Bradley Thwaites (bthwaites [AT] gatech [DOT] edu),
Divya Mahajan (divya_mahajan [AT] gatech [DOT] edu)
The exams and assignments will be based on the lectures.
Attendance is mandatory unless you get explicit permission
from the instructor to be absent. Students who face emergency
situations outside their control that prevent them from
attendance should contact the instructor before the class. If
that is impossible, the student should inform the instructor
afterwards as soon as possible. The student must provide
documentation or other proof of the emergency situation.
Attending lectures and taking good notes will be very important, especially because (1) there is no textbook and (2) important announcements (e.g., project requirements or changes in due dates) will be made during lectures. Furthermore, students will get class participation points if (1) they ask many good questions during the class (2) they answer actively in on-line group discussions (3) other creative ways.
In summary, we might not be taking attendance in every
lecture, but it will be very very very hard to earn a
passing grade without attending lectures.
Students will be evaluated based on the following rubric.
UNDERGRADUATE/GRADUATE STUDENTS:
| Class Participation | 1% | Participation in the class |
| 4 Assignments | 35% | 1st (5%), 2nd (10%), 3rd (10%), 4th (10%)
|
| 2 Homework |
9% | 1st (4.5%), 2nd(4.5%) |
| Midterm I | 20% |
Comprehensive exam covers the first half of semester's material |
| Midterm II | 20% |
Comprehensive exam covers the second half of semester's material |
| Final Exam | 20% |
Comprehensive exam that will covers the entire semester's material |
For the term project students will be expected to analyze
solutions proposed in recent papers. For the research project
they will be expected to work on a research problem and
present new solutions. For both the term project and research
project, students are encouraged to use MacSim simulator,
however they should feel free to use the evaluation
infrastructure that is best suited for their study.
We will use two policies to assign final (letter) grades.
Each student's grade will be computed using both policies, and
the final grade will be the better of the two grades. The
first policy is not curved, with 90% or more of the maximum
possible score yielding an A, 80%-90% yielding a B, 70%-90%
yielding a C, 60%-70% yielding a D, and <60% yielding an F.
The second policy is the traditional curve-based policy, using
the average (AVG) and standard deviation (STD) of scores in
the class. Earning more than AVG+STD (one standard deviation
above the average) will yield an A, earning AVG to AVG+STD
will yield a B, earning AVG-STD to AVG will yield a C, earning
AVG-2*STD to AVG-STD will yield a D, and earning less
than AVG-2*STD (two standard deviations or more below the
class average) will result in an F grade. Since the second
policy is based on the average performance of the class, you
can only aim for a certain grade if you use the above rubric
and get the best grade based on the first policy.
There will not be any make-up assignments. Therefore,
if you need a particular grade, plan wisely and perform
accordingly on homework, projects, and exams. Because of the
large number of assignments in this class, re-grading can only
be requested during 14 days that follow the release of scores
from any assignment/exam. The exception to this is the final
project assignment and the final exam. For the final exam, no
re-grades will be possible until final grades are officially
released (in OSCAR). You can still see your final exam and
request a regrade during the first two weeks of classes in the
Spring semester. When requesting a re-grade, keep in mind that
the entire submitted assignment or exam will be regraded, so a
regrade may result in a loss of points.
The grade in this class will be based on your performance.
Once an assignment or exam is over and graded, only a
mistake in grading can result in change of the grade. I will
never change a grade because the student needs a better grade
to stay in the program, to keep a fellowship, to get a job, or
any other reason. If you believe you need a certain grade in
this class, plan to earn the grade through excellent work in
homework, projects, and exams.
You must follow the submission guidelines specified in the
assignment description. We will use T-square. Wrong file
names, broken file formats, missing files will lose 20% of
grade. For reports, you must turn in a hard copy of your
report during the class time.
No late assignments will be accepted and no credit will be
given for any late submission. All homework sets an
project assignments are due on the day specified by the
problem set, announced in T-Square, or in class (later
announcements take precedence over prior ones). An assignment
is only considered submitted when it is submitted through
T-square, and the files that will be graded will be those
submitted in T-Square. We will not accept a late submission if
the file is elsewhere, even if the file modification time and
date are before the deadline (those can be forged). Thus, please
make sure that the files you submitted in T-Square are
indeed the ones you want graded.
Students who face emergency situations outside their control
that prevent them from completing an assignment in time should
contact the professor before the assignment is due or, if that
is impossible, as soon as possible. After receiving an
extension, the student must submit the assignment before the
extended deadline and will be required to provide
documentation or other proof of the emergency situation.
Note that needs and emergencies within the student's control
do not qualify for an extensions. In particular, the student
is responsible for keeping adequate backups of their work and
submitting the assignments ahead of time if needed. Examples
of what does not qualify for an extension include, but are not
limited to: the student needs a particular grade to graduate,
the student wants to go on a cruise with their extended
family, the student goes spelunking when the assignment is due
and the cave does not have WiFi, the student tries to submit
the assignment from a coffee shop and WiFi is down, the
student misreads the due date, student's rhinoceros pet eats
her laptop, student's laptop falls out of her backpack during
a bungee-jump, etc.
Absolutely no collaboration is allowed during exams or
quizzes. Copying or receiving any information from
another person or from another person's exam, with or without
their consent, is unethical and unacceptable. However, you can
always ask TAs or the professor for clarification of an exam
question during the exam. Cheating during an exam or a quiz is
a direct violation of the Georgia Tech Academic
Honor Code and will be reported to and handled by the
office of student affairs.
We encourage you to study in groups. However, homeworks,
examinations and the work on all programming assignments must
be your own individual work. The paper survey and a term
project can be a group project. Collaboration with other
students or other persons is prohibited. Submitting any work
other than your own is a violating of the Academic Honor Code.
If you are not sure what you can discuss or not, please
contact the instructor.
Submitting any work other than your own (including content
from the Internet) without proper attribution (specifying the
source) will also be reported as Plagiarism, which is also in
violation of the
Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code. Note that this is
different from discussing lecture material (such as
re-explaining an idea covered in class in a different manner
or with a new example, or discussing what is being asked in
the project assignment). Helping someone understand what is
being asked in a problem is fine. However, giving them hints
or helping them actually do what is being asked is not
acceptable.
If you are not sure about anything, ask the professor and/or
consult the Georgia
Tech Academic Honor Code. A violation of the rules will
still be considered and treated as a violation of the rules,
regardless of whether or not the student understood the rules
or interpreted them correctly. If you are not sure that you
understand how the rules apply to a particular situation, you
must ask.
Students are expected to abide by the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code. Honest and ethical behavior is expected at all times. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs. You will have to do all assignments individually unless explicitly told otherwise. You may discuss it with classmates but you may not copy any solution (or any part of a solution).