Overview

• Meeting Times: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1:00 - 1:50 pm
  
• First Class: Wednesday, September 7, 2011
• Location: DMP 301
• Instructor: Alan K. Mackworth
• Instructor's Office Location: ICCS 121
• Instructor's Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00 - 2:30 pm
  
• TAs: (TA Office Hours are in the Demco Learning Centre, ICCS 150)
  • Parnian Alimi (Office Hour: Friday 10 am -11 am)
    
  • Pooyan Fazli (Office Hour: Monday 11 am - 12 am)
    
  • Vasanth Rajendran (Office Hour: Tuesday 12 am - 1 pm)
    
• Course Discussion Board: (the place to submit your questions and get answers, as well as see answers given to others): log into WebCT Vista using your CWL
• AISpace: demo applets that illustrate most of the techniques covered in class
• Prerequisites: Either (a) CPSC 221 or (b) both of CPSC 216, CPSC 220 or (c) all of CPSC 211, CPSC 260, EECE 320.
• Final exam: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 3:30 - 6:00 pm
  

What do I do if I get the flu?

• Self-isolate: stay away from campus until you're fever-free for 24 hours.
• Get a doctor's note if you're missing midterm or final, or if you'll be late for an assignment.
• Follow the course on this page, and contact Alan if you have additional questions.
  

Grades

Grading Scheme: Evaluation will be based on a set of  assignments, a midterm, and an exam. Important: you must pass the final in order to pass the course. The instructor reserves the right to adjust this grading scheme during the term, if necessary.

• Assignments -- 20%
• Midterm -- 30%
• Final -- 50%

If your grade improves substantially from the midterm to the final, defined as a final exam grade that is at least 20% higher than the midterm grade, then the following grade breakdown will be used instead.

• Assignments -- 20%
• Midterm -- 15%
• Final -- 65%

The assignment grade will be computed by adding up the number of points you get across all assignments, dividing this number by the number of possible points, and multiplying by 20.  Assignments will not be graded out of the same number of points; this means that they will not be weighted equally.

How late does something have to be to use up a late day? A day is defined as a 24-hour block of time beginning at 1:00 pm on the day an assignment is due.  To use a late day, write the number of late days claimed on the first page of your assignment.. Examples:

• Handing in an assignment at the end of lecture on the day it is due consumes one late day. 
• Handing in an assignment at 10:15 am the morning after it is due consumes one late day.
• Handing in an assignment at 1:30 pm the day after it is due consumes two late days. 

Missing Deadlines or Exams: In truly exceptional circumstances, when accompanied by a note from Student Health Services or a Department Advisor, the following arrangements will be made.

• If an assignment cannot be completed, the assignment grade will be computed based on the remaining assignments. Note that such an arrangement is extremely unusual--the late day system is intended to allow students to accommodate disruptions from moderate illness without contacting the instructor.
• If the midterm is missed, its grades will be shifted to the final. This means the final will count for 80% of the final grade, and assignments will count for the remaining 20%.
• If the final is missed, a make-up final will be scheduled. This make-up final will be held as soon as possible after the regularly scheduled final.

Academic Conduct: Submitting the work of another person as your own (i.e. plagiarism) constitutes academic misconduct, as does communication with others (either as donor or recipient) in ways other than those permitted for homework and exams. Such actions will not be tolerated. Specifically, for this course, the rules are as follows:

• For assignments 1-4 (not for assignment 0), you may work with one other student. That student must also be a CPSC 322 student this term, and you will both have to officially declare that you collaborated when submitting your assignment. Both of you will have to submit your assignments separately.
• You cannot work with or copy work from anyone else. You may not, under any circumstances, submit any solution not written by yourself, look at a student's solution who is not your official partner (this includes the solutions from assignments completed in the past), or previous sample solutions, and you may not share your own work with others. All work for this course is required to be new work and cannot be submitted as part of an assignment in another course without the approval of all instructors involved.
• You may, however, discuss your solutions and design decisions with your fellow students on a high level. In other words, you can talk about the assignments, but you cannot look at or copy other people's answers.

Violations of these rules constitute very serious academic misconduct, and they are subject to penalties ranging from a grade of zero on the current and *all* the previous assignments to indefinite suspension from the University. More information on procedures and penalties can be found in the Department's Policy on Plagiarism and collaboration and in  UBC regulations on student discipline. If you are in any doubt about the interpretation of any of these rules, consult the instructor or a TA!

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Schedule

You can find the course schedule and lecture slides below. The schedule is tentative and will change throughout the term. Future assignment due dates are provided to give you a rough sense; however, they are also subject to change. I will try to post the slides for each lecture by 11 pm the day before the lecture; this allows you to print them when you get up in the morning. I don't promise to use exactly that version in class, but it should be very close. If I do further changes, I will post the final version after class, at the latest when I post the slides for the next lecture.

Assessing Your Own Learning 

• We have created a list of learning goals for the course, which detail concrete skills you should have after mastering each of the units. The list is available via WebCT Vista.

• Exercises are ungraded practice problems to help you prepare for assignments and exams. They're optional, but will definitely help you to master the course material. All the exercises will be put up here, with solutions, on the schedule.