CS 361 Concurrent Programming - Syllabus

Term and Credits

Fall 2026-2027
3 Credits

Room and Time

Section 001 - MW 3:00PM-4:20PM Prof. Boady [3675 Market Street Room TBD]
Section 002 - MW 4:30PM-5:50PM Prof. Boady [3675 Market Street Room TBD]

Instructor

Mark Boady
Electronic Mail Address: mwb33@drexel.edu
Office: 3675 Market Street Room 1063 (near snack machine)
Office Hours: Monday 2-3PM, Wednesday 2-3PM, Thursday 2-4PM

Course Assistant(s)

Anthony Mattei
Electronic Mail Address: agm85@drexel.edu
Office: CLC (3675 Market Street room 1066)
Office Hours: Tuesday 4:00-6:00PM and Thursday 12:00PM-12:00PM

Course Description

Covers programming of concurrent, cooperating sequential processes. Studies race conditions, critical sections, mutual exclusion, process synchronization, semaphores, monitors, message passing, the rendezvous, deadlock, and starvation.

Course Objective and Goals

1. Acquaint you with the general principles of concurrent programming and the concepts and basic algorithms for cooperating sequential processes and threads such as locks, semaphores, condition variables, lock-free techniques, and message passing. The course expects students to attain proficiency with the terminology of concurrent programming.
2. Handle the more practical aspects of developing correct and efficient multi-threaded or multi-process programs in a variety of languages while doing applied problem-solving. This is a balance between having the time to learn idiomatic programming and software development in a primary language and being able to develop generalized expertise that can be transferred to work in multiple languages. Students are expected to be able to design and implement multithreaded concurrent programs that require significant amounts of control and coordination between threads, while achieving good performance in multicore/multiprocessor environments.
3. Achieving "deeper understanding": Being able to talk about concurrency situations using abstraction and abstract (formal logic) reasoning. Knowing enough about the subject to be able to transfer your learning to new situations: new problems, different programming languages, or using reading experimentation and reflection to grow your learning as concurrent technology evolves. Establishing correctness and good performance for concurrent programs can confound efforts without such understanding since matters can often be much more complicated than in sequential programs.

Topics

1. Computer architecture concepts that support concurrency: review of threads, and processes.
2. Shared Memory with multi-threaded computation: Race Conditions, Mutual Exclusion with locks.
3. Proof techniques for correctness.
4. Semaphores
5. Classic Concurrency Problems
6. Conditional Variables
7. Multi-process or distributed concurrency through message passing.
8. Concurrent and parallel performance

Audience and Purpose within Plan of Study

This class is targeted at students who want a fundament

Prerequisites
This subject benefits from the abilities to creatively use the software development and mathematical tools that students know as advanced undergraduates: CS260 (minimum Grade D), CS281 (minimum Grade D) or CS283, or equivalents, CS 270 (logic and proof from Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science).

What Students Should Know Prior to this Course

1. Knowledge of a low level programming language (C, assembly, etc)
2. Some experience with a Object Oriented Language (C++, Java, etc)
3. A basic understanding of how the OS switches between processes
4. Experience with Logical reasoning and Proofs

What Students will be able to do upon Successfully Completing this Course

1. Students will be able to design, implement, and test multi-threaded applications that meet performance and correctness expectations for good quality, and be able to transfer such expertise to new languages.
2. Students will be able to write applications in which threads or processes coordinate in the presence of dependencies, and be able to transfer such expertise to new languages.
3. Students will be able to prove the correctness of simple concurrent algorithms using logic and through model checking, and be able to transfer such expertise to new languages.
4. Students will be able to assess performance and make appropriate design and implementation decisions for multi-threaded or multi-process programs, and be able to transfer such expertise to additional programming languages.
5. Students should also be able to extend their knowledge about concurrency incrementally in a straightforward fashion, having acquired the fundamental building blocks for understanding and learning about concurrency in this course.
6. Students will be able to communicate their explanations and justifications for their concurrent programs effectively to others with a comparable background.

