Place: Dana 134
Time: Thursdays, 10:00am-11:20am
Prof. L. Felipe Perrone
Office: Dana 335
Phone: 570-577-1687
E-mail: perrone@bucknell.edu
Office hours: open door or by appointment (Calendly)
Web: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~perrone
If you look at any email communication received from your instructor, you will find his cell number in the signature block. As Uncle Ben said, “With great power, there comes great responsibility.” Feel free to call or message the instructor when you need to, but keep in mind that you will not receive instant responses and that there will be no responses at all between 8pm and 8am. You can use at least: SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, and Snapchat for messaging.
Thursday, 10:00am-11:20am, Dana 134
You are welcome to drop by my office any time. If I am available at the time, I’ll be happy to talk to you. If you want to make sure that I am there and available at the time of your need, you can either check my online BMail calendar and/or call, message, or email to make an appointment. Remember that you have my cell phone number and that you can communicate by voice or text, either directly or through messaging apps like Telegram, Signal, or WhatsApp.
“An introduction to research methodology in Computer Science, involving reading scientific literature, developing presentation skills, and learning to use various software packages.”
Computer Science has many components that can never be captured in a CS core class. CSCI 201 emphased the broad intersection of CSCI with an enormous multitude of other disciplines. Its aim was to help you understand the broad impact that CSCI has in the career world. CSCI 202 will continue your academic and professional development. This semester, our aim is to help you understand the broad interdisciplinary nature of CSCI with a research mindset. A research mindset gives one the interest to dig deeper and learn more from those deep dives. As a fledgling computer scientist, a research mentality applied to your work will help you both academically and professionally for years to come. A research mindset is not merely for those going to graduate school and the course teaches many lessons transferable to a variety of career paths.
This course will help students develop a broad understanding of research in computer science and related fields. It has many objectives and outcomes (listed in the Course Topics section below.) However, our primary objectives with this course are to:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
A variety of articles and other written materials will be shared through Moodle as PDF files. No textbooks are required for this course.
Course grades will be assigned only at the end of the semester. Throughout the semester, you can monitor the Moodle grade book to track your progress.
Final letter grades will be assigned according to the following scale:
A >= 93% [Superior achievement.]
A- >= 90% [Outstanding]
B+ >= 87%, B >= 83%, B- >= 80% [High Pass, Above Average]
C+ >= 77%, C >= 73%, C- >= 70% [Average work, Satisfactory]
D >= 60% [Low Pass]
F < 60% [Unsatisfactory]
How do you comport yourself in class meetings? How do you view your responsibilities in the learning process? Are you making efforts to learn from this opportunity or are you just trying to get by? Do you constrain yourself to the material that is given to you or do you make efforts to go beyond and learn the most you can? Do you complete assigned readings or do you ignore them? How are your interactions with your classmates in class meetings and in group work?
The questions above are a non-exhaustive list of inquiries that lead one to understand how engaged you are in a course. Moodle will have an item on the grade book that may fluctuate throughout the semester to reflect the instructor’s assessment of your level of engagement: you are starting out with a B. If you would like to improve this component at any point, your options will include activities beyond those assigned to you. The non-exhaustive list below gives you ideas on what you can do to improve your engagement (if you have other ideas, be sure to run them by the instructor). Each activity completed will account for one-third of a letter grade, so you would need three to raise your engagement to A level. All engagement activities require you to turn in on Moodle a 400-500 word summary with a hyperlink to the source:
Engagement activities, which must be completed any time before the last day of classes, must be submitted through Moodle. (Look for the three links in the “General” section.)
Attendance is mandatory and will be taken punctually at the start of the class period. As stated in section “Grades” above, attendance impacts your final course grade. On the other hand, if you are experiencing health problems please understand that you should not come to class. (We all have a shared responsibility to each other to avoid the dissemination of transmissible diseases.) Be sure to notify the instructor if you must be absent for any reason. If you need a deadline extension, do ask for it.
The following statement is reprinted as a reminder of the time you are expected to put into this course (as well as all of your courses at Bucknell):
Courses at Bucknell that receive one unit of academic credit have a minimum expectation of 12 hours per week of student academic engagement. Student academic engagement includes both the hours of direct faculty instruction (or its equivalent) and the hours spent on out of class student work. Half and quarter unit courses at Bucknell should have proportionate expectations for student engagement.
The principles of Academic Responsibility will be taken very seriously. Proper credit must be given to any sources uses in papers and presentations whether the sources are on-line or in-print. Unsolicited reading or copying of other student or faculty files is as wrong as looking at or removing papers from a student or faculty member’s desk. It is the faculty’s role to report acts of academic misconduct the Board of Review on Academic Responsibility. Students are expected to read and abide by the principles explained in the Student Handbook.
If you have any question in regards to whether an action might be a violation of these rules of an assignment, be sure to consult the instructor right away. If you are struggling at any point, talk to the instructor to seek help or accommodations.
As a student and citizen of the Bucknell University community:
Violations of the honor code will be treated seriously.
In this classroom and on Bucknell’s campus we support mental health efforts. Any student who is struggling and believes this may impact their performance in the course is encouraged to contact their Associate Academic Dean or the Dean of Students for support. Please feel free to approach your instructor, if you are comfortable in doing so, which will enable them to provide resources and support. If immediate mental health assistance is needed, call the Counseling & Student Development Center at 570-577-1604 (available 24/7).
If you are a student-athlete, remember that you are a student first and an athlete second. This means that academic work is your first priority. As per University rules, you will not be penalized for being away to take part in athletic events. It is your responsibility, however, to manage your time wisely so that you can do well in this and in your other classes. Please make sure to notify the instructors well in advance of your travel schedule and plan ahead to meet the deadlines for your assignments.
Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Heather Fowler, Director of the Office of Accessibility Resources at hf007@bucknell.edu, 570-577-1188 or in room 212 Carnegie Building, who will coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. The college will make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities.
Accommodations for religious holidays are made on an individual and case-by-case basis unless otherwise notified. Any student who may need accommodation due to a religious holiday should request such accommodation by the end of the second week of the semester.