Wednesday, December 21, 2011

You can see your 211 final exam

...in my assistant, Cleah Schlueter, 's office, 4113 GHC, for the next year. Our policy is not to return them.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Final Exam Grades Released

You can find your grades for the final exam on front desk. The min,max,mean,median scores (out of 139 points) were, 59, 124, 96, and 98 points, respectively. Your final grades for the course will be uploaded on Thursday, and released shortly thereafter. Have a nice break!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Last Minute Office Hours

I'll be holding office hours in the usual location from 11:00AM-1:00PM tomorrow (Tuesday) for any last minute questions before the exam. Good luck on the final!

Chess tournament and grades

The extra credit scores for Chess have been updated on frontdesk. These scores will be released shortly later today.
Also, chess grades for the non-extra credit part should have been also updated along with all the rest of your scores for the course. Because some people did not follow the exact protocol (making groups or submitted from their partner's account) it is possible that the TAs may have misallocated points between members. If this is the case or the case of any other misgrade please let your respective TA know right away. Additionally, now would be a good time to check with your TAs if you might have missing grades for the recent assignments.
Good luck in preparing for the finals!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

My Office Hours for the Final

Since I wasn't able to hold office hours Tuesday due to a final of my own, I will be holding extra office hours on Sunday 12/18 at 2:00-4:00PM and Monday 12/19 at 6:00-8:00PM in preparation for the final on Tuesday. Those of you in my section can get your graded Chess Theory assignments, as well as any other graded items then.

Monday, December 12, 2011

TA Evaluation Surveys

Hi guys, Its been an amazing semester and us TA's have had a great time working with you all. We would really appreciate if you fill out surveys for your respective TA's and give us feedback on how we can improve. Please fill out the surveys only for the recitations that you have been going to. The links are: Taylor Nebel : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/STVNJVJ Jack Phelan : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ST93RLS Nikhil Khadke : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ST26ZNC Shashank Singh : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/STWYPWM Anish Phophaliya: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/STT2HB8 Dong Bae Jun : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/STMW7JB Thanks in advance, Have a great final!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Chess tournament

The Chess Tournament pool has begun, and we suggest that you try to place your bot into the extra-credit tournament pool today. The extra-credit tournament is opt-in only and it is not compulsory that your team plays in it, but we strongly suggest your team does. Good luck!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Office moved

I moved my office hours of next week to Wednesday, 1-2pm.

sample exam

We've placed a sample final exam and solution set on the lectures page. Good luck!

Friday, December 09, 2011

Change to Chess Tournament Setup

Sorry there was some miscommunication among the course staff; the chess tournament will actually begin at midnight between Saturday and Sunday, rather than tonight, as stated in the post below. This is so that everyone who is using two late days can use both late days to prepare their bots for the tournament.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

How Chess Works

As you are busy finishing your bots,
The schedule for final handins and the competition is as follows:
In addition to your frontdesk tested version:
Submit your bot version in the new ChessBotHandin assignment at the same due date as the unittested version. The due dates for your handins remain as they were. Like always, you can use up to two late days for this assignment, if you have late days remaining. We will look for cheating. We will collect your scores at the midnight of the date you submit. You can view your current scores as well as the field of results at this page:
For the competition pool:
The competition pool will reset along with your rank at the midnight (barring unforeseen conflict with the server) between Friday and Saturday, and you will have two days to compete(you must opt in to the competition) for extra credit. At the end of the two days, if you competed, you must submit your competition bot to a new assignment which we will create(this will be the third thing you submit, although it may be the same content as your ChessBotHandin). Remember that the standard cheating policy applies and that we will check your chess bots.
Good luck.

Extra Office Hours

I plan to have office hours from 10:00 to 12:00 on 12/12-16 and 12/19-20. However, if no one emails me to say they're coming, I might not be there--GHC 4117.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Alpha Beta Demo

All,
I put together a little javascript demo for AlphaBeta that essentially recovers the worksheet. Your browser needs to support the canvas element. If you have errors, try using chrome.
Make sure you understand what is going on (x means the alphabeta cutoff was reached).
-Jack

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

[IMPORTANT] SocialNet Extended with Private Test Release

It has turned out that the FrontDesk functionality of releasing hidden staff tests based on the quality of student tests was revived in the SocialNet assignment but not informed to all the students properly. I apologize for a late notice. Because of this confusion, we are extending the due date for the SocialNet assignment by 3 days. The new due date will be Nov. 20th 11:59PM. (A gentle reminder that I have office hours on Nov. 20th from 3:00PM-5:00PM, so please come by for a last minute help or debugging.)

