Coursework Overview
Throughout this course, you will complete:
- 3 homework assignments
- 6 reading quizzes
- a final project.
The composition of your final grade is as follows.
| Item | Points | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | 80 | 8% |
| Reading Quizzes | 120 | 12% |
| Homework Assignments | 300 | 30% |
| Project | 500 | 50% |
| Total | 1,000 | 100% |
Submissions and Deadlines
Unless otherwise stated, all submission deadlines are on Wednesdays at 9:30 AM.1
Each coursework item will be released on GitHub or Gradescope, and submissions and grading will take place on Gradescope. Links to assignments and solutions (when available) are provided on the sidebar of this website.
Late Submissions
Late submissions may be accepted for some coursework items. Please consult the instructions for each coursework item for specific guidelines.
Late Penalties
Unless stated otherwise, late work will be penalized by 1 percentage point of the item’s total grade for each hour (full or partial) that the work is late. However, you will have a grace period of 168 hours (7 days) over the entire semester during which you can submit late work without penalty. You do not have to ask permission to use the grace period; it will be calculated at the end of the semester so as to optimize your final grade.
Group Submissions
TBD
Extensions
Extensions for documented emergencies may be granted at the instructor’s (Sophie’s) discretion. Do not contact the graders or section leaders for extension requests. Because you are given a 168-hour grace period for late submissions, extensions will only be granted when there is a legitimate reason not to use the grace period.
In some cases, extensions may be granted to the entire class without a late penalty.
Extra Credit
There are many opportunities for extra credit in this course. Unless stated otherwise, late submissions will not be accepted for extra credit assignments.2 Neither your grade for a coursework item (homework assignment, project component, or reading quiz), nor your grade for a coursework category (total homework grade, total project grade, total reading quiz grade, total participation grade), may exceed the maximum possible grade due to extra credit.
Project
The main requirement of this course is to produce an original research project on natural language understanding (NLU) and/or computational semantics. As with an actual research project in this field, the final product of your project will consist of an ACL-style short paper and an in-class oral presentation of your findings. The length limit of both your paper (4 pages maximimum) and your presentation (TBD) will be very short, but the expectations for clarity and thoroughness will be high.
To guide you through the process of doing research in NLU, your project will be divided into five components, and you will work on it in groups of four or five.
| Item | Due Date | Points | % of Final Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Mini-Proposal | March 13 | 50 | 5% |
| Full Project Proposal | April 3 | 100 | 10% |
| Final Paper Draft | April 24 | 100 | 10% |
| Final Paper | May 14 | 200 | 20% |
| In-Class Presentation | TBD | 50 | 5% |
| Total | 500 | 50% |
Homework Assignments
The homework assignments are designed to help you practice basic techniques learned in class. They will involve implementing machine learning experiments in Python and answering questions about your results. In addition, there are two extra credit assignments (EC 1 and EC 2) that are designed to help you become familiar with the NumPy and PyTorch packages. EC 1 and EC 2 are strongly recommended for students who are less familiar with linear algebra and numerical computation in Python.
Your total homework grade for the semester is calculated out of 300 points, subject to the following rules.
- Your total homework grade cannot exceed 300, and it cannot be negative. If you have earned more than 300 points including extra credit, then your final grade will be 300. If you have earned fewer than 0 points due to late penalties, then your final grade will be 0.
- Your grade for each assignment cannot exceed the point value shown below. If you have earned more than the total point value including extra credit, then you will simply receive the maximum possible grade.
- You cannot receive a negative grade. Blank or missing submissions will receive a grade of 0, and any assignment with a negative score due to late penalties will receive a grade of 0.
| Item | Due Date | Points | % of Final Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| HW 0: Sign Up for Course Sites | ASAP | 0 | 0% |
| HW 1: Intrinsic Evaluation of Word Embeddings | February 7 | 100 | 10% |
| HW 2: Efficient Fine-Tuning with BitFit? | February 24 | 100 | 10% |
| HW 3: TBD | March 6 | 100 | 10% |
| EC 1: NumPy Exercises | February 7 | 25 EC | 2.5% EC |
| EC 2: PyTorch Exercises | February 21 | 25 EC | 2.5% EC |
| Total | 300 | 30% |
Reading Quizzes
You will occasionally be assigned short multiple-choice quizzes that are administered and autograded online on Gradescope. Reading quizzes are designed to test your understanding of assigned readings, including those that are not discussed during lecture or lab. All reading quizzes are due on May 14 at 9:30 AM.
| Item | Release Date | Points | % of Final Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| RQ 1: Weeks 1–2 | February 2 | 20 | 2% |
| RQ 2: Weeks 3–4 | February 16 | 20 | 2% |
| RQ 3: Weeks 5–6 | March 1 | 20 | 2% |
| RQ 4: Weeks 7–8 | March 15 | 20 | 2% |
| RQ 5: Weeks 9–11 | April 12 | 20 | 2% |
| RQ 6: Weeks 12–14 | April 26 | 20 | 2% |
| Total | 12 | 12% |
Participation
For full credit, we expect you to regularly attend and participate in lectures and labs, or contribute relevant questions and ideas on Campuswire.
Letter Grades
Your letter grade will be calculated according to the following scale, where points are rounded to the nearest integer.
| Points | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 930–1,000 | A |
| 900–929 | A- |
| 880–899 | B+ |
| 801–879 | B |
| 700–800 | C |
| 600–699 | D |
| 0–599 | F |
The grading scale may change at the end of the semester, depending on the distribution of final numerical grades in the class. Your final letter grade will not be lower than the grade indicated in this table.