CSC 4500 Course Organization
Spring 2008

Course Organization: At the end of each week, I will assign a set of reading for the following week. It is important that you keep up with the reading, as my lectures will assume at least a passing familiarity with the readings. Class participation in discussions will contribute to discretionary grade changes at the end of the semester!

In addition to the weekly reading, there will be 4 individual homework assignments (1-week each). There will be 3 team-based programming projects (1 Problem-Solving Search, 1 Robot lab, and 1 Probability Lab (Texas Hold'em competition or Robot Navigation ... class decides). There will be a midterm and a final (both individual work). Note that sometimes the homeworks and the lab projects will be running simultaneously, so it is important to manage your time in the course.

I will grade team projects as follows. Each project will receive a "team grade." This represents the maximum grade anyone on the team can get. With each project, the team members are required to email me with their assessment of the other team membersŐ effort and intellectual contribution. Using this information, I will assign individual grades based on the "team grade."

Academic Integrity: All of the projects are team-based. This means that within each team you are strongly encouraged to share answers and help each other out on projects. As long as what you hand in to me is the product of your own team's thinking, or is properly attributed, you are maintaining academic integrity. However, all exams and homeworks are to be strictly individual efforts. Again, As long as what you hand in to me is the product of your own work, or is properly attributed, you are maintaining academic integrity. WHEN IN DOUBT, consult me for help. ANY VIOLATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY WILL RESULT IN AT LEAST A GRADE OF ZERO FOR THE ASSIGNMENT, AND A REPORT TO THE ACADEMIC INTEGRITY REVIEW BOARD. For more information, please check the Villanova web site's complete Academic Integrity Policy.