CSE 534: Fundamentals of Computer Networks

(Tentative) There are several components in this class: Assignments, Projects, Exams, and Summaries.  The grading criteria are as follows:

Midterm and Final exam: 40%
Project: 18% (Proposal: 2%, Progress: 2%, final project report and presentation: 16%)
Paper summaries: 6%
Assignments: 36% (12% each)

Midterm and final exam: Midterm and final exam carry 20% each of your final grade. The final exam is not comprehensive. Both midterm and final exams are in-person and closed book but you can bring a cheat sheet. More details about the cheat sheet will be discussed in class.

Project:  The project is meant to be open-ended. Around 3 weeks into the semester, we will discuss possible project ideas. You should choose a project and submit a project proposal. Mid-way through the course, you will present a report on project progress. At the end, you will present your projects to the instructor and submit a project report. 

I encourage students to do the project in groups of 2 or 3. If you want to do a project without any team members, come talk to me. If you are a Ph.D. student and want to do a project related to your research, do come talk to me. The scope of the project is different if you have 1 versus 2 versus 3 team members. All project-related reports should be submitted before 9.00PM on the day they are due. 

Paper summaries: There are 4 papers assigned for reading. For each paper, you are expected to provide a summary. More details on how to write a paper summary will be up on Piazza. Paper summaries should be submitted at 8.30AM  on the day they are due (that is, just before class starts).  No extensions are allowed. If you don't submit by the deadline, you forfeit the points.

For grading, I will choose the top 3 summaries.

Assignments: There will be 3 assignments in all.  Assignments should be submitted before 9.00pm on the day they are due.The assignments will be programming heavy. You can program in C or Python. 

Submissions instructions and total attempts: We will use Blackboard for submissions. If you want to resubmit after you already submitted one version of your assignment/project/summaries, you may do so. But you are allowed a maximum of 2 resubmissions (i.e., a maximum of 3 attempts).  Irrespective of anything else, your last attempt will be considered. This means, if you submit one version of your homework before the deadline and submit another version after the deadline, we will grade the later submission and grade you according to the late submission policy.

Grace period: You get a total 24 hours of grace period across your three assignments, starting from the first assignment deadline. So if you submit your first assignment 24 hours late, then you no longer have any grace period, but will not be penalized. If you submit your first assignment 12 hours late, you still have 12 hours of grace period left. Once your grace period is over, each assignment you submit late will be subject to the late penalty below. There is no grace period for summaries and projects.

After the submission deadline: If you submit your homework at hour h after your deadline (after your grace period), here are the grade penalties

• If 0 < h <= 5, 5% of your grade
• If 5 < h <=15 hours, 8% of your grade,
• If 15 < h <= 24, 15% of your grade
• If 24 < h <= 48, 30% of your grade
• If 48 < h <= 72, 40% of your grade
• If 72 < h <= 96, 60% of your grade,
• h > 96, you cannot submit the homework.

I should note here that I almost never give extensions on any submissions.