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Performance Evaluation, Winter 2010
Course Information and Syllabus

Assignments

Lecture Notes


Instructor:

Catherine Durso
(email cdurso"AT"cs"DOT"du"DOT"edu)
Office:106 John Greene Hall, University of Denver, 303 871 3598
Virtual Office Hours: 7:30-9:30pm M, 7:30-9:30am T,1:00pm-3:00 F (alternate telephone: 303 765 4335)

About This Course

Performance Evaluation presents aspects of probability and statistics that are important to software engineering. Examples will be drawn from computer science and electrical engineering, but will not require detailed knowledge of those fields.

The material depends heavily on high school algebra, including log and exponential functions. Familiarity with basic differential and integral calculus will greatly facilitate understanding the material. We will review relevant concepts as necessary.

Problem sets and exams will be primarily pencil-and-paper exercises, rather that programming assignments.


Course Meeting Times

The lecture is held 5:00-8:50 pm on Tuesdays, Jan. 12- Mar. 9.


Texts

Probability and Statistics with Reliability, Queuing and Computer Science Applications, ed. 2, Kishor S. Trivedi, ISBN 0-471-33341-7 (this text has many examples and considerable theoretical content. We will emphasize the examples.)

Quantitative System Performance, Lazowska, Zahorian, Graham, Sevcik, available as a free download from Edward D. Lazowska's webpage.

Syllabus

We will begin with some applications of probability thoery to computer systems analysis, as found in chapters 1-6 of Lazowska. This will motivate chapters 1-5 of Trivedi, which we will cover with emphasis on applications. Introductory material from chapters 6-11 will be studied as time and students' interest dictate.


Grading

Grades in this course will be calculated as follows:
homework10% each (4 assigned)
in-class midterm30% (Feb. 16)
take-home final30%

Collaboration and Academic Honesty

When you turn in work in this course, you are implicitly agreeing that you have followed the rules for collaboration set forth for that assignment. In general,


Guidelines for Presentation of Homework Assignments and the Take-home Final

You may certainly type your solutions, however, handwriting is accepted as long as I find it to be readable, understandable and organized. Please turn in paper copies in class on the due date.


Notes

Assignments

Assignment 1, due Tuesday, January 26 at 5:00pm: Assignment 2, due Tuesday, February 9 at 5:00pm: Assignment 3, due Tuesday, February 23 at 5:00pm: Assignment 4, due Tuesday,March 9 at 5:00pm: Takehome Final, parts 1 and 2, please note the changes in problem 2 in class questions