Student Projects in the Course Data StructuresHristina Mihajloska

Outline

•About the course Data Structures•Student Projects in Java•Gains and Conclusion

About the course Data Structures•Big team for a large number of students

▫Lectures Ana Madevska-Bogdanova Anastas Mishev

▫Auditory exercises Boro Jakimovski Magdalena Kostoska

▫Laboratory exercises Hristina Mihajloska Panche Ribarski

About the course Data Structures•Weekly schedule:

▫2 hours – lectures ▫3 hours – auditory exercises▫3 hours – laboratory exercises (in computer

laboratory)•Practice:

▫laboratory groups up to 20 students•Projects:

▫two compulsorily practical single-handed projects

Assumed Background

•Student has taken the course Object-oriented Programming

•Knowledgeable about▫Java language basics▫Object-oriented design▫Recursion

Grading Information

•Two theory exams: 30%•Two practical exams: 30%•Assignments: 20%•Projects: 20%•Class participation: 5% (bonus)

Course Objectives

•Learning some of the common data structures

•Different ways for their implementation•Ability for analyzing the complexity of

algorithms which use data structures• Using data structures for solving

practical problems

Course Topics

•Algorithm complexity•Fundamental Data Structures•Abstract Data Types•Stacks and Queues•Hash Tables•Trees•Priority queues and Heaps•Sorting•Search trees

Course Difficulties

•Student perspective▫practical exams much harder then weekly

assignments

Course Difficulties

•Teacher perspective▫few of the students could pass practical

exams

•Solution▫Implementing single-handed student

project one week before every practical exam (during course semester)

Student Projects

•Goals▫good preparation for practical exam▫to improve analytical reasoning and

programming skills▫to distinguish which data structure to be

used in practical problem

Student Projects

•For every project exists three levels of complexity which are graded differently

•Students are asked to choose one of them and find a solution in given time▫no points for programs that do not compile

Student Projects•First level (easiest)

▫Identification of the data structure in the practical problem

▫It is obvious•Second level (middle)

▫Students have to combine two data structures to solve the problem

•Third level (hardest)▫ To build a new data structure which is combination

of data structures covered by the material ▫ To implement it in a different way

Examples•Third-level project

▫Write an implementation for data structure Bag as a Java class, which is similar to a set, but it may contain several instances of the same member. For example, {'to', 'be', 'or', 'not', 'to', 'be'} is a bag of words, which is equal to {'be', 'be', 'not', 'or', 'to', 'to'} (since order of members is insignificant), but is unequal to {'be', 'not', 'or', 'to'} (since the number of instances is significant). Adding (removing) a member increases (decreases) the number of instances in the bag by one. The member is deleted from the bag when it has no instances . . .

Examples•Third-level project . . .

▫Design a bag ADT. Provide set-like operations, including bag union and bag subsumption (but not bag intersection or difference). In addition, provide an operation that returns the number of instances of a given member.

▫How would you represent a bag without actually storing multiple instances of the same member?

▫Implement a bag ADT using a sorted array▫Implement a bag ADT using a sorted SLL

Examples

•Middle-level project▫One arithmetic expression is given within

an xml file. Process this xml file and put it in an adequate structure. The structure should enable evaluation of the expression. For a given xml file find the value of the expression. . . .

Student Projects

•Gains▫increased the number of students that

passed practical exams▫conceptual and concrete ways to organize

data for efficient storage and efficient manipulation

▫make use of data structures in the design of efficient algorithms

Conclusion

•We got good programming solutions for the given problems

•Good students like this way of teaching

•If students did their projects alone, they are well prepared for practical exams

Thank you for your attention