Instructor

Prof. L. Felipe Perrone
Office: Dana 321B
Phone: 570-577-1687
E-mail: perrone@bucknell.edu
Office hours: open door or by appointment
Web: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~perrone

If you look at any email communication received from me, you will find my cell number in the signature block. As Uncle Ben said, “With great power, there comes great responsibility.” Feel free to call or message me when you need to, but keep in mind that you may not receive instantaneous responses and that there is likely to be no response between 8pm and 8am. You can use text, WhatsApp, Signal, and Discord for messaging (there is a Discord server for our specific section of this class).

When, Where, and Who

• Tuesday, 1:00pm-2:20pm
• Breakiron 164
• TA Sean O’Connor

Office Hours

You are welcome to drop by my office any time. If I am not otherwise engaged, I’ll be happy to talk to you. If you want to make sure that I am there and available at the time of your need, you can either check my online BMail calendar, call, message, or email to make an appointment.

Values and Commitments

Bucknell University steadfastly affirms our commitment to our students, staff, and faculty. Regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality, gender, gender expression or sexual orientation, religion or belief system, economic status, or ability, you are a values, respected, and essential member of our community. We are all committed to welcoming others in this manner. We will not tolerate mistreatment or disrespect of persons for any reason by members of our community. The College of Engineering strives to offer a safe environment for learning, growth, inquiry, and the respectful sharing of ideas for all.

We have a moral and professional obligation to share the responsibility of always treating each other with respect and dignity, even when we disagree. However, we will not question or leave room for disagreement about the value of different human beings. We investigate and solve problems, sometimes very challenging ones. An important method for such investigations and solutions is through the exploration of ideas in conjunction with the unquestioned support and value of individuals. We can all engage in such processes when we feel comfortable and safe as members of a community.

Your suggestions to help the University meet this commitment are encouraged and appreciated. If something occurs in class that makes you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me about it. Other resources for you include your instructors, department chairs, and Associate Deans Terri Norton (trn005@bucknell.edu) and Rich Robbins (rlr024@bucknell.edu). Instead of or additionally, you may file a bias incident report using this link. This report may be filed anonymously if you so choose. The College of Engineering commits to working alongside students expressing concerns and/or making reports to empower them in any follow-up actions and to ensure that they are protected from repercussions of any kind.

Professionally, we adhere to ACM’s Code of Ethics. More broadly, a course like Operating Systems involves group and class discussion. Computer science has a checkered history with respect to inclusion – in corporate environments, in our classrooms, and in the products we create. We strive to promote characteristics of transparency and inclusivity that reflect what we hope our field becomes (and not necessarily what it has been or is now).

We reject behaviors that stray into discrimination, racism, or harassment. Such behavior (whether verbal, written, or through actions) may relate to others’ race, gender, faith, or sexual orientation, among virtually innumerable professionally irrelevant characteristics (e.g., religion, [dis]ability, age, etc.); sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, disruption of meetings, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

If you believe someone is violating these principles (for example, with a joke that could be interpreted as sexist, racist, or exclusionary), please feel empowered to speak up. If the behavior persists, send a private email to your instructor to explain the situation. While we will preserve anonymity when possible, also be aware that we are required by law to report incidents of sexual misconduct or relationship violence. 

You may also contact Bias Incident Reporting at https://www.bucknell.edu/life-bucknell/health-wellness-safety/bias-incident-policy

We are here for you. Life can be full of uncertainties and hardships. You may find yourself in tough situations such as being sick, having to care for someone who is sick, having a hard time coping with a personal crisis, or even facing food insecurity. If you find yourself in a predicament that is weighing on you, please get in touch with us. We will work with you to make the accommodations necessary to help you out and we will try our best to help you. Please believe that we are invested in supporting you.

Course Objectives

This course will help students develop a broad understanding of the areas of computer networking and security. Our primary objectives are to:

1. Apply and expand on the knowledge gained in CSCI 306 Computer Systems, more specifically Unix systems programming in C,
2. Understand the architecture of computer networks software,
3. Understand how to develop networked applications using UDP and TCP sockets,
4. Understand the main principles of computer and network security.

Course Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand a network protocol from documentation such as an RFC.
• Create networked applications that communicate using the UDP and TCP protocols.
• Create customized application-level protocols.
• Understand fundamental properties of computer security, such as authentication, authorization, data confidentiality, and data integrity.

Learning Materials

A variety of articles and other written materials will be shared through Google Classroom. No textbooks are required for this course.

Course Grade Distribution

Course grades will be assigned only at the end of the semester. Throughout the semester, you can monitor the Moodle grade book to track your progress. 

