Syllabus: AME 3623: Embedded Real-Time Systems
(Spring 2016)

General Information

• Meeting time: Tu/Th 9:00-10:15

• Location: Devon Energy Hall 130

• Lab location: Felgar Hall 300

• Prerequisites: AME 2623 or equivalent, and CS 1313 or equivalent. Note that we will be doing programming in C.

• Textbook: Programming Embedded Systems from Zyante.
  • Sign in to the Zyante web site.
  • Use textbook code: UOAME3623Spring2016.
  • Click Subscribe
  • Cost: $48 for the semester

• We are using Tophat as an interactive classroom tool during the semester. This tool interfaces to your laptop and your cell phone (smart or not). All students are required to sign up for the Tophat service ($24 for the semester for all classes; or $72 for your student career).
  • Join code: 847186

• Course web page: http://www.cs.ou.edu/~fagg/classes/ame3623

• We will make heavy use of Desire to Learn

• Instructor: Dr. Andrew H. Fagg
  • Office: Devon Energy Hall 243
  • Phone: 325-8606
  • Homepage: http://www.cs.ou.edu/~fagg
  • Email: andrewhfagg--gmail.com
  • Office hours: see the office hours web page: http://www.cs.ou.edu/~fagg/office.html

• Teaching Assistant: Sean McDonough
  
  • Office location: Felgar Hall 300
  • Office hours: see the office hours web page http://www.cs.ou.edu/~fagg/office.html

Course Goals and Topics

• design and implement embedded circuits involving microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators,
• use code and circuit design tools,
• design, program and debug embedded sensing and control software,
• work in collaborative teams to solve system design and implementation problems, and
• communicate in both oral and written forms.

This is a very hands-on class: every student will be involved in the design, implementation, and programming for the projects. Note that this component of the class will involve a non-trivial amount of time; students should plan their schedules accordingly.

Topics will include:

• number representations and arithmetic,
• basic microprocessor design,
• embedded system development environments,
• processor input/output implementations and electronic interfaces (including analog-to-digital translation),
• serial protocols and implementation,
• control loop design and implementation,
• finite state machines, and
• issues in embedded hardware design and debugging.

Course Policies

• Attendance: We will discuss concepts and examples in class that are not in the assigned readings. Another student's notes are an inadequate substitute for class attendance. You are responsible for everything that is announced in class.

• Readings and Pencasts: You are responsible for the material contained within the readings and pencasts on the day that they are indicated on the class schedule. I will typically address questions about these at the beginning of the lecture. The lecture material and/or in-class assignment/quiz for the day will assume a working knowledge of these materials.

• ZyBook Participation Activities: Each section of our textbook contains a set of participation activities that you will do on-line. These activities are due at 8:00am on the day that the reading is first assigned.

• ZyBook "Tries": Many textbook sections contain "Try" exercises. These are optional. I encourage you to read through them and think about possible solutions.

• Class Web Page: Most of the material that you will need can be found on the class web page located at:
  http://www.cs.ou.edu/~fagg/classes/ame3623

• Desire to Learn: This class will also use D2L, located at: http://learn.ou.edu

  Login with your 4+4 (typically the first four letters of your last name followed by the last four digits of your student number), using your standard OU password. If you have difficulty logging in, call 325-HELP. This software provides a number of useful features, including a list of assignments and announcements, an electronic mailing list, newsgroups, and a grade book.

  I will update the main web site and the D2L page several times a week. When I update the site in any significant way, I will post an announcement on D2L telling you what has been added and where it is located. You are responsible for things posted on the site within 48 hours of the post.

• Class Email Alias: Urgent announcements will be sent through email. It is your responsibility to:
  • Have your university supplied email account properly forwarded to the location where you read email.
  • Make sure that your email address in D2L is correct, and forwards email to the place where you read it. I'll send out a test message during the first week of class. If you do not receive this message, it is your responsibility to get the problem resolved immediately.
  • Have your email program set up properly so that replying to your email will work correctly the first time. You can send email to yourself and reply to yourself to test this. I will not make any attempt to get bounced email messages delivered.

