News

Graded Schein Upgrade Option

Written on 25.10.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,
 
thanks for taking this HOD iteration.
 
For those of you that have passed the course and want to have a graded Schein, here is the promised pragmatic upgrade option: Participate in the exam of the current (Winter 22/23) iteration, which is more difficult but therefore… Read more
Dear HOD students,
 
thanks for taking this HOD iteration.
 
For those of you that have passed the course and want to have a graded Schein, here is the promised pragmatic upgrade option: Participate in the exam of the current (Winter 22/23) iteration, which is more difficult but therefore leads to a grade. If you pass, your HOD21/22 Schein without a grade can be replaced with a HOD22/23 Schein with the achieved grade.
 
Having passed this (Winter 21/22) iteration, you are already qualified for the exam. In this case, your personal status page now has a registration for the "Graded Exam". Please use this if you want to participate. The exam date is going to be announced in the next weeks.
 
Best regards
The HOD Team

Oral Re-Exam Registration

Written on 05.05.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

due to the small number of potential participants, the re-exam is an oral one. Therefore, we created several slots for which you can register on your student status page. The selection works "first come, first serve" and opens on May 06th at 10:00 and closes one week before the… Read more

Dear HOD students,

due to the small number of potential participants, the re-exam is an oral one. Therefore, we created several slots for which you can register on your student status page. The selection works "first come, first serve" and opens on May 06th at 10:00 and closes one week before the exam on May 24th.

Best regards
The HOD Team

Exam Results and Inspection

Written on 04.05.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

The results of the exam are now available on your Personal Status page.

The exam inspection will take place next Monday (09.05.) between 9:30 and 10:00 in room 532 building E1.3.

Best regards,
Your HOD Team

Q&A Session

Written on 05.04.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

Due to some scheduling issues, the Q&A Session today unfortunately did not take place as planned. We are sorry that we did not inform you earlier. To compensate, we would like to offer you an alternative Q&A Session taking place tomorrow between 10:30 to 11:30.

You can also… Read more

Dear HOD students,

Due to some scheduling issues, the Q&A Session today unfortunately did not take place as planned. We are sorry that we did not inform you earlier. To compensate, we would like to offer you an alternative Q&A Session taking place tomorrow between 10:30 to 11:30.

You can also ask questions via e-mail at all times.

Best regards,
Your HOD Team

Final Exam Seating and Further Information

Written on 04.04.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

You will now find the seating plan for the exam in the dCMS on your personal status page. In case you have not been assigned a seat and think you should have, please contact us immediately.

The examination starts on Thursday (07.04.) at 14:10, please arrive at the lecture hall… Read more

Dear HOD students,

You will now find the seating plan for the exam in the dCMS on your personal status page. In case you have not been assigned a seat and think you should have, please contact us immediately.

The examination starts on Thursday (07.04.) at 14:10, please arrive at the lecture hall at 14:03 at the latest. The exam will take 90 minutes and you will not need any additional materials besides a pen, your student id, and the required certificates regarding Covid.

Furthermore, we are required by University regulations to again inform you about the following Covid related regulations:

As the precondition to enter Saarland University is to comply with the 3G rule, this is also the precondition to participate in the exam. This may be checked by the University’s security service. The 3G rule means to be completely vaccinated or recovered or having a negative antigen rapid test (valid 24 hours) or a negative PCR test certificate (valid 48 hours). Attention: People vaccinated only once with “COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen” (Johnson & Johnson) are no longer considered completely vaccinated. Please note: If you fail to provide the proof of your G status upon request your name will be recorded and you must leave the campus immediately. Your exam will be rated as “failed”.

A medical mouth-nose-protection mask (surgical mask or FFP2/KN95/N95 mask) must be worn during the entire exam. Students who have the typical symptoms of SARS-Cov2 disease will not be allowed to take exams. This does not include students who have a negative daytime test result. Students who have had close contact with a Corona-positive person may only participate in examinations and courses in attendance if they can show sufficient vaccination protection (basic immunization not longer than 3 months or booster vaccination) or convalescent status (not older than 3 months) or vaccination protection after recovery and are asymptomatic (see §4 b Ordinance on Corona Pandemic (VO-CP)).

