CMSC 436, Fall2023 -- Home

CMSC 436, Fall2023

Programming Handheld Systems

Course Objective:

This course will teach fundamental programming principles with a focus on the mobile environment and the Android Platform. The course emphasizes practical application of numerous academic concepts.

Students should already have a familiarity with an object oriented programming language, and studied basic algorithms and data structures.

Course projects will be written in Kotlin for the Android platform using the Android SDK.

This course follows all applicable University regulations and policies. See the University's website on Course Related Policies for definitive statements. Please note that many long-term policies are changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Major Scheduled Grading Events:

Final project presentations, midterm exam, and final exam.

Minor Scheduled Grading Events:

Each week's lectures typically have an assciated quiz and laboratory assignment. These are graded.

Tentative Course Topic List

The topics for the class will cover the basic Android platform followed by advanced Android services and classes. We will call out general concepts and approaches that apply to other mobile platforms througout our discussion. Here is the tentative topic list:

Introduction
Handheld devices, their applications and usage patterns
The Android Development Environment
Application Fundamentals
The Activity Class
The Intent Class
Permissions
The Fragment Class
User Interface classes
Data Management
Lifecycle-Aware Components
The Broadcast Receiver Class
Notifications
Threads, Handlers, and Coroutines
Alarms
Networking
Graphics
Animations
Testing
Firebase
Multi-touch and Gestures
MultiMedia
Sensors
Location
Maps
The ContentProvider Class
The Service Class

Grading

For most of the topics in this class, you will learn by doing. So this class will place a substantial emphasis on short and long term programming assignments. The expected work and grading breakdown is shown below. We reserve the right to take into account circumstances other than the ones indicated below in calculating the grade (e.g., class participation, project participation appearance at office hours, etc.).

	#	% each	% total
Weekly Assignments	approx. 10	each week's work is weighted equally	30
Semester Project	1	30	30
Mid-term Assessment	1	20	20
Final Assessment	1	20	20

Projects

Weekly assignments may be done collaboratively.
Weekly assignments are due at 11:59pm on their due date.
Assignments may be turned in late up until 9am the next morning. Late submissions receive a 0.8 multiplier. We will grade your latest submission. If you submit both on time and late, only the late submission will be graded (and it will receive the 0.8 multiplier). NOTE: Read this carefully. It is generally NOT in your interest to submit late. So start early.
Submit early and often. The solution submitted last before the deadline is the one that will be graded.
You must demonstrate a good faith attempt to complete each programming project and submit it by that project's late due date. The determination of what constitues a good faith attempt is subjctive, but typically requires at a minimum that you write some of the code needed to complete the project. If you fail to meet this requirement, the instructor may fail you for the entire course.
Your success on this course's exams will depend on understanding gained through the programming assignments. Do not let anyone spoon-feed you the way to solve the programming projects, because this will leave you unprepared for the exams.

Regrades

Any regrades for project or exams must be requested within one week of the date that your initial grade was given to you.

Academic Dishonesty

The University of Maryland, College Park has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity, see the Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Codes website for more information.

Here are some highlights of this Code as it applies to this course:

The standard penalty for any academic dishonesty, including facilitating academic dishonesty, is to receive a grade of XF in the course. This grade denotes failure due to academic dishonesty.
Logging onto another student's account, for any reason, is academic dishonesty.
Attempting to falsely represent the correctness of your program, or to delay other members of the class from completing a programming assignment, is academic dishonesty
We expect you to follow all guidelines for responsible machine usage.
The instructor is the information owner for all CSIC accounts in this class, and all files in those accounts may be inspected by him at any time, and may be used by him as he sees fit to support educational ends.

Policies and Responsible Conduct

Cell phones. As a courtesy to your fellow classmates, pagers and cell phones must be off or on vibrate during class. Having cell phones or pages ring during class repeatedly can result in points being deducted from a student's semester grade.

Office Hours and E-mail. Questions concerning the content of the course or project should, as a general rule, be directed to the class discussion forum. This allows questions to be answered by whoever is monitoring the forum, and the answer can benefit all students.
The instructors (Dr. Porter and the TAs) are happy to answer questions during office hours and on the discussion forum. However, office hours and email are not intended as a replacement for attending lectures and recitations. As a result, instructors will only respond to questions, whether during office hours or on the newsgroup, from those students who regularly attend class. Instructors may not respond to electronic questions instantly. However, the instructors will try to respond to email by the next regularly scheduled office hour after it is sent. If a student cannot make it to scheduled office hours, he or she is encouraged to make an appointment by e-mail or after class.

Excused Absences. Any student who needs to be excused for an absence from a single lecture, recitation, or lab due to a medically necessitated absence shall:

Make a reasonable attempt to inform the instructor of his/her illness prior to the class.
Upon returning to the class, present their instructor with a self-signed note attesting to the date of their illness. Each note must contain an acknowledgment by the student that the information provided is true and correct. Providing false information to University officials is prohibited under Part 9(i) of the Code of Student Conduct (V-1.00(B) University of Maryland Code of Student Conduct) and may result in disciplinary action.

The self-documentation may not be used for the Major Scheduled Grading Events as defined below and it may only be used for only 1 class meeting during the semester. Any student who needs to be excused for a prolonged absence (2 or more consecutive class meetings), or for a Major Scheduled Grading Event, must provide written documentation of the illness from the Health Center or from an outside health care provider. This documentation must verify dates of treatment and indicate the time frame that the student was unable to meet academic responsibilities. In addition, it must contain the name and phone number of the medical service provider to be used if verification is needed. No diagnostic information will ever be requested. The Major Scheduled Grading Events for this course include:

Midterm Assessment
Final Assessment

Accommodating Disabilities. Any student eligible for and requesting reasonable academic accommodations due to a disability must provide the instructor with a letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability Support services (DSS) within the first two weeks of the semester.
Course Evaluations. I take your feedback seriously. At the end of the semester you will be able to fill out a course evaluation at www.courseevalum.umd.edu. However, while this feedback may benefit future students it doesn't help you. So if you have a question, concern, suggestion, etc. let me know now, while I still have a chance to address it.

Class Links

Web Accessibility