You can (and should) download a PDF of the full syllabus here. This page summarizes and goes into more depth on course policies.
Email has gone from a convenience to a stressor and a burden, and potential email substitutes don't help and may be worse. These guidelines are aimed at reducing everyone's stress and improving the quality of our communications as a group.
The forum for this course is hosted on Ed Discussion (henceforth Ed). Our Ed forum is also linked from Canvas.
Posts can be set to public or private. A private post will only be seen by the poster and the course staff. Use private posts for non-urgent messages that should be accessible to myself and the TA. Email, rather than private posts, is best for messages that must be kept private between you and either myself or the TA.
Please reserve email for confidential or urgent messages. Overuse of email has been linked to increased stress, which should be avoided as much as possible, and other students may be able to benefit from a public Ed post. Adherence to this policy will make sure that the TA and I can immediately recognize an email as something that should be read and acted on ASAP; otherwise, messages can be lost in the shuffle.
Class announcements will be posted on Ed. These will also be sent out to your emails. I will reserve these for urgent messages (class cancellations, changes to deadlines, etc), so make sure you check Ed for important but non-urgent messages (which will be pinned).
Classes will be largely lecture based, though some classes will include group activities or coding exercises. For the latter, I will let you know ahead of time that you should bring a laptop to class and provide a GitHub repository with starter code.
I will do my best to post lecture notes on the course scheduleahead of the upcoming week. The Wednesday notes may be modified based on how far we get on Monday, but they should be broadly accurate.
Each lecture will start with a poll for questions that you'd like me to answer at the start of class. I will give you time at the beginning of class to pose questions, but if something comes to mind ahead of lecture or you don't intend to bring your laptop to class, use the link or QR code at the beginning of the notes to access the poll and ask your question.
In this class, we will use GitHub Classroom to distribute assignments and manage code. You should use git and GitHub to maintain your assignment and project codes. PDFs of your compiled assignments should be uploaded to Gradescope (make sure to tag the individual problems, or you will lose points!).
When we release an assignment, you will receive an email from GitHub Classroom containing an invitation link. This link will also be provided in a pinned post in the relevant Ed Discussion forum. When you click on this link, GitHub Classroom will ask you if you want to accept the invitation. If you answer "yes," a new repository will be created for you containing the repository template.
Reports will be written as self-contained Weave.jl files which integrates plots, code, and your written analysis.
The entire workflow may seem a little complicated at first, but I promise it's not! Like so many other things, it's simpler to do than it is to try to write out all of the steps (though I tried), and you'll get the feel for it after the first one or two assignments (which are intended to ease you into things).
Assignments are due at 9pm on the assigned due date. Submit your assignment as a PDF to Gradescope with the pages for the solution for each question tagged. Failure to tag the questions will result in a 10% penalty.
Late submissions will be penalized at a rate of 10% per day after the due date. You have the option of using a report from your latest GitHub commit if you think it's close to complete. If you want to do this, let us know.
Your lowest assignment will be dropped automatically. If you run into problems with multiple assignments, reach out (ideally ahead of time) and we can discuss your situation and how we can make any appropriate accomodations.
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