CMPS 6640/4040 Computational Geometry
Spring 16
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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.

Schedule:

Quiz dates and due dates for homeworks and project milestones have been posted in the class schedule.

Homework Assignments:

There will be six bi-weekly homework assignments of equal weight. Homeworks will consist of written problems. Homeworks will be posted on the homework page. Undergraduate students receive a 20% bonus on each homework assignment, but the total score of each homework will be capped at 100%. The lowest homework will be dropped.

You are engouraged 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. 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 in 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.

Quizzes:

There will be six bi-weekly quizzes. The dates are posted on the class schedule. Undergraduate students receive a 20% bonus on each quiz, but the total score of each quiz will be capped at 100%. The lowest quiz will be dropped.

Review of the grading of a homework or quiz must be requested within 2 weeks after the graded homework/quiz is returned to you. Be aware that such a review will consider the homework/quiz as a whole, and as a result your grade is just as likely to go down as it is to go up.

Term Project:

There will be one term project that will consist of reading, understanding, and presenting a research paper, as well as posing and investigating a research question related to the paper. The following milestones have to be completed for the project:
  1. (10 points) Pick research paper.
    [Read the paper before the next milestone.]
  2. (20 points) Present the contents of the paper to the instructor.
  3. (10 points) Pose research problem.
    [Work on the problem before the next milestone.]
  4. (30 points) Present work done on the research problem to the instructor.
    [Work on the presentation before the next milestone.]
  5. (30 points) Give a 20-minute presentation about the paper and the research problem in class.
The due dates for the milestones are posted on the class schedule. Milestones 1 and 3 should be completed via email to the instructor. Milestones 2 and 4 should be completed in person during a meeting with the instructor, scheduled to be held during the week specified in the class schedule.

The paper should be a recent research paper in computational geometry. Good places to look for a paper are the proceedings of the Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG), see here for the 2015 proceedings, and see the ACM digital library for proceedings of prior years. Good journals to look for are Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications and Discrete and Computational Geometry. Feel free to discuss ideas about paper choices with the instructor.

The research problem can be a research question related to the paper, it can be an in-depth study of a new concept or algorithm that was not covered in class, or (in particular for undergraduate students) it can be the detailed understanding of technical proofs in the paper itself.

The project presentations (milestone 5) are to be held during class after April 11. There will be no final exam, but the final exam period may be used for project presentations if necessary.

Late Policy:

Without prior arrangements, missing a homework assignments, quiz, or project milestone results in a grade of zero.

There are no late days of any type for homework assignments or project 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:

The weighted average will determine your letter grade roughly as follows: A >= 90%; B >= 80%; C >= 70%; D >= 60%; F < 60%

+/- grades will be given for borderline cases.

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 webpage, 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.

Blackboard:

Homework, quiz, and project milestone grades will be available on Blackboard.

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. 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 try and use hints from a publicly available source such as a textbook or journal article. The source should 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.

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.

Last modified by Carola Wenk,   cwenk  -at-   tulane  -dot-   edu,