Instructors

Workload

Students will be expected to:

• Attend all classes and participate in discussion
• Read ~2-3 papers and submit a short homework assignment about those papers before each class meeting
• Present 1+ papers and lead discussion
• Each student must present and lead discussion at least once
• If there are more students than papers, some students will present half of an especially long paper
• If there are more papers than students, students can volunteer to present a second time. If they do, only their highest presentation mark will count.
• Do a final research project based on course material or related topic, in the format of a conference paper (~5n-10n pages where n is number of students involved)

Logistics

• Class meetings: Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 - 2:30 PM in 32-044 (note change)
• Office hours with instructors:
• Phillip: Monday 2:00 - 3:00 PM in 32-044, starting Feb. 10th
• James: Wednesday 7:00 - 8:00 PM in 24-310, starting Feb. 12th
• Enroll in Piazza to get announcements
• Contact instructors via private post on Piazza
• Upload a PDF into Stellar by 10AM before each class, starting Thursday Feb 7
• Listeners not allowed

Grading Policy

55%: final project, including checkpoint presentation and final paper

• 5% checkpoint presentation
• 50% final paper

20%: highest paper presentation grade
25%: per-class homework and participation (including attendance)

• Each 1-page class homework will be graded out of 5.
• All questions are "optional" unless otherwise stated. Pick several to answer that you can discuss insightfully. We are grading for understanding, not length, but your submission MUST discuss all of the assigned readings for that week unless it explicitly says otherwise. This can either be done by selecting one or more questions per reading, or by selecting a question that applies to multiple readings, or by selecting a question that only applies to one reading but then creatively extending it to discuss the other readings.
• The majority of the class should get an initial grade of 4 (95%) on each homework.
• A handful of outstanding responses will get a 5 (100%).
• A response that answers ALL questions in an extremely brief laundry list with low understanding would likely get a 3 (75%).
• A grade of 2 (60%) or less is likely for a homework that is incomplete.
• Each homework shall be 1 page, 12 point, in a reasonable font, with reasonable margins. Each violation will carry a penalty of -1.
• Late assignments not accepted
• "Submitted on Stellar at 10:01am" counts as late.
• The two lowest homework grades will be dropped, even if the grade is 'incomplete'
• Note that this provides some buffer for sickness or absence, so requests for further accomodation will require documentation of extraordinary need from a relevant MIT official.
• At the end of the course, attendance and classroom participation will be considered holistically and applied to affect final grading for this category.