Please read the RPE requirements first.
Each student in the class must select ONE of the RPEs listed below to complete. Each RPE team consists of preferably 2, possibly 3 people. The timeslot for each RPE is indicated in the class schedule handout. All of the class will be sorted into RPE groups by Thursday January 17. Please send e-mail to adcaine@uwaterloo.ca before noon on January 15. You may indicate any of: which RPE topic you prefer, which team of that RPE you prefer, who you prefer to work with on your team. The TA will slot you into an RPE, as he receives e-mail, so this is more or less first-come, first-served. Students who do not express a preference will be slotted into the remaining spots on RPEs. You will be able to see where you have been slotted in, by visiting the course website and following the RPE link. The TA will continuously update the list of students assigned to RPEs on the course website, to show what is still available to select. Please note that the endgame for getting students positioned into RPE teams is always a little bit tricky; students e-mailing at the last minute may find out that they cannot get their first preference and will simply be put where there is a remaining need. On the positive side: all students should in fact be capable of arguing on either of the sides of any of the RPEs. It is often an enjoyable challenge to discover arguments to make for a position that seems, on the surface, quite opposite to your own inclinations.
Note that only RPE1 through RPE12 have assigned dates in the timetable. If we find that one or more of RPE3 through RPE10 is not requested, but that one or more of RPE13 through RPE15 is requested, we may substitute one or more of RPE13 through RPE15 for one or more of RPE3 through RPE10. (The early dates of RPE1 and RPE2 preclude our making them replaceable, and the importance of RPE11 and RPE12 to the ethics material preclude our making them replaceable.) The drawback of selecting one or more of RPE13 through RPE15 is that you do not know in advance what its date will be.
Please note that all students are expected to ATTEND all RPEs, to present questions to the teams in the discussion period. The TAs will be registering attendance and recording your participation. In addition, both teams in the RPE will be required to post up their position statements in advance of the oral presentations. This provides another opportunity for discussion on the topic, within the ACE site. Since our class size is in fact quite large, the ACE site often becomes an ideal forum to voice opinions on the topic after the RPE and should be perceived as the place where you can add your comments, if the TA was unable to select you from the audience, during the RPE.
All students will also complete Assignment 5, due on the last day of class, April 3, which records all the RPEs you attended and includes a longer commentary on ONE of the RPEs of YOUR choice.
To find out when a particular RPE will take place, please refer to the timetable. Also, please check the table below to see which slots are still open BEFORE you send your preference to the course TA.
The RPE Assignments information has been moved to UW-ACE.
Please send any corrections to cs492@student.cs.