Answer. The current (Fall 2014) listing for the course specifies CSC 103 as the prerequisite. This is incorrect. The current official prerequisite is a holdover from an old version of the course taught at the turn of the century. The new version of the course, taught in Spring 2012, Spring 2013 and scheduled for Fall 2014 has a more serious prerequisite: CSC 349: Introduction to Algorithms.

The prerequisite change will become official in the 2015-16 academic year, when the new catalog comes out. However, it is the true prerequisite for the upcoming Fall 2014 offering.

CSC 448 is essentially an advanced algrithm design and development course. We will be covering a variety of algorithms (primarily operating on strings) with very important immediate implications to DNA sequence analysis and similar problems. Base knowledge of algorithms, and specific knowledge of categories of algorithmic techniques, such as greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, and a variety of tree- and graph-based algorithms is very important for CSC 448.

Answer. Knowing something never hurts, so if you have taken Biology in college, this may be useful. Having said that, the course itself does not require any specific knowledge of biology beyond what is studied in high school. We will primarily concentrate on studying DNA and solving computational problems associated with DNA analysis. There is a certain amount of knowledge about DNA, amino acids and biological processes that we need for this course.

Fortunately, all this will be presented to you at the beginning of the class. Dr. Anya Goodman, the instructor of BIO 441: Bioinformatics Applications course, which will take place in parallel with CSC 448 will guest lecture in our class and will discuss the topics that are necessary to successfully complete the course.

Answer. The two classes are scheduled to take place on exactly the same time. Our lab periods coincide and are scheduled in adjacent labs on the third floor of building 14. We will use the temporal and spatial proximity of our courses in the following ways:

Answer. BIO 441 students have a quarter-long research project on genome study and annotation. As part of this project, the students need to solve a variety of computational tasks (that roughly corresponds to the topics and algorithms we study in CSC 448). This gives rise to the joint labs: BIO 441 students will work with you on developing software for their needs.

We will form joint teams early in the quarter. Each lab assignment is a request to deliver a program (or a small software system) that performs a specific task with the genome data that BIO 441 students need to analyze. Together with BIO 441 students you will develop the requirements document for the desired program/system. The CSC 448 part of the team will then design and implement the software, and jointly with BIO 441 students will test its work. Through the rest of the quarter (the lifetime of the software), the CS students may wind up entertaining maintenance requests on all the produced and delivered software.

The expectation is that throughout the development cycle for each of the lab assignments, each part of the team will play a role of experts in their respective field. You will rely on the expertise of BIO 441 students to present to you the proper requirements and to interpret for you their needs. BIO 441 students will rely on your software development expertise to get the actual job done.

Answer. For CSC 448 students, there is only one set of deliverables for each lab: the software that BIO 441 students will run to complete their tasks. To a large degree this means that success in CSC 448 labs is based on both how good your BIO 441 partners are, as well as on how well you have implemented their requirements.

This dependence on another course is somewhat unusual for Computer Science coursework. However, it mimics pretty well the actual job environment, where how well you have done your job of developing the software depends on how well your customers were able to use it.

Answer. The course will also have a paper-and-pencil midterm exam and a paper-and-pencil final exam. Both exams are not unlike the CSC 349 exams: your knowledge of specific algorithms studied in the course will be tested.

Answer. Yes, this is not an easy class, even if you thought CSC 349 was easy.The class combines three aspects: learning advanced algorithms, employing software engineering principles for project development, and doing so while working side-by-side with experts from a completely different field. This is not an easy feat to accomplish in the confines of 10 weeks.

Students who have taken this course routinely comment on the amount of work the have to do. Each offering of the course attempts to fix the most glaring issues with the coursework, and you should expect some of the issues that plagued previous offerings (unclear deliverable specs, unclear processes, too many assignments in parallel) to be rectified. This, however, does not mean that other issues won't show up - this course is and will always be work in progress.

At the same time, students who wound up doing well in the course have understood its key objectives, and valued the uniqueness of the experience they received in the class - as hard, as getting this experience sometimes was.

Answer. If you qualify, you should take the class because it will give you a number of experiences that are, thus far, unique to the Computer Science (and Software Engineering) curriculum.

• You will dip your toes in an area of computer science that is growing fast and provides exciting opportunities for those interested in solving complex computational problems.

• You will extend your knowledge of algorithms. While this might not look quite as appealing, this may play a significant role in your choice of professional career down the road and the opportunities afforded to you. Anecdotally, job interviews involve a large number of questions related to the design of algorithms and data structures. Students who took CSC 448 in the past reported (this is anecdotal evidence) receiving interview questions that could be asnwered by using the material from the course.

• You will receive a unique experience of working side-by-side with your peers from another discipline on joint software development projects. While a lot of our coursework (e.g., the Software Engineering capstone) includes work for an outside customer, only in CSC 448 do you actually get to work with customers (a)who are your peers, (b) in a cross-disciplinary team setting, (c) in a situation where your partners' success truly depends on you, and (d) where the software you developed will actually be used "for real".

Answer. First and foremost, you should not take the class if you do not meet the prerequisites. Even if you do meet the prerequisites though, there are still valid reasons for you not to take the class. Don't take the class if:

• you are taking two other intensive CS courses with long-term projects and a lot of programming coursework. This is a technical elective, and if you take is side-by-side with a required course, you will, at some point or another during the quarter make a choice in favor of devoting your time to completing the assignments for the required course. If you are taking two other courses that require you making such decisions, chances are, you will make decisions in favor of other courses, every step of the way.

• you are not a competent Java programmer. While the choice of language for the assignments is left to individual teams, Java has been the default due to relative portability and ease-of-use of its programs by non-Computer Scientists. In CSC 448 you are expected to assume the roles of experts in your field when working with BIO 441 students. If your command of a programming language is such that you cannot effectively assume the role of an expert, you and your team will struggle in this course. Students and teams that have Java questions to the instructor and/or TAs throughout the quarter did not do as well as students/teams that had complete command of the programming language of their choice.

• you are not willing to deal with non-specialists in your field. You may not have had prior experiences of working on cross-disciplinary teams, but you are expected to want to, or at least - to understand the importance of doing so, and willing to bear it. If you detest the thought of working with people from other disciplines, you are likely to be a poor team member.

• the subject matter really bores you. This, to a large degree is a much weaker reason not to take the class than the other three, but if you are genuinely NOT interested in the subject matter of the course and are taking it only because that's the only tech elective you could get into, this will, at some point get reflected in your performance in the course, and, more importantly, in the performance of your team. As I said - this is a weaker reason than other ones to not take the class, because you may be completely uninterested in the subject matter, but, for need of a tech. elective, completely willing to meet course expectations and requirements. Because of this, view this simply as a statement that your enjoyment of the class will be much higher if you actually are interested in the subject matter discussed (which is essentially a tautology).