Policies

Course Format

The primary methods for engaging with the course material are through lectures, discussion sections, homework, and the notes. All are important, and exams will test a mix of the material from these sources.

Lectures

Live lecture will take place 12:30pm - 2:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Wheeler 150. The first two weeks of the course will be remote, and the lecture will be on Zoom. Lectures will be recorded and linked on Piazza/Website once lecture is over. It is highly recommended that you watch lecture the day it is released.

Discussions

Release Schedule: Discussion worksheets are published the night before. The solutions are published after all sections of the day are completed.

Discussions will be offered primarily in-person, with few remote options for exceptional cases. You will not be able to switch sections.

We will be assigning sections this semester. The form to sign up will be on Piazza and attendance will be taken as part of your grade through a completely objective criteria. You will need to attend at least 13 points to receive full credit for discussion attendance. You are welcome to attend other discussion sections, but your attendance will only be counted for the section you are assigned to. The discussion sections are designed not to cover new material but to consolidate the material covered in lectures and in the notes. All sections are equivalent: they all cover the same material. However, if you are attending an online discussion section you must submit a completed discussion worksheet to Gradescope to receive discussion attendance credit.

Distinguished Alum Lili says, “When I took the course, I tried my best to attend every discussion and ask questions whenever I was confused!”

Notes

There is no textbook for this class. Instead, there is a set of comprehensive lecture notes posted on the front page for each lecture. Make sure you revisit the notes after every lecture. Each note may be covered in one or more lectures.

Distinguished Alum Megan says, “When I took the course, I studied the notes until I was able to comfortably reproduce all of the proofs.

Office Hours

Office Hours will be both in-person and online. The OH queue will be hosted at oh.eecs70.org. OHs will be hybrid or remote, please see the calendar for details.

In-Person

See the Calendar tab for OH time and location. You will submit a ticket online at oh.eecs70.org to join the OH queue. In the ticket please specify the room you are currently in. Once it is your turn a course staff member will call your name to help you with your ticket.

Online

At the times listed on the calendar, someone on course staff will be monitoring the online queue. Again, you will submit a ticket online at oh.eecs70.org to join the OH queue with your location specified as online. A course staff member will provide a video call link for you to join when it’s your turn. In-person course staff will prioritize helping in-person tickets on the queue.

Participation

We encourage participation. Participation includes watching lecture live, contributing in discussion, asking and answering questions on Piazza, using Party OH, and more. The more you engage with the class, the more fun it is and the better you do.

Technology

Piazza

We will use Piazza as the ‘one-stop shop’ throughout the semester: for a Q&A forum and official announcements. Enrollment in Piazza is mandatory. If you have questions about anything related to the course, please post them on Piazza rather than emailing the professors or TAs. Please do not post anything resembling a solution to a homework problem before it’s due. See the Piazza Etiquette section for more on using Piazza. To join the class on Piazza, click this.

Gradescope

All homework and vitamins will be submitted through Gradescope. All homework, vitamin, and exam grades will be returned through Gradescope. If you have not been enrolled in our Gradescope, please fill out this form.

Email

Please use Piazza for all technical questions. If you have a more specific administrative question or any feedback, please send an email to the course administrative account sp22@eecs70.org. Emails sent to this account are only seen by the professors and head TAs.

Assignments and Exams

Homeworks

Release Schedule: Homework for the coming week is released on Sunday. Homework is due on Gradescope the following Saturday at 4:00 p.m. (grace period until Saturday 5:59pm); the solutions for that homework will be released on Sunday.

There will be weekly required homeworks designed to consolidate your understanding of the course material. We strongly recommend starting these early since there will be no office hours support on weekends. Homework scores will be out of 73% and no extra credit will be granted for getting over 73%. Your lowest three homework scores will be dropped, but these drops should be reserved for emergencies. No additional allowances will be made for late or missed homeworks: please do not contact us about missed homeworks or late submissions.

Due to budget constraints, we didn’t receive the same reader budget as we have in the past; so, we may sample homework problems to grade each week.

Richard recommends that you start the homeworks as early as possible so you get more time to think about the problems and get help if you end up getting stuck. Additionally, Richard also recommends that you carefully review the homework solutions after they are released and understand them to the point of being able to replicate them without needing to reference them. Having a comprehensive understanding of topics on the homework will go a long way in giving you the intuition you need to succeed!

Vitamins

Release Schedule: The vitamin for the current week is released on Gradescope on Monday by 10:00 am. The vitamin is due on Gradescope the following Saturday at 4:00 pm (grace period until Saturday 5:59pm); the solutions for that vitamin will be released on Sunday.

There will be weekly required vitamins designed to consolidate your understanding of the course material. If you read the notes in advance and attend lecture, they should be quick to complete. As a result, there will be no Piazza support for vitamins. Your final grade will be out of 73%, and your lowest three vitamin scores will be dropped, but this drop should be reserved for emergencies. No additional allowances will be made for late or missed vitamins: please do not contact us about missed vitamins or late submissions.

Vitamin Submission

Vitamins are due on Saturday at 4:00 PM. You need to submit your answers directly on Gradescope. If you have questions on how to do this, please make a private post on Piazza.

Exams

We will have one midterm and a final and both will be conducted in-person. If you are unable to attend the exam in-person, please check Piazza for details on how to proceed.

Unfortunately, due to large enrollment, we are unable to accommodate final exam conflicts with other classes; we strongly discourage enrollment in another class with conflicting lectures and/or final exam; if you choose to enroll in such a class you will have to make arrangements for an alternate final with the other class.

Exam Dates

  • Midterm Date: 03/04/2022 Friday 7-9 pm
  • Final Date: 5/12/22 Thursday 3-6 pm

Exam Attendance Policy

You must attend all exams to pass the class. We will consider granting an incomplete given extenuating circumstances that are communicated to course staff. Simply not attending the final exam does not ensure an automatic failure or the granting of an incomplete.

Grading

We are grading according to department guidelines on grades. The score upon which the grade will be assigned will be computed as follows:

  • Discussion Attendance: 5%
  • Vitamin: 5% (lowest three vitamins dropped)
  • Homework: 20% (lowest three homeworks dropped)
  • Midterm: 30%
  • Final: 40%

There will also be a “no-homework” option with a score computed without homework as follows:

  • Discussion Attendance: 6.25%
  • Vitamins: 6.25% (lowest three vitamins dropped)
  • Midterm: 37.5%
  • Final: 50%

Since there will only be one midterm, we have a partial clobber policy for both options so that if you do well on either the midterm or the final, your other score can be partially clobbered if you happen to do poorly. More details will be released in the coming weeks.

Academic Misconduct

We take academic misconduct very seriously. Using any kind of homework or exam solutions (for example, from previous semesters) on a currently active assignment is strictly prohibited and is academic misconduct. Consequences of academic misconduct include negative points for the corresponding assignment, a failing grade in the class, and/or a referral to the Office of Student Conduct.

Collaboration

You are welcome to work on homework problems in study groups of two to five 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. You may discuss approaches but your solution must be written by you and you only. You should acknowledge everyone whom you have worked with or who has given you any significant ideas about the homework.

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.

Closing Thoughts

We are excited to teach for you this semester! For tips and advice on how to do well in this course, please see our survival tips page.

Always feel free to contact us via email or visit us during office hours if you feel unsure about your progress in the course, or would just like to reach out. We are here to support you and help you succeed!