The University of Michigan, Fall 2021
A holistic course of modern web systems and technologies, covering front end and back end. Build an Instagram clone in the first half of the semester and a Google clone in the second.
| Andrew DeOrio <awdeorio@umich.edu> |
| Raed Almomani <almomani@umich.edu> |
We are planning for as much in-person instruction as we can safely provide, in line with University and College of Engineering guidelines (FAQ). In exceptional cases, you may complete EECS 485 100% remotely with an approved CoE petition.
Lectures will be mostly live and in-person. One of Prof. DeOrio's sections will be asynchronous, with short videos released each week. Prof. DeOrio will host Lecture Q&A sessions to discuss the videos. You may attend any lecture section or watch any of the recordings, even if it's different than your registered section. We don't take attendance in lecture. If COVID guidelines preclude large in-person lectures, we will convert in-person lectures to live Zoom lectures at the same day and time.
Projects will be completed in groups and turned in to an autograder. You can find a group using the "Search For Teammates" post on Piazza. If you'd like, we'll help you find a group.
Labs will be live and in-person with materials posted online. Expect hands-on practice with concepts from lecture and project introduction material. We don't take attendance in lab.
Exams will be scheduled and timed. We plan on in-person exams.
Office hours will be offered in-person as well as remote, both one-on-one and in groups.
Make sure you have a laptop consistent with CAEN recommendations.
Test your internet connection with the U-M Custom Speedtest website and make sure it meets the minimum requirements for any UM service. You'll need more bandwidth if there will be multiple simultaneous users in your household.
Those working remotely from China may need to use VPN obfuscation, also called strong or stealth VPN. Students in the past have had trouble downloading files from Google Drive without VPN obfuscation.
Resources for help with computing equipment:
EECS 485 integrates concepts from multiple computer science disciplines used in web applications ("front end"), web services ("back end") and web semantics ("extracting knowledge and information"). Within these three themes, the course covers concepts such as:
| Web Applications | Web Distributed Systems | Web Semantics |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Students build a social media application similar to Instagram or Facebook and a search engine like Google or Bing. They gain experience with practical web technologies such as:
|
|
By the end of this course, successful students will feel comfortable learning a new web technology independently using developer documentation. They will able to:
|
|
|
The prerequisite for EECS 485 is EECS 281.
This course requires substantial independent learning. We'll provide you with a starting point, but expect to learn independently a lot of HTML, CSS, SQL, Python, and Javascript.
There is no textbook.
eecs485.org links to all course resources and is required reading.
Piazza is the course discussion forum, best for technical questions and project updates. Do not publicly post your code.
eecs485staff@umich.edu reaches the course staff, best for non-technical questions.
Individual professor email addresses are best for confidential matters.
There will be one midterm and one final examination. Exam dates are posted on eecs485.org. There will be no make-up exams. It is your responsibility to verify you can attend both exams.
Labs will contain hands-on practice with concepts from lecture and helpful project introduction material.
This course contains 5 programming projects. The first three focus on web apps, while the last two focus on web distributed systems and web semantics.
Project 1: Templated Static Site Generator. An Instagram clone implemented with a templated static site generator.
Project 2: Server-side Dynamic Pages. An Instagram clone implemented with server-side dynamic pages.
Project 3: Client-side Dynamic Pages. An Instagram clone implemented with client-side dynamic pages.
Project 4: MapReduce. A single machine, multi-process, multi-threaded server that executes user-submitted MapReduce jobs.
Project 5: Search Engine. A scalable search engine similar to Google or Bing.
We improve the projects each semester, so they may change any time before the project release date.
Project 1 is independent. The remaining projects are completed in groups of 2-3.
You may modify group membership between projects. You must not modify group membership during a project. In exceptional cases, you may request group dissolution via email to the faculty. If the dissolution is granted, all group members may use previously shared code and no group member may join another group for remainder of the project.
Each group turns in one solution to the autograder. You must register your group on the autograder. All group members earn the same grade on a project. We may adjust the grades of students who substantially under-participate based on feedback from their group members.
