CS 70 Spring 2015 Course Policies

Homework

Homework assignments are posted on Monday at noon (12 pm) and are due the following Monday at noon. No late homework is accepted.

Your lowest homework score of the semester will be dropped.

Virtual Labs

As a part of the homework, you will be asked to "virtual labs" that involve programming and plotting things. Knowing how to simulate and explore what actually can happen is an important skill and is very useful in learning the material and developing an intuition for it. To help students in this process, the course staff has prepared an official EECS 70 virtual machine that is running Ubuntu with the ipython and ijulia packages, as well as LaTeX, fully installed and ready for you to use.

Instructions on how to setup and use the virtual machine can be found here.

Simply download the virtual machine and set it up using software like VirtualBox for your preferred platform. The virtual machine comes preloaded with some sample code in ipython. Ask in Piazza if you are having any difficulty.

For problems that have a significant programming component, we will usually provide template/skeletons in Python that students can use. However, solutions are generally accepted in any programming language that students prefer.

Homework Submission

Homeworks will be submitted electronically, as pdfs. Details of the online submission system are on Piazza. Homeworks may be prepared by hand, in LaTeX, or even using Microsoft Word (with equation editor --- but you're much better off learning LaTeX). If by hand, you will need to scan your work. Please see scanning instructions to scan to pdf.

Note that you will need to name your file "hwX.pdf" (e.g. "hw2.pdf") in order to submit it.

Homework Grading

We will have many readers for this class, but the primary way that the homework will be graded is by yourselves. Solutions will be posted online and then you will be expected to read them and enter your own scores and comments for every problem in the homework on a simple coarse scale:
0 = didn't attempt or very very wrong,
2 = off in the wrong direction or no clear direction,
5 = right direction and got half-way there,
8 = mostly right but a few minor things missing or wrong,
10 = 100% correct.

Your self-grades will be due on Thursday at noon after the homework deadline, and if you don't enter any grades by the deadline, then you are giving yourself a zero on that assignment. Note: all partial credit must be justified with a comment; without a comment, no partial credit will be allowed.

Just like we encourage you to use a study group for doing your homework, we strongly encourage you to have others help you in grading your assignments while you help grade theirs. This will also help you avoid self-favoritism.

The readers are going to grading a randomly selected subset of problems and so we will catch any attempts at trying to inflate your own scores. This will be considered cheating and is definitely not worth the risk.

Homework feedback

Readers are available to give you detailed feedback on your solutions as well as self-grading help during office hours. This is intended to help you improve your understanding of the material. Make sure you bring either a printout of your homework or your laptop with the file open for the ease of the readers. Check out when readers will be at office hours here.

If you have any questions, please ask on Piazza.

Homework parties

Time: Friday 2:00-5:00pm in the Wozniak Lounge (430 Soda Hall)

Every week in the Wozniak Lounge, there will be a "homework party." This is completely optional. GSIs will be present in shifts as will some readers. Students are expected to help each other out, and if desired, form ad-hoc "pickup" homework groups in the style of a pickup basketball game.

The Woz is a relatively big space and if the weather is nice, we can also access the patio outside. But if the room is crowded, excercise good judgement and make room for others by leaving if you can find an alternative source of assistance. When the room is not crowded, people from the class are welcome to just hang out as long as they aren't bothering other people. Some social games might be available.

Exams

There will be two midterms and one final exam.

Grading

The final grade will be calculated as follows:

Course Communication

The instructors and TA will post announcements, clarifications, hints, etc. on Piazza. Hence you must check the CS70 Piazza page frequently throughout the term. (You should already have access to the CS70 Spring 2015 forum. If you do not, please let us know.) If you have a question, your best option is to post a message there. The staff (instructors and TAs) will check the forum regularly, and if you use the forum, other students will be able to help you too. When using the forum, please avoid off-topic discussions, and please do not post answers to homework questions before the homework is due.

