Policies and Requirements

Homework: Homework center around lecture notes and are to be completed individually.

Assignments: Assignments center around the practical aspects of implementing, training, and evaluating social computing systems. Assignments will be graded based on code correctness and quality of results determined by model performance on unseen test data. Similar to Homework, assignments are to be completed individually.

Spotlight Papers: Prior to every class, we provide a list of select research papers related to a specific topic in social computing. Students are encouraged to read these papers before the class.

Final Project: The final project is a team-based research project, and its purpose is for students to identify and formulate a social computing problem, develop and evaluate algorithm(s) that tackle the problem (ideally using real-world datasets), and analyze the results for interesting insights; see the following Latex templates for details. Note that a team of two students is recommended and each student should clearly report his/her responsibilities in the project, actively contribute to the project, and try to help the other team member. Each team should submit a proposal, a progress report, and a final report. In addition, all projects will be presented during the last week of the class:

• Proposal: use this LaTeX template (in Overleaf).

• Progress Report: use this LaTeX template (in Overleaf).

• Final Report: use this LaTeX template (in Overleaf).

Midterm Exam: The midterm exam will be open-book and will be conducted virtually.

Extra Credit: Students can earn extra credits by attending a related research talk (e.g. see CS colloquium) and sending us a report within one week of the talk. The report should provide a concise summary of the research problems addressed in the presentation and draw connections to materials discussed in class. A maximum of two reports will be considered for a total credit of 5%.

Grading: We do our best to return grades within three weeks of the due dates. Students have a right to question the grading within three days of the return of the preliminary grades by email.

Lateness: Late submission for homework is not allowed, i.e. late after due date/time: zero mark. However, late submission for assignments or projects is allowed: late within three days: 30% reduction in grade; after that: zero mark.

Attendance: We expect students to virtually attend all classes, having completed the assigned readings. Your participation will make the class more fun and interactive, and help us to better estimate your progress.

Collaboration and the Facebook Rule: Students are encouraged to work together, and to teach and help each other. However, cheating is a very serious offense and will be revealed and reported to the dean office with no exception. Please always follow UML's Code of Academic Integrity. The Facebook Rule (CREDIT: Min-Yen Kan): This rule says that you are free to meet with fellow students and discuss assignments with them. Writing on a board or shared piece of paper is acceptable during the meeting; however, you may not take any written (electronic or otherwise) record away from the meeting. This applies when the assignment is supposed to be an individual effort. After the meeting, engage in a half hour of mind-numbing activity (like catching up with your friends and family's activities on Facebook), before starting to work on the assignment. This will assure that you are able to reconstruct what you learned from the meeting, by yourself, using your own brain. You must always report names of your collaborators on your assignments.

Academic Accommodation: Students who are eligible for academic accommodations due to a disability should provide an electronic letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability Services within the first three weeks of the semester. They can be reached at 978-934-4574 or disability@uml.edu (please don't visit the office in person).

Religious Observance: If you observe a specific religious holiday that overlaps with any due dates of the course, please let us know by the end of the first week of classes. I accommodate students of all faiths on an individual basis, and there will be no due date or exam on religious holidays.

Anti-Harassment (adapted from ACL Anti-Harassment policy): The open exchange of ideas, the freedom of thought and expression, and respectful scientific debate are central to the aims and goals of this course. Harassment and hostile behavior in any form (including but not limited to harassment based on race, gender, religion, age, appearance, national origin, ancestry, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.,) are unwelcome in this course.