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4003-532-70/4005-736-70 Parallel Computing II
Prof. Alan Kaminsky -- Spring Quarter 2007
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| 5% | Team formation |
| 5% | Team presentation attendance |
| 20% | Team presentations |
| 20% | Team deliverables |
| 15% | Programming Project 1 |
| 15% | Programming Project 2 |
| 20% | Final exam |
I will not hand out letter grades during the course, just points. Your final grade will be determined by the total points you earn, weighted as shown above, and converted to a letter using this scale:
Undergraduate (4003-543-01)
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Graduate (4005-742-01)
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For the actual formulas used to calculate grades, see the Undergraduate Grade Calculator or the Graduate Grade Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
I will record your grades for the assignments, as well as your final letter grade, in a grade file. Each student will have his or her own grade file. Each grade file will be encrypted with a different secret key for each student. The encrypted grade files will be posted on the course web site. Since no one can decrypt the grade file without the secret key, your personal grade information remains confidential despite being posted on the web site.
To decrypt your grade file, you will have to obtain the secret key from me, in person. Come to my office, show me your student ID, and I will give you your secret key. It is your responsibility to safeguard your secret key. If anyone else discovers what your secret key is, they will be able to decrypt and examine your grade file. Treat your secret key as you would your student ID, driver's license, or credit card. If you lose your secret key or suspect someone else has discovered it, see me, in person, to get a new secret key.
When I have finished grading each assignment, I will post an announcement on the What's New page that the grades are available.
For further information, see Encrypted Grades.
There will be a two-hour final exam during the Institute examination period, at a date and time to be announced. The final exam will be open book, open notes, open laptops. The final exam will cover material from the entire course. The final exam may involve numerical calculations; be sure to bring a calculator.
I will not hand back the final exam. To see how you did on the final exam, you may visit me in my office.
Absences: If you are absent from the final exam, your final exam will receive a grade of zero unless on or before the date of the final exam you arrange with me to take the final exam at another time. I am normally willing to permit this only for absences due to illness or unforeseen personal emergency. However, if you feel you have a valid reason for your absence, please discuss it with me.
Scheduling conflicts: If you have a final exam scheduling conflict, please refer to the RIT Institute Policies and Procedures Manual, Section D11.0, "Final Examination Policies." You must submit a written request for rescheduling to the head of your home department, with a copy to your instructor, by the last day of the 6th week of classes, Friday, 20-Apr-2007.
There will be two programming projects to be written in Java. These projects are individual effort (not part of the project team effort). The projects will be assigned on the dates shown in the Course Schedule. The projects will be due at 11:59pm on the dates shown in the Course Schedule. The projects will be submitted via email. The date/time at which your email message arrives in my inbox will determine whether the project meets the deadline. Details of each project, including submission requirements, will be provided when the projects are assigned.
Project 1 will be a shared memory multiprocessor (SMP) parallel program implemented using Parallel Java.
Project 2 will be a hybrid SMP cluster version of Project 1 and will also be implemented using Parallel Java.
Help with your projects: I am willing to help you with the design of your project. I am willing to help you debug your project if the code isn't working. However, for help with design or debugging issues you must come see me in person. Either visit me during office hours or make an appointment. I will not help you with design or debugging issues via email. If it's the evening of the project deadline and I have gone home, you are on your own. Plan and work ahead so there will be plenty of time for me to help you if necessary.
I will answer general questions about the project via email, such as requests to clarify or interpret the project requirements.
Late projects: I will not accept a late project unless you arrange with me for an extension. See below for my policy on extensions. Late projects will receive a grade of zero.
Plagiarism: Each project must be entirely your own work. I will not tolerate plagiarism. See below for my policy on plagiarism.
The rules for extensions are:
| If you request an extension: | You will receive an extension of: |
| 3 days before the deadline date | 3 days |
| 2 days before the deadline date | 2 days |
| 1 day before the deadline date | 1 day |
| On the deadline date | 1 day |
| When asking for an extension, I would appreciate some basic courtesy. Too many students send me a rude message like "I need an extension." The polite way to ask for an extension is, "May I please have an extension for the programming project?" |
The intent of this policy is not to give everyone an automatic 3-day extension for every assignment. The intent of this policy is to accommodate students who plan and work ahead on the assignments but experience an unforeseen last-minute difficulty, and to penalize students who do not plan and work ahead. If you put off working on an assignment and get sick or suffer a computer breakdown at the last minute, I am not going to give you more time than stated above. You should have been working ahead so you would have been finished before the last minute.
If you receive an extension for an assignment and the extended deadline falls after the last day of classes, then at my discretion I may assign you a grade of Incomplete (I) for the course. The Incomplete grade will be changed after you have submitted the assignment and I have evaluated it.
I apply spam filtering on incoming email. To get your email past my spam filters and into my inbox:
I reply in a timely manner to all emails that get past my spam filters and into my inbox. Emails blocked by my spam filters go into a separate spam folder. I do not reply in a timely manner to emails in my spam folder.
It is your responsibility to format your emails so that they get past my spam filters. This includes all assignment submissions and extension requests as well as general questions. If I have not responded to your email within one business day (i.e. not counting weekends), contact me again.
For further information, see "Contacting Me."
Individual projects. The paragraphs below refer to Programming Project 1 and Programming Project 2, each of which must be done as an individual effort.
You may use any resources you wish to do the programming projects, including resources discussed in class and resources you find on your own. You may discuss the programming projects at a general level with others in the class. However, the programming projects you turn in must be entirely your own work. You are not allowed to collaborate with anyone else on the programming projects. You are not allowed to use any current or past student's work in any way when working on your programming projects.
I will not tolerate plagiarism. If in my judgment a programming project is not entirely your own work, you will get a grade of 0 for the programming project. I will also place a report of the plagiarism incident in your permanent file in the Computer Science Department office. Repeated plagiarism incidents will result in disciplinary action in accordance with Computer Science Department policy and RIT policy.
There are only two exceptions to the prohibition on plagiarism:
Team project. For the team project, the above policies apply to the team members as a group.
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