Machine Learning

CSCI 567, Fall 2020

Haipeng Luo

Written Assignments

Homework	Due Date (Pacific Time)	Graders
HW 1	09/15, 11:59 PM	Anamay and Sowmya
HW 2	09/29, 11:59 PM	Shubham and Dhiti
HW 3	10/20, 11:59 PM	Anamay and Sowmya
HW 4	10/31, 11:59 PM	Shubham and Dhiti
HW 5	11/10, 11:59 PM	All CPs

Grade: Each assignment is worth 6% of the total grade. They are graded based on correctness, and solutions will be posted soon after the deadline. Trying to find solutions online or from any other sources is strictly prohibited and will result in zero grade for that assignment.

Collaboration: Collaboration is permitted but only at high-level. Each member needs to make a separate submission, where information on collaboration is clearly stated. Standards on academic integrity are strictly enforced.

Turn-in: Submit one single PDF file to D2L. This can be a scan copy of your handwritten solutions or generated by softwares such as LaTeX.

Late turn-in: You have a total of 3 "late days" for the entire semester, and you can use at most one late day for each written assignment. If your submission is one day late, we will automatically record that one late day has been used, unless you have no late days left, in which case your grade for that assignment will be zero. Any submission more than one day late will result in zero grade as well. Please note that tracking late days is your responsibility, and they are in place of "excused late" submissions, not in addition to.

Re-grading: After each assignment is graded, you have a two-day window to contact the respective graders should you have any re-grading request (regarding factual errors only). You can do so during their office hours or via a private Piazza post. After two days, no re-grading requests will be considered.

Quizzes

General: Quizzes are open-book, but they are designed in a way so that checking books/notes/Internet/etc. is moot in some sense, and you are better off just spending the time on solving the problems yourself. No collaboration of any kind or consultation from others is allowed. Cheating will result in zero grade. Some sample quizzes will be released and discussed in the discussion sessions.

Format: Each quiz is worth 20% of the total grade, and contains several multiple-choice questions as well as general problems (that are similar to the written assignments). We will be using Crowdmark, where you can complete the multiple-choice questions directly, and upload pictures of your handwritten solutions for all other problems. No printer is required, but make sure you have a device to take pictures. Also try your best to make sure that your handwriting is recognizable.

Logistics: The quizzes are in-class, where you will use the same link for the lectures to join Zoom and be automatically assigned to a breakout room. Each room has one TA/CP to proctor the entire quiz, and you have to turn your camera on. It is your responsibility to make sure that your camera works. If you have any clarification questions during the quiz, make a private post on Piazza and it will be answered shortly.

Re-grading: Similarly to the written assignments, after each exam is graded, you have a two-day window to contact our TAs should you have any re-grading request (regarding factual errors only). You can do so during their office hours or via a private Piazza post. After two days, no re-grading requests will be considered.

Programming Project (Due 12/08, 11:59PM, Pacific Time)

General: The programming project is worth 30% of the total grade. It consists of six programing tasks (in Python) on Vocareum. During the second week of the semester, you will receive an invitation to sign up (contact us if you do not receive it). All programing tasks are available starting from the second week as well. In other words, you have almost an entire semester to finish the project, and it is up to you whether you prefer to finish a task soon after the corresponding lecture to reinforce your understanding, or to do everything close to the end of the semester so you can focus on the theory first (which is admittedly more relevant to the written assignments and the quizzes).

Vocareum: Vocareum is an online platform that allows you to submit your code easily and then auto-grades it. It is very intuitive and easy to use. Below are some general instructions:

• For each programming task, go to the "work" directory and read "readme.html", where you will find all instructions to finish that task.
• It is recommended that you download all files from the "work" directory, code locally, and then upload the changes.
• You are allowed to submit as many times as you want (the 10 times restriction mentioned in Lec 1 has been removed), and your grade is determined by your last submission.
• After each submission, you get to see your grade along with the grading report immediately. It might take some time to grade your code though, especially if your code is not efficient enough. As a reference, our solution codes take at most a few minutes for each task.
• Solutions code will not be released, and collaboration is also not allowed. However, each task comes with some test cases to help you debug, and the grading report also gives you hints on where your bugs might be.
• If you have any questions on the project or on using Vocareum, our CPs are happy to help you.

Due date: 12/08, 11:59PM, Pacific Time. Note that this is a strict deadline and no late days are allowed (in fact, not even one "late second"). You should definitely avoid submitting in the last minute to avoid any unexpected issues (e.g. Internet connection lost).