Course Policies and Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria:

Final grades will be based on students' performance on assignments, a project, and an exam. These components will be weighted as follows:

Students are encouraged to participate in class (e.g., by asking questions), and students who contribute substantially either during lecture or by answering questions on Ed Discussions will receive extra credit. Students can also earn extra credit by completing “Challenge questions” on assignments.

Late Submissions:

We will allow you 3 late days total for all assignments over the quarter. A late day is used in discrete units and allows you to submit an assignment anywhere between 1 second and 24 hours late. You may choose to use multiple late days on the same assignment. If you exceed your three late days, assignments will incur a 10% penalty per additional late day. You may not use late days when submitting your project. (Exceptions to these policies will be considered under extenuating circumstances, such as medical or family emergencies — please contact the staff if such circumstances arise by emailing the staff list.)

Collaboration Policies and the Honor Code:

In general, we encourage students to work together and to ask each other questions — this is a great way to learn! That said, we expect all work you submit to be your own. This means that you are welcome to discuss high-level strategies, but you should write up your solutions to problem set questions and programming exercises independently. You should not look directly at another student's solution to a problem set question (text, code, or otherwise) when working on your solution. You can consult web resources and published papers or textbooks, but your answers must be phrased in your own words, and you must cite any paraphrases or direct quotations. Deviating from these guidelines (in letter or in spirit) will constitute an Honor Code Violation and will be reported as such.

If you have issues that you cannot resolve through high-level discussions, please post privately to Ed Discussions and/or come to Office Hours. The staff will be glad to help you figure out what's going on! For bugs related to software packages we’re using, please check with the TAs (by posting to Ed Discussions or coming to their office hours. Note that questions about bugs that are not specific to your solution can and should be posted publicly to Ed Discussions.

Ed Discussions:

We'll use Ed Discussions as a forum for questions about material and assignments. It's a place where you can ask questions of the instructors and your fellow classmates. Additionally, all announcements will be made via Ed Discussions.

When posting public questions on Ed Discussions , please abide by the class Collaboration Policies (i.e. don't post your exact solution to a problem). If you want to ask a question about your specific solution, please post privately.

Exam:

The exam will take place on Dec. 10 at 3:30 pm. If you have a serious conflict with this time, please contact the course staff to arrange an alternative time slot.