| Prerequisites |
Students should feel comfortable using computers.
A rudimentary knowledge of programming language concepts (C language
or 6.02 or 6.001) and electrical fundamentals (6.002) is assumed. Each student
must have an Athena account to access the software used to complete
the lab assignments.
|
| Lectures |
TR 1 - 2 in 32-123
|
Recitation Sections |
| # | Time | Room | Instructor |
| 1 | WF 10 | 26-322 | Caitlin |
| 2 | WF 11 | 26-322 | Caitlin |
| 3 | WF 11 | 34-303 | Sandy |
| 4 | WF 12 | 34-303 | Sandy |
| 5 | WF 12 | 34-304 | Micah |
| 6 | WF 1 | 34-304 | Micah |
| 7 | WF 1 | 34-303 | Sabrina |
| 8 | WF 2 | 34-303 | Sabrina |
Section assignments are made by the registrar; please plan
to attend your assigned section. If extraordinary circumstances
make it impossible to attend the section you have been assigned,
you may request a section reassignment by emailing
6004-staff@csail.mit.edu
a request to be reassigned to a new recitation time.
|
| Staff |
| Duties |
Name |
Email (@mit.edu) |
Office |
Phone |
Lectures, etc. |
Steve Ward |
ward |
32-G786 |
x3-6036 |
| Admin Asst |
Cree Bruins |
cbruins@csail.mit.edu |
32-G784A |
x3-2629 |
| Recitations |
Caitlin Johnson |
caitlinj |
-- |
-- |
| Sabrina Neuman |
sneuman |
-- |
-- |
| Alexander (Sandy) Spicer |
aspicer |
-- |
-- |
| Micah Brodsky |
micahbro |
-- |
-- |
| LAs |
Greg Echelberger |
gse |
-- |
-- |
Bayo Olatunji |
lilibayo |
-- |
-- |
Ryan Jackson |
rwj |
-- |
-- |
| Joe Laurendi |
jlaurend |
-- |
-- |
|
| Text |
There is no required text for the course this semester. Readings for
some of the course material will be available on-line.
|
| Handouts |
On-line versions of the
handouts (in PDF format) can
be found at this website.
|
| Problem sets |
There are no weekly graded problem sets. Instead there are on-line
tutorial problems with
answers you can use to test your understanding of the material. The
WF recitations give you a chance to work on these problems with the
help of the course staff and to ask any questions that you may have.
|
| Collaboration |
The assignments are intended to help you understand the material and
should be done individually. You are welcome to get help from others
but the work you hand in must be your own. Copying another
person's work or allowing your work to be copied by others is a
serious academic offense and will be treated as such. We do
spot-check submissions to the on-line checkoff system for
infractions of the collaboration policy. So please don't tempt fate
by submitting someone else's work as your own; it will save us all a
lot of grief.
|
| Labs |
There are eight lab assignments due at various times during the term
and an optional design project at the end of the term. Completing
each part of a lab earns points that count toward your final grade.
Points are determined during a short interview about each with a
member of the course staff. Note that you can submit your work for
a lab more than once, for example, as you complete each part. After
completing the work on some of the labs, you'll be presented with
some on-line lab questions to answer (these are different than the
tutorial questions mentioned above). And you'll need to schedule a
short lab checkoff meeting for each lab with a member of the course
staff. This meeting can happen after the lab's due date but to
receive full credit it must be completed within one week of the due
date.
You must have a non-zero score for each required lab and all
on-line lab questions must be checked-off as a prerequisite for
passing the course. A missing required lab (i.e., a lab with a
score of 0) will result in a failing grade; incompletes will
not be given for unfinished laboratory work.
The lab gets crowded just before an assignment is due so plan
accordingly. The lab will be staffed by the course staff during the
late afternoon and evening M through R, and during the afternoon on
F.
The 6.004 lab is located in 32-083 and is open 24 hours a day, 7
days a week. An access code is required for entry; it will be given
out during lecture. The lab offers 40 Linux-Athena workstations
that can be used to complete the homework assignments. It is also
possible to complete the assignments using your own computer: the
lab software is written in Java and runs in Sun's Java 2 Standard
Edition (J2SE) environment (see Courseware for details).
Late policy for labs: The on-line system will give you 50%
of any points earned for submissions after the due date. So if your
first submittal is late, you get 50% of the points. But if you
submitted on-time for 15 points, and then late for 25 points, you'll
get 20 points total for the lab. Note that points reported by
JSim/BSim at check-in are for on-time submittals; you can check your
on-line status page to see how many points count toward your total.
This will be reported as "0" until you complete your checkoff
meeting.
Late policy for checkoffs: The on-line system will allow
only 50% of any points earned by your lab (including any late
penalties you incurred) if you don't complete your checkoff before
the checkoff deadline. So if you miss both the lab deadline and the
checkoff deadline, you'll only get 25% of the total points.
|
| Quizzes |
There are 5 fifty-minute, closed-book quizzes. The questions will
be similar (perhaps identical!) to the tutorial problems and will ask you to provide
short, written answers and/or explanations. The quizzes are
scheduled roughly every three weeks during recitation:
| Quiz | Date given | Deadline for grade corrections |
| Quiz 1 | Fri, 9/25 | Wed, 10/07 |
| Quiz 2 | Fri, 10/16 | Wed, 10/28 |
| Quiz 3 | Fri, 11/06 | Wed, 11/18 |
| Quiz 4 | Fri, 11/20 | Wed, 12/02 |
| Quiz 5 | Fri, 12/4 | Thu, 12/10 |
To ensure everyone has a seat, please attend your assigned
section on quiz days. If exceptional circumstances make it
impossible to take a quiz at your assigned time, please contact your
recitation instructor before the quiz to see if other
arrangements can be made. Requests for make-ups after the quiz has
been given are unlikely to be successful.
There is no final exam.
|
| Grading |
The final grade is determined by performance on the quizzes (25
points/quiz, 125 points total), the labs and the design project (75
points total). In addition, you must have a non-zero score for
each of the required labs and all the on-line lab questions must be
checked off as a prerequisite for passing the course. A missing
required lab will result in a failing grade; incompletes will
not be given for unfinished laboratory work.
Once your combined score has been computed as explained above, here's
how grades will be assigned:
| Grade | Requirement |
| A | 175 <= total points |
| B | 155 <= total points < 175 |
| C | 135 <= total points < 155 |
| D | 115 <= total points < 135 |
| F | total points < 115, missing required lab |
|