15-462 Administrative Information for Fall 2008
Time: Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30-11:50 am
Place: HH B103
Online Resources
The class web page is at
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15462-f08/www/index.html
This is the primary online source for information about the course,
including assignments, lecture notes, and administrative details.
Prerequisites
- 15-213: Introduction to Computer Systems
- 21-241: Matrix Algebra (i.e. matrix & vector algebra)
- 21-259: Calculus in Three Dimensions (i.e. planes, quadratic surfaces, basic 3-D geometry, partial derivatives) or equivalent
Required Texts
- Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, Second Edition. Peter Shirley et al., A.K.Peters, 2005, ISBN 1568812698
- OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.4 (4th Edition). OpenGL Architecture Review Board, Dave Shreiner, Jackie Neider, Mason Woo, Tom Davis. Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0321173481 (WEB LINK to older version)
In addition, the in-class lecture material, homeworks, and exams will
rely heavily on the handouts distributed in class. These handouts are
also required material for this course. Most of the handouts will be
"in-progress" chapters from a new Graphics textbook by Professor John
Hughes and colleagues. If you miss a class, you can pick up handouts
from Jen Turken, in NSH 4128 during normal business hours.
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE THIS COURSE MATERIAL. It is for your own use only.
Grading Information
The exact grade breakdown will depend on the number of projects and
homework assignments given through the course of the semester. It
will roughly be:
- Midterm: 15%
- Final: 25%
- Programming projects: 40%
- Homeworks: 20%
More difficult programming projects will be weighted more heavily than
easier ones. There will be some extra credit available for the
programming assignments.
Assignments and Homework
There will be two kinds of assignments: Programming assignments and
written homeworks. All programming assignments and homeworks must be
your own work (except for the code that we give you as part of the
assignment). You may talk with others about the assignments, but you
must solve the problems and write the code yourself.
Please test your programs in the WeH 5336 lab. All programs must
compile and run on the Linux PCs in WeH 5336 in order for you to
receive ANY credit for the programming projects.
Grading on programming assignments is based on your programs'
functionality, usability, and on the quality of the animations or
images you produce.
Late policy
Programming assignments should be turned in by midnight on the day they are due.
Written homeworks will be collected before class starts on the day they are due.
Late days: A total of three late days may be taken during the semester
on programming assignments and written homeworks. The flexibility
provided by those late days is intended to get you through the time
where all your classes just happen to have assignments due on the same
day. Extensions beyond those three days require a REALLY good excuse
or a penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment/day.
Cheating Policies
Cheating will result in immediate penalties ranging from 0 points on
the relevant assignment, homework, or test to failure of the course.
All cheating cases are reported to the university, and severe offenses
are brought before an Academic Review Board for consideration of
further measures.
Course policy is that you may talk about the assignments with others
but you must write the code and solve the problems yourself. Sharing
answers or using someone else's code (with the exception of utilities
that the class provides) constitutes cheating.
What is considered cheating?
- Copying all or part of someone else's code to use in your assignment.
- Copying all or part of someone else's work on a written assignment.
- Looking at someone else's test.
- Allowing another student to examine your code, or leaving your code in a publicly accessibly location.
What is not considered cheating?
- Discussing algorithms or ideas with anyone for programming assignments or written homeworks.
- Asking the instructor or TAs of 15-462 about anything.
- Using WWW (or other) resources for background information on the
written homeworks, as long as the web site or other reference is cited
in your homework.
If you aren't certain whether something is or isn't cheating, even by
the spirit if not the letter of these guidelines, please ask.