Syllabus

Note

This is a tentative syllabus and subject to change.

This course aims to introduce to the fundamental concepts, principles, and abstractions that underlie the design and architecture of Unix systems. Students will learn how a Unix system works from the hardware level all the way up to the application level. The course will also focus on teaching students develop a command of the Unix shell environment by ensuring a basic understanding of Unix commands and utilities, and networking capabilities. Students will also be able to learn about the fundamentals of systems programming in a Unix environment.

After taking this course, students will develop a more-depth understanding of Unix and be able to use this knowledge to better implement programs on a Unix operating systems such as Linux or OS X.

Prerequisite: Core Programming (or concurrently),

Course Staff

Instructor

Teaching Assistants

  • Umang Bhatia

Graders

  • TBD

Lecture Structure

You will meet with the instructor once a week. We will use this time to cover additional material, review material covered in the pre-recorded lectures, work through exercises, or have a discussion. This class will be fully in-person this means there will be no recorded Zoom sessions or live Zoom sessions, unless if you are required to quarantine due to Covid-19 or a sickness then let your instructor known in advance and he will livestream that day’s lecture and provide you with a link. If you are given permission to livestream then you may not record it and no questions will be If the instructor cannot hold an in-person lecture then the instructor will reach out with alternatives for holding that lecture.

Most weeks, there will be a series of pre-recorded lectures that you must watch after attending lecture. More details are provided in the syllabus.

Section

Time

Location

Instructor

Section #1

Thr. 5:30pm-7:30pm CDT

JCL 011

Samuels

Course Structure

MPCS 51082 will follow a flipped classroom model, where the lecture material and course content will be delivered in two ways:

  • Asynchronous content (i.e., pre-recorded videos): Each week after our normal class time, you will be required to watch pre-recorded videos and do readings. The videos will include lecture content or more advanced coding examples that would be normally covered in a traditional lecture setting (i.e., non-remote setting). These videos and readings will typically range between 1 hour to 1.5 hours and be posted a few days after our scheduled time. Feel free to watch them at your convenience. However, you are required to watch and do the readings before our next meeting.

  • Synchronous content (i.e., in-person lectures) : Each week during our normal class time, we will meet in-person at the time/location designated above. The synchronous lectures will include the following:

    • Introduce concepts for the current module.

    • Followup on the material covered in the videos. The first 15-20 minutes will allow you to ask questions about the content provided in those videos.

    • Have live coding sessions/activities with everyone.

Please see the calendar for more details on what happens on a week to week basis.

Coursework

The course will include weekly homework, one midterm and final exam, attendance and project:

  • Homework - The weekly homework assignments will contain practice problems to help enforce the concepts learned during a lecture.

  • Attendance - In order to receive you full attendance weight, you must do the following

    1. Attend every lecture (either in-person or remotely). If you cannot attend a lecture then you must reach out to the instructor letting them know you won’t be able to attend.

    2. You must watch any specified pre-recorded lectures. We will look at the statistics on Panopto to ensure you watch the videos.

    As long as you continuously do those two main points you will receive full credit for attendance.

  • Project - The final project will provide you the opportunity to apply the skills you learned throughout the course to develop a more complex computer system. The actual system will be discussed the in second half of the course.

All homework will be due and out on Friday @ 11:59pm. Please note that I am normally busy on Friday afternoons and weekends so I may not be available for additional help. Please make sure to take this into consideration as you manage the coursework in this class.

Please see the Assignments Rubric page for more details on how the assignments will be graded.

Exams

There will be two exams in this course: a midterm and final exam. Both exams will be a mixture of small coding exercises and short-answer questions. The exams will be in-person in our normal classroom. Please note the final exam is optional. This means the highest possible grade you can receive in the course would be an 85%.

Exam

Time Limit

Date

Midterm

90 minutes

November 3rd

Final

90 minutes

December 8th

There are no make-up exams in this class. There also will not be any earlier exams taken unless due to extraordinary circumstances such as an medical emergency.

Course Software

Bash and C will be the required language to code all programming assignment. You do not need to know the language in order to take this course. If you haven’t already learned it then you will learn it as the course progresses. I will provide a rationale for the languages during the first lecture. Please note this not a C programming class. We will learn just enough of the C language to see how we can use it to to develop applications that interacts with a unix system.

Please make sure you have following software installed for this course:

The course software is also accessible via logging in remotely to a CS Linux Machine. We will explain how to do this during the first week of the quarter.

Grading

Your final grade will be based on the following:

Homework

45%

Project

20%

Attendance

5%

Midterm Exam

15%

Final Exam (optional)

15%

Grades are not curved in this class or, at least, not in the traditional sense. We use a standard set of grade boundaries:

  • 95-100: A

  • 90-95: A-

  • 85-90: B+

  • 80-85: B

  • 75-80: B-

  • 70-75: C+

  • <70: Dealt on a case-by-case basis

We curve only to the extent we might lower the boundaries for one or more letter grades, depending on the distribution of the raw scores. We will not raise the boundaries in response to the distribution.