If your question is personal or not of interest to other students, you may mark your question as private on Piazza, so only the instructors will see it. If you wish to talk with one of us individually, you are welcome to come to our office hours. Please reserve email for the questions you can't get answered in office hours, in discussion sections, or through the forum.

In a class this large, it can be challenging for the instructors to gauge how smoothly the class is going. We always welcome any feedback on what we could be doing better. If you would like to send anonymous comments or criticisms, please feel free to use an anonymous remailer like this one to avoid revealing your identity.

Prerequisites

We expect you to remember the math you learned in high school. Sophomore mathematical maturity (a solid understanding of the material in Math 1A, 1B --- typically coupled with taking Math53 or 54 concurrently with 70), and programming experience at the general level of 61A, but this could also be that gained in CS10 or the Advanced Placement Computer Science A course (e.g., E 7). If you lack any of these prerequisites, you may only take the class with special permission from the instructor. Although most of the work in the class will be pencil-and-paper exercises, we expect the students to be familiar with reading and designing programs. There will also be simulation and plotting exercises for you to do. The programming will not be tricky or confusing, at least not on purpose.

Discussion Sections

You are free to choose which discussion section you want to attend, provided there is room. All sections will cover the same basic material, but different GSIs might have different approaches to it.

Collaboration

You are encouraged to work on homework problems in study groups of two to four people; however, you must always write up the solutions on your own. Similarly, you may use books or online resources to help solve homework problems, but you must always credit all such sources in your writeup and you must never copy material verbatim. We believe that most students can distinguish between helping other students and cheating. Explaining the meaning of a question, discussing a way of approaching a solution, or collaboratively exploring how to solve a problem within your group is an interaction that we strongly encourage. But you should write your homework solution strictly by yourself so that your hands and eyes can help you internalize this material. You must explicitly acknowledge everyone whom you have worked with or who has given you any significant ideas about the homework. Not only is this good scholarly conduct, it also protects you from accusations of being a jerk or free-rider regarding your colleagues' ideas.

Warning: Your attention is drawn to the Department's Policy on Academic Dishonesty. In particular, you should be aware that copying or sharing solutions, in whole or in part, from other students in the class or any other source without acknowledgment constitutes cheating. Any student found to be cheating risks automatically failing the class and being referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

However, we are very fair. No student will be accused of cheating without a human being looking over their case. And nobody will be sent to Student Conduct without at least the head TA and Prof concurring that this is warranted and makes sense. Algorithms help us focus our attention, but decisions are made by compassionate human beings.

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Are you struggling? We'd rather you approached us for help, rather than falling behind gradually over the semester until things become untenable. Sometimes this happens when students are afraid of an unpleasant conversation with a professor if they admit to not understanding something. We would much rather deal with your misunderstanding early than deal with its consequences later. Even if you are convinced that you are the only person in the class that doesn't understand the material, and that it is entirely your fault for having fallen behind, please overcome any feelings of guilt and ask for help as soon as you need it -- we can almost guarantee you're not the only person who feels this way. Don't hesitate to ask us for help -- we really do care that you learn!

Accommodations for Students with Physical, Cognitive, or Psychological Disabilities

If you have been issued a letter of accommodation from the Disabled Students Program (DSP), please contact Professor Vazirani as soon as possible to work out the necessary arrangements. If you need an accommodation and have not yet seen a Disability Specialist at the DSP, please do so as soon as possible.

If you would need any assistance in the event of an emergency evacuation of the building, the DSP recommends that you make a plan for this in advance. (Contact the DSP accest specialist at 643-6456.)

Illness

If you have a fever, do not come to lecture or discussion or office hours or to the problem set party until at least 24 hours after the fever has passed. Email the head GSI (Andre Wibisono, wibisono@berkeley.edu) to let him know. If this forces you to miss a homework, we will drop an extra homework for you.

Similarly, do not attend a midterm if you have a fever. Please let us know a short time in advance if this is going to happen, and we will make appropriate accommodations.

For non-contagious illnesses, use your good judgement. But spreading contagious disease is just horrible manners if you can prevent it.