Introduction to Computer Organization & Systems

Learning goal: understanding risks associated with integer representations in real-world software, discussing the ACM Code of Ethics and responsibilities of engineers

Description: The assignment is the first in an introduction to systems course. It covers bits, bytes and overflow, continuing students’ introduction to bitwise and arithmetic operations. Following the saturating arithmetic problem, we added a case study analysis about the Ariane-5 rocket launch failure. This provided students with a vivid illustration of the potential consequences of overflows as well as an opportunity to reflect on their responsibilities as engineers.

Contains: Starter Code, Assignment Handout, Ethics Video, Ethics slides, Explainer

Learning goal: understanding documentation as part of the role of a responsible computer scientist and engineer

Description: When functions have assumptions, limitations or flaws, it is vital that the documentation makes those clear. Without documentation, developers don’t have the information they need to make good decisions when writing their programs. We added a documentation component to a C string assignment. Students write a manual page for the skan_token function they have implemented, learning responsible documentation practice as they go.

Contains: Starter code, Assignment Handout

Learning goal:

Description: This assignment is about void * and generics. We added a case study about responsible disclosure and partiality. Students read a summary of researcher Dan Kaminsky’s discovery of a DNS vulnerability and answer questions about his decisions regarding disclosure of vulnerabilities as well as their views on partiality.

Contains: Starter Code, Assignment Handout, 2 Short Ethics Videos, 2 Short Ethics Slides, Ethics Explainer Handout

Learning goals: Understanding theories of privacy and their application, exploring the relationship between privacy and trust, assuming the role of the ethical penetration tester

Description: This assignment is about assembly, reverse engineering, security, privacy and trust. It cast students as security researchers examining the vulnerabilities of a SecureVault banking database. As they do so, they also learn about differential privacy, discovering that aggregating datasets of information about the bank’s customers can lead to surprising discoveries about the customers.

Contains: Starter Code, Assignment handout, Ethics video, Ethics Slides, Ethics Explainer Handout

Learning goal: Allocate responsibility for lethal mistakes in a complex software development process, explore regulation of software for high-stakes uses

Topic: Responsibilities of Engineers, Policy/Regulation

Description: This lab, the last of the course, asks students to discuss the case of Therac-25, a medical device that delivered lethal radiation due to a race condition.

Contains: Assignment handout