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CS 466/666, Fall 2008

Course Policies

(link to CS466/666 home page)


Grades for CS 466:

Assignments: 35% (five of them, possibly of slightly different weight)
Midterm exam: 20%
Final exam: 45%

Grades for CS 666:

Project is 15% of the total grade and the other 85% of the grade is calculated as in CS 466.

Assignments:

Assignments involve only written work (no programming). Your solutions will be judged not only for correctness but also for the quality of your presentation and explanations (justifications are implicitly required in most questions). Ensure that your solutions are complete and mathematically precise, but at the same time, easy to understand and concise.

Please write legibly and stable the pages of your solutions securely. Put your full name and ID number on the first page, and put the first two characters of your last name in big capital letters on the top right-hand corner of the first page (for ease of sorting and searching). For example: if your name is John Doe, write "DO".

Assignments are due at noon on due dates and are to be placed in the CS466 assignment box located on the 3rd floor of MC next to the elevators by the bridge to DC.

Late assignments will not be accepted and will be given a mark of zero. (Accidentally placing assignments in the wrong box or just "forgetting" are not considered valid excuses.) In case of genuinely extenuating circumstances such as serious illness, please let me know as soon as possible.

I'd recommend that you start early and hand in your assignment when it is completed, instead of waiting till the last moment.

Projects:

Each CS666 (grad) student will do a course project involving writing a review of a research paper related to topics covered in the course. More details will be available later.

Cheating:

Cheating includes not only copying the work of another person (or letting another student copy your work), but also excessive collaboration. Such cases will be dealt with severely; see the Faculty of Math's policy on cheating and the school of computer science's policy on academic integrity.

Regarding what constitutes excessive collaboration: You are allowed to talk with classmates about assignment questions only at an "abstract" level (i.e., general ideas). You must work out the details of your solutions on your own; in particular, your writeup must be expressed entirely in your own words. If you have discussions with others, I'd recommend that you (i) do not take any written notes during such discussions, (ii) wait several hours before writing your solutions (to let details fade), (iii) never show your writeup to other students, and (iv) acknowledge any person you have talked to (or any sources you have consulted). Note that TAs are trained in spotting suspicious similarities.

Mark Appeals:

All mark appeals (for assignments and midterm) must be made within two weeks of the date of the return (if you pick up your assignment/exam late, your appeal period does not lengthen).

For assignments, you should first consult the TA. Only if the problem is still unresolved should you then bring the case to my attention.

For the midterm, your appeal should be submitted to me in writing. Note that as a result of closer scrutiny of your work, marks may go up or down.


(Maintained by Ian Munro, Arash Farzan, Adam Bains)