CS 337 Operating Systems and Cloud Computing
Syllabus

• lecture: M-W-F 11:00 - 11:50 am, DAVI 301

The following structure will rarely change.

1. Understand and compare the different design philosophies of operating systems.
2. Demonstrate the ability to create multithreaded software utilizing basic interprocess communication and synchronization techniques.
3. Understand task scheduling techniques for single and multi processor systems.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of process life-cycle.
5. Evaluate the role of main memory management and CPU scheduling on system performance.

The work in lecture will lead into the week's project.

Programming projects involve completing significant programs as well as a writeup describing the work completed in the project.

There will be regular opportunities for you to practice what you have learned and to demonstrate your accomplishments.

The course grade will be determined as follows:

• I will distribute short homework assignments on Moodle.
• The homeworks themselves may not be worth much of your overall grade, but they prepare you for the quiz on Friday! Take them seriously and you should be well-prepared for the quiz.
• Late submissions will not be accepted.
• Homework will be graded in a binary fashion: if you hand in a reasonable attempt, you get a 1, otherwise a 0.

• There is a 15 minute in-class quiz most Fridays.
• The quizzes let you show me what you have learned. These should be quick and straightforward if you participate in lecture and review lecture notes.
• I understand that everyone has a bad day; the quiz with the lowest grade will be dropped.
• A quiz may be made up when a prior request is made or there is a documented issue.
• Please contact me immediately in the event of illness and other unforeseen circumstances, we will work out accommodations.

• You are expected to attend every class. This is important for the overall learning experience and cohesion of the course.
• If you must miss a class for any reason, please email me in advance. I am happy to work with you.
• For this course to be truly successful, your presence and participation is important. When you have a question, ask it. It is highly probable that one of your classmates has the same question.

There will be a final exam at TBD. There are no make-ups.

There is no required textbook for this course. All lecture notes and code from class will be posted on Moodle.

• A Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, by Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau

Computer science, both academically and professionally, is a collaborative discipline. In any collaboration, however, all parties are expected to make their own contributions and to generously credit the contributions of others. In our class, therefore, collaboration on assignments is encouraged, but you as an individual are responsible for understanding all the material in the assignment and doing your own work. Always strive to do your best, give generous credit to others, start early, and seek help early from both your professors and classmates.

The following rules are intended to help you get the most out of your education and to clarify the line between honest and dishonest work. We reserve the right to ask you to verbally explain the reasoning behind any answer or code that you turn in and to modify your project grade based on your answers. It is vitally important that you turn in work that is your own. We do use automated plagiarism detection software, so please be sure to abide by these, rather minimal, rules. Reports of academic dishonesty are handled by an academic review board and a finding of academic dishonesty may result in significant sanctions. For more details on Colby's Academic Integrity policies and procedures, see https://www.colby.edu/academics/academic-integrity/.

• If you have had a substantive discussion of any homework or programming solution with a classmate, then be sure to cite them in your write-up. If you are unsure of what constitutes "substantive", then ask me or err on the side of caution. As one rule of thumb, you may discuss your approach to solving a problem, but you must not share or look at another classmate's code or written answers to project questions.
• You must not copy answers or code from another student either by hand or electronically. Another way to think about it is that you should communicate with one another in natural human sentences, not in lines of code from a programming language.

Understanding and using AI are important skills that you will master as part of your CS education at Colby, and the following policy will provide a controlled way for you to use AI to your learning advantage in this course:

• Students may use AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) solely for understanding concepts, reviewing examples, or receiving feedback on their code. These tools can be valuable for clarifying ideas and enhancing comprehension.
• Using AI to generate any code, solutions, or answers is not permitted and considered academic misconduct.
• Students must be able to demonstrate their understanding of solutions through verbal explanations, either in class discussions, office hours, or during assessments.
• The use of AI code completion tools, such as GitHub Copilot or other similar platforms, is not permitted. Students must write and develop their code independently to ensure they are practicing and reinforcing the skills taught in the course.


• Here are some examples of prompts that do not violate the AI policy:
  • “What is the difference between a stack and a queue?”
  • “How does a binary search tree work?”
  • “I'm encountering this error message 'IndexError: list index out of range' when running my code. What does it mean, and how can I fix it?”
  • “Can you explain how Dijkstra's algorithm works? I'm trying to understand its steps and how it’s applied in practice.”
  • “Can you help me debug my code? Don't generate any code, just help me understand why my code is not working.”


• Here are some examples of prompts that violate the AI policy:
  • “Can you provide me with a solution to this problem?”
  • “Can you write a function that ...?”
  • “Can you generate a code snippet that ....?”
  • “Can you fix my code so that ...?”


• Violations of this policy, including the use of AI for generating code, may result in penalties ranging from a warning to a failing grade for the assignment or course, in accordance with Colby's academic integrity policy.

Colby College is a community dedicated to learning and committed to the growth and well-being of all its members.

As a community devoted to intellectual growth, we value academic integrity. We agree to take ownership of our academic work, to submit only work that is our own, to fully acknowledge the research and ideas of others in our work, and to abide by the instructions and regulations governing academic work established by the faculty.

As a community built on respect for ourselves, each other, and our physical environment, we recognize the diversity of people who have gathered here and that genuine inclusivity requires active, honest, and compassionate engagement with one another. We agree to respect each other, to honor community expectations, and to comply with College policies.

As a member of this community, I pledge to hold myself and others accountable to these values. More ...

Colby College prohibits and will not tolerate sexual misconduct or gender-based discrimination of any kind. Colby is legally obligated to investigate sexual misconduct (including, but not limited to sexual assault and sexual harassment).

If you wish to speak confidentially about an incident of sexual misconduct, please contact Colby Counseling Services (207-859-4490) or the Director of the Gender and Sexual Diversity Program, Emily Schusterbauer (207-859-4093).

Students should be aware that faculty members are considered responsible employees; as such, if you disclose an incident of sexual misconduct to a faculty member, they have an obligation to report it to Colby's Title IX Coordinator. "Disclosure" may include communication in-person, via email/phone/text, or through class assignments.

To learn more about sexual misconduct or report an incident, visit http://www.colby.edu/sexualviolence/.