Grading

The course grade is based on two exams (mid-term and final), a course project (consisting of several smaller graded assignments), and additional assignments such as short paper summaries. For each assignment, a numeric grade will be assigned from 0 to 100. The final score is determined using the relative weights shown below. All assignments must be submitted by the day and time indicated. Late assignments will receive no credit! Programming assignments will generally be submitted electronically by simply copying your work into a specified directory. Note that electronic submissions may be closed automatically by the clock. You may update your submission as many times as you like before the deadlines, so it is recommended that you submit something as soon as it is working, and update your submission regularly. Thus, there is no excuse for failing to submit an assignment; exceptions will be made only for grave emergencies.

If a student believes than an error has been made in grading an item, it must be brought to the instructor's attention within seven days after the item has been returned. Factual and clerical errors will be gladly corrected. Matters of judgement are left to the instructor's discretion.

Assignment       Weight
Paper Summaries 10%
Annotated Bibliography 10%
Project Proposal 5%
Progress Report 5%
Draft Paper 5%
Final Project Presentation 10%
Final Paper 15%
Mid-Term Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%

For the paper summaries, some papers in the reading list (will be clearly indicated) will have one or more questions to be answered or tasks to be performed. For these papers, you have to submit a brief (3-5 sentence) summary of the paper plus answers to these questions. In order to receive a full score for this grading component, you must submit summaries and correct answers for at least 75% of these papers.

The following grading scale will tentatively be used (tentatively means that the instructor may make adjustments at the end of the semester, e.g., to correct for particularly difficult assignments or other circumstances):

Scores       Grade
[88,100]A
[86,88[A-
[84,86[B+
[74-84[B
[72,74[B-
[70,72[C+
[60,70[C
[50,60[D
[0,50[F


Collaboration

Your course project is the only team-based part of the course, all other assignments are to be done individually, unless otherwise noted. You must be the sole author of all code and other written material that you submit for grading. You may not read, re-use, or submit code created by others. However, you may discuss general ideas, algorithms, and problems with your classmates (and it is highly encouraged to form study groups for the reading materials). Any activity that falls into the gray area between "authorship" and "discussion" should be assumed off-limits unless explicitly approved by the instructor. The midterm and final exams are to be taken alone.