Homework, Projects and Marking

Throughout the semester, four sets of theoretical assignments (three obligatory and one optional) and a project will be handed out. Every assignment must be turned in before the given deadline. Late turn-ins will be accepted only up to three days after the deadline with a penalty of 0.5 point (out of 10) per day. Solutions to the assignments will be given in class by the TAs after the deadline. Exceptionally good assignments can be marked with grades greater than 10.

The project is divided in two parts, each of which has a different deadline. Every part must be submitted before the given deadline. The same algorithm as for the theoretical assignments will be used for late submissions. All parts of the project will be orally examined (see the calendar for details). Students can select either C or JAVA for their programming tasks. Despite the fact that different parts of the project have a different deadline and will be marked seperately, the final grade of the project will be determined after the final submission. Students will be given the chance to improve the first part of their project based on feedback provided by the TAs during the oral exams. The final grade will be determined taking under consideration all the improving changes that have been made by the students. The grade for the first project phase will be determined as: BM1 = 20% * Β1 + 80% * Β2, where Β1 is the student's mark from the first oral exam and Β2 is its mark from the final oral exam after the final submission where any/all improvements have been taken into consideration. For the second project phase the students will be examined only once and as such, they will not be given the opportunity to improve their solutions. The final grade for the project (PFG) will be determined as: PFG = 50% * ΒΜ1 + 50% * ΒΜ2, where BM2 is the grade of the second project phase.

It is important that every student understands the given problem and outlines a possible solution by him/herself (although s/he can ask the course assistants for any questions or problems he or she has concerning the project (e.g., code compilation or running problems). The code should be carefully written to simplify the task of correcting it. The marks given to each part of the project will reflect the completeness and correctness of the provided solution as well as the provision of explanatory comments on the submitted source code. Any non-academic behaviour (close colaboration or cheating) will be punished with grade deduction or nullification. It is best for a student to submit an incomplete project than an altered copy of another student's work. Students can contact the course TAs or the instructor for questions during the course office hours.

Although students can create their programs on any type of computer or operating system, the examination of the project will be performed on the Department's UNIX machines. So stundents must ensure that their submitted code can be compiled and run on these machines.

Students are responsible for the misuse of their electronic account. They must ensure that their password remains secret and nobody has access to their account. Moreover, the folders under which they keep their assignments/project should not have read (or even worse write) permision by others (you may find command "chmod" useful for this purpose).

The mid term is optional/grade improving. The duration of final exam will be 2 hours and it is a closed book and closed note midterm. The examination material includes the first 3 sections of the Course Slides (Until Section 3: Trees). During the exam students are allowed to use one A4-size paper as personal notes.

The duration of final exam will be 3 hours and it is a closed book and closed note exam. The examination material includes all the material that was covered during the semester (including the material before midterm). During the exam students are allowed to use one A4-size paper as personal notes. The use of mobile phones is forbidden during the final exam and students should have some kind of document that verifies their identity (like paso, identification card, driving license, passport, etc.) with them.

The final grade will be derived according to the weights described below:

  • Theoretical assignments: 15%
  • Project: 20%
  • Written Exams: 65%

Based on all the above the students' final course grade will be calculated as: 0.15 * A + 0.20 * B + 0.65 * C where:

  • A: Average grade of the theoretical assignments
  • B: Final project grade
  • C: The grade of the midterm & final written exam

The Score of written exams is calculated from the following : C = max{15% * (Midterm Score) + 85% * (Final-Exam Score), Final-Exam Score}.

Students with score lower than 4 (four) out of ten on the written exams (C) will fail the lesson regardless of their theoretical exercises or project grades.