CMPS 3130/6130 Introduction to Computational Geometry
Spring 20
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Policies

Attendance:

Attendance in class will not be taken but students are fully responsible for all material presented or assigned in class. For this reason, attendance is strongly recommended.

Piazza:

We will use Piazza for all class communications, discussions, and announcements. It is therefore essential that you check the discussion on Piazza at least daily (you can customize email notifications in Piazza).

Homework Assignments:

There will be nine homework assignments of equal weight that will generally be due within one week. Homeworks will consist of written problems. Homeworks will be posted on the homework page. For each problem on each homework assignment, any score of 60% or higher will be rounded up to 100%. For the class grade, the homework with the lowest score will be dropped.

You are allowed to turn in homeworks in groups of two; each group should turn in a single homework submission with two names. You are encouraged to discuss rough ideas and thoughts about a homework assignment with your other classmates. However you have to write up your solution on your own (with your group partner). You are not allowed to read, copy, or rewrite the solutions written by others (in this or previous terms). See the section on Academic Integrity. Homeworks are to be submitted on paper at the beginning of class. If you cannot attend the class you are welcome to submit your homework by email to the instructor, by sliding it under the instructor's office door, or by any other means you can think of to get the homework on time to the instructor.

There will be different homeworks for the undergraduate and graduate sections. Homeworks for graduate sections will contain independent reading of additional material that is required for solving some of the homework problems.

Homework grades will be made available on Canvas.

Paper Presentations:

Graduate students will have to read a recent paper in Computational Geometry and present it in class. You are not allowed to pick a paper for which presentation slides are publicly available, and you are not allowed to use presentation slides made by someone other than you. There will be several milestones for this project presentation: (1) Pick a paper of your choice, read it, and informally present it to the instructor. (2) Read the paper in-depth and think of ways to improve it. (3) Prepare a presentation and present it in class. The presentations will be 20 minutes long. The presentation grade will consist of the sum of the grades for each milestone.

Exams:

There will be one mideterm and one final exam. These will be closed-book and closed-notes, but you are allowed to bring a helper sheet to each exam (a single-sided one-letter page for the midterm, and two single-sided one-letter page for the final exam). Review of the grading of a homework or an exam must be requested within 2 weeks after the graded exam/homework is returned to you. Be aware that such a review will consider the exam/homework as a whole, and as a result your grade is just as likely to go down as it is to go up.

Late Policy:

Without prior arrangements, missing an exam, homework assignments, or presentation milestone will result in a grade of zero. In order to take a make-up exam, contact the instructor prior to the exam if you have to miss it for some valid reason; documentation may be required. Notification after the exam will result in a score of zero.

There are no late days of any type for homework assignments or presentation milestones. Late homework will not be graded for credit. In extra-ordinary cases (a two-day cold does not count since you have two weeks to complete the assignment), contact the instructor prior to the due date to get a homework extension.

Grading:

Grading will be based on the following weighted scale:

Undergraduate CMPS 3130:

Graduate CMPS 6130:

The weighted average will determine your letter grade roughly as follows: A >= 92%; A- >=90%; B+ >= 88%; B >= 82%; B- >=80%; C+ >= 78%; C >= 72%; C- >=70%; D+ >=68%; D >= 62%; D- >= 60%; F < 60%

Handouts, Slides, and Pictures:

The class web page will have links to all class handouts as they become available.

During the lectures we will use slides as well as the board. The instructor will take pictures of the board during the lectures. Those pictures as well as the slides will be available on the "slides, picture" page, such that you can see what has been covered if you happen to have missed a class. There is however no guarantee that the pictures will be complete.

Canvas:

Assignment grades will be available on Canvas.

Academic Integrity:

You are engouraged to discuss rough ideas and thoughts about a homework assignment with your other classmates, but you have to write up your solution on your own (with your group partner). You are not allowed to read, copy, or rewrite the solutions written by others (in this or previous terms).

If you are stuck on a problem and unable to get to the instructor for help, then we suggest you discuss the problem with a classmate. You can also try and use hints from a publicly available source such as a textbook or journal article. The source must be cited and you have to write the solution in your own words. It should be apparent to us that you understand the solution for full credit. If your source is a web page the same rules apply. In order to give you a better practice of the class material, we recommend solving the homeworks without extensive use of other publicly available sources.

You are required to adhere to the Code of Academic Conduct. Every cheating will be reported to the Associate Dean of Newcomb-Tulane College. If two people are caught sharing solutions then both the copier and copiee will be held equally responsible. Cheating on an exam will result in failing the course.

Last modified by Carola Wenk,   cwenk  -at-   tulane  -dot-   edu, 11/16/2019 12:43:3411/14/2016 18:01:45