If you did not attend the first class, send email to theresa to get added to the class email list.
Research assignments should be handed in by 5PM on the research assignment due date. Research assignments handed in after 5PM will be penalized by a 2 point deduction. That's 20% of the grade. Each additional day late will result in the deduction of another 2 points from the original maximum grade. That means if a research assignment due on Thursday was handed in on Monday the following week, 8 points will be deducted from a maximum of 10. This arrangement should be an incentive to hand in research assignments on time.
Research assignments can be turned in outside of NE43-937 in the labelled box or submitted electronically in PDF only to 6836-ra.
The project is due on the last day of MIT classes. Due to MIT regulations we can not give any extensions on the project.
Each research assignment is graded out of 10 points. The project is
graded out of 50 points, of which 5 are for the project proposal, 10
for the oral presentation, and 35 for the final report.
The overall grade for the class is calculated out of a maximum of
100 points. If you have questions on final letter grades for the
course, please refer to the MIT GSO official grading
guidelines, in particular where it says that A means
"Exceptionally good performance, demonstrating superior understanding
of subject matter, a foundation of extensive knowledge, and a skillful
use of concepts and/or materials".
Write up research assignments as if you were publishing results from research, i.e., don't hand in pages of code. We are interested in your approach, results, analysis, and any other deep thoughts you may have. If you did write a program that you want us to see (or that a research assignment dictates we see), you should email us a file that you are sure will run on our Linux or Windows machines which are not on the athena network.
Some research assignments will require you to write Matlab code or build control systems with Simulink. The software is available on athena. To run:
athena% add matlab
athena% matlab &
athena% simulink &
There are web resources on Matlab at MIT, specifically at a local Web page and some MIT-only pages (certificates required). There is also a non-MIT Mathtools.net technical computing portal.
On the research assignments it is fine for people to work together, talk, exchange ideas, argue, etc. But I would like everyone to write things up separately and hand in unique things. Recall that there are 5 research assignments, each worth 10% of the grade.
The final project, worth 50% of the grade, is slightly different. For this group projects are fine, but should represent n times the work put into a project by a single person, if n people are collaborating. For the final project you should hand in a (group) written report. There will also be an oral presentation, in the week preceeding the final week of classes. Every person in the class will have to give a ten minute presentation. This is worth 10 points - one fifth of the project grade, or 10% of the final grade. If there are multiple people in a project then the people should all follow each other, so that you do not need to repeat all the set up information. Note that the presentations will be a week before the project is due so many people will not yet have their results. That is fine. The presentation is meant to outline the problem, the approach, and the expected outcome.
What should the projects be?
A final project for 6.836 should be a significant effort (five research assignments worth) in developing some idea from the class further. This can take the form of a detailed paper design or analysis of some system, or a program that demonstrates something (e.g., an artificial life program, or some evolutionary system applied to some sort of creatures or problem), or the construction and programming of a robot. Note that the course can provide no resources for these projects.