  If you need assistance in accomplishing any of these tasks, contact 325-HELP.

• Examinations: There will be a midterm and a final examination. The dates are given in the class schedule. During examinations, students are expected to sit in assigned seats. Missing an examination without a previously approved excuse will result in a grade of zero for that examination.

• Final Examination: The final examination is Tuesday, May 10th from 8:00 to 10:00. The final is comprehensive, as required by College of Engineering policy. No final examinations can be given early, except as required by University policy.

• Newsgroups and Email: The newsgroup on D2L should be the primary method of communication (outside of class). This allows everyone in the class to benefit from the answers to your questions, and provides students with more timely answers since both the TA and I check D2L at least once a day. Matters of personal interest should be directed to email instead of to the newsgroup, e.g. informing me of an extended personal illness. Posting guidelines for the newsgroup are available on D2L.

• Academic Conduct: Feel free to discuss assignments and labs with the instructor or the TA. Unless collaboration is explicitly allowed, do not discuss, look at, or copy another student's solution to an assignment, as this is considered cheating.

  You may make use of the net as a reference as you are working on exercises and projects. However, downloading specific exercise or project solutions from the net is considered cheating.

  The projects will be performed in collaboration with 1-2 other people. Within groups, you are expected to discuss and share solutions. Discussion between groups about general issues is fine, but the sharing of project-specific solutions, circuit diagrams or code is considered cheating.

  Each individual is expected to contribute substantially to a subset of the programming component of the projects. Everyone may receive help on the programming from fellow group members, but each individual must be at the keyboard during design, development and debugging of at least three assignments. Misrepresenting one's contribution to the programming assignments is considered misconduct.

  Make sure that your computer account is properly protected. Use a good password, and do not give your friends access to your account or your computer system. Do not leave printouts, or thumb drives around a laboratory where others might access them.

  Programming projects will be checked by software designed to detect collaboration. This software is extremely effective and has withstood repeated reviews by the campus judicial processes.

  Upon the first documented occurrence of inappropriate collaborative work, I will report the academic misconduct to the Campus Judicial Coordinator. The procedure to be followed is documented in the University of Oklahoma Academic Misconduct Code (http://integrity.ou.edu).

• Tutors: Tutors can be an excellent source of support for students who are having difficulty in the class, but only if the tutor is aware of the distinction between teaching students the material so that they can do their own work, and doing work for students. Tutors who do work for students are not only failing to help the students learn, they are abetting academic misconduct. Examples of misconduct include:
  • If your tutor is sitting behind you while you are typing and methodically telling you what to enter, he or she is abetting academic misconduct.
  • If you tutor is emailing files containing partial or complete programming projects to you, you will commit academic misconduct if you use those lines in your program.

  A more effective use of tutoring services is to do problems that are similar to the assigned work, instead of doing assigned work. For example, it would be fine to work unassigned problems from the textbook with a tutor. This requires significant discipline, both on the part of the tutor and the part of the student. Copying from a tutor is as unacceptable as copying from another student. If your tutor doesn't know how to teach properly, please ask them to call or visit me and I will provide training and guidance. If you are tutoring someone else in the class, you can be accused of academic misconduct if this person copies your work.

• Incompletes: The grade of "I" is intended for the rare circumstance when a student who has been successful in a class has an unexpected event occur shortly before the end of the class. I will not consider giving a student a grade of "I" unless the following three conditions have been met.
  • It is within two weeks of the end of the semester.
  • The student has a grade of C or better in the class.
  • The reason that the student cannot complete the class is properly documented and compelling.

• Accommodation of Disabilities: The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for all students with disabilities. Students with disabilities who require accommodations in this course are requested to speak with the professor as early in the semester as possible. Students with disabilities must be registered with the Office of Disability Services prior to receiving accommodations in this course. The Office of Disability Services is located in Goddard Health Center, Suite 166, phone 405/325-3852 or TDD only 405/325-4173.