Textbook

C++ Concurrency in Action (Second Edition)
Author: Anthony Williams
Published: February 10, 2019
ISBN-10: 1617294691
ISBN-13: 978-1617294693
Buy from Amazon
Online Edition from Manning

Recommended Supplemental Material

Tour of C++ (3rd Edition)
Author: Bjarne Stroustrup
Published: September 24, 2022
ISBN-10: 136816487
ISBN-13: 978-0136816485
Buy from Amazon
Online From Drexel Library

Grading and Policies

• Reflections: 10%
• Homework Assignments: 60%
• Midterm Assessment: 15%
• Final Assessment: 15%

Final grades will be determined by your total points weighted according to this distribution. Grades may be curved but are generally computed via the formula below. It may be modified at the instructor's sole discretion, but letter grades will generally not be lower than those shown here.

• [100-97]A+
• (97-93] A
• (93-90]A-
• (90-87]B+
• (87-83] B
• (83-80]B-
• [80-77]C+
• (77-73] C
• (73-70]C-
• (70-67]D+
• (67-60]D
• (60-0]F

Course Material

Late Policy

• Assignments/Readings
  • You may submit Assignments/Readings at a penalty for a few days.
  • Penalties:
    1. -5% 1 day late
    2. -10% 2 days late
    3. -15% 3 days late
    4. -20% 4 days late
    5. -25% 5 days late
    6. -30% 6 days late
    7. -35% 7 days late
    8. Not Accepted after 7 days or 11:59PM on 12/8/26 whichever comes first
• Late Passes
  • We understand that sometimes unforeseen circumstances will effect your life.
  • Each student is allowed 2 Late Passes.
  • Using a Late Pass will remove a 1 day penalty from any assignment or reading.
  • To use a late pass: send a message to your TA or Professor informing them that you want to use a pass and what assignment to apply it for.
  • The Professor/TA must be informed before the original deadline for the assignment/reading. (2 minutes before the deadline is fine!)
• Special Exceptions: In exceptional circumstances, the Professor may waive additional penalties or accept work past the cut-off. Please message the Professor directly to request a special exception. Documentation (Doctor Note, Police Report, Athletics Approval, etc) is generally preferred.
• Family Friendly Policy: We understand that some students have family obligations. If you need to miss class for a family emergency please use the Special Exceptions policy. Small children are allowed in class, but please do your best to keep classroom distruptions to a minimum.

Academic Honesty Policy

The CCI Academic Honesty policy is in effect for this course. Please see the policy at http://drexel.edu/cci/resources/current-students/undergraduate/policies/cs-academic-integrity/.

Academic Honesty Violations will be reported to the University. Punishment will be determined by the severity of the incident. Punishments include, but are not limited to,

• Failing grade for class
• Deduction of one letter grade
• Zero on Assignment/Exam Violation took place on

PERMITTED USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS IN THIS COURSE:
Artificial intelligence tools such as large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) must be cited when preparing submitted work for this course. Further information on university policies regarding the use of artificial intelligence tools in the classroom is available in the Draft Drexel University Policy on Academic Integrity Pertaining to Artificial Intelligence.
AI tools should be used to support your design and development. Deductions may be applied if large portions of solutions are developed by AI.
Artificial intelligence tools may be used as study aids. They may be used to help prepare for tests, study material, or learn about topics. They may not be used to generate any code/answers that are submitted for credit.

Components

Lectures

Lectures will be recorded by Echo 360 for later reference, but attendence is expected. If a lecture is not recorded due to technical problems, it will not be recreated.

Reflection Essay

Each week you will need to write a short reflection on the topics you learned the week.

Homework Assignments

There will be one homework assignment per week. It will normally contain multiple components. Some programming and some written.

Assessments

There will be two self assessments. You will answer a series of essay questions about content in the class so far. You will propose a letter grade for your progress and skill on the material.

