FAQ

We get a lot of high level questions about the course. Here are our answers to the most common ones. (We'll undoubtedly add to them as the course progresses.)

• Is attendance at the project help sessions mandatory?

No. You are free to book a 15 minute time slot with a TA to get advice and help about the group project and/or the homework assignments. But you are also free not to book any time slot and not attend.

• Do I complete the homework/programming assignments in groups or individually?

Individually. I have no problem with you discussing the assignments with other students on the course. But each person has to write their own code and report and upload their own work to Canvas.

• Can I do the project in a group of 1, 2 or 4?

No in most cases. We have too few resources to accommodate groups with less then 3 members. Exceptions of course will be made for groups where one member dropped out/disappeared after the start of the project. However, we feel that with groups > 3 it is too easy for there to be passengers in the group who do very little and don't learn so much.

• Can PhD and non-PhD students be in the same project group?

No. It will be too difficult for us to grade the project if there are PhD and non-PhD students in the same project group. 

• Are the deadlines hard for the assignment submission?

No. The deadlines are soft. If you submit by the deadline then your assignment will be approved/corrected in a timely fashion. If you submit after the deadline then we can make no such guarantees, your assignment will be corrected but when is another issue........ 

• What about the bonus point submissions?

There will be a final hard deadline for the last possible submission of bonus point assignments. This will be at the end of May. Thus you can submit bonus point assignments after the "soft" deadline, however, you cannot submit them after the hard deadline in May.

• Can I attend the oral presentation for my project group via Skype?

We will only allow this in exceptional circumstances such as you have return to your home university to fulfil academic requirements. "I'm going on vacation" will not be considered a valid reason. We will judge each request on a case-by-case manner.

• I'm a PhD student, is there a Phd version of the course?

Yes. The course code for the PhD version of the course is DD3424. The differences between the PhD and the non-PhD course are 

1. The PhD course is graded only as Pass/Fail.
2. There is a higher criterion for passing the project group or the written take home assignment than the non-PhD students.