• 60% Assignments (aka. Labs)
• 30% Quizzes 
• 10% Engagement

Final letter grades will be assigned at the end of the semester according to the following scale:

A >= 93% [Superior achievement]

A- >= 90% [Outstanding]

B+ >= 87%, B >= 83%, B- >= 80% [High Pass; Above Average]

C+ >= 77%, C >= 73%, C- >= 70% [Average work; Satisfactory]

D >= 60% [Low Pass]

F < 60% [Unsatisfactory]

Academic Engagement

How do you comport yourself in class meetings? How do you view your responsibilities in the learning process? Are you making efforts to learn from this opportunity or are you just trying to get by? Do you constrain yourself to the material that is given to you or do you make efforts to go beyond and learn the most you can? Do you complete assigned readings or do you ignore them? How are your interactions with your classmates in class meetings and in team work?

The questions above are a non-exhaustive list of inquiries that lead one to understand how engaged you are in a course. Google Classroom will have an item on the grade book that may fluctuate throughout the semester to reflect the instructor’s assessment of your level of engagement. Drawing from the non-exhaustive list below, you will have assignments to demonstrate your engagement with the material in this class.:

• Listening to a podcast episode; 
• Reading an article on a topic of your choice;
• Attending a talk on campus or a webinar;
• Making a contribution to a specific class meeting (talk to the instructor in advance);
• Other ideas previously approved by the instructor.

Each engagement assignment completed by the posted deadline will account for roughly one-third of a letter grade and will require you to turn in on Google Classroom a 400-500 word summary with a hyperlink to the source.

Bucknell courses that receive half a unit of academic credit have a minimum expectation of 6 hours per week of academic engagement. Student academic engagement includes both the hours of direct faculty instruction (or its equivalent) and the hours spent on out of class student work. 

You should watch this video, which is a collection of real-life moments in the life of a computer science professor. Please, do your very best to not be that person.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory and will be taken at the start of the class period. Unexcused absences will have an impact on the student’s final grade. If you are experiencing health problems please understand that you should not come to class: we all have a shared responsibility to each other to avoid the dissemination of transmissible diseases. Be sure to notify the instructor if you must be absent for any reason.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

If you are in doubt as to whether you are using AI appropriately in this course, I encourage you to meet with me for a conversation. In this class, we expect that all the work you turn in will be of your authorship. That said, we understand that there is material that may come from Unix manual pages, especially “boiler plate” code used in examples. If there is ever an opportunity where the submission of work developed with an AI is permissible, I will state it explicitly in the assignment.

Academic Responsibility

I will take the principles of Academic Responsibility very seriously. Proper credit must be given to any sources uses in papers and presentations whether the sources are on-line or in-print. Unsolicited reading or copying of other student or faculty files is as wrong as looking at or removing papers from a student or faculty member’s desk. It is the faculty’s role to report acts of academic misconduct the Board of Review on Academic Responsibility. Students are expected to read and abide by the principles explained in the Student Handbook.

If you have any question in regards to whether an action might be a violation of these rules of an assignment, be sure to consult me right away. If you are struggling at any point, talk to me to seek help or accommodations.  

Bucknell University Honor Code

As a student and citizen of the Bucknell University community: 

1. I will not lie, cheat, or steal in my academic endeavors.
2. I will forthrightly oppose each and every instance of academic dishonesty.
3. I will let my conscience guide my decision to communicate directly with any person or persons I believe to have been dishonest in academic work.
4. I will let my conscience guide my decision on reporting breaches of academic integrity to the appropriate faculty or deans.

Mental Health

In this classroom and on Bucknell’s campus we support mental health efforts. Any student who is struggling and believes this may impact their performance in the course is encouraged to contact their instructor, academic advisor, Associate Academic Dean, or the Dean of Students for support. Please feel free to approach your instructor, if you are comfortable in doing so, which will enable them to provide resources and support. If immediate mental health assistance is needed, call the Counseling & Student Development Center at 570-577-1604 (available 24/7).

Student-Athletes

If you are a student-athlete, remember that you are a student first and an athlete second. This means that academic work is your first priority. As per University rules, you will not be penalized for being away to take part in athletic events. It is your responsibility, however, to manage your time wisely so that you can do well in this and in your other classes. Please make sure to notify the instructors well in advance of your travel schedule and plan ahead to meet the deadlines for your assignments.

Access Statement

Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the Office of Accessibility Resources at oar@bucknell.edu, who will coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

Religious Holidays

Accommodations for religious holidays are made on an individual and case-by-case basis unless otherwise notified. Any student who may need accommodation due to a religious holiday should request such accommodation by the end of the second week of the semester.