General: Course logistics

• We’re now going to talk about how this course will be organized.

Activities

Modules pre-recorded lectures broken into bite-sized chunks

Fireside talks Zoom (Mon) discuss hot topics with experts in the field

Problem workouts Nooks (Wed) CAs work out practice problems

Study halls Nooks discuss modules together, CAs answer questions

Homework parties Nooks study together, CAs answer questions

1:1 office hours Nooks sign up for queue-less office hours with CAs and instructors

open office hours Nooks chat with instructors

All the details on the website (cs221.stanford.edu)

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• Instead of having traditional lectures, sections, and office hours, we took a step back and thought how we could design something that wasmore optimized for the online format. This is what we came up with, which I think in many ways I actually like better even if everythingweren’t online.

• First, we broke up all the lecture content into short modules. With the exception of the modules in first and last lectures, we will releasepre-recorded videos (along with the slides and notes) each week so you can watch them at your convenience.

• Next, during the alloted lecture times, we will have two types of activities. On Mondays, we will have fireside talks with Dorsa, me, ordistinguished guests that we’re inviting to talk about interesting topics in AI. For example, next week’s topic will be about the state-of-the-artin NLP, which is going through a really fascinating time with the release of OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model, which some of you might haveheard about. You won’t be tested on this material, but we strongly encourage you to come learn about the recent advances.

• On Wednesdays, we will have problem workouts, where CAs will walk you through practice problems, kind of like a traditional section, andyou’ll also get a chance to practice with guidance from CAs. This will better prepare you for the homework and quizzes.

• Since we are all remote, we’re trying hard to set up a more social environment for learning. During the week, we will have study halls, whereyou can watch modules and ask CAs non-homework questions about the material, and homework parties, where you can work on homeworkwith your classmates. CAs will come around and offer help.

• We will still have 1:1 office hours where you can ask more personalized questions that would be unsuitable for the group events. You caneasily sign up for the 1:1 office hours online, and because they are scheduled, there should not be any waiting time. The instructors will alsohave open office hours where anyone can show up to chat in the same room.

• Finally, you can find all of these details on the website. Note that this is all new and somewhat experimental, so we’d love to hear from youwhat you think is working well and not.

Prerequisites

Programming (Python) CS 106A, CS 106B, CS 107

Discrete math, mathematical rigor CS 103

Probability CS 109

Basic linear algebra Math 51

• More about general familiarity rather than specific knowledge

• Prerequisite modules provide refresher

• Foundations homework will give you an idea of what to expect

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• This course requires a strong foundation in a number of areas.

• You need to be able to program, ideally in Python.

• You should have taken a discrete math course, and more importantly be comfortable with mathematical notation, doing proofs and makingrigorous arguments.

• And finally, you should know basic probability and linear algebra.

• I would emphasize that it’s less important that you know particular things (e.g., we don’t use eigenvectors in this course even though that’sa pillar of any linear algebra course), and more important that you’ve done enough related things that you feel at ease with it. While it ispossible to fill in the gaps, this course does move quickly, and ideally you want to be focusing your energy on learning AI rather than catchingup on prerequisites.

• This year, we are releasing a set of prerequisite modules that you can review to refresh your memory, and the first homework will allow youto also get some practice on these basics.

Grading

Homeworks 60%

Quizzes 40%

Project (extra credit)

Piazza contributions (extra credit)

Letter Grade or Satisfactory / No Credit

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• Grading is fairly straightforward this quarter. Your grade will consist of homeworks and quizzes, which will be worth 60% and 40%, respectively.

• In addition, there will be a small amount of extra credit from doing an optional project and being exceptionally helpful on Piazza.

• You may choose a letter grade or a satisfactory / no credit grading basis. This year, there are some new policies around satisfactory / nocredit grades, so please make sure you are updated.

