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This course is a requirement.
This is a required course for all students majoring in chemical engineering.
This is a selective course.
The prerequisite for this course is Introduction to Psychology.
People who do not have that background should not be in the class. We will be checking prerequisites.
You basically need programming experience to get through this course successfully.
So, what you’ll be learning in this class is a great preparation to organic chemistry.
I think this course offers vocational preparation, in a sense.
This course is primarily aimed at students who have no prior teaching experience.
So, if you don’t like numbers, this is not a good course to take.
You’ll have a chance to drop the course after the midterm.
May 28th is the deadline for dropping the course.
You either take this course or you have to take one that is slightly higher level, Advanced Computational Linguistics.
You can take a more advanced course instead.
Let me start by talking about the textbook.
So the principal textbook is Introduction to Computer Science.
Now if you look at the structure of this book, there are sections that say key points and key terms.
There is no required text. If you need it, it’s there. But we’re not going to rely on any specific text.
And there’s a huge list of books on social security. Some of them are incredibly interesting, and so they’re all on the reading list. You can take a look.
If you are still uncertain about those things, the book has a very good explanation of it.
Anything that’s clickable is required reading.
This book is a required reading for anyone taking the course.
In some cases, the lectures will be quite related to the readings.
There may be a lot of used copies floating around. You should feel free to try to get one of those.
Therefore, we’re not going to distribute notes.
The first reading is available online. I’ll talk more about the readings when I get to that portion of the lecture here.
It’s going to be posted on the Internet and I’ll post chapters in advance.
Let me also add that I have a reading list that has things that are in the library.
So, that gives you a sense of how the course is going to flow and what these readings are going to do.
We’re going to read Radicalism of the American Revolution, which is a really great overview of this time period.
And then in addition to reading Hamlet, we’re going to be reading some other works by Shakespeare.
Well, then, let’s talk about the schedule of our course.
All of these details are in the syllabus and I’ll stick around and answer questions.
Now, let me take a sidebar for about ten minutes to talk about the course administration, just so you know what the rules are.
I should mention that the syllabus is up online so it’s there for you.
The syllabus is posted online. I’ve just copied it here so you could take a look at it.
I’m going to post PowerPoints for all the lectures, hopefully at least the day before the lecture takes place, and I posted this one last night.
The slides are going to be made available online.
We want you to take your own notes to help reinforce what you have learned.
My office hours are four to six. My teaching assistant is Henry.
You could come by during my office hours, which are on the syllabus, and you could send me an e-mail and set up an appointment.
Some students find this course particularly challenging, so we will have extra help.
Let me begin by introducing the teaching fellows for this course. I have them up here.
I’d like to introduce our TA to you. She is Lisa Liu. Lisa, would you like to stand up and just wave to the class?
And you’ll be assigned a teaching fellow by Friday.
Henry is in the back and he’ll be the second teaching fellow.
The third teaching fellow couldn’t make it today. His name is Michael Lee and I’ll introduce him to you when he’s available.
And you should notify your TA if you decide to drop so that we can get you off and stop the mailings, stop the spam.
The lectures are given in the main lecture hall of NCTU Assembly Building 1.
Recitations will be held on the third floor.
There will also be review sessions.
Further, there are several peer assistance programs.
There are going to be two lectures a week and a TA section.
We may drop one of the recitations, just depending on the course size, all right?
I’m very willing to talk to students about intellectual ideas, about course problems and so on.
Unless there are special circumstances, I always try to come at least ten minutes early, and I am willing to stay late to talk to people.
And if you see me at some point just on campus, you could introduce yourself as I’d like to meet people from this class.
If you need help, ask Joe, myself, or the TAs. That’s what we’re here for.
We evaluate the students through traditional exams.
The grading policy is as follow: Homework 50% and tests 50%.
The evaluation goes like this. There is a mid-term and there is a final.
30% of the grade is for the mid-term, 30% for the final, and the final is not cumulative. The final covers only things for the last half of the course.
You’ll have weekly assignments that account for 70% of your grade.
These questions will be marked pass or fail. I expect most of you to pass all of the questions but it’s just to keep you on track.
So, recitations are mandatory.
Attendance here is obviously not mandatory. You aren’t in high school anymore.
There’s a mid-term exam halfway through and a final exam at the end, and there’s a term paper which is due near the end of the course.
Anything that’s mentioned there is fair game in an exam and that’s the way I’ve done it.
The questions will be multiple choice, short answer, and fill in the blank, that sort of thing.
OK, the quizzes are open book.
Prior to the exams I will post the previous exams online, so you have a feeling for how these exams work and so on.
Every week there’re going to be two problem sets.
There is a book review, a short book review, to be written towards near the end of the course.
There’s a term paper which I’ll talk more about as the weeks go on. That’s also worth 25% of the grade.
You need to give a presentation in English at the end of this semester.
So how do you get an “A” in the course? It’s very simple. You do the reading before class, you come to class, and you do the homework.
Now, to do well in the course, you have to attend both the lectures and do the readings.
Here’s how to do well. Attend all the classes. Keep up with the readings. Ideally, keep up with the readings before you come to class.
You will find that it is quite difficult to pass the course if you are not in the class.
And I can tell you that every year there’s five percent of you stop coming to the class and then really have no idea what’s going on. I want to warn you not to do it.
Are there any questions about how the course runs?