There are 2 mandatory assignments, to be done in teams. The assignments are worth 2 higher-education credits (ECTS credits) in total.
PhD students do either the assignments (both solo), or just the exam, or all of these: contact the head teacher.
The main objective of the assignments (numbered 1 to 2 below, whose statements will appear in due time) is to exercise the theoretical knowledge gained in the lectures whose material is not covered by the exam, on carefully selected problems of our choice: the assignments thus constitute a take-home part of the exam. We are not just interested in sufficiently correct and efficient code, but also in explanations and experimental evaluations, hence a report is also required for each assignment and its quality has an impact on the score.
For each assignment, the assistants supervise 3 help sessions for troubleshooting in the preparation of your reports. Each assignment has 2 independent problems, each yielding a problem score in \(0..5\), hence there is a maximum of 20 points to earn. Insufficiently good reports can be defended orally to an assistant in scheduled grading sessions. Solutions are discussed by the assistants in solution sessions.
The objective of a help session is only for the assistants to help you prepare an acceptable solution for the assignment with the closest upcoming deadline. The assignment problems will normally be published at least a week prior to the first help session. Also, the necessary course material will normally have been presented in lectures at least a week prior to the first help session. You are thus able and even strongly encouraged to prepare your solution as far as possible until the help sessions and to attend them, in order to make best use of that reserved time span of personal attention by the assistants.
Note that no further tutoring on lecture topics, such as exercises whose solutions are given or to be handed in at the end of the session, will be performed by the assistants at the help sessions.
For each problem of an assignment, your initial score, in the integer interval 0..5, will normally be determined by the late afternoon on the day before the grading session for that assignment. Toward this, the assistants run your code on a grading test suite and examines the corresponding part of your report. An initial score is the final score if in the set {0,3,4,5}.
The objective of a grading session is to determine your final score for each problem with an initial score in the set {1,2}: your team will normally be given an appointment with an assistant during the grading session, in a room of her/his choice, toward correcting minor mistakes during that meeting and possibly increasing your score by one unit. An initial score of 1 upon only major mistakes cannot be increased at a grading session.
Appointment times are strict: the initial score is final in case of a missed appointment. Exceptions must be negotiated in due time during working hours with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure.
The objective of a solution session is only for the assistants to discuss acceptable solutions to the assignment of the previous deadline. No code will be handed out. The first solution session is merged with the initial help session to the second assignment.
Comments on your submitted report can be found at Studium; more detailed comments can be obtained orally from the assistants upon appointment.
Note that no further tutoring on lecture topics, such as exercises whose solutions are given or to be handed in at the end of the session, will be performed by the assistants at the solution sessions.
| Assignment | Help session a | Help session b | Help session c | Deadline | Grading session | Solution session |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| assignment1.pdf | Tue 28 Jan | Fri 31 Jan | Wed 05 Feb | Fri 07 Feb at 13:00 | Tue 18 Feb | Tue 18 Feb |
| assignment2.pdf | Tue 18 Feb | Fri 21 Feb | Wed 26 Feb | Fri 28 Feb at 13:00 | Thu 06 Mar | Thu 06 Mar |
All assignment reports must be submitted electronically via Studium, whose clock may be different from yours. Submission deadlines are hard. Exceptions must be negotiated in due time during working hours with the head teacher, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure. Grading will only start after a deadline, so you can submit multiple times until then.
For pedagogic and resource reasons, every assignment report must be prepared by a team of 2 students, both being first-time students or both being non-first-time students of this course. No permission will ever be granted for teams of three or more students. PhD students must work solo.
Until 23:59 of Sun 26 Jan 2025, you can declare a team at Studium: both teammates must consent to forming a team. If you are not formally registered yet, then you can declare your team by email to the AD3 helpdesk. You are strongly encouraged to advertise your search for a partner at the Teammate Search discussion at Studium. If you are however fine with a randomly allotted teammate, then declare this by email to the AD3 helpdesk by that hard deadline or add your name to one of the random teams at Studium: you might not get any teammate, because you are the odd one out or because the assigned one drops the course on short notice, so start working solo on Assignment 1 in order to guard against this possibility. All students who have done neither of those actions by that hard deadline will be considered to have dropped the course, but will not be unregistered by us: their submitted assignment reports will normally not be graded.
Teams may change between assignments: permission will be granted, as long as you inform the AD3 helpdesk by email in advance and the total number of teams does not increase.
Only one teammate of each team should submit each assignment report.
Exceptions for solo work must be negotiated in due time with the head teacher, during working hours, upon reporting a convincing case of force majeure. The assignments are calibrated somewhat smaller for those students. Such an exception is only valid for the assignment(s) it was negotiated for.
The legislation on plagiarism and cheating (summary) of Uppsala University will be rigorously applied, without exceptions. This disallows using a public repository (such as GitHub, where you should use a free private student repository) for code management within your team. We reserve the right to use plagiarism detection tools and point out that they are extremely powerful.
When submitting you implicitly certify that your report and all its uploaded attachments were produced solely by your team, except where explicitly stated otherwise and clearly referenced, that each teammate can individually explain any part starting from the moment of submitting your report, and that your report and attachments are not freely accessible on a public repository.
We reserve the right to give different assignment scores to the teammates of a team, depending on the performance at the grading session.
Please report any problems within a team to the head teacher, who will handle the case in confidence, in the best interest of both teammates, keeping the ethics dimension in mind.
One higher-education credit (ECTS credit) translates under Swedish university law into an expected 26.67 hours of work for the average student. Hence 133.33 hours are expected on this 5-credit course.
The assignments are worth 2 credits in total. Not counting the 21 hours spent on attending the lectures, the 2 assignments are calibrated to take an average of 30 hours each, for the average student, for each teammate, including the corresponding help, grading, and solution sessions.
All this does not clash with other courses you are taking, as university studies are legally defined to take 400 hours of work per study period (normally 10 weeks), and the standard 15 credits targeted in a study period are calibrated to reach that total.
Do not expect the 2 assignments to be equally labour-intensive, and do not expect the 2 problems of each assignment to be equally labour-intensive.
Each assignment score is the sum of the final scores of each of its problems. The assignment grade is determined by a published scale, depending on the assignment scores.
See Contact, Help, Ethics, and FAQ.
The overall grade is determined by a published scale, depending on the assignment scores and the exam score.
These rules are effective as of Mon 20 Jan 2025. The head teacher reserves the right to modify them at any moment, should special circumstances call for this.