• Classroom Conduct: Because cell phones and laptops can distract substantially from the classroom experience, students are asked not to use either during class, except where these are required as part of a classroom exercise.

  Disruptions of class will also not be permitted. Examples of disruptive behavior include:

  • Allowing a cell phone or pager to repeatedly beep audibly.
  • Playing music or computer games during class in such a way that they are visible or audible to other class members.
  • Exhibiting erratic or irrational behavior.
  • Behavior that distracts the class from the subject matter or discussion.
  • Making physical or verbal threats to a faculty member, teaching assistant, or class member.
  • Refusal to comply with faculty direction.

  In the case of disruptive behavior, I may ask that you leave the classroom and may charge you with a violation of the Student Code of Responsibilities and Conduct.

Grades

• Midterm exam: 10%
• Final exam: 20%
• Zyante exercises: 15% (equally distributed; drop lowest one)
• In class quizzes and activities: 20% (equally distributed; drop lowest one)
• Projects:
  • 18%: group grades
  • 17%: individual grades

Grading notes:

• Final grades: the cut point between letter grades will be decided at the end of the semester. Cut points will not be any higher than the traditional 90/80/70 scheme.

• Project grades: Project grading is performed as two pieces:
  • Group Work (18% of total grade): A group is first given a grade as a function of the quality of their work (factors include: correctness of the code, readability of the code, documentation, presentation by the group and the demonstration of the working code). If all group members contribute equally to the project (assessed in part by the group members), then all will receive the group grade. If there is a serious imbalance in the contributions, then the grades will be scaled accordingly (higher contributors will receive a higher grade and lower contributors will receive a lower grade).

  • Individual Work (17% of total grade): In order to receive full credit for the individual work grade, a team member must demonstrate a significant software contribution on three of the projects. A significant contribution means that the individual has taken primary responsibility for at least half of the code for that project. This does not necessarily mean that the individual has worked alone on the code. However, this individual has been the one at the keyboard during the writing and debugging of the code.

• Grade questions: All grade questions should first be brought to the indivudal who performed the assessment (the TA or the instructor). Questions that are not resolved with the TA may then be brought to the instructor. All disagreements about the grading of assignments must be brought to our attention within one week of when the item was returned.

• Desire to Learn Grade Summary: D2L has a grade book that is used to store the raw data that is used to calculate your course grade. It is the responsibility of each student in this class to check their grades on D2L after each assignment is returned. If an error is found, bring the graded document to me or the TA, and we will correct D2L.

• Examination Grading Questions: If there is a question about the grading of an examination problem, you may stay after class the day the tests are returned to discuss it. If you cannot stay at this time, return the paper to me and stop by during my office hours. Once a test has been removed from the classroom after it has been returned, the grade is final and will not be changed, even if it is found to be in error.

Projects and Homework

• Due dates: Projects and Zyante participation exercises are due at 8:00am on the date that is listed on the schedule.

• Hand-in procedure:
  • Zyante exercises are performed on the Zyante web site (within the assigned chapter)

    Project reports must be handed in using your group's subversion tree (more information to follow). Associated C source files must be handed in as they are (i.e., not included within a MSword file).

    In addition, individuals will be asked to fill out a group-work survey in Catme. This must be completed before grades are given.

• Late policy: Because late assignments will seriously impact your ability to follow the next section of the course, you are required to complete the Zyante assignments on time. No late assignments will be accepted.

  Projects may be handed in late. If late by 0-24 hours, the project grade will incur a 10% penalty; if late by 24-48 hours, a 20% penalty will be imposed. Projects that have not been handed in by 48 hours will receive no credit. Handing in a late project should only be used in very dire circumstances (consider the trade-off in the possible grades before you make this choice).

Course Evaluations

Adjustments for Pregnancy/Childbirth Related Issues

Title IX Resources

Copyright notice: Many of the materials created for this course are the intellectual property of Andrew H. Fagg. This includes, but is not limited to, the syllabus, lectures and course notes. Except to the extent not protected by copyright law, any use, distribution or sale of such materials requires the permission of the instructor.