Description
In this class, students will review fundamentals of linear algebra and programming using python. Students will work in teams to create and/or complete jupyter notebooks, some of them addressing real world scenarios.
Invitation to join the class
I would like to invite you to participate in CS 199, a 1-credit-hour course offered on Tuesdays, from Sept 10 to Oct 15 (only 6 weeks!).
During lecture time, students will be working on group activities solving a sequence of small problems using jupyter notebooks. To give you an idea of what to expect, in the first lecture students will be creating functions and small code snippets to play around with images and colors. For example, you will create a checker board and transform Mario into Luigi. We are planning to include activities with visualization, graphics, and applications such as Pokémon and Monopoly game (these are all ideas, I am still building up the activities!)
The material covered in CS 199 will offer extra practice programming in Python that may help you in CS 357. In addition, you will get practice working in group activities, which is a very important skill not emphasized in most of the CS classes.
Please let me know if you want to join the course by Monday, Sept 9, at 2pm. Send me an email (mfsilva@illinois.edu) including your “last name, first name, netid, UIN”. Because this is a half semester course, students can no longer register using the online portal, hence I will need to send the list of students that want to register to the College of Engineering, and they will complete the registration as if this was a late add.
Below I am including some more details about the course, specifically attendance expectations and grade scale.
Looking forward to hearing back from you! Best Mariana
Grading Policies
The course grade will be based on attendance and participation (no homework, projects or exams). You have a total of 6 classes, in each one you can earn 100 points for attendance and 100 points for participation.
Grading Scale
Similar to the grade scale in CS 357, the “maximum” points for the class is 1000 points. So you can miss one class and still get an A. Students that get more than 1000 points will get an A+. Here is the complete grade scale:
| Grade | Point Range |
|---|---|
| A | [900,1000] |
| B+ | [800, 900) |
| B | [700, 800) |
| C | [600, 700) |
| D | [500, 600) |
| F | < 500 |
Course attendance and participation
You are expected to be on time for class. If you are 15 minutes late (or more), you will not get the attendance for that class. You are also expected to participate in the activity. Students that are not working on the given activities (and instead playing with their phones or laptops) will get points deducted for participation. Note that the participation points are not given for achievement and completion, you will receive all your participation points even if you don’t complete the activity, or you don’t get it perfectly correct.
Piazza
We will be using Piazza online message board for communication. The course staff will post important announcements there and it is your responsibility to check often for these announcements. If you have a question or a concern, please post it on Piazza. Please do not email the course staff. This is both to assist other students who may have similar questions and to ensure you receive the fastest response possible by making it visible to the entire course staff.
Office hours
We will not have pre-defined office hours. If you feel you need to talk to one of the instructors, reach out to us and we will schedule an appointment.