15% mid-term exam

70% project

If you are auditing the course, your grade will only be based on your reviews and presentations.

To recieve full credit for "reviews and presentations," students should present at least two papers and should write at least fifteen paper reviews. Reviews should be emailed to me sometime before class and should state what the problem the paper tried to solve, how the authors' tried to solve it, and what you liked and disliked about the paper. These are short and informal (a page or shorter), but should demonstrate to me that you've actually read the paper.

Not sure how to give a presentation/talk? First, find out the rules for giving a bad one (by Dave Patterson). If you are still unsure of yourself, come talk to me, because I am more than happy to help you. The most important thing to remember is that you must get your audience interested in the problem within the first two or three slides. If you can't convince people within three or four minutes that they should care about what you're saying, it won't matter how great the rest of the talk is, because everyone will be busy checking their email.