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Grading
Grade Notification
Required Reading
Extensions
Email Rules
Plagiarism
I will not be running this as a traditional classroom course with lectures, homework, exams, etc. Instead, I will be running this as an individualized research course. Each student will undertake a research investigation, the outcome of which will be a paper ready to be published in a research conference and a conference presentation to go with the paper. During class sessions, as well as outside of class as necessary, I will be coaching you on your literature searching, software design and measurement, research paper writing, and presentation delivery. Your final course grade will be based on my assessment of your research investigation progress, paper, and presentation according to the standards of scientific research conferences. For detailed information about the research investigation requirements and grading, see Research Investigation.
I may encourage you to submit your papers for publication in appropriate conferences. However, acceptance of your paper for publication is not a requirement for this course.
The specific graded items are:
| 5% | Initial web site |
| 40% | Weekly status (8 weeks × 5%) |
| 10% | Draft report |
| 15% | Final report |
| 15% | Source code archive |
| 15% | Final presentation |
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:
| 92% | ≤ | A | ≤ | 100% |
| 84% | ≤ | B | < | 92% |
| 76% | ≤ | C | < | 84% |
| 68% | ≤ | D | < | 76% |
| 0% | ≤ | F | < | 68% |
For the actual formulas used to calculate grades, see the Grade Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
I will record your grades for the programming project, 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.
Discussing your grades: If you have questions about or want to discuss your grades, you must come see me in person. Either visit me during office hours or make an appointment. I will not answer questions about or discuss your grades via email.
You are responsible for knowing the material in Parts I, II, and III of the Building Parallel Programs textbook. I covered this material in the Parallel Computing I course. If you did not take Parallel Computing I with me, you will need to pick up this material on your own.
You are responsible for learning the material in Part IV of the Building Parallel Programs textbook. I will be covering this material in class lectures. The material in Part V is not required but may prove useful in your research investigation.
To help you learn the material, solutions to Selected Exercises are posted on the course web site. I strongly recommend you do the problems before looking at the solutions, then check your work afterwards.
Accessing the solutions on the course web site requires authentication with a specific username and password. (This is not the same as your Computer Science Department account, and this is not the same as the secret key for decrypting your grade file.) The username and password will be announced in class and will also be listed in your grade file. Please observe the following restrictions:
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 Project 1?" |
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.
My email address is ark@cs.rit.edu. To deter spambots, the email address is obfuscated. If you copy and paste my email address from this web site, it will not work. If you type in my email address by hand, it will work.
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 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."
You may use any resources you wish to do the assignments, including resources discussed in class and resources you find on your own. You may discuss the assignments at a general level with others in the class. However, each assignment you turn in must be entirely your own work. You are not allowed to collaborate with anyone else on any assignment. You are not allowed to use any current student's work, any past student's work, or any other person's work in any way as part of your assignment.
I will not tolerate plagiarism. If in my judgment an assignment is not entirely your own work, you will receive, as a minimum, a grade of zero for the assignment. Plagiarism incidents will result in disciplinary action in accordance with Computer Science Department policy and RIT policy. I expect you to read and abide by the following policies:
These are some examples of plagiarism. These are not the only examples of plagiarism.
There are only two exceptions to the prohibition on plagiarism:
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