Meeting Times

We meet on Mondays at 16:00 in 0216 Siebel Center. The first meeting is October 26.

Project

The class project is now available.

Course Theme

The honors section will show you a different approach to data structures than what is taught in the main CS 225 class. In CS 225, you learn data structures in a “bottom-up” way; you manipulate pointers and the contents of memory to get the results you want. In CS 296, we will approach data structures in a “top-down” way. The data structures will be (for the most part) immutable, and we will emphasize functions that work on entire collections at one time.

The language we will use is called Clojure. The only resemblance it has to C++ is that both languages begin with the letter C. Clojure is a modern dialect of Lisp that runs on the JVM. For more information about Clojure, see the [Clojure Resources Page]().

Prerequisites

We expect that you will be taking CS 225 at the same time, but that is not strictly necessary. (Some students take CS 296 the semester afterwards.)

Registering

To register, sign up for CS 296-25. This course starts later in the semester, and many people decide to register after the add deadline. To register, go to the CS Department Academic Office (1201 Siebel) and pick up a Late Add Form. Fill it out, bring it to Mattox, and turn it in.

For more registration information please see the FAQ.

Textbooks

There is no textbook for the course.

Communication

Course Website

All course announcements, including MP extensions, will be announced on the honors tab of the course website. Please plan to check this page often.

Piazza

The most important forum for communicating in this class is been the course’s Piazza site. Piazza is like a newsgroup or forum — you are encouraged to use it to ask questions, request clarifications, express opinions, give advice. We will give you enrollment instructions at the first lab meeting (it’s not hard). The Piazza site for this class is: https://piazza.com/class/irzaeigduzn6l5. You are welcome to sign up, and you can do so directly if you use your @illinois.edu email address. Doing so exposes you to the possibility of limited promotional material from Piazza, but you WILL be able to maintain your privacy within the system by posting private messages. If you are concerned about privacy, and you do not want to use your @illinois.edu account, send Cinda an alternative account and we’ll prompt Piazza to send you an invitation.