Note that there are only 4 really basic public tests, and more complicated tests are hidden. If you wrote good JUnit tests and submitted them to FrontDesk, you would be able to release some private test results based on the quality of the tests you wrote. The button for this functionality can be found at the bottom of the submission result page as "Release Private Tests". Basically, it shows if there's any hidden test that your program fails. You can repeat fixing the problem and submitting the program again to see the result, but please be warned there is a limit in the number of tests that can be released in a day, and you can be banned for a while if you try to submit too many times within a short period of time.

As always, you must write your own robust test cases to make sure your program work correctly, and it is a part of the assignment. One general tip for writing good test cases is to try to come up with all the possible usage cases for the classes and the methods including edge cases like illegal arguments. If you are uncertain about how your program should behave for a certain situation, for example, write a JUnit test and submit it to see what happens against the staff code.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Dong Bae's Office Hours Changed This Week Only

I will be out of town this Friday, so my office hours will be held on Sunday Nov. 20th 3:00PM - 4:00PM at Gates 4122. The change is for this week only. From next week, it will go back to Friday 1:30PM-2:30PM as usual.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Midterm grades released

The grades for the 2nd midterm have been released. The min, max, mean, and median (out of 69 possible points) were 22, 63, 49, and 48 points, respectively. You will get the exams back next Wednesday in recitation.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Midterm Review Available

The schedule had been unintentionally reverted.
Please find the midterm review through the following link:

Friday, November 04, 2011

Sample Midterm and Extra Office Hours

Sample Midterm 2 is uploaded on the Lectures page. The partial solution will be provided during the weekend for your study purpose. We are not having a separate review session this time. Instead, extra office hours will be held on Sunday 3:00PM - 5:00PM at Gates 4122 so that you can have available office hours everyday until the second midterm. Please work on the practice problems by yourselves, and drop by an office hour whichever day fits best for you. Good luck on your exam!

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

DP Extension

Due to FrontDesk being down for much of yesterday and this morning, we've extended the due date for Seamcarving by 24 hours. HW5 SocialNet will still be released tomorrow night, and its theory and programming will still be due Nov. 9th in recitation and Nov. 17th at 11:59PM, respectively.

Frontdesk grading service back online.

There was an issue with maintenance on the Frontdesk server, but the issue has been resolved. If anyone has continuing issues, try resubmitting and then after that doesn't work email Jack.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

midsemester grades

We made a mistake when computing midsemester grades. Specifically, we used the wrong values for the programming portion of snakes. If you did substantially better (resp. worse) on the programming portion of snakes than on expression trees, then your midsemester grade will be higher (resp. lower) than the one on the HUB. If you did about the same on both assignments, your grade probably won't change. Sorry for the mistake. You can come to my office hours on Thurs if you want to see if your grade changed.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Office Hours Shortened

I have to give a presentation tomorrow at 7:00 pm. Due to this, my office hours will be shortened to ending slightly before 7, rather than 8.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Due to the fire alarm...

The second half of today's lecture will be covered next week. Please bring the printed slides from today's lecture to class next tuesday, so that I don't have to print them twice. Thanks! -c

Monday, October 17, 2011

Missed office hours

I apologize for missing office hours today, I will be holding additional office hours tomorrow (Tuesday) from 2pm to 3pm . Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Compression Theory Assignment Correction

A mistake that made the LZW problem on HW3 (Compression) theory impossible to solve has been fixed (the first two given values in the compressed array should be 9 and 10, instead of 8 and 9). Please reload the TEX file if you have already downloaded it. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Midterm grades released

The min,max,mean, and median scores (out of 70 possible points) were 22, 65, 46, and 47 points respectively.

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

no office hours on Thursday

I'll be grading the exam! -c

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Extra midterm review material

An extra midterm review with solutions is available to download from the portal at:

Monday, October 03, 2011

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Solutions for Theory Uploaded

The solutions for exptree theory and snake theory are uploaded to the course schedule page (Lectures link on the left). Check it out for midterm preparation, and please come to office hours if you have any questions.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Trees Practice and Exam Topics

A worksheet called "Trees Practice and Exam Topics" which may be helpful in preparing for the midterm has been added to the Lectures page. Note that the list of topics is not guaranteed to be complete, so be sure to check lecture slides and your notes for other possible topics.

