Assignments & Grading

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Grading

Project-related assignments

  • Project Assignments (50%)
  • Project Presentations (initial pitch, update, final) (15%)

Participation: 1) Class attendance, 2) role-paying seminar presentations + submitting non-presenter comments, and 3) participation in class discussions (30%)

Weekly reflection and feedback forms - due before class every week (5%)

All assignments are submitted on Canvas. The project runs the whole semester as a sequence of milestones:

Assignment Due Pts
Team Creation Thu Aug 28 0
Submit Project Ideas Mon Aug 31 2
Project Proposal and Scope Mon Sep 14 5
3-minute Project Pitch Tue Sep 15 3
Implement Baseline(s) Monday Oct 5 5
Project Update Presentation Tue Oct 6 3
Initial ML Solution Tue Oct 20 5
Evaluation Thu Nov 5 5
Iteration 2 Thu Nov 19 5
Project Presentation Tue Dec 1 5
Project Writeup and Demo Tue Dec 8 10

How project assignments are scored

Written project assignments are scored part by part, on a 0–3 scale:

Score Meaning
3 Excellent. Specific, well-reasoned, and something we’d show other teams as an example.
2 Good. Meets the bar for this stage of the project. This should be your target.
1 Needs work. There’s a critical gap here that you need to fix and will matter for your project.
0 Not submitted.

A 2 is a good grade. It means that part of your work does what it needs to do. Most work, including good work, will earn 2s.

Scores are not final until your last submission. Each assignment builds on the one before it, so you revise as you go: fix a part we flagged and include the revision in your next project submission, and we’ll re-score it. A 1 you fix becomes at least a 2, and a revision that goes meaningfully further can earn a 3.

For example, revisions to the Project Proposal and Scope are submitted with Implement Baseline(s), and revisions to Implement Baseline(s) with Initial ML Solution.

Every point can be recovered if you make those improvements in a later submission. The one exception is the final Project Writeup and Demo: there’s nothing after it, so its scores are final — which is one more reason to act on feedback from earlier assignments rather than saving it for the end.

Reasoning behind the grading scheme Project assignments aren’t tests of how well you can write up a milestone. They’re the stages of the system you’re building, and the gaps we flag are the ones most likely to cause problems later. We would much rather you fix them early than find out later on. When you read your feedback, think about “what do we need to change?”

Grace days

Project teams receive 4 grace days across the semester for project deliverables, with no more than 1 per assignment. They are applied automatically to your earliest late submissions — you do not need to request them. Work submitted late once your grace days are used will lose significant credit.

Participation & missing days

You may miss up to 3 sessions and still be considered for full participation credit; beyond that, participation credit is reduced.

Discussion is a critical part of this class. It is how a lot of the learning happens, and it is how real projects actually work. We want to encourage you, and give you practice, in being comfortable and effective in every session. The participation grade credits the effort and work you put into this class, in and out of the classroom.

That said, people differ in how comfortable they are speaking in front of a group, and speaking is not the only way to participate. Beyond attending, participation is counted across three modes:

  1. Speaking and discussing content in class
  2. Responding to Slido polls and taking part in in-class activities
  3. Signing up for and being thoughtful in a paper presentation role, and submitting thoughtful discussion questions for the non-presenter assignments

Attendance is the baseline. The three modes above are assessed across the semester rather than session by session — not every path is available every day.

Paths you engage in Credit
2 or more Full
1 Half
None None

If speaking up in class is difficult for you, come talk to me. I would much rather find a version of participation that works for how you work than have you sit through the semester uncomfortable — and office hours are a good place to practise the skill in a lower-stakes setting.

Missed classes within your 3 allotted absences do not affect your participation grade. If you need to miss more than 3, email me as soon as possible and we will find ways for you to participate asynchronously.