In 2023, this course is on campus with remote adjustments only for participants with unavoidable travel restrictions/visa delays.
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of software development with a substantial group software project at its center. Major foci are data structures, object oriented programming, and an introduction to software engineering. Students will extend their understanding of software productivity tools, using revision control for group work, and be introduced to test-driven development as an integral part of software construction.
Students will be introduced to an industrial strength object oriented programming language, extending their understanding of the imperative programming paradigm with a solid grounding in object oriented programming. Inheritance, polymorphism, and parametric types are taught, as well as concepts such as boxing and auto boxing. The important role of standard libraries and their collection types will be emphasized. GUI programming will be introduced.
The course includes a deeper treatment of data structures, using hash tables, trees and lists, which are used to provide concrete implementations of abstract library collection types. The theory of data structures and their time and space complexity will thus be tied to the practice of using standard collections such as those offered by object oriented languages.
The foundations of software engineering including: major development paradigms (such as big plan up front, agile, and formal methods), risk are introduced.
The Advanced version of this course covers these topics in more depth, allowing students to deepen their understanding and experience.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply fundamental programming concepts, using an object oriented programming language, to solve substantial problems
- Understand basic types and the benefits of static typing for object oriented programs
- Distinguish language definition from implementation, syntax and parsing from semantics and evaluation, understand how program state maps to memory (globals, local, heap), and understand the implications of heap reachability for memory management
- Develop, understand, test, and evolve substantial programs using a modern IDE, and associated configuration tools; understand common coding errors and how to avoid them; practice fundamental defensive programming; perform individual and team program reviews; use established design principles to organize a software system
- Use, implement, and evaluate fundamental data structures and associated algorithms; create, implement, debug, and evaluate algorithms for solving substantial problems, including recursively, using divide-and-conquer, and via decomposition; implement an abstract data type
- Apply basic algorithmic analysis to simple algorithms; use appropriate algorithmic approaches to solve problems (brute-force, divide-and-conquer, recursive backtracking, heuristic)
- Understand the basics of event-driven programming, and its use in constructing GUIs
- Deliver and evaluate basic technical documents, presentations, and group interactions, using appropriate tools
Indicative Assessment
Individual Assignment (5%), Group Assignment (25%), 2 Lab Tests (20%), Final Exam (50%)
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
Thirty one-hour lectures and eight two-hour tutorial/laboratory sessionsRequisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Horstmann, Cay Big Java , Wiley, 4th Edition, 2010 - recommended reading
Areas of Interest
- Business Information Systems
- Digital Arts
- Bioinformatics
- Computer Science
- Information Technology
- Software Engineering
- Advanced Computing
- Information Systems
- Human Centred Computing
- Information - Intensive Computing
- Intelligent Systems
- Software Development
- Algorithms and Data
- Artifical Intelligence
- Computer Systems
- Computer Engineering
- Computational Foundations
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2023 | $4860 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2023 | $6180 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
First Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2819 | 20 Feb 2023 | 27 Feb 2023 | 31 Mar 2023 | 26 May 2023 | In Person | View |
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5117 | 24 Jul 2023 | 31 Jul 2023 | 31 Aug 2023 | 27 Oct 2023 | In Person | View |
