Course Policies
Grades will be based on the term project (40%), quizzes, homeworks and programming assignments (25%),
two exams (25%), and class participation (10%).
Course workload and attendance
You must attend the TTh lectures at 9:25 am.
You should expect to work about 8-10 hours per week for this class, including lecture time.
Term Project
The term project gives you an opportunity to
work on a real-world statistical machine learning problem. You will
pick a problem from a competition on kaggle.com and aim to get on the
leaderboard on Kaggle while learning new algorithms and analysis techniques.
Term projects will be done in groups of two.
More details on the project are here.
Quizzes, homeworks and programming assignments
Quizzes,
homeworks and programming assignments will be posted on Owlspace.
Please watch Owlspace for these postings. The role of quizzes is to
test your basic understanding of the algorithms we will learn in
class. The written homeworks reinforce lecture material and will
typically involve extending algorithms covered in class. Please
typeset your written homework and submit them on Owlspace before the
due dates. The purpose of the programming assignments (typically in
Matlab or Python) is to build an operational level of understanding of
the algorithms covered in class. Please turn them in before the due
date on Owlspace. Quizzes are to be taken individually -- quizzes are
autograded on Owlspace. Homework and programming assignments are to be
submitted with your term project partner (one submission per group,
please). I will grade them and return feedback on Owlspace within a
week of submission. No submissions will be accepted a week after the due date.
Examinations
There will be two in-class examinations. The
first examination will be held on February 27, 2014 from 7 pm to 10
pm. If you have a conflict with that time or day, you can take the
exam earlier on February 26 during a three hour period between 9 am and
4 pm. The second exam will be held at a time and place scheduled by the
registrar during the finals period. It will be a three hour
examination.
Late policies, regrades
Because each of you will probably
come upon some time during the semester where so much work piles up
that you need a little extra time, every student begins the semester
with two free late days. After your two late days are
exhausted, homeworks that come in late (up to a maximum of three days)
will be assessed a late penalty of 10% of your score per late day.
You should think of these free late days as extensions you have been
granted ahead of time, and use them when you might have otherwise
tried to ask for an extension. As a result, getting an extension
beyond the two free late days will generally not be granted. In very
special circumstances for which you can provide official documentation
(primarily extended medical problems or other emergencies), extensions
may be granted beyond the late days. All extension requests must be
directed to me (devika@rice.edu), no later than 24 hours before the
assignment is due.
Grading and Regrades
Your performance statistics
will be posted on Owlspace. If you believe we have made an error in
grading your homeworks or exams, please bring the matter to our
attention within one week of when we return your work. No makeup exams will be given.
Piazza
All course related discussions and questions should
be posted on Piazza. Please do not send personal email to me or to the
TA — Piazza is the fastest way to get a response from us and from the
class community. Piazza allows you to ask questions in private as well
as anonymously. We request you not to post code or answers to homework
or programming assignments on Piazza. If you are having difficulty
with a programming assignment and need to show the teaching assistants
your code, please make a private Piazza post.
Academic Integrity
The work you submit for this class is expected to be the result of
your own work and that of your team mate. You are free to discuss
course material and approaches with your other classmates, the TA and
me, but you should never misrepresent someone else's work as your own.
It is also your responsibility to protect your work from unauthorized
access. I expect you to follow the Honor Code in this course.
Accomodation for Disability
If you have a documented disability that will impact your work in this class,
please contact me (devika@rice.edu) to discuss your needs. Additionally, you
will need to register with the Disability Support Services Office in the Ley
Student Center.
Last modified: 5 January 2014 by
Devika Subramanian
devika@rice.edu