Homework Assignments
Homework assignments constitute an important part of this course. They
are designed to help you understand the materials covered in lectures
and in assigned readings. It is only by doing the homework that you
really learn the material.
Nature and
Frequency:
There will be 10 homework
assignments handed out throughout the semester (subject to change). Homework
Assignments will be worth 30% of the final grade. In calculating the overall
homework grade, the homework with the lowest grade will be dropped.
Homework assignments are not
necessarily weighted equally and problems within homework assignments may also vary in their
relative weights. Harder/longer homework assignments will constitute a
larger percent of the combined grade for all homework assignments.
Some of the problems in the homework assignments will require programming. At
least two of the homework assignments will require writing a
discrete event simulator for a queuing system, which (for some) may
prove a bit challenging given the "different" nature of such a
program (management of queues, events, state of the queuing system and
of the simulation, etc.) Also, a number of homework assignments will
require programming using threads and/or using a cloud platform such as
Map/Reduce on Hadoop. While you are free to use any programming language or
environment that you deem appropriate, the recommended language is Java and the
recommended programming environment is Eclipse.
Homework assignments may be fairly long, each taking an average of 4 hours to complete
(assuming that you are caught up with readings and are fluent in programming), although the time required will vary quite a
bit from student to student and assignment to assignment. Always allow
more time than you think you will need!
Electronic Submission Process:
Homework assignments will be posted on-line at the end of the week (typically
on Fridays). As a tree-friendly practice, no hardcopies will be distributed or
made available.
Completed homework assignments are to be handed in electronically, typically
using gsubmit (check details regarding submitting solutions and code). Typically, homework assignments will be due before the
lecture on Tuesday (12 days after being
handed out).
If your homework solutions (or parts thereof) are handwritten, you will need to
scan your write-up and upload that electronically. Scanning capabilities are
available at various university libraries and also through the main CS office on
the first floor of MCS (during normal business hours, office staff can help you
email a scanned copy of your work to yourself). Please take this into
consideration so that you don't get stuck having to do this at the last minute.
Graded assignments will be returned (also on-line) in a timely fashion. It is
the student's responsibility to make sure that the grade they received for each
homework is properly recorded by the instructor and/or teaching fellow. This can
be done by periodically checking your grades on-line through the course's
intranet.
Late Policy:
For full credit, your homework must be submitted electronically by the deadline.
There will be a hefty penalty of 20% for a homework submitted one
class late, and of 50% for a homework submitted one week late. You may submit part of the homework by the deadline to avoid the penalty on that part. No homework will be accepted if late
by more than one
week. There will be no exceptions to this policy, except for certified medical excuses. In such cases,
extensions will be granted only if (and until) the homework solutions
are posted (hopefully, about 1 week after the original due date).
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