There are 6 programming assignments in all. These are due at midnight (11:59 PM to be precise) on the dates indicated on the Calendar page.
| # | Title | Goal | Links |
| 1 | Straight-line Programs | Implement programs without branches and loops. | writeup | zip | discussion |
| 2 | Control-flow Programs | Implement programs with branches and loops. | writeup | zip | discussion |
| 3 | Mozart Waltz Generator | Implement Mozart’s waltz game by writing a program to generate a two-part waltz and another program to play the waltz. | writeup | zip | discussion |
| 4 | RSA Cryptosystem | Implement the RSA public-key cryptosystem. | writeup | zip | discussion |
| 5 | Atomic Nature of Matter | Re-affirm the atomic nature of matter by tracking the motion of particles undergoing Brownian motion, fitting this data to Einstein’s model, and estimating Avogadro’s constant. | writeup | zip | discussion |
| 6 | Markov Model | Use a Markov chain to create a statistical model of a piece of English text and use the model to generate stylized pseudo-random text and decode noisy messages. | writeup | zip | discussion |
The writeup file contains descriptions of the problems in the assignment. The zip file contains the starter files for the problems, any necessary data files, and notes.txt file for the assignment. The discussion link provides additional explanation of the assignment problems and directions on how to solve them.
You will use Gradescope to submit your Python programs (ie, .py files) and the notes.txt file. Make sure that you only submit files listed under the Files to Submit section of the assignment writeup.
You may submit your files as many times as you like, up until the assignment deadline. The most recent submission is considered active by default and your score on the active submission is your official score for the assignment as well. You have the option of making any of your previous submissions active.
Note: If your active submission is partial, your assignment score will also be partial, so in order to be eligible for full credit, make sure you have an active submission containing all the required files for the assignment.
Your solution to each assignment problem will be evaluated for correctness by an autograder. Each test that is used for this purpose is worth some number of points; your solution will receive all the points from a test that passes and 0 points from a test that does not pass. Your overall correctness score will be normalized to 80 points.
Your solution to each assignment problem will additionally be checked by a TA for clarity and efficiency. Your code will receive 10 points if it meets our expectations (must include adequate comments, must follow good programming principles, and must meet any problem-specific requirements), and will be marked down otherwise.
The given notes.txt file for an assignment must be uploaded with the three sections (#1 mandatory, #2 if applicable, and #3 optional) filled in as appropriate. In section #1, for each problem, you must include in nore more than 100 words: a short, high-level description of the problem; your approach to solve it; and any issues you encountered and if/how you managed to solve them. Your notes file will receive 10 points if it meets our expectations and will be marked down otherwise.