CS 839: AI for Scientific Computing

📊 Grading

The final grade will be calculated based on:

• Participation: 30%
• Presentations: 40%
• Final Project: 30%

Participation

There will be four types of lectures in this class: background lectures (by the instructor), research lectures (by the instructor or guests), paper presentations (by students), and project presentations (by students). During research lectures, paper presentations, and student presentations (but not background lectures), students will be expected to think of and submit questions to the speaker(s) via a Canvas quiz. Students do not need to ask these questions out loud if they do not wish to do so. All questions must be thought of independently. If someone else asks the same or similar question out loud before you can ask your own, you must submit the speaker's answer in addition to your own version of the question.

Questions can only be submitted to Canvas during class time. Each question will be assigned a binary grade based on relevance and significance (e.g. typo or basic clarification questions do not count). A third of the participation grade will be determined by taking the seven top-graded questions from across all research lectures, but only the first two questions during each lecture will be counted. The remaining thirds of the participation grade will be determined in the same manner based on the paper presentations and the project presentations, respectively. As there are expected to be more than four lectures of each type during the semester, this will allow flexibility in case a student is not able to attend some of the classes; this also means that requests to make up these points in some manner are extremely unlikely to be granted.

Presentations

Students will be expected to give two presentations, each accounting for half of the presentation grade. The first presentations will be of an existing paper or a cohesive line of work; this will be given in groups of 2-3 and will be assessed based on clarity of presentation, understanding of the material, and analysis of the consequences of the research. Topics should be determined in consultation with the instructor but can draw upon the students' own research backgrounds. The second presentation will be a progress report on the final project; this will be given in groups of 3-4 and will be assessed based on clarity of presentation, assessment of research progress and roadblocks, and analysis of next steps. A tentative timeline of when the presentations will occur is in the course schedule below.

Final Project

Students will complete a final project in groups of 3-4. Topics should be determined in consultation with the instructor but can draw upon the students' own research backgrounds, so long as they are sufficiently self-contained and relevant to the course topic. A two-page project proposal is due by midnight on March 27th; an eight-page project report is due by midnight on May 4th. Both may use unlimited room for references and appendices, should be typeset in LaTeX with 11pt font and 1-inch margins, and must be emailed to the instructor with all team members cc'd.