COSC 242 Fall 2020

COSC 242 Algorithms for Distributed Systems
Fall 2020

Online Lectures: Tuesday-Thursday 3:30-4:45 pm
(Zoom information posted on Canvas page for this course)

Instructor: Nitin Vaidya
Online office hours: To be announceed (or by appointment)
nitin.vaidya@georgetown.edu

Lecture summaries, slides and videos to be posted on the Canvas page for this course.

Course materials

We will use selected material from several sources. Some of these are available to GU students for free via Safari Books Online.

This book is available online to Georgetown students via Safari Books Online: Distributed Systems: An Algorithmic Approach, Sukumar Ghosh, CRC Press.
Distributed Computing: Fundamentals, Simulations, and Advanced Topics, Hagit Attiya and Jennifer Welch.
This book is available online to Georgetown students via Safari Books Online: The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, Revised Reprint, Nir Shavit and Maurice Herlihy.
The instructor will provide some notes and pointer to other publicly available online sources, as needed.

Canvas and Zoom: Zoom information for the lectures is posted on the Canvas page for this course. Videos for the lectures will be made available via Canvas. Problems sets and exams should be submitted via Canvas.

Grading Policy

The weights assigned to the different components are as follows:

Problem sets 42%: Approximately 8 problem sets will be assigned during the semester. The relative weight for each problem set will be proportional to the points assigned to the problem set.
Mid-term exam 36%: Two mid-term exams will be scheduled during the semester. Each mid-term exam is weighted 18%.
Final exam 22%

The grade cutoffs below may be lowered based on class performance. The table shows the minimum grade that will be earned for a given total score on the course. Range of [a,b) includes all values x such that a <= x < b.

grade	total points
A	[94, 100]
A-	[90, 94)
B+	[87, 90)
B	[83, 87)
B-	[80, 83)
C+	[77, 80)
C	[73, 77)
C-	[70, 73)
D+	[67, 70)
D	[60,67)
F	[0, 60)

Late submission penalty for problem sets

For the purpose of computing late submission penalty below, 3:00 pm is considered to be the due time for each problem set on its due date. Late submission penalty for each problem set will be defined as a percentage of the maximum possible points for that problem set, as follows:

Submission delay past due time <= 48 hours: no penalty (i.e., two day extension is granted to everyone without requiring approval)
48 hours < Submission delay past due time <= 72 hours: penalty of 30% of maximum possible points.
Submissions late by more than 72 hours past the due time will not receive credit.

Academic Integrity

The only materials you may reference when working on these problems are your course notes, the textbooks, the lecture slides and lecture videos. In particular, you may not reference other online sources. You must submit your own work, and you must not collaborate with others in preparing your answers.

You may not reference solutions from prior teachings of this course or solutions provided elsewhere.

The Georgetown University Standards of Conduct apply.

Violating academic integrity policy will lead to a zero on the relevant assignment and potential reporting to the honor council.