Students who are unable to take an examination due to segregation (isolation or quarantine) in accordance with the Ordinance on the Control of the Corona Pandemic (VO-CP) may effectively withdraw from the examinations without receiving a failed attempt. The regulations for withdrawal from examinations of the respective valid examination regulations apply. Proof of the withdrawal must be submitted without culpable hesitation.

If you have any questions concerning these regulations, do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Wrap-Up Session and Guest Lecture

Written on 31.03.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

We decided to merge the guest lecture tomorrow into the wrap-up session in the afternoon at 15:00, i.e., there will be no lecture at 10:00 tomorrow. As the wrap-up session guest, we will have Prof. Hermanns enlightening us on Quantitative Dependability Evaluation.

Note that… Read more

Dear HOD students,

We decided to merge the guest lecture tomorrow into the wrap-up session in the afternoon at 15:00, i.e., there will be no lecture at 10:00 tomorrow. As the wrap-up session guest, we will have Prof. Hermanns enlightening us on Quantitative Dependability Evaluation.

Note that there will be an additional online Q&A session before the exam at 5th of April at 14:00. Furthermore, you can ask questions anytime in the forum.

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Important Information on the Final Exam

Written on 30.03.22 (last change on 30.03.22) by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

Here is some important information about the upcoming exam:

  • The exam takes place at the 7th of April at 14:00 s.t. in E1.3 HS002.
  • Make sure to be registered for the exam, otherwise you will not be able to earn points for this course. If your study program uses… Read more

Dear HOD students,

Here is some important information about the upcoming exam:

  • The exam takes place at the 7th of April at 14:00 s.t. in E1.3 HS002.
  • Make sure to be registered for the exam, otherwise you will not be able to earn points for this course. If your study program uses LSF/HISPOS, you must register there. Otherwise, you must register in the dCMS.
  • The registration deadline for the exam ends tomorrow, 31st of March, at 23:59 CEST.
  • Please bring your passport or identity card and your student id.
  • The exam will be closed-book and you are not allowed to use a cheat sheet.

Note that the university exam regulations due to Covid are in-force. These regulations include the 3G rule (vaccinated, tested, or recovered) and the necessity to wear a medical face mask (surgical mask or FFP2/KN95/N95 mask) during the whole examination. You are required to bring all necessary certificates as well as a suitable face mask to the exam. Furthermore, if you have any of the typical Covid symptoms or had contact to a person tested positive (without being fully vaccinated yourself), you are not allowed to take the exam. For further details, see https://www.uni-saarland.de/dezernat/ls/informationen-zum-semesterbetrieb/wintersemester-202122.html.

If you are unsure about any potential symptoms, please consult a doctor. If the doctor decides that you can safely take the exam, you will need to bring a certificate attesting this to the exam.

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Time for Feedback (QUALIS Evaluation)

Written on 28.03.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

We are keen to know more about your experience with this course!

If you haven’t done so already during today’s lecture, please take the time and participate in the QUALIS evaluation:

Lecture: https://qualis.uni-saarland.de/eva/?l=134176&p=gin419
Office Hour: Read more

Dear HOD students,

We are keen to know more about your experience with this course!

If you haven’t done so already during today’s lecture, please take the time and participate in the QUALIS evaluation:

Lecture: https://qualis.uni-saarland.de/eva/?l=134176&p=gin419
Office Hour: https://qualis.uni-saarland.de/eva/?l=1341761&p=awkn32

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Presence Week Cancellation & Orga Updates

Written on 21.03.22 by Maximilian Köhl

Dear HOD students,

Our lecturer Andreas fell sick, unfortunately, and this means we will have to improvise a little regarding course setup and orga.

1) Contrary to our prior announcements, the last week will not be in presence but online as before.

2) Maximilian will be responsible for the… Read more

Dear HOD students,

Our lecturer Andreas fell sick, unfortunately, and this means we will have to improvise a little regarding course setup and orga.

1) Contrary to our prior announcements, the last week will not be in presence but online as before.

