Instructor:          Clark Savage Turner

Office:                14-211

email address:     csturner@falcon.csc.calpoly.edu

Web URL:          http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~csturner/courses/300/300w05.html

This page will evolve with the course.  Please check it periodically for updates.  Old course materials may remain for basic reference but you must attend classes regularly to note actual assignments and expectations.  Merely checking the webpage will not be sufficient, it is intended to be supplemental at best.  This course happens in the classroom.

PREREQUISITE:   CSC 205, 206. These prerequisites are strictly enforced. Really.

Course Catalog Description:

CSC 300 Professional Responsibilities (4)

The responsibilities of the Computer Science professional.  The ACM Code of Ethics, software economics, quality tradeoffs, software safety, intellectual property, history of computing and the social implications of computers in the modern world.  Technical presentation methods and practice.  4 lectures.

Textbooks:

Required: Johnson, Computer Ethics 3rd edition, Prentice-Hall, 2000,
                 Petroski, To Engineer is Human, Vintage Books, 1992
                 **Note: you will be expected to read the entire Petroski book in the first week of class.

Other books are highly recommended reading as noted in class!

Baase, A Gift of Fire, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2003.

Yourdon, Death March, Prentice-Hall PTR, 1997.

Landaur, The Trouble with Computers, MIT Press, 1999.

Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Jackson, Software Requirements and Specifications, Addison-Wesley, 1995.

Further note: the main focus will be the Software Engineering Code of Ethics approved and published by both the IEEE and ACM.  This code will be the centerpiece of most of the discussion and analysis in this class.  Have a copy and read it regularly.  Think about it.  Make friends with it, or at least understand its general principles if you do not agree with it (which is just fine!)

Basic Course Requirements:

This is intended to give you an idea of how your grade is calculated. It is not a simple number calculated from objective tests. It is based on a wholistic view of your performance in each of these areas and in the classroom. The schedule itself is only a guideline, each class evolves a bit differently, but the goal is to cover all the scheduled topics to some level of depth, guided by individual class interests as discovered during class meetings.

CLASS ATTENDANCE is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to your grade. Participation and attendance will be noted and used in evaluations, especially in borderline grading cases.

NOTE: Several CSC 300 students have submitted their termpapers to the CPSR essay writing contest, two have won cash prizes and had their work published!   Have a look! The link to Eric Rall's paper submission is broken, you can see it here.  Consider submission of your paper from this course.

I repeat: attendance and participation are mandatory in this course. Discussions in class require your input. The class process and class discussions are not contained in any slides or notes. Of course, if you must miss class, do your best to find out what transpired. However, you cannot just take exams, turn in a paper and make a presentation and hope to pass the course if you do not attend regularly.
 

Course Schedule

The schedule is tentative and is subject to change. Changes are announced in class and may be noted here. Always get notes from class if you cannot attend a given day because important information is given there that cannot be fully reproduced here.  Always remember this is an participation driven class, let me know in advance when you have any important conflicts so that we can resolve them so as not to hurt your grade.

LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED without prior arrangement or medical excuse.

Updated: Mar. 2005