STANFORD CS 228
Structured Probabilistic Models: Principles and Techniques
Winter 2008
Assignment In/Out Dates

There will be four written assignments and three programming assignments. The written assignments will consist of four or five problems. Written assignments will be due two weeks after they go out, and programming assignments will be due two weeks and one day after they go out. The problem set and programming assignment descriptions are available on the handouts section of the webpage. Problem sets must be handed in to the submission box at the bottom of the Gates A wing (West) stairwell by the beginning of class on the day they are due. For instructions on submitting the Programming Assignments, see the submissions page.

  • Problem Set 1: Out 1/15, Due 1/29 - Mean: 79.75
  • Programming Assignment 1: Out 1/22, Due 2/6
  • Problem Set 2: Out 1/29, Due 2/12
  • Programming Assignment 2: Out 2/5, Due 2/20
  • Problem Set 3: Out 2/12, Due 2/26
  • Programming Assignment 3: Out 2/19, Due 3/5
  • Problem Set 4: Out 2/26, Due 3/11
  • Final Exam (24 hour take-home): Set for 3/15-3/19 (you can start taking the exam at noon on any of these days -- details to be released soon)
    • Reading Assignments/Quiz Schedule

    Each week, readings will be announced on or around Tuesday. We will try to make the quiz available by Wednesday, and it will be due Sunday night at 11:59 PM. We may sometimes include a couple light questions about material from the next week, and when we do, we'll announce what that material is.

  • Week 1 (1/8 and 1/10 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapters 2.1-2.4, 3, 5.1-5.2.2
  • Quiz 1 available 1/9, due 1/13 at 11:59 PM
  • Week 2 (1/15 and 1/17 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapters 4,5,6. Note: a newer version of chapter 6 will be posted on coursework, so wait to read that until Thursday, 1/17.
  • Quiz 2 available 1/16, due 1/20 at 11:59 PM
  • Week 3 (1/22 and 1/24 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapters 6, 10, and 11 up and including 11.2.1.
  • Quiz 3 available 1/22, due 1/27 at 11:59 PM
  • Week 4 (1/29 and 1/31 lectures)
  • Readings: Rest of Chapter 11, Chapter 12, and Chapter 13 up to and including 13.2
  • Quiz 4 available 1/29, due 2/3 at 11:59 PM
  • Week 5 (2/5 and 2/7 lectures)
  • Readings: Rest of Chapter 13 and Chapter 15 up to an including 15.2.2
  • Quiz 5 available 2/5, due 2/10 at 11:59 PM (only 7 questions)
  • Week 6 (2/12 and 2/14 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapter 2.2, the rest of Chapter 15 and chapter 18.
  • Quiz 6 available 2/14, due 2/18 at 11:59 PM
    • Week 7 (2/19 and 2/21 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapter 19
  • Quiz 7 available 2/19, due 2/24 at 11:59 PM
    • Week 8 (2/26 and 2/28 lectures)
  • Readings: Chapter 20, excluding 20.2.2.4
  • Quiz 8 available 2/27, due 3/2 at 11:59 PM
    • Week 9 (3/4 and 3/6 lectures)
  • Readings: 21.1-21.5, 22.1,22.2,22.4,22.5
  • Quiz 9 available 3/7, due 3/11 at 11:59 PM

    • The main Quiz page is located at: https://www.stanford.edu/class/cs228/cgi-bin/quiztest.cgi (SUNet ID required).

    The quiz will consist of 10 multiple choice questions, which are meant to be reading comprehension questions for the assigned reading. There is no time limit, but the quiz is designed to take around 10-15 minutes. The deadline for submitting is the Sunday the quiz is due at 11:59pm. Note that you can only take the quiz once.

    There is a practice quiz ("Quiz 0") that you can take to familiarize yourself with the quiz software format -- of course, this will not count toward your grade. You can take the practice quiz multiple times. When you are ready for the real quiz, click on the appropriate link (e.g. "Quiz 1").

    Submission and Grading Details
    CS228 will have nine weekly quizzes, four problem sets, three programming assignments, and a take-home Final Problem Set (due dates are indicated above). The programming assignments should be relatively short, about 30 to 50 lines of Matlab code. Problem sets must be handed in to the submission box at the bottom of the Gates A wing (West) stairwell by the beginning of class on the day they are due. Programming assignments must be submitted electronically by 11:59 PM on the due date. Recognizing that students may face unusual circumstances and require some flexibility in the course of the quarter, each student will have a total of seven free late (calendar) days to use as s/he sees fit. Once these late days are exhausted, any homework turned in late will be penalized at the rate of 20% per late day (or fraction thereof). Under no circumstances will a homework be accepted more than five days after its due date. Furthermore, for some assignments less than five late days will be allowed. Late days are from 11:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Late homeworks should be turned in to the submission box. You must write the time and date of submission on the assignment. It is an honor code violation to write down the wrong time.

    Programming assigments may be completed in teams of up to 2 students, will be implemented in MATLAB, and will typically require around 30-50 lines of coding. We will provide starter code and stubbed out functions that you will be implementing. The actually coding will tend to be relatively straightforward, so even students with little MATLAB experience should be able to complete the assignments. Late days also apply to programming assignments, and will be applied to everyone in the team. If you turn in a programming assignment one day late and you have no late days left, you will be penalized 20% while your partner will be deducted one late day.

    There will be nine quizzes, which will be available online and due by Sunday night of each week. The quizzes are meant to be simple and evaluate your basic comprehension of the readings. They are designed to keep all students up with the material, allowing lectures to focus on the more complex issues. Each student's top eight (highest scoring) quizzes will count in the grade.

    Quizzes will count for 10% of the final grade, analytical components of the homework will count for 40%, programming components will count for 30%, and the Final will count for the last 20%. Some extra credit may be awarded for class participation.

    Please notify us immediately (by emailing cs228-qa@cs.stanford.edu) if there are any issues with the quiz or the website.

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