2) Maximilian will be responsible for the lectures until Andreas is back.

3) Please direct any questions from now on directly at Gregory or Maximilian.

4) We wish Andreas a speedy and overfull recovery!

Thanks!

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Exam Registration & Additional Project Test Runs

Written on 10.03.22 (last change on 30.03.22) by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

as some of you asked me about registrations: To take the exam, you have to register in LSF one week in advance. If your study program does not use LSF, then please register in our dCMS for the main or re-exam. We already created the registrations that you can find on your profile… Read more

Dear HOD students,

as some of you asked me about registrations: To take the exam, you have to register in LSF one week in advance. If your study program does not use LSF, then please register in our dCMS for the main or re-exam. We already created the registrations that you can find on your profile page.

We also decided (now that our testing infrastructure for the projects works) that we offer additional runs in the last course week, so that you know in advance whether you pass the project or not. Please make use of them to limit the probability that you fail the projects.

Best regards
The HOD team

Presence Week Details

Written on 10.03.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

for those of you that indicated to join the last course week in presence, here are the details: We meet Mo, 28th to Th, 31st in E1.3 HS001 for both plenum (10:00) and office hour (13:00).

On Friday, 1st April, the guest lecture is held from remote, so there is no sense in… Read more

Dear HOD students,

for those of you that indicated to join the last course week in presence, here are the details: We meet Mo, 28th to Th, 31st in E1.3 HS001 for both plenum (10:00) and office hour (13:00).

On Friday, 1st April, the guest lecture is held from remote, so there is no sense in coming to University.

If you attend in presence, make sure that you comply with the Corona prevention rules.

For those that attend remotely, we sincerely hope that nothing changes (except Andreas' video background).

Best regards
The HOD team

Next Project Templates

Written on 08.03.22 (last change on 28.03.22) by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

we have some good* news for you: Looking at the course schedule, we decided that we provide the last two project templates earlier than announced. This means that you have more time to work on them.
 
For P02, we release the template this Thursday, 10th March, after we… Read more

Dear HOD students,

we have some good* news for you: Looking at the course schedule, we decided that we provide the last two project templates earlier than announced. This means that you have more time to work on them.
 
For P02, we release the template this Thursday, 10th March, after we completed "U08: Working Reliably with Codes" in the morning.
 
For P03, we release the template this Friday, 11th March, after we completed "U09: Fault Trees" in the morning. Please note that to complete the project, you also need "U12: Dependability Theory". We do not expect that you immediately work on that before we covered it in the plenum, but thought that releasing the project skeleton and letting you work on the first "half" reduces stress towards the end of the course.
 
Based on the successful grading run yesterday, we offer another optional grading run for all submissions for all projects handed in by April 1st 2022, 15:00 CEST. Hence, if you want to be certain that you pass the project before you take the exam, make use of this.
 
And please... don't keep all the projects for the last week before the deadline. We do not want you to go like this in front of your laptop:
 
Best regards
The HOD Team
 
* potentially good... depends on how you feel about "more work earlier"

Project Start

Written on 04.03.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

now that we completed U04 in today's lecture, you should be equipped with everything to work on P01 (tough the tidiness tips in U05 could still help). The template can now be found in the dCMS material.

We recommend that you start with it as soon as possible, as it helps you… Read more

Dear HOD students,

now that we completed U04 in today's lecture, you should be equipped with everything to work on P01 (tough the tidiness tips in U05 could still help). The template can now be found in the dCMS material.

We recommend that you start with it as soon as possible, as it helps you get hands-on experience that goes beyond the small tasks on the worksheets. As mentioned before, P02 and P03 templates will be released later during the course.

We also have a special offer: as mentioned in the first lecture, we do not provide an automated testing environment for you, where there are daily runs and you get feedback (similar to Prog2). Nevertheless, we want to beta test our grading environment, which we also provide to you later. Hence, we will do two manual runs for whoever has already submitted something via dCMS by that time. The times are March 7th at 15:00 and March 11th at 15:00 (Central European Time).

We are looking forward to seeing your first submissions and providing you feedback.

