HPPS takes place in block 2. The teaching activities are based on the idea of flipped classroom, where the lectures are shorter and available as self-study videos, and the lecture time is instead used to solve and discuss problems.
Since we are teaching remotely this year, we have two kinds of teaching sessions: labs and exercise sessions. You will be assigned videos and reading.
The videos are available in advance, and must be viewed before attending the labs. The videos stay available throughout the course so you are free to (re-)view them whenever it suits you.
In the labs we will focus on solving concrete problems in small virtual groups (or physically, as the pandemic and KU permits). The problems are usually related to the mandatory assignments. After each sub-problem we will gather and discuss the challenges, pitfalls and strategies for the problem.
As the exam will be a written exam, the exercise sessions will be focused on solving problems similar to those that will be used in the exam. The exercises for each session are in the course outline.
We have compiled an overview of the course in the course outline document, which we will update throughout the course.
If you are in doubt of what to read, watch, or write, the answer should be in the course outline document.
The textbooks are as follows:
-
HPPS course notes - these will be updated as the course progresses, so make sure to regularly check that you have the newest version
The authors of the CS:APP textbook have made videos available of their lectures. Note that these lectures are from a classic systems programming course, with a different focus (and much longer length) than HPPS. However, they may still be worth watching.
The labs take place on
-
Tuesday 10:15-12:00 (online)
-
Thursday 13:15-15:00 (Lille-UP1 at DIKU, technically 04-1-22)
The exercises take place on
- Thursday 15:15-17:00
The exercises are split along the four hold, in the following rooms and TAs:
- Hold 01 (DatØK): 1-0-14 (DIKU), Georgios
- Hold 02 (DatØK): 1-0-34 (DIKU), Laurent
- Hold 03 (ML): A111 (HCØ), Albert
- Hold 04 (ML): 1-0-30 (DIKU), Tor
The Tuesday labs are entirely online, and for the Thursday labs you can decide whether to show up physically or participate online.
The theoretical exercises on Thursday are physical, but will also make an effort to have teaching resources accessible on the Discord server for those who prefer to participate virtually.
Virtual labs take place on this Discord server (invite link). Note that teachers and TAs are only expected to respond during normal class hours.
The Discord server contains voice channels called group rooms. These are intended for interactive help during labs and exercises. Simply enter a vacant group room and (hopefully) a teacher or TA will join and help you out (write a message in one of the text channels if you've been overlooked). You can also share your screen (maybe only when using the standalone Discord app), if necessary. When you are done getting help, please leave the room to make it available for others.
https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/63242906073
This Zoom room will be used for the first introductory lab on 17/11. It is not clear whether it will be used after that, but we may decide to do more mass lectures.
There are 4 assignment in total during the course with deadline roughly every week and a half.
The assignments will be graded with points from 0 to 4 and it is not possible to re-hand-in any of the assignments.
Assignments are made to be solved in groups of preferably three students, but groups of two active students will also do. We strongly encourage you not to work alone. Groups cannot be larger than three students. Each group must make their own solutions and cannot share implementations and report with other. You may however discuss material and ideas.
On Friday 13:00-15:00 you will be able to get help with the assignments at the study café.
You will be able to get help on Discord and offline, although the precise physical location is still undecided.
To qualify for the exam you are required to achieve at least 50% of the total number of points in the four assignments (that is, 8 points at minimum). You also need to get at least one point pr. assignment.
It is also important to note, that the main purpose of the assignments are not to prepare you for the exam; that is what the exercise classes are for. The assignments will focus on larger implementations and the practical learning goals of the course. Some questions in the exam will relate to the assignments, but qualifying of the exam (and even fully solving the assignments) will not be enough preparation to pass the exam. You need to make the exercises and the best way is to be active in the exercise classes.
All written material will be in English.
Most oral teaching will be in Danish or English, depending on the specific teacher or TA.
You will be mainly be programming in C and Python.
You will be using a Unix command line and Unix tools for much of the course. See the Unix software guide.
See also this guide on the GDB debugger, which is a very useful tool for debugging C programs.
If you prefer an IDE see the VS Code installation and setup guide.
The teachers are
- Kenneth Skovhede (skovhede@nbi.ku.dk)
- Troels Henriksen (athas@sigkill.dk)
The TAs are
-
Georgios Garidis (dpv246@alumni.ku.dk) (Hold 01)
-
Laurent Lindpointner (xrw514@alumni.ku.dk) (Hold 02)
-
Albert Alonso de la Fuente (ckz831@alumni.ku.dk) (Hold 03)
-
Tor Skovsgaard (vtj997@alumni.ku.dk) Hold (04)
The exam will take the form of a 72-hour take-home exam with two parts:
-
A theoretical part that will test your non-coding knowledge of the course curriculum, and will be very similar to the exercises handed out at the Thursday labs.
-
A practical part that will test your ability to write parallel systems-level code. This part will most strongly resemble the contents of assignment 4.
You are not expected to work full-time for all three days. We have not decided on an estimated workload yet, but the idea behind the 72-hour exam format is to minimise the consequences of overlaps with another exam. (We will still try to minimise overlaps of course, but it looks like many of you are taking a concurrent four-day exam, so it cannot be avoided entirely.)
The exam will take place online and run from 08:00 on the 28th to 16:00 on the 30th of January (note that the 30th is a Saturday). This is to avoid conflicts with other exams (specifically the ML course, which has promised to examinate all HPPS students prior to the 28th).