Midterm Review

The Midterm review is at 1:00PM - 2:30PM in Gates Hall 4401(Rashid) on Sunday.

sample exam

We placed a sample Midterm Exam on the schedule page (click lectures on left). We are also organizing a midterm review session for this Sunday after noon. The time and location will be announced here as soon as we finalize things. So, check back soon.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Snakes Programming Due Date Extended

Since the Programming portion of HW2 (Snakes) was originally due the day after the Midterm, we decided to push it back a bit to allow you guys to focus on studying. The new due date is Monday, October 10th, at 11:59PM, at which time HW3 (Compression) will be released.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

updated

After lecture on Tuesday, a student showed an apparent counter-example to the proof of the line sweep algorithm's correctness. I have updated the slides to cover that case. The algorithm is correct. By the way, it was co-invented by CMU faculty member Michael Shamos. Here is a link to the original paper.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Snakes Theory Fixes

There were a couple of typos in Problem 2 of the Theory assignment for Snakes (HW2). These have been fixed, and the corrected PDF/TEX files can be downloaded in a ZIP file from the lectures page. The image on the first page of the assignment is also in there, so that you can include the image in your homework submission. Sorry for any inconvenience, Shashank

Friday, September 23, 2011

Dong Bae's Office Hours Change

From next week, my office hours will shift to one hour later, so it will be from 1:30PM to 2:30PM on every Friday. I will make this regular office hours as kind of open ended as possible for people who need further help. Feel free to come by when you have any problem or question.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Updated slides

I mis-spoke in class when giving the answer to one of the AVL tree examples. I've updated the slides to give the correct answers (see slides 8 and 9). Sorry for the confusion.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Latex for Assignments

New latex resources have been added to the portal:
  • The Get Started page now outlines installing and running hello world in latex.
  • The Schedule page now lists HW1 theory as due on the 14th and has links to the pdf and to the latex template. In the future homework theory links will be created on the schedule as assignments are released.
Please use the latex template to complete HW1 theory.
Note that the due date in the programming submission theory outline is not correct for HW1. The HW1 theory is due on September 14 2011 in recitation.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Tutoring

Free, walk-in tutoring for 15-211 will be held each week on Tuesday nights from 8:30-11:00 p.m in Mudge Reading Room, starting Sept. 13.

Assignment 2 has been released

The second assignment can be found on front desk. You should be able to access it by clicking on the assignments button (on left). Use your andrew id/password to log in. The assignment is due Thurs, Sept 22nd at 11:59 pm. The theory part is due on Sept 14th during your recitation. If you cannot access frontdesk, please let your TA or an instructor know immediately.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Assigned recitations

Please make sure that you go to your assigned recitation section. We have limited space, so we cannot allow people to switch sections. Students on the wait list or auditing should stand in the back, if necessary. We usually have a number of students drop after the first couple of weeks, so this issue will probably go away soon.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

1st homework has been released

The first assignment can be found on front desk. You should be able to access it by clicking on the assignments button (on left). Use your andrew id/password to log in. The assignment is due Thurs, Sept 8 at 11:59 pm. If you cannot access frontdesk, please let your TA or an instructor know immediately.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Welcome to 15-211!

This portal will be the primary means for communicating with the class. Here you will find a calendar (including staff office hours) and a discussion board to ask/answer questions you have about the course, lectures, assignments and exams.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Last-minute office hours

Due to the incoming 211 exam I will have office hours from 8-10pm today. Sorry for the late notice. -Aaron

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Final Exam Review

The final exam review will be on Saturday, May 7 at 1:00 pm in Rashid Auditorium, GHC 4401. Jack Phelan will go over the practice final exam that you can find on the lecture schedule page. Be sure to attempt the practice final before the review for the maximum benefit!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Handin final version of chess

I just created an assignment on FrontDesk for handing in the final version of your chess program. Be sure to submit it before midnight tonight to get credit for the bots and the chess ladder.

Chess server reset

Danny reset the game scores against the bots yesterday morning. To see your current results, see http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/211/chess-results.html. Danny also reset the 211 pool ratings last night. To compete EVERYBODY has to play now to get on the board.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Office hours moved

Due to another meeting, I've have to shift my office hours to Friday, 3.30 - 5.30 pm.
Jack

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Office hours moved

Due to carnival, I'm moving my office hours to Tuesday from 2:30-4:30 PM this week. Have fun at Carnival! -Aaron S.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Chess Theory Assignment released

You can now find the theory homework for chess in the usual place (in the Lectures tab). It's due on the 20th of April (Wednesday after Carnival).

Friday, April 08, 2011

Chess Program Assignment Released

HW 6 programming portion has been released on FrontDesk. (The theory portion will be released this weekend.) You may work with a partner for this assignment. The unit tested portion is due Wednesday, 4/27/11 11:59 PM. You may use up to 2 late days (based on maximum of partners' late days). Everyone can compete against the bots and on the chess ladder until midnight Friday 4/29/11. Have fun!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Partner Assignments

The Bacon Lab has been updated for students to identify their partners on FrontDesk. One partner should type the andrew id of the other partner and then the other partner must accept. Please do this before your final submission. You should still be able to access any of your previous submissions. You should also be able to access any submissions that you partner makes.
We will be using the same process for partners for Chess Lab.
-Brett

Monday, April 04, 2011

Tonight's Office Hours Cancelled

Jack P. is rescheduling tonight's office hours to Wednesday due to sickness. E-mail the staff if you have any questions about the assignment.
-Brett

