Course Introduction

ITP 348

Making Smart Devices

Introduction to Electronics/Wearables

Rob Parke

  • Email: parke@usc.edu
  • Office Hours: online (hours on Piazza)
  • Associate Professor
  • Connected Devices and Making Minor
  • Sound Editor / Web Developer (previous)
  • USC Alum!USC ITP

Learning Assistants / Graders

  • Learning assistants will be in class and hold open lab hours for homework help
  • Open lab hours for will be posted on Brightspace
  • For grading issues, post on Piazza and tag the grader
  • For general questions, you can contact either of us

Continuous improvement!

  • Your feedback is really important throughout the semester
  • I want to know
    • what works
    • what doesn’t
    • any way to improve the class
    • things you want to learn

Required Materials

  • No textbook,
  • Required kit must be purchased from Sparkfun
  • Readings will be available online

Live Zoom Classes

  • Classes are hands-on, building projects related to assignments so attendance is required
  • Be respectful of other students and help each other when possible
  • Participate by typing in the chat, raising hand, and responding with reactions
  • Please have cameras on (DM me if sometimes comes up)

Grading Scale

Item Weight
Assignments 45
Final Project 35
In-Class Labs
In-Class Polls / Participation
Quizzes		 20

Exams

None!

Assignments

  • Assigned weekly and due Sunday at 11:59pm officially (Monday unofficially)
  • Submissions will be on Brightspace and typically include code files as well as video files
  • We can not accept assignments via email
  • Must be well commented and documented for full-credit

Assignment Extra Credit

  • Up to 10% extra credit on each assignment for features beyond the scope of the assignment - May or may not be stated on assignment description
  • Points will be earned based on
    • Rigor (how difficult was the feature to implement)
    • Functionality (does the feature work properly)
    • Applicability (does the feature make sense given the larger assignment)
  • Important: Must describe the extra features in Brightspace submission

Labs

  • Some of our in-class activities will be turned in for credit
  • It will be announced at the start of class when labs are to be turned in
  • Graded on a 0-2 point scale
    • 0 No attempted / minimal effort
    • 1 Significant effort
    • 2 Complete / mostly complete

Quizzes

  • There will be a few quizzes during the semester
  • These will be short (a few questions) and will be announced a week ahead of time
  • There will NOT be any unannounced quizzes

Polls

  • Some classes will begin with poll questions about the recordings for that week
  • Polls are graded on participation and are part of the lab component of your grade

Late Assignment Policy

  • Assignments due Sunday at 11:59pm officially (unofficially accepted Monday at 11:59pm)
  • You have 5 “late days” which may be used for extra time without penalty
  • May be used for one assignment or distributed across several assignments
  • Instructor-granted extensions are only considered after all grace days are used and only given in rare, exceptional situations
  • Important: You must state that you are using a grace day in their Brightspace submission

Late Lab and Poll Policy

  • Since labs are completed in class, they can not be accepted late or made up

Final Project

  • No final exam
  • Final device project and presentation
  • Due during our class exam time

Adding the Course after Week 1

  • You may add the course until the end of week 3

  • However, you should plan on attending from the beginning of the semester

  • If you add after week 1, email the instructor immediately to make a plan to for completing work and learning missed materials

  • All missed work is must completed and submitted according to the syllabus

Academic Integrity

  • No sharing of code
    • Sending another student your code violates academic integrity
    • Should not be working to solve a problem
  • You must be the sole author of your code / device
    • You cannot take code from the internet
    • Any plagiarism in your code is easily detectable
  • If you have questions, we can chat after class or during office hours anytime

Use of AI Generators

  • AI generators such as ChatGPT are powerfully useful tools that have great application in software and engineering
  • However, the purpose of this class is to specifically to develop creative and critical thinking skills as well as practical knowledge of building devices
  • Therefore, using AI-generated tools is prohibited in this course, will be identified as plagiarism, and will be reported to the Office of Academic Integrity

Piazza

  • Website used for class discussions on homework
  • Everyone should have been invited (link posted on Brightspace)
  • Forum monitored by all instructors, graders, LAs
  • No posting of code large sections of code

Useful Resources

USC Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity

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Almost half of all college students will experience severe depression or symptoms of mental illness in college

Student Counseling Center

Trojans Care for Trojans

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Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services (RSVP)

Office of Equity and Diversity

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Trojan Alert

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