of the Excel quiz. The current plan is to do the retake in the ENB 116 lab on Thursday, October 21st. If you are scheduled for lab on Thursday (and are a "zero" quiz #2 person), please attend lab on Tuesday or Wednesday.

10/12/99 - There will be no office hours on Wendnesday, 10/12/99. Also, no office hours on Monday through Wednesday (10/18 to 10/20) of next week. If you need to see me, send me email... I am very accessible.

09/23/99 - Here are the instructions as they will appear on exam #1.

Welcome to Exam #1 for Computer Tools for Engineers.  Read each problem
carefully.  There are 10 required problems (each worth 10 points) and one extra
credit problem (worth 5 points).  This is a closed book exam (no cheat sheet is
allowed).  You may have with you paper, pencil, eraser, calculator, lucky
rabbit's foot, photo id, and nothing else.  You have exactly 105 minutes
(11:00am to 12:45pm) to complete the exam.  It is very important that everyone
have the same amount of time for the exam.  At 12:45pm I will ask everyone to
stop writing, anyone writing after 12:45pm will lose 5 points.  If you come
to the exam late, due to the large size of the class and that there is another
class immediately following this one, I cannot give you extra time (sorry!).
Calculator sharing (or sharing of anything) is not permitted.  Please answer
all questions in the space provided, do not use the back of the sheets or
additional sheets (unless specifically stated to do so in the problem), and
write your name in the upper right corner on every sheet of the exam.

09/23/99 - Add to the below list of exam coverage areas one more area:

Basic DOS commands from lab #0

09/22/99 - It is not too early to begin to think about the exam #1 (which will be on Monday, 10/4/99). The exam will cover:

ASEE paper (found here)
Mathcad
Excel
"Under the hood"
Design methods including flowcharting

The last two topics are chapter 1 of the text. So, yes, chapter 1 will be "on the test". I would suggest that you today begin downloading the old exams (found here) and start planning your study strategy. We will further discuss the exam and possible study strategies in class.

09/22/99 - Another non-hurrcance for Tampa... and the Tuesday lab was canceled. As the previous (below) note describes, you will need only ONE check-out exercise completion for the two weeks of the Excel lab. Attending just one lab (either last week or this week) and the two past lectures will fully prepare you for the Excel assignment.

09/20/99 - The Wednesday session of the first Excel lab was canceled last week due to Hurricane Floyd. Attendance was also poor in the Tuesday session. Here is what we will do to "even out" the situation. This week's second Excel lab will largely (but, not entirely) overlap in content with the first week's lab. Students will need to have only one check-out grade - either from last week or this week - to get full credit for the two weeks of lab. Our goal with the lab (and the lecture) is to prepare you for the assignment and quiz (the assignment has now been posted for almost two weeks). We will meet this goal - no one will be inadequately prepared.

09/14/99 - It appears that the campus is closed on Wednesday... see the USF homepage. So, this means no Wednesday lab. We'll discuss in lecture next week how we will work-out everything.

09/10/99 - A version of PowerPoint viewer that will work with Office97 format PowerPoint slides is HERE.

09/01/99 - A free PowerPoint viewer is HERE.

08/27/99 - Here is the email sent to all registrants for the Saturday bootcamp. If you registered by email, and DID NOT get this email... please let me know (we will then need to debug an email problem!).

>>> This email sent at 12:44pm on 8/27/99 <<<

Hello all, we have 44 registrants for the Saturday FORTRAN "bootcamp".  There
are 39 machines in the ENB116 lab, so we should a full lab with only very
little "doubling up".

****************************************************************
*** We will hold only one session starting at 8am in ENB116. ***
****************************************************************

The rough outline is:

1) What is a program?
2) Compiling
3) Program structure
4) Data types, variables, and constants
5) Arithmetic
6) Logic
7) Selection (IF)
8) Repetition (loops)
9) Modules (functions and subroutines)
10) Arrays
11) Formatted output
12) Miscellaneous

Optional afternoon material is still be considered.

It is important that you NOT ARRIVE LATE.  We will cover compiling as one of
the first topics... and then will be compiling programs for the rest of the
morning!  Darrell Davis will be teaching most of the boot-camp.  Once you have
had Darrell as an instructor, you will not want anyone else... he is very good!

Regards,



Ken Christensen

08/23/99 - For the folks planning to participate in Saturday's boot camp, I would strongly recommend purchasing the FORTRAN textbook in the bookstore. We will be making use of this book on Saturday.

08/23/99 - For the people trying to add this course... I turned-in 6 "no show" names. These people will be removed from the roll making it possible, I hope, for 6 new people to add. When will the openings be "there"... I am not sure, but the information sheet I received claims that they may be available as soon as Tuesday morning. Good luck!

08/22/99 - Welcome to the last semester of the century!

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Last updated by Ken Christensen on NOVEMBER 22, 1999