CSCI 4830/8836: Introduction to Software Engineering

Summer 2020

Description

The course focuses on the engineering and development of real-world software products. It provides a pragmatic introduction into the fundamentals of software engineering. Basics of software project management are presented and are practiced in the term project.

Learning Objectives

Students who complete this course will be able to:

• understand the processes, methods, tools used in the software engineering profession,
• apply engineering practices to software project management,
• formulate software requirements for a given project need,
• design and create small and medium-sized software applications.

Course content:

1. Overview and motivations
2. Requirements analysis
3. Software design
4. Verification and Validation
5. Software evolution
6. Project management
7. Advanced topics

How the online course works

Meetings: We will meet via Zoom on the first Thursday, 5/21, from 6pm to set up the teams. For the remaining weeks, the Thursday evening time should be used for team face-to-face meetings via Zoom.

Homepage: The homepage will provide a starting point for each week's activities. Be sure to check it often.

Asynchronous Instruction:

• Lectures will be asynchronous. Lecture slides from the textbook will be posted in advance.
• Each week, there will be one or more assignments that will be due on Wednesday evening at 11:59pm. These assignments will mostly be on the readings expected for that week. Expect to spend at least 2 hours per week doing the online readings and exercises.
• I will post short video lectures on Thursday evenings, addressing some key points from that week's readings and answering some of the questions from the reading assignments.

Evaluation

Exam dates

1. Midterm - July 1
2. Final - August 12

Exams will be take-home. The dates above are the expected submission dates.

Graduate student research paper

Students taking the class as CSCI8836 will also be required to submit a 7-10 page, graduate-level research paper. (Please make an appointment to see me within the first two weeks of class to discuss appropriate topics.)

Term Project

The term project is discussed in the Project Guidelines page.

Exercises

Exercises will provide hands-on practice on the mechanics of developing software using modern technology.

Participation and Attendance

To receive credit for each week's participation, you have to:

1. Attend the Thursday meetings on Zoom
2. Watch the videos for that week (see schedule in homepage)
3. Submit all assignments due that week (see schedule in homepage)

Policy on late homeworks

Late homeworks will get a 10% deduction per day, for each day past the due date.

Academic Integrity

Cheating will not be tolerated for project assignments, exams and other assignments. For formal policies about cheating and plagiarism, consult the UNO Student Policies and Department of Computer Science Policies and Procedures.