Best regards
The HOD team

Last Week in Presence

Written on 02.03.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,
 
as mentioned before, we are motivated to teach the last week of HOD in hybrid mode, as we are also eager to see who we are interacting with. However, this only makes sense if enough of you would be joining us there. While most Covid-19-related restrictions should be gone by… Read more
Dear HOD students,
 
as mentioned before, we are motivated to teach the last week of HOD in hybrid mode, as we are also eager to see who we are interacting with. However, this only makes sense if enough of you would be joining us there. While most Covid-19-related restrictions should be gone by that time, we are not sure what the rules for the lecture hall will be like. Hence it is important that we roughly know (± 5 people) how many of you would like to attend in presence.
 
On your personal profile page in dCMS, you now find a “Last Week in Presence” section. If you consider coming, please indicate so.
 
Best regards
The HOD team

Unofficial HOD Discord Server

Written on 02.03.22 (last change on 02.03.22) by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,
 
we were asked about ways to enable some real-time communication between students taking this course (which I would call "the virtual Foyer/seminar room in E1.3"). We believe those daily office hours, the plenum, and the forum already provide quite some means to communicate… Read more
Dear HOD students,
 
we were asked about ways to enable some real-time communication between students taking this course (which I would call "the virtual Foyer/seminar room in E1.3"). We believe those daily office hours, the plenum, and the forum already provide quite some means to communicate with other students. But we understand that the "hang-out area" for informal, ad-hoc communication is missing.
 
Thanks to your fellow student Jonas Elflein, there is now a Discord server to discuss HOD things. You can access it via this link: https://discord.gg/WDAksnNj
 
Note that the Discord server is neither operated nor moderated by us (the Dependable Systems and Software chair). Further, it is totally possible to participate in (and pass) the course without using Discord. Official announcements are done via dcms and we also won't tell secrets in Discord. So do not feel forced to use this.
 
However, if you feel like interacting more closely with your fellow students, we believe this is a good idea. Finally, these real-time chats (divided by topic) are quite common in the Rust community to ask questions and get help, so this experience can be helpful for you as a new Rustacean.
 
Best regards
The HOD team

Option to take HOD as a Graded Course

Written on 01.03.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,
 
again, we are sorry about the confusion regarding "Advanced Lecture" and the course being graded. To clarify, everything we did so far is in accordance to the study regulations - it's only that "usually" advanced lectures are graded. However, we understand that this course… Read more
Dear HOD students,
 
again, we are sorry about the confusion regarding "Advanced Lecture" and the course being graded. To clarify, everything we did so far is in accordance to the study regulations - it's only that "usually" advanced lectures are graded. However, we understand that this course is more attractive for you if you can also use it for the "graded lectures" pool in your study program. We also understand that some of you assumed this to be graded and planned for the credit points. Given that the course is already running, we, unfortunately, don't have the options to adapt. In particular, we discussed about shifting deadlines for projects or exam dates, but we believe this creates more issues than it solves.
 
Still, we want to offer you a way to get a grade for the course. As has been announced using other means, HOD is going to be offered again (with only minor tweaks) as a graded semester course in summer 2022. Our offer is now the following: If you want the grade, please stick with the course, take exams, submit projects, and we promise that we will find a pragmatic way for you to get a grade in summer 2022 without having to retake the full course. If you want to do this and need the Schein earlier than summer break 2022, please drop Andreas Schmidt a mail.
 
For those that simply want the ungraded 6 CP Schein, nothing changes in the next weeks.
 
So stay tuned. And again, apologies for the confusion.
 
Best regards
The HOD team

Coursebook Changelog

Written on 01.03.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD Students,

as the coursebook is a living one, being continuously developed, we added a changelog to it. The plan is to create a new version at the end of every day (assuming there is at least one change).

We hope this makes it easier for you to revisit chapters that have been changed in… Read more

Dear HOD Students,

as the coursebook is a living one, being continuously developed, we added a changelog to it. The plan is to create a new version at the end of every day (assuming there is at least one change).

We hope this makes it easier for you to revisit chapters that have been changed in the meantime.

