ECE3090 - Software for Engineering Systems

Instructor

Dr. George F. Riley
Office: Klaus 3360
Office hours: (TBD) in Klaus 3360
Email: riley@ece.gatech.edu

Teaching Assistant

Hanseung Lee
Office Hours Mon 3-5pm, Tue 10am - 12noon, Thu 5-7pm
Location: Outside of Klaus3359
Email: tbd@gatech.edu

Course Summary

ECE3090 is designed to cover the C and C++ programming languages in detail, with emphasis on engineering applications and efficient algorithms. There are numerous programming assignments, each of which enforces some aspect of efficient programming in C/C++. The course covers object oriented programming including polymorphism, C++ references, C++ operator overloading, and templates.

Teaching Philosophy

The class web page will contain information about the material covered in each lecture, including pdf files of the handouts and program examples in text form. Students should check the web page before each class to be sure they have up-to-date handouts. The class lectures will cover the material in a discussion format, where the instructor will explain how do achieve certain goals using C and C++, and will expect the students to participate with discussion and suggestions. I encourage (and expect) you to participate actively in the learning process. In particular, I welcome your comments and questions as we cover material in class. One-way lectures quickly becoming boring, both for you and for me. Also, I have found that students often learn more from other students comments than from the instructor! By asking lots of questions, your understanding of the material will be deepened significantly, and the course will be much more fun!

Teaching/Learning Goals

The purpose of this course is for you to have the skill to write efficient and correct programs in C/C++ as needed in your career as an engineer. Students will understand how to write efficient code, and how to effectively debug code during the development process. In particular, we will learn and understand (at a minimum):

C Pointers and Arrays
C Data types, including structures
C++ Objects
Class hierarchies and inheritance
Polymorphism
C++ References
Operator overloading
Templates and the Standard Template Library (STL)
Multi-Threaded and Multi-Processor Design

Textbooks

There is no textbook for this course. You might find the on-line reference site at cplusplus.com to be useful.
A good on-line reference for the C runtime library is dinkumware.com. On this web page, you have to click the graphical icon with the puppy-feet on it to enter the reference.
A good additional reference is Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo ($39.00 at amazon.com). This book is NOT required, but I have found it to be a good and easy-to-read introduction to C++.

Policy for Completing Out-of-Class Assignments

The policy for how to complete all of your programming assignments is simple. Every student must turn his or her own work. You MAY NOT copy code from others in any way. You MAY NOT use solutions that others have developed as the basis for your solutions. However, you ARE allowed to discuss the problems with others, including fellow students, teaching assistants, and the instructor. You ARE allowed to solicit and obtain help in design and debugging your solutions. You CAN show others your code and ask for advise about why it is not working or how to make it work better. But to be totally clear, you MUST implement your own solution. If someone helps you, you still MUST enter every line of code of your solution personally, and you MUST fully understand every part of your submission.

Computing Resources

We have a newly installed linux-based computing cluster known as the Jinx cluster. This platform is what we will use to test and grade all of your programming assignments, so it makes sense that you would want to develop and debug your assignments there. However you are free to use any of the available computing resources at GT, as well as on students personal computing hardware. However, all grading and testing of your submissions will be done on the hogwarts cluster. You also have access to the linux system in Klaus 1448, so anyone who has difficulty using "ssh" (perhaps from Windows) can use any of the 1448 machines and ssh to the jinx cluster from there.

Turning in Programming Assignments

There is nothing to do to turn in your programming assignments provided you have it on jinx in the specified (for each assignment) subdirectory. A script will be run on the due date and time that copies your files to the instructor's (and TA's) home for grading.

Getting Help

Please see Prof. Riley during office hours (or other times by EMail appointment), or the teaching assistant during his office hours for assistance in progamming projects. You are also free to discuss the project with other students as disucssed in the above policy.

Grading

Projects	40%
Midterm	25%
Final Exam	25%
Class Participation	10%
Total	100%

Syllabus

Day	Month	Date	Description	Handout	Due Date
Tue	Jan	10	Understanding Memory Layout	ex-memory-layout.pdf
				memory-layout-1a.c
				memory-layout-1b.c
			C++ Classes	ex-classes.pdf
				classes.cc
Thu	Jan	12	Constructors and Destructors	Constructors-Destructors.pdf
			ConstructorsDestructors.cc	ConstructorsDestructors.cc
			Operator Overloading	Operators-handout.pdf
				operators.cc
Tue	Jan	17	Operator Overloading (continued)
Tue	Jan	17	Complex Calculator	Lab 1 assigned	Jan 27
			Accessing the Jinx cluster	AccessingJinx.pdf
Thu	Jan	19	Member Functions (revised)	MemberFunctions-handout.pdf
			member-functions.cc (revised)	member-functions.cc
Tue	Jan	24	References and Arguments	References-handout.pdf
				references.cc
Thu	Jan	26	Pointer Dereferencing	PointerDereferencing-handout.pdf
				pointer-dereferencing.cc
Thu	Jan	26	Discrete Fourier Transform	Lab 2 assigned	Feb 4
Tue	Jan	31	Dynamic Memory	DynamicMemory-handout.pdf
				dynamic-memory.cc
Thu	Feb	2	The GNU Debugger	gdb-refcard.pdf
			gdb reference (50 pages)	gdb-reference.pdf
			emacs reference	XEmacsReferenceCard.pdf
Tue	Feb	7	Dynamic Memory again	DynamicMemory2-handout.pdf
				dynamic-memory2.cc
Tue	Feb	7	Matrix Calculator	Lab 3 assigned	Feb 17
Thu	Feb	9
Tue	Feb	14
Thu	Feb	16
Tue	Feb	21
Thu	Feb	23
Tue	Feb	28	Midterm Exam
Thu	Mar	1
Tue	Mar	6
Thu	Mar	8
Tue	Mar	13
Thu	Mar	15
Tue	Mar	20	Spring Break - NO CLASS
Thu	Mar	22	Spring Break - NO CLASS
Tue	Mar	27
Thu	Mar	29
Tue	Apr	3
Thu	Apr	5
Tue	Apr	10
Thu	Apr	12
Tue	Apr	17
Thu	Apr	19
Tue	Apr	24
Thu	Apr	26

Contact Information:

riley@ece.gatech.edu

School of Electrical and Computer Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA 30332-0250