Monash University

Offered

Clayton Second semester 2008 (Day)

Synopsis

The subject is to begin with a series of informal lectures on topics or skills outside the students' current curriculum. These will begin in 1st Semester, although enrolment in the subject does not take place until 2nd Semester. These lectures will serve several purposes: introduce the students to interesting material; get them started on skills they may find useful for the projects to be run in 2nd Semester; help determine (both for the student and the Subject Co-ordinator) whether the student would benefit from enrolling in the subject CSE1370/CSE2370. At the start of 2nd Semester, students are allocated to project supervisors to work on an advanced project. This will usually be a programming task, but occasionally may involve hardware. The students may work individually or in groups, as determined by the supervisor of a particular topic. The topics are chosen to cover a range of areas of Computer Science. They will give the students opportunity to further investigate the areas or develop the skills to which they were introduced in the lecture series. After the end of 2nd Semester, the projects are demonstrated to anyone in the School who is interested, and the work is assessed by a panel consisting of the Subject Co-ordinator, the Assistant Lecturer and the student's Supervisor to determine whether the grade Pass is to be awarded or not.

Objectives

On completion of this subject students will:

1. understand concepts from several areas of Computer Science not covered in their normal curriculum;
2. know where to find further information on a range of topics on computer programming and computer science;
3. understand, from their own experience, some of the difficulties that can arise in larger programming tasks;
4. be able to learn new programming languages and tools on their own, without formal instruction.

Upon completion of this unit, students will:

1. be aware of the diverse range of tools that can be used to solve computing problems;
2. be aware of the breadth of the Computer Science discipline;
3. have an appreciation of the nature of Computer Science.

On completion of this subject students will have skills in using a programming language or technology not covered in their normal curriculum.

On completion of this subject students will:

1. have experience demonstrating a computer program;
2. have experience giving an oral presentation of a computing project.

Assessment

The subject is Pass Grade Only. Assessment is based entirely on a demonstration of the student's project work, which will include oral discussion of the concepts and skills learned.

Contact hours

40 x contact hrs/semester

Prerequisites

FIT1002 or CSE1301

Prohibitions

CSE2370