H61ICP Coursework

Introduction to Computer Engineering

14/11/2014
1. Coursework Summary
Deliverables
1. C Program.
You are required to write a program in C to read in a file of students module marks and make a
recommendation as to the type of postgraduate qualification to award (i.e., MSc; Postgraduate Diploma)
and classification (i.e., Distinction; Merit or Pass) and classification to be provided. The detailed
requirements are in Annex A.
2. Documentation.
You are required to write brief technical documentation:
a. User Documentation.
This is a short explanation of how to use the program from a nonprogrammers perspective. (Guideline
length: 3 pages).
b. Technical Documentation.
This is documentation that will provide the flowchart, list of key functions, data structures, testing
(Guideline length: 12 pages)
NB. Page length excludes preamble( ie., title page, contents list etc).
Input File
The input filename will be studentResults.dat. It is an ASCII text file with comma separated variables. A
sample of the input file is in Annex C.
Output file
A tabulated text file listing the students in: (i) order of decreasing merit by
their id number.
2. Coursework Submission Format
a) The deadline for submission is Friday 12th December 2014.

b) The official time of submission is the time recorded by Moodle for the submission.
c) Submission of coursework is to be online through Moodle consisting of three files:

A .pdf file named <Saturn_id_Number>.pdf.

This file will contain your documentation.

An .exe file named <Saturn_id_Number>.exe

This is your executable file that must run on C-Free.

A .zip file name <Saturn_id_Number>.zip

This is a zipped file of all your C source code and test data files (testInput.dat and
testOutput.dat)

For example a student with Saturn_id. UNIMKL-010751, will name the three files as follows:
Example:
010751.pdf
010751.exe
010751.zip
3. Penalties
a) Late submission will incur a penalty of 5% points for each working day late.
ADVICE: It is strongly advised that you upload the three files several hours before the deadline.
4. Marking Scheme (out of 100)
a) Documentation [Total 20 marks]
i. User Documentation [10 marks]
ii. Technical Documentation [10 marks]
b) C Program Design [Total 40 marks]
i. Use of functions defined [10 marks]
ii. Use of appropriate data structures [10 marks]
iii. Overall program design [10 marks]

iv. Ease of maintenance (eg. Elegance,comments, choice of identifiers) [10 marks]

c) Robustness [Total 20 marks]
i. Checking for invalid fields in input file [5 marks]
ii. Checking for marks out of range [5 marks]
iii. Checking for non-printable/corrupted input file [5 marks]
iv. Use of suitable type qualifiers [5 marks]
d) Correct program output [Total 20 marks]
i. MSc with Distinction
ii. MSc with Merit
iii. MSc Pass
iv. Postgraduate Diploma
v. Fail
5. Design Considerations
As part of your program design you may consider the following:
1. How would you read in the input file fields, as a string or as numbers?
2. What data structure would you use to store the data for each student?
3. How would you deal with unexpected entries in the input file?
4. What function will you declare and defined?
5. Will you use qualifiers such as const or static when declaring your variables?
6. What type of control structures will you use?
7. How will you sort the output?

ANNEX A: Requirements Specification

Introduction
This annex represents the user requirements.
Award of Credits

The pass mark for a module comprising part of a Masters, Postgraduate Diploma or
Postgraduate Certificate programme is 50%. The modules are listed in Annex B: Course Modules
Structure.
A student who passes the module will be awarded the credit for that module. A student who
fails to pass a module may nevertheless be awarded the credit for that module in the
circumstances set out in Regulations 11 below.

Completion of a stage
The MSc program consists of a taught stage (semester 1 & 2) and a project stage (semester 3).
A student who fails one or more modules for the taught stage of the course will still complete
that stage and so be awarded the total credit for that stage provided that:

they have passed modules worth at least 80 credits (or 60 credits for Postgraduate
Diploma, or 40 credits for students on Postgraduate Certificate courses), and

they have a weighted average for the taught stage of at least 50% with no module marks of
less than 40% (i.e., no hard fails)

module marks for up to 20 credits can be below 40% and be compensated if the student
has passed modules worth at least 80 credits and has a weighted average of at least 50%.

Awards
A student will only receive a Masters award if they have successfully completed both the
taught and dissertation/project stages of their course resulting in the award of 180 credits. A
student who does not successfully complete the dissertation/project stage will be awarded a
Postgraduate Diploma if they have gained a pass mark of 50% or more in taught modules worth 120
credits.

For the award of a Postgraduate Diploma the final credit-weighted mark is calculated from the best 120
credits of modules. This may include the project module H54MSP.

Classification
Postgraduate Masters and Diploma will be awarded a Pass who achieve a final
credit-weighted mark of at least 50%.
Postgraduate Masters will be awarded a Pass and with Merit to students who
achieve a final credit-weighted mark of at least 60% and with Distinction to students who achieve
a final credit-weighted mark of at least 70%. In addition the following are required where the
project module is assessed in the final credit-weighted mark:
(a) a mark of at least 70% must be gained in the project stage for a Distinction to be awarded.
(b) a mark of at least 60% must be gained in the project stage for a Merit to be awarded.

Marks awarded on re-assessment do not contribute to the final mark for the purpose of
awarding Merits and Distinctions in Regulation above; instead the mark gained on the first
attempt at the module will be used. Marks awarded on re-assessment will, however, count towards
attaining a Pass in the course overall.

Rounding
When the overall weighted average mark has been computed, it should be rounded into a single
overall integer mark, before a classification is assigned.
Rounding means that any mark of x.5 and decimal fractions above, becomes the next highest
integer e.g. 69.5 is rounded to 70, 59.5 to 60, and so on. Decimal fractions below x.5 are rounded
to the next lowest integer e.g. 69.4 is rounded to 69. For the purposes of rounding, only the first
decimal place is used. Following the rounding convention set out above, overall marks of 39.5, 49.5,
59.5, and 69.5 will be rounded to 40, 50, 60 & 70 respectively.

Annex B: Course Modules Structure

Annex C: Input File format