This is not a required course, so you are probably taking it out of interest. Because of this, you are likely to have little incentive to cheat, and are not overly anxious about grades. Nonetheless, expectations concerning academic integrity are summarized below, and violations will be pursued. Your grade comes 50 percent from homework, 20 percent from each of two exams, and 10 percent from class participation.
All work for this course is to be done in compliance with the standards of conduct set by Duke's Academic Integrity Council for both graduate and undergraduate students.
Using someone else's material in your work without giving credit is cheating, and will result in a failing grade in the exam or assignment involved in any case, and a failing grade in the course for more serious cases. "Using" means repeating verbatim or paraphrasing. This principle applies to anything you turn in, including homework, project reports, and exams. As the sole exception, class materials, including textbook, handouts, slides, and homework assignments need not be cited when they are used.
Homework assignments will be posted on the homework page and announced on the class home page at least a week ahead of the due date.
The preferred way to hand in your homework is on paper at the beginning of class on the due date. If you happen to be absent that day, email your work in electronic form as a single file (unless otherwise instructed) to bcburch@cs.duke.edu before beginning of class on the due date. Accepted formats are PDF (preferred) and MS Word. Do not send a zip file or other archive, or a collection of multiple files.
Homework is to be done individually. Late homework incurs a 10% penalty per calendar day of delay. For instance, an assignment due on Thursday and handed in the Monday thereafter incurs a 40% penalty.
Some of the homework assignments are in the form of mini-projects, in that they will involve some programming and require writing a brief document summarizing results and observations. Format guidelines for the writeup will be given.
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam on the dates announced on the main course page. Both exams are closed-book, closed-notes, and aim at motivating you to remember definitions and understand basic concepts. Sample exam questions will be made available ahead of time.
Participation to class counts for 10 percent of the final grade. Regular attendance is necessary but not sufficient for credit on participation. The main component of participation involves asking and answering questions and taking part in discussions. It does not matter whether answers are correct, questions are appropriate, or the discussion points are clever. Mistakes are expected, but indifference to the topics covered or unwillingness to engage are not.
If a topic covered in class is discussed in the textbook, that part of the book becomes required reading automatically. All handouts, including homework assignments and solution samples, are required reading.
Students are expected to be familiar with Matlab. See the resources page for a Matlab tutorial.
COMPSCI 527, Duke University, Site based on the fluid 960 grid system