Best regards
The HOD team

Ungraded Course

Written on 28.02.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear students,

As many of you have asked us, and our website did not clearly specify this, this mail is to clarify that HOD Spring 2022 is an ungraded course.

We are sorry about this lack of clarity.

Best regards,
The HOD Team

Onward

Written on 22.02.22 by Andreas Schmidt

Dear HOD students,

The start of HOD is getting closer, and we are really excited to embark on our journey this week's Friday at 10:00 sharp.

Due to the ongoing restrictions, we meet in Zoom, for which you can find the link in our "course room" under materials. We will record no parts of the… Read more

Dear HOD students,

The start of HOD is getting closer, and we are really excited to embark on our journey this week's Friday at 10:00 sharp.

Due to the ongoing restrictions, we meet in Zoom, for which you can find the link in our "course room" under materials. We will record no parts of the course, but the material that is presented is made available online. This way, we hope that some of you feel like joining the class with "video on" so that we also see who is attending the course and not just read names. We hope the course becomes a bit more personal this way, although we still must use digital communication means only.

For the last course week (after the two-week break), we are currently figuring out if we can do them in hybrid mode, as restrictions in Germany are lifted by March 20th. We will inform you in time, and hybrid means that you can still attend virtually (may it be for health reasons or because you are not currently in Saarbrücken). We hold the promise we gave earlier that virtual attendance is possible.

With that, we wish you a successful week (good luck with any exams you write) and are looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

Best regards
The HOD-Team

Show all

Introduction

Software is driving more and more systems that surround us and impact our daily life... and it is becoming increasingly important to build these systems dependably. This is "Hands-On Dependability (with Rust)" (HOD), a course designed to introduce computer science students to two things: a) foundations of dependable systems and software as well as b) the Rust programming language.

So let's put our hard hats on and get started...

Curriculum

The course covers four major areas, giving you practical and theoretical knowledge to create, maintain, and advance dependable software systems, which are essential for today's world. We will answer the following questions (amongst others) in this course:

  • Foundations of Dependability
    • What is dependability, availability, reliability, safety, etc. and where do we find it in the real world?
    • How are hazards, risks, faults, errors, failures related?
  • Foundations of Rust
    • How to get started with Rust and write your first programs?
    • What makes Rust special? And why is it advertised as a "safe" language?
  • Advanced Dependability Concepts
    • How can information be transmitted reliably?
    • How can we analyze systems mathematically for their reliability and availability?
  • Software Engineering with Rust and GitLab
    • What tools does Rust provide (e.g. cargo) to develop software?
    • How can we leverage GitLab, including continuous integration, to make our software development process more dependable?

Organization

  • Credit Points: 6 (ungraded, potential option to get a grade)
  • Audience: Students at any stage in their studies and who want to invest their semester break
  • Passing Criteria: Written Exam and Mini Projects
  • Schedule:
    • 3 weeks presence time (25. Feb. - 11. Mar. and 28. Mar. - 01. Apr. 2022)
      • Time: every day
        • active plenum 10:00 - 12:00 (come with reading done and questions prepared - this is NOT a lecture, except for the very first slot)
        • office hour 13:00 - 15:00 (join an open space to work on the material, collaborate with others, and ask questions)
      • Room: Zoom (see material)
    • 2 weeks of pause (consider attending Hands-On Networking and work on the first projects)
      • we will offer two office hours per week for you to ask questions
    • 3 additional spread out weeks for implementing small projects (deadline 10. Apr. 2022)
    • a small exam:
      • Time: 07. Apr. 2022 14:00 s.t.
      • Room: tba
    • You can find all the dates here (as soon as they are fixed)
  • Material / Language:
    • Material is in English and provided in the form of a web-based living coursebook (including code fragments, videos, etc.)
    • Instructors and tutors speak German (gerne bei Problemen auf Deutsch Fragen stellen und Antworten bekommen)
  • Requisites:
    • Enough motivation and drive for taking part in a short but intensive course with many new concepts.
    • No prior dependability knowledge is needed.
    • Elementary programming skills required (e.g. Programmierung 2 or comparable).

 

 
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