Syllabus
Fall 2024
Information
Course
Prerequisites: CS325: Artificial Intelligence or CS334: Machine Learning
Class Hours: MW 2:30 AM - 3:45 PM
Class Location: MSC W303
Instructors
Associate Professor of Computer Science, QTM, and Linguistics
Office Hours: MW 4 PM - 5 PM @ WH 218
Email: jinho.choi@emory.edu
Ph.D. Student in Computer Science and Informatics
Office Hours: TuTh 10 AM - 11:30 AM @ WH 100
Email: nayoung.choi@emory.edu
Notes
This course is conducted in person, and no virtual links or digital recordings will be provided.
It is recommended that you bring your laptop as there will be many in-class exercises.
Overall Grading
Criteria
Homework Assignments (10 total, including 6 writing and 1 peer-review assignments): 70%
Checkpoint Presentations (4+2 total): 9%
Team Project: 21%
Policies
Late submissions will be accepted up to one week after the original deadline. However, a grading penalty of 15% will be applied to the submitted work. Submissions made after the one-week grace period will not be accepted under any circumstances.
All work submitted in this course is expected to adhere to the Emory Honor Code. Any violations of the honor code will be reported to the Emory College Honor Council for appropriate action.
If you encounter significant personal circumstances such as health issues or family emergencies that affect your ability to perform in the course, you may request accommodations. Submit a letter from the Office for Undergraduate Education supporting documentation to facilitate appropriate adjustments to your coursework or deadlines.
Team Grading
For certain team assignments, you will be required to indicate the contribution percentage of each team member, which will directly impact the individual grades for the assignment.
Contribution
If your team of two members receives 4 out of 5 points for an assignment, for example, and you indicate that your contribution was 60% while your teammate's was 40%, the points will be distributed as follows:
This approach ensures that the grading reflects the effort and input of each team member, promoting fairness and accountability.
Consensus
Each team is required to submit a single, agreed-upon chart detailing the contribution percentages of all members for each team assignment. This means that you and your teammates must reach a consensus on the contribution rates before submitting your work.
Open communication and transparency are essential in this process. Disagreements should be resolved within the team, ensuring that the final submission reflects the true division of labor and contributions.
By adhering to these guidelines, you will not only produce a strong research paper but also develop key skills in teamwork and fair assessment of contributions.
Writing Assignments
Throughout the semester, each team will collaboratively write a full research paper, with each section of the paper developed as a separate homework assignment. This process will guide you through the various stages of research writing, ensuring that you develop a comprehensive and high-quality paper.
You and your teammates will be responsible for collectively drafting each section of the research paper. These sections will be assigned as individual assignments, allowing you to focus on specific aspects of the research process.
Effective collaboration is crucial. Regular communication and coordination within your team will help ensure that each section is coherent and contributes to the overall quality of the final paper.
All writing must be your team’s original work. You are expected to synthesize ideas, data, and arguments in your own words. This includes not only the main text but also any related work sections, tables, and figures.
Direct copying or close paraphrasing from other sources, including previously published papers or external materials, is strictly prohibited. Any such instance will be considered plagiarism and will be subject to academic penalties in accordance with the university's policies.
Grading for the writing assignments will be conducted according to the Team Grading policy.
Checkpoint Presentations
Presentations
Each team will present their intermediate work to the class 4 times throughout the semester, which are crucial for sharing your progress, receiving feedback, and refining your project.
Every member of your team will receive the same grade for each presentation, reflecting the collective effort and quality of the work presented.
Active participation and equal contribution from all team members are expected to ensure that your presentations are comprehensive and well-prepared.
Attendance
Attendance at all presentations, including those not presented by your team, is mandatory:
Attendance will be graded individually, separate from your team's presentation score. Your engagement during others' presentations is as critical as presenting your own work.
You are allowed to miss one out of six presentations without penalty. This absence will be automatically excused, and you will not lose any points for it.
Beyond the first excused absence, any additional missed presentations will result in a score of 0 points for those attendances. It’s important to manage your time and responsibilities to ensure consistent participation.
By adhering to these guidelines, you will contribute to a supportive and dynamic classroom environment while ensuring that your team’s work is accurately and fairly evaluated.
Peer Reviews
As part of the final stages of your team’s research paper, your work will undergo a peer review process. The final draft of your paper will be evaluated by three peers from other teams. Similarly, you will be responsible for reviewing three research papers written by students outside of your own team.
This exercise aims to help you learn and practice proper research paper review techniques. By critically evaluating the work of your peers, you will gain insights into what makes a strong research paper, including aspects such as clarity, originality, methodology, and overall impact.
The feedback you provide will play a crucial role in helping authors improve the quality of their research. Your constructive criticism and suggestions will enable them to refine their arguments, strengthen their methodologies, and enhance the overall coherence and impact of their work.
By engaging fully in the peer review process, you will not only contribute to the research development of your peers but also enhance your own skills in research evaluation and writing.
Team Project
Your team is required to maintain frequent meetings on a weekly basis. As a team, you will be expected to submit the following towards the end of the semester:
Oral Presentation
Poster Presentation
Final Draft of Your Research Paper
Presentations
Your team will be responsible for preparing and delivering both an oral presentation and a poster presentation. These presentations will showcase the results of your research, demonstrating the depth of your analysis and the significance of your findings.
Each team member must actively participate in both presentations. All team members will receive the same grade for the oral and poster presentations unless an individual fails to participate, in which case that member will receive a zero.
Attendance is mandatory for all presentations, including those presented by other teams. Active participation in these presentations is crucial for fostering a collaborative learning environment and for gaining insights from your peers' work.
If you fail to attend any of the presentations, you will receive 0 points for that presentation. This policy emphasizes the importance of your engagement in the entire course process, not just your own team's work.
Research Paper
Collaboratively write a complete research paper that meets the standards for publication as a preprint or in a peer-reviewed venue. Your paper should be a rigorous and original contribution to the field, showcasing the results of your team’s research efforts.
The final draft of your research paper will be graded according to the Team Grading policy.
Peer Ranking:
Team projects will be ranked by peers, which will be taken into account in the final evaluation of the projects, offering an additional perspective on the quality and impact of your work.
The grading for the peer ranking will also adhere to the Team Grading policy.
Policy on LLM-based Systems
You are highly encouraged to leverage LLM-based systems to revise and review the content you have already written, enhancing its quality and coherence.
You are not allowed to rely on LLM-based systems to generate any content from scratch. For example, you cannot use an LLM to create an introduction by providing only a title or to write additional paragraphs that may plausibly follow a given paragraph.
Engaging LLM-based systems to generate fabricated data, experimental results, or analyses is strictly prohibited. Any violation of this policy will result in a referral to the Honor Council for further investigation.
While you are permitted to utilize LLM-based systems to discover relevant resources (e.g., references), it is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and reliability of those resources.
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