For those retaking the course: if you submitted an assignment in a previous term, you must not work in a group on that same assignment this term.
We use a web-based autograder to evaluate correctness and style.
Before the deadline, you may submit up to 3 times per day. After each submission, the autograder shows the results of the public tests released with the project.
After the deadline, the autograder shows the results of private tests.
Your final project score is a combination of public and private tests. We use the submission that received the combined best score. If multiple submissions share the best score, we grade the last.
Letter grades are assigned on a curve. In general, our goal is be consistent with past semesters.
We calculate your total weighted score using these weights.
| Assignment | Percentage of Grade |
|---|---|
| Programming Projects | 5 projects x 10% each = 50% |
| Midterm Exam | 25% |
| Final Exam | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
Sometimes the difficulty of exams varies from semester to semester. We use a curve to maintain consistent letter grades despite exam variation. In general, our goal is be consistent with past semesters, where a median grade is 3.3 (B+).
You are guaranteed to pass EECS 485 with a C or better if your total weighted project score is at least 73.0%, and your total weighted exam score is within 1.5 standard deviations of the mean.
We do not accept late work.
We will consider extension requests made at least two weeks in advance, for example, for religious holidays or planned medical procedures.
For medical or personal emergencies we will consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Please provide documentation of the emergency.
Exams are graded by hand. Request a regrade via Gradescope. Your score may go up or down.
Projects are automatically graded. We do not accept regrade requests.
In all cases regrade requests are due no later than 7 days after a grade is released unless a shorter deadline is specified.
We encourage collaboration in EECS 485, especially on concepts, tool, specifications, and strategies.
All work you submit must be your own or your group's. Collaboration must not result in code that is identifiably similar to other solutions, past or present.
You are still responsible for following these rules even after finishing the course.
If you are unsure about what constitutes an honor code violation, please contact the course staff with questions.
If you are retaking the course, you may reuse your own code, provided it was wholly written according to rules outlined in this syllabus. It is possible for instructors to miss an honor code violation in a previous term, but catch and report it when the code is reused.
You may not make your code publicly available in any form, for example, in a public GitHub repository or personal website. You are still responsible for following these rules even after finishing the course.
If you are recruiting and would like to show companies your work in EECS 485, our recommendation is to create a Git repository with only a README file and no code. Take a screenshots of your solution put those in the README. Include a description of the languages, libraries, frameworks, and technologies you used. Another option is to privately demo or send your code to a recruiter.
Course lectures may be audio/video recorded and made available to other students in this course. As part of your participation in this course, you may be recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded, please contact your instructor the first week of class to discuss alternative arrangements.
Students may not record or distribute any class activity without written permission from the instructor, except as necessary as part of approved accommodations for students with disabilities. Any approved recordings may only be used for the student’s own private use.
If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let your instructor know during the first three weeks of the semester. Some aspects of this course may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make us aware of your needs, we can work with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office to help us determine appropriate academic accommodations. SSD (734-763-3000; https://ssd.umich.edu) typically recommends accommodations through a Verified Individualized Services and Accommodations (VISA) form. Any information you provide is private and confidential and will be treated as such.
As indicated in the General Standards of Conduct for Engineering Students, we are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status. Please feel free to contact us with any problem, concern, or suggestion. We ask that all students treat each other with respect.
University of Michigan is committed to advancing the mental health and well-being of its students. If you or someone you know is feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and/or in need of support, services are available. For help, contact Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at (734) 764-8312 and https://caps.umich.edu during and after hours, on weekends and holidays, or through its counselors physically located in schools on both North and Central Campus. You may also consult University Health Service (UHS) at (734) 764-8320 and https://www.uhs.umich.edu/mentalhealthsvcs, or for alcohol or drug concerns, see www.uhs.umich.edu/aodresources. For a listing of other mental health resources available on and off campus, visit: https://caps.umich.edu/article/um-mental-health-resources.