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Information on taking CS1132

First Meeting Slides

Read the slides if you miss the meeting! They contain important information about the organization and logistics of the course presented during the first session on Tuesday 1/26 and Thursday 1/26.

Please read the information on this page carefully.

 

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The nature of this course

Self-paced. This is a self-paced, S/U course. You may move at your own pace. Four weeks is the expected time, but you may do it faster if you want, and if you need extra time, take it. Do try to finish by six weeks. The course ends in week 10, on April 9.

Mastery of the material. There are two assignments and two tests. You may take a test only after you have finished the corresponding assignment. Assignments and tests will require mastery of the material. Thus, you will work on an assignment until it is correct. Similarly, you will continue to take a test (or a version of it) until you get 42/50. The tests will not be overly difficult.

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Course materials

The course uses the text book

MATLAB    An Introduction With Applications (Third Edition)
Amos Gilat. Wiley, 2007.

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About the blectures

The blectures (web-based lectures) are a new addition to our collection of instructional materials. A blecture captures of part of a computer screen—usually a powerpoint window, a MATLAB desktop window, or both— and audio. Each blecture is 3-10 minutes long and focuses on one topic. Here are some points about the blectures:

  1. When you click on a blecture link, you may be asked for your Cornell netid and password. You may see a page that says This tool uses Kerberos Authentication to identify you. Click the link "Click here if you wish to continue as your-name." A window will then appear with the blecture on it. Click the "play" button to start viewing. Be patient. It may take some seconds for the blecture to start, depending on your connection to the internet. If you are using a Cornell computer or your own computer in the dorm, it should not take long.
  2. The current CIT setup for online viewing of blectures should work correctly on Windows (IE, Firefox) and on most Macs, with a recent enough version of Flash. They might not be displayed correctly or at all in other system/browser combinations.
  3. After watching a blecture, please complete the short survey that appears on the right of the window and then click button submit. We need input from you on the value of the blectures and your comments on how they can be improved.

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Approaches to learning the material

Here is the golden rule: don't procrastinate! For most students it is better to finish this short course early, before your 3- or 4-credit courses become very demanding. Secondly, come to the discussion sections or consulting hours to get help and to stay on track. Finally, use all the material that we provide in order to learn:

  1. Refer often to the text book, as a reference for certain topics as well as material to study. Use the index and table of contents in the text to find what you need.
  2. The course is presented to you in two modules, each of which has a webpage that gives you a list of topics covered in the module: module 1 and module 2. Various ways are used to present the material to you:
    1. Sections of the text book.
    2. Blectures: online web lectures, each lasting 3–10 minutes. These are the quickest way to begin grasping new material. You may watch them as often as you like, and you can use a scroll bar to skip or repeat material.
    3. Powerpoint slides used in the online lectures. The material is covered in more detail in the text book, so you don't have to look at these. But they are there for your use if you want them.
    4. Source code in the form of M-files (Matlab programming language files) containing examples of the concepts covered in the the blectures and the book.
    5. Self-check exercises--submission not required--for you to practice coding and check your understanding
    6. Additional reading, examples (including source code), and reference material.

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