| Component | ||
| Homeworks | ||
| Mid-term Exam/Quiz etc/ | ||
| Final Exam/Quiz etc. | ||
| Project (Optional) |
As you can see, the course has several components. There will be one mid-term and one final exam, each worth 40% of your grade in the course. From time to time, there may be (unannounced) quizzes held in class. The marks you score here will be folded into the mid-term or the final exam (depending on when in the semester the quiz is given). There will be no make-up mid-term/final/quiz given to students who miss any one of these components, and if you miss it, your score in that component will be recorded as a 0. If you have a family emergency or health situation, I will consider it if suitable documentation is provided (e.g., a note from the IISc health centre), and work with you for an alternative grading policy for you in the course. But this is only available under exceptional circumstances.
Homeworks will be provided from time to time but not graded. You can solve these homeworks in any way that you wish to, including the use of any GenAI tools. But remember that they are given to develop deeper understanding of the course material, and that the mid-term and final may contain questions that test the understand we expect will develop based on solving the homeworks.
There is a course project that is optional in the following sense. You can choose not to do a project but your maximum grade in the course will be a B+. Your overall score in the course will be calculated out of 80 marks, and the highest grade you are eligible for will be a B+. To be eligible for A and A+ grades, you will need to do the project. The project will be a research project involving substantial system building, and I do expect students opting for the project to invest a lot of work doing the project. That is, you may feel that the effort you invest is "worth much more than 20% of the course grade", but this is a choice you are consciously making if you choose to do a project. But it is my belief that the payoff in terms of what you learn will be much more than simply earning a letter grade. So students interested in delving into the topic are encouraged to take up the project option.
Some students may sign up to do a project at the beginning of the semester and then later change their mind to stick with the exam-only option. This is fine. I will consider a project "complete" only if you submit the report and make a final project presentation. Without this, you will be ineligible to receive any credit for the project, i.e., there will be no partial marks awarded if you have done a lot of the work for the project but decide to abandon it along the way. So kindly keep this factor in mind when you decide to choose to do a project.
Final letter grades for the course will be decided using your overall score in the course with the table below. To be eligible for an A grade, you need to score above 80 points in the course, and to be eligible for an A+ grade, you need to score above 90 points. To pass the course, you need to score at least 30 points. Grades for scores in the range of 30-80 points will be assigned based on a relative-grading policy.
| Score range | |
| 90 ≤ score ≤ 100 | |
| 80 ≤ score < 90 | |
| 30 ≤ score < 80 | |
| 0 ≤ score < 30 |
POLICY ON ETHICS IN CLASS. We have a strict, zero-tolerance policy against cheating in class, based on CSA departmental guidelines. Both the cheater and enabler (or the corresponding teams) will be considered guilty. The consequences of getting caught cheating are:
- You will get an F in the course.
- Your name will be reported to OCCAP, with a recommendation to exclude you from all campus placement related activity (internships, jobs, etc.)