How to Secure a Good Final Grade

Make a Presentation

Give a presentation of a research paper in class: 10% per presentation. Maximum 2 presentations per student. One presentation must be made by Friday, Nov 18, 2016, and one by Friday, Dec 2, 2016.

Critical Summary

Write a critical summary of research papers/topics discussed in class: 5% per summary. Maximum 4 summaries per student. Two summaries must be submitted by Friday, Nov 18, 2016, and two by Friday, Dec 2, 2016.

Write up

Write a chapter of a textbook: 20% per chapter. Maximum 2 chapters per student. One write-up must be submitted by Friday, Nov 18, 2016, and one by Friday, Dec 2, 2016.

Attendance

A bonus will be awarded to students who attend all lectures, interact lively, and participate in class discussions.

Glossaries

Students who return, every Monday before class, a glossary of terms listed in handouts will be credited for up to 8% bonus, computed proportionally to the list of terms they return. Rules for glossary:

• Students will be have to build an incremental and alphabetically sorted glossary of important terms.
• Terms to be included are the ones listed on the web, in the handouts distributed in class or sent by email.
• A glossary entry can be filled with: (1) its definition in Dechter's textbook, (2) its definition from another AI textbook, dictionary, or web resource, or (3) the student's own interpretation. Cut-and-pasted from the web or Wikipedia is not allowed. It will be counted negatively.
• All terms encountered during a week are due as a weekly glossary the following Monday, or as indicated in the schedule of the class.
• At the end of the course, the full alphabetically sorted glossary is due. The deadline for submitting final glossary is Dec 2, 2016 (Hint: choose a text editor that can sort entries alphabetically.)

Additional Work

Closely monitor your grade. If you feel that your grade is slipping, contact the instructor immediately. We may be able to assign to you an additional task to put you back on the right track.