Homeworks

• 8 homeworks, mix of written and programming problems

Introduction foundations

Machine learning sentiment classification

Search text reconstruction

MDPs blackjack

Games Pac-Man (+ competition with extra credit)

CSPs course scheduling

Bayesian networks car tracking

Logic language and logic

• Code will be autograded, feedback on subset of test cases

• Autograding is strict, so double check your outputs carefully!

• 7 total late days, max two per homework

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• We will have 8 homeworks, which include a mix of written and programming parts, where the programming part will center on building aparticular application.

• All the programming parts will be autograded when you submit on Gradescope. We will run your code on all test cases, but you will only getimmediate feedback on a subset of the test cases. Your grade will be based on correctness on both the public and the hidden test cases.

• Autograding will be strict, so please make sure that you double check your outputs carefully.

• Finally, you will have 7 late days to use across all the homeworks, but you can use at most two per homework, so that we can release homeworksolutions in a timely manner.

Quizzes

• Goal: make sure you’re keeping up with the modules

• Combination of multiple choice and short answer questions

• Choose any 1-hour window during the week, submit on Gradescope

• No collaboration, don’t talk about a quiz before it’s due!

• No late days, will drop the lowest quiz at end of quarter

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• Instead of having a traditional exam, we are opting for a series of weekly quizzes, where the main goal is to encourage people to review themodules and stay on track. We are doing this to relieve the stress of having a single high-stakes exam.

Project (optional)

• Goal: choose any task you care about and apply techniques from class

• Work in groups of up to 4

• Milestones: project interest form, proposal, progress report, video, final report

• Task is completely open, but must follow well-defined steps: task definition, implementbaselines/oracles, evaluate on dataset, literature review, error analysis (read website)

• Help: assigned a CA mentor, come to any office hours

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• This quarter we are making the project optional, as we know it is difficult to do projects remotely.

• Traditionally, the project has been a great experience for students to be able to leverage what they learned to something they care about. SoI would still encourage you to see if there’s anything that strikes your fancy.

• We will assign you a CA mentor who can guide you through the process, and I also would encourage you to come to the instructors’ officehours to discuss your ideas.

• Do collaborate and discuss together, but write up and code independently.

• Do not look at anyone else’s writeup or code.

• Do not show anyone else your writeup or code or post it online (e.g., GitHub).

• When debugging with others, only look at input-output behavior.

• We will run MOSS periodically to detect code plagiarism.

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• I want to talk about the honor code, which we take very seriously.

• While we do encourage you to talk to each other about the course material and collaborate, all your writeups and code should be doneindependently.

• You shouldn’t be looking at anyone else’s writeup, regardless of whether it’s someone in the class or some old solutions.

• Perhaps less obviously, you should also not be sharing your writeup or code with anyone else, and not posting it online, no matter how proudyou are of your work.

• To emphasize, quizzes should be done independently and any collaboration on the quizzes will be an honor code violation.

Communication

• Public Piazza post (course staff + students): ask general questions

• Private Piazza post (course staff): ask questions that might give away answers

• Email cs221-aut2021-staff-private@lists.stanford.edu (Dorsa, Percy, Pang Wei, Dilara):OAE and other sensitive matters

• Periodic surveys (please fill out the welcome survey linked on Canvas!)

• Instructors pro-actively reach out

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• Finally, especially this quarter, communication is very important. There are several ways to contact us, depending on the topic.

• In general, we encourage you to use the most public venue that is appropriate, since that will lead to faster response times from a broader setof potential responders.

• If you have any general questions about the course content or logistics, make a public Pizza post.

• If you have questions that might reveal or partially reveal solutions to homeworks or anything about the quiz before it’s due, make a privatePiazza post.

• If you have any sensitive matters (e.g., OAE accommodations), you can email the four of us, and we will be sure to respect your privacy.

• Finally, once in a while, we will conduct surveys periodically to see how things are going. Look out for the first survey!

• The instructors might also reach out to a random sample of students from time to time to get a pulse on how things are going.

All details are on the course website (cs221.stanford.edu)

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