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Tonight's Office Hours

I will be hosting office hours from 8pm-10pm tonight in Gates 4122 instead of 7pm-9pm.
-Brett

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Office Hours Canceled

Hi all, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I have to cancel office hours today. I will be reachable by email.
-Jack

Friday, March 25, 2011

Graphs(Bacon) Lab

HW 5(Bacon Graphs Lab) has been released. The link to the theory portion is on the lecture schedule page. It is due Wednesday 3/30/2011 at the beginning of the recitation. The programming portion with its documentation is on front desk as usual. The programming portion is due Thursday, 4/07/2011 11:59 PM. Warning: This assignment is significantly more difficult than the previous assignments. Start it early!
Also note that this is a partner assignment only for the programming portion. The theory assignment must be done alone. Partners may use the MINIMUM of late days that either student has.

Graphs(Bacon) Lab

HW 5(Bacon Graphs Lab) has been released. The link to the theory portion is on the lecture schedule page. It is due Wednesday 3/30/2011 at the beginning of the recitation. The programming portion with its documentation is on front desk as usual. The programming portion is due Thursday, 4/07/2011 11:59 PM. Warning: This assignment is significantly more difficult than the previous assignments. Start it early!
Also note that this is a partner assignment only for the programming portion. The theory assignment must be done alone. Partners may use the MINIMUM of late days that either student has.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Midterm

If question 6f was marked incorrectly for you, bring your exam to recitation tomorrow and you will be awarded 2 points. If you have not received your exam yet, your TA will have it in tomorrow's recitation as well.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Compression Assignment Released

HW 4 has been released. The link to the theory portion is on the lecture schedule page. It is due Tuesday 3/22/2011 at the beginning of the lecture. The programming portion with its documentation is on front desk as usual. The programming portion is due Thursday, 3/24/2011 11:59 PM. Warning: This assignment is significantly more difficult than the previous assignments. Start it early!

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

change in office hours location

Hi 211 Office hours today, 2nd March (Wed) has changed location to Gates-Hillman Center 6003. Thanks Jack

Monday, February 28, 2011

Tuesday's Office Hour(Mar 1)

Due to a scheduling conflict, tomorrow's office hour will be 9-10:30 pm at GHC 4122. It will restore to the normal 6:20-8:30 after next week. -Yuzhou

Friday, February 25, 2011

Sunday's Office Hours

I will be out of town this weekend so I have set my office hours for Monday night 5:30pm-7:30pm. However, There will be a midterm review session this Sunday.
-Brett

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Office hours swap

Hi sorry for the late announcement. Theres been a swap between my hours and Aaron's. He should be in wean 5207 now. Jack

Friday, February 18, 2011

HW 3b released

HW 3b (seam carving) is now available. HW 3b Programming is due Tuesday 3/1/2011 at 11:59 pm. HW 3b Theory is available on the lecture schedule. It is due in recitation, Wednesday 3/2/2011.

HW 3a Programming released

HW 3a Programming (proximity count) was released early today. It is due Thursday, 2/24/2011 at 11:59 pm.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

HW 3a Theory released

HW 3a Theory (Binary Search Trees and Dynamic Programming) is available on the lecture schedule. It is due next week in recitation, Wednesday 2/23/2011.Publish Post

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Office Hours Tonight

I have a meeting so will have to postpone my office hours to 8pm-10pm tonight in the Gates 5th floor clusters. Sorry for the inconvenience.
-Brett

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Snake Lab released

HW 2 has been released. For the theory portion, the link is up in the lecture schedules. For the LaTeX file to work, you need to download both the TeX template and Hashfunctions.pdf. The programming portion with its documentation is on front desk as usual. The theory portion is due Wednesday, 2/9/2011 in recitation. The programming portion is due Tuesday, 2/15/2011 11:59 PM. Jack Chee

Monday, January 31, 2011

February 6th Office Hours

I changed my office hours this Sunday to 2pm - 4pm due to the Steelers winning the Superbowl Sunday night! Room: Gates 4122 Following Sundays will still be 7pm-9pm.
-Brett

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Change in office hours location

There is a class in the mac cluster at this time. I will move my office hours to Wean 5207, the linux cluster 2 doors down.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

HW1 is released

HW1 is released on Front Desk. The theory part is due Wednesday, 1/26/2011 in recitation. The coding part is due Tuesday, 2/1/2011 11:59 PM.
Good luck! Yuzhou Xin

Monday, January 10, 2011

Welcome to 15-211, Spring 2011

This portal will be the primary means for communicating with the class. Here you will find a calendar (including staff office hours) and a discussion board to ask/answer questions you have about the course, lectures, assignments and exams. We strongly recommend that you subscribe to this blogger feed and to the course discussion board.