So, for example, if you have a total score of 82 in the course, you are guaranteed to get, at least, a B (but may potentially get a higher grade if the boundary for a B+ is lowered).

Late submissions

You are allowed to make at most two late submissions on the homework assignments.You are allowed to make at most two late submissions on the programming assignments. This is total across all assignments and not on a per-assignment basis. For example, you can use one late submission on homework #1 and homework #2 and then you’ll be out of late extensions. Please ask on Ed if you are confused by the late submission policy. Late submissions will be accepted up to 24 hours after the deadline. You are allowed to double up on your late submissions (i.e., if you have not used your two late submissions, then you can use them back to back).

No credit will be given for late submissions after you have used up your two allowed late submissions.

No credit will be given for any submission made 24 hours after the deadline.

The final project cannot be submitted using an extension. The extensions are only for the homework assignments.

Please note that, while Gradescope does enforce the 24-hour limit on late submissions and will clearly flag late submissions with a red “LATE” label, it does not enforce our specific limit of two late submissions. It is your responsibility to keep track of how many late submissions you have made so far, and to ensure you don’t make more than two late submissions.

If extraordinary circumstances (medical and family emergency etc.) prevent a student from meeting a deadline, we may grant additional extensions on a case-by-case basis. Whenever possible, the student must inform their instructor of these extraordinary circumstances before the deadline.

Please note that having a heavy workload in a given week does not qualify as an extraordinary circumstance. The purpose of the two extensions is precisely to give you some flexibility in weeks when you are busier than usual. Additionally mild COVID or common cold illness is also does not qualify as an extraordinary circumstance.

Regrades

We sometimes make mistakes, and are happy to review any incorrect grading decision.

However, please note that we will only consider regrade requests where a grader made an actual mistake (e.g., they took points off claiming you didn’t do something, when you actually did do it and the grader maybe missed that when reading over your submission). We will not consider regrade requests that ask for point penalties to be reduced, or try to argue that we should not be taking points off for a given issue in your code.

For example, suppose you receive a penalty that says “-2 points: Function X did not check that parameter Y is greater than zero”. If function X in your code did perform this check, and the grader missed this fact (and erroneously applied that penalty), you can submit a regrade request asking us to review this decision. We ask that you keep these requests brief and to the point: no more than 1-2 paragraphs identifying the exact penalty and the reasons you believe it was applied erroneously, including references to specific parts of your code (e.g., “I did check the value of the parameter in line 107”). Focus on laying out the facts, and nothing else.

On the other hand, let’s say you received the “Function X did not check that parameter Y is greater than zero” penalty, and function X in your code did not perform this check. In this case, you cannot submit a regrade request arguing that this is not something for which we should deduct points, or that the point deduction should be lower. Please note that all penalties are explicitly approved by an instructor (graders have no discretion to come up with penalties on their own and, if they took points off for something, it is because they were directed to do so by the instructors).

Please note that, while you may request a regrade for a specific issue, an instructor may do a full regrade of your submission if they feel there are other issues with the grading of your submission. This can result in you ending up with a lower score on the assignment.

Steps to Submit a Regrade Request

  1. Read over the above section to make sure your request will not be denied.

  2. All regrades must be submitted on Gradescope. Do not write on Ed asking for a regrade request. However, you can on Ed notify the instructor(s) that you submitted a regrade request on Gradescope.

  3. Finally, it is also your responsibility to make these requests in a timely manner. Requests for regrades must be submitted no later than one week after a graded piece of work is returned to you. After that time, we will not consider any requests for regrades, regardless of whether the regrade request is reasonable and justified.

Please allow time for the course staff to review your regrade request. We cannot provide a specific timeframe when your request will be handled. We are on a tight schedule grading other assignments but your request will be reviewed before the end of the quarter.

Books

This course will not have a required textbook; although, for those students who may find it helpful to know the topics we will discuss each week, readings will come from these texts:

  • The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook by Michael Kerrisk

  • Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective (3rd Edition) by Bryant, & Randal O’Hallaron

and will be shown on the course schedule. Along with these readings and the lecture notes, students may find the following references helpful in understanding the course material:

  • C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition by K. N. King

Policies

Policy on academic honesty

We take academic honesty very seriously in this class. Please make sure to read our Academic Honesty page.

Diversity statement

The University of Chicago is committed to diversity and rigorous inquiry that arises from multiple perspectives. We concur with that commitment and also believe that we have the highest quality interactions and can creatively solve more problems when we recognize and celebrate our diversity. We thus expect to maintain a productive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and non-discrimination. We view the diversity that students bring to this class as a resource, strength and benefit. It is our intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender, sexuality, disability, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, religious background, and immigration status. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in the class will be appreciated and given serious consideration.

If you have a preferred name different from what appears on the class roster, or preferred gender pronouns you would like us to use, please let us know.

Disability statement

If there are circumstances that make our learning environment and activities difficult, please let us know. We will maintain the confidentiality of any such discussions.