Extra Credit

In this course, we value the course survey results. It is important for you to receive grades so you can determine how you are performing in class. We also want to know how we are doing. The course survey is our most important tool for determining how the students feel about the class. We also understand that completing the survey takes time and effort. Due to the importance of the course survey, extra credit will be provided to those students who complete it and provide evidence it has been completed. The extra credit will be 1 point added to the final grade for the class. This will take place at the end of the term.

University Policies
In addition to the course policies listed on this syllabus, course assignments or course website, the following University policies are in effect:

• Computer/Software Help provided by iCommons: https://drexel.edu/cci/current-students/icommons/
• Academic Integrity: https://drexel.edu/studentlife/community-standards/code-of-conduct/academic-integrity-policy
• Academic Integrity Pertaining to Artificial Intelligence: https://drexel.edu/provost/policies-calendars/policies/academic_integrity_artificial_intelligence/
• Academic Integrity Conduct Process: https://drexel.edu/studentlife/community-standards/code-of-conduct/academic-integrity-policy/conduct-process
• Official Final Exam Schedule: http://www.drexel.edu/registrar/scheduling/exams/
• Students with Disability Statement: https://drexel.edu/disability-resources/support-accommodations/student-family-resources
• Course Drop Policy: https://drexel.edu/provost/policies-calendars/policies/course-add-drop/
• Drexel Student Learning Priorities: https://drexel.edu/institutionalresearch/assessment/outcomes/dslp/
• The instructor may, at his/her/their discretion, change any part of the course during the term, including assignments, grade brakdowns, due-dates, and the schedule. Such changes will be communicated to students via the course web site Announcements page. This page should be checked regularly and frequently for such changes and announcements. Other announcements, although rare, may include class cancellations and other urgent announcements.

CCI Culture and Community Statement

CCI's Commitment to Culture and Community The College of Computing and Informatics commits to creating a positive and safe learning environment for everyone - instructors, professional staff, and students - both inside and outside of the classroom. We embrace the wide range of thoughts, perspectives, and experiences that each community member brings, and we honor everyone's unique identity and lived experience. We encourage each community member to share information and feedback that will assist instructors and staff in fostering a supportive and inclusive community environment. For more information about CCI's commitment to culture and community, visit Culture & Community Council | Drexel CCI

Appropriate Use of Course Materials

It is important to recognize that some or all of the course materials provided to you are the intellectual property of Drexel University, the course instructor, or others. Use of this intellectual property is governed by Drexel University policies, including the IT-1 policy found at: https://drexel.edu/it/about/policies/policies/01-Acceptable-Use/
Briefly, this policy states that all course materials including recordings provided by the given prior written approval by the University. Doing so may be considered a breach of this policy and will be investigated and addressed as possible academic dishonesty, among other potential violations. Improper use of such materials may also constitute a violation of the University's Code of Conduct found at: https://drexel.edu/studentlife/community-standards/code-of-conduct and will be investigated as such.

Recording of Class Activities:

In general, students and others should not record course interactions and course activities in lecture, lab, studio or recitation.
Students who have an approved accommodation from the Office of Disability Resources to record online lectures and discussions for note taking purposes should inform their course instructor(s) of their approved accommodation in advance. The recording of lectures and discussions may only be carried out by the students enrolled in the class who have an approved accommodation from Disability Resources with their instructors' prior knowledge and consent. Students with approved accommodations may be asked to turn off their recorder if confidential or personal information is presented.
If a student has any comments, concerns, or questions about provided class materials and/ or recording, talk to your course instructor first. If this does not resolve the issue, you can also reach out to the Department Head, and use the process described for a grade appeal to move your concern forward. The process described for grade appeals can be found at: https://drexel.edu/provost/policies-calendars/policies/grade-appeals/

Tentative Course Schedule

Please see the appropriate assignment webpages for a detailed description of course deliverables.