csc 591-024, (8290)
csc 791-024, (8291)
fall 2024, special topics in computer science
Tim Menzies, timm@ieee.org, com sci, nc state

Details

Description

Current hot topics in automated SE. Ways to improve AI engineering with called active learning. Optimization. Classification/Regression. Clustering. Analytics. Experimental methods. Reseaerch methods in advanced SE and statistics. A standard project in this subject would test itself on data from dozens of SE projects.

Course Objectives

• To enable students to develop as successful professionals for highly competitive positions, applying “AI to SE” and “SE to AI” in academic departments, industry, and government.
• To prepare students to be effective researchers in the field of “AI for SE” and “SE for AI”

Learning Outcomes

• Students will achieve a high level of expertise in “AI to SE” and “SE to AI” , mastery of the knowledge in that fields and the ability to apply this knowledge and graduate school experiences to critical research problems
• Students will become independent researchers in “AI to SE” and “SE to AI”, developing a substantial expertise in that area that allows them to make an original contribution to it
• Students will state a research problem in such a way that it clearly fits within the context of the literature in “AI to SE” and “SE to AI” and demonstrate the value of the solution to the research problem in advancing knowledge within that area
• Students will apply sound research methods/tools to problems in “AI to SE” and “SE to AI” and describe the methods/tools effectively
• Students will analyze/interpret research data
• Students will communicate their research clearly and professionally in both written and oral forms appropriate to “AI to SE” and “SE to AI”

Assessment

Grades come from - 5 homeworks - 1 mid-session exam - 3 report on a large project, due end Sept, Oct, November.

Exams are done individually. Everything else is done in groups of 3 (groups of 1 for 700 level students)

• Homeworks are small tasks
  • Submitted each week (a URL, to Mooddle);
  • Graded -1 (for no submission; permanent mark), -1 (for “please try again” reversed in you resubmit in a week) and 0 for “good”;
  • May be remarked and resubmitted the week after first submission.

Grades

Every grade can be remared, except report2 and the final exam. This policy is absolute and total (i.e. there no, zero, zip, nada, none, appeal on these two items.)

With the final grades, the following grade scale will be used:

 A+ (97-100),  A (93-97),   A-(90-92)
 B+ (87-89),   B (83-87),   B-(80-82)
 C+ (77-79),   C (73-77),   C-(70-72)
 D+ (67-69),   D (63-67),   D-(60-62)
 F (below 60).

Late Marks

Groups must post the homeworks each week, even if it is incomplete, OR THEY WILL LOSE ONE MARK. Those lost marks are never returned.

Otherwise, students are marked -1 for “not on time” or “try again”. If you get a “-1” mark and resubmit, they are replaced with a “0”.

For the rport, students will lose 2 marks per day for late submissions (weekend = 2 day).

Policies

Preferred Method of Communication & Response Time

It is each student’s responsibility to join the class Discord group “se4aiFall24”. Till Friday week1, the link to join there is here (this invite link will expire in a few days)

Nearly all the class communication from staff to students will be via this Discord group.

You should expect to receive a response within two business days (i.e. not over the weekend). - If I email/message you directly, please strive to respond within two business days. - It is recommended that you check your NC State email at least once a day to stay on top of course communications.

If you have a question about the course or its content, you can email me or post your question on our discord group. You can expect to receive a response within two business days (i.e. not over the weekend)

If you need to contact me directly, my preferred method of communication is the discord group. However, for private matters, feel free to contact me via email.
If emailing then: - Always include a descriptive, specific but concise subject. - Include your course number your email, and provide adequate context for your question in order to ensure full understanding of your email. - Be sure to use your NC State email account, and sign in with your name and Student ID number.

Expectations for learner participation and interaction

Course activities will require you to interact with other students in the course. For masters students, some evidence must be generated that you are actively engaged with your class peers. Specifically:

• The project repo MUST have a branch called “MAIN”. Groups will be assessed via their commit history (seen under “Insights”) in MAIN. Projects were all group members are not active doing commits will lose marks (or the offending student will be expelled from that group).
• Groups need to maintain an active discussion in the channel within the subject’s Discord channel. Projects were all group members are not active in discussions will either lose marks (or the offending student will be expelled from that group).

Attendance

Lectures are twice a week. Lectures will be recorded.

Attendance is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

If, for a quiz, you must be absence for a reason sanction by the university, contact the lecturer before time and other arrangements will be made. Those sanctioned events are:

• The student is away from campus representing an official university function, e.g., participating in a professional meeting, as part of a judging team, or athletic team. These students would typically be accompanied by a University faculty or staff member.
• Required court attendance as certified by the Clerk of Court.
• Students will be allowed a minimum of two excused absences per academic year for religious observances as verified by the Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA) (go.ncsu.edu/absence). For more information about a variety of religious observances, visit the Diversity Calendar.
• Required military duty as certified by the student’s commanding officer.
• Unanticipated Absences. Excuses for unanticipated absences must be reported to the instructor as soon as possible, but not more than one week after the return to class. Examples of unanticipated absences are:
  • Short-term illness or injury affecting the ability to attend or to be productive academically while in class, or that could jeopardize the health of the individual or the health of the classmates attending. Students must notify instructors prior to the class absence, if possible, that they are temporarily unable to attend class or complete assignments on time.
  • Death or serious illnesses in the family when documented appropriately. An attempt to verify deaths or serious illness will be made by the Division of Academic and Student Affairs (go.ncsu.edu/absence).

Sometimes, the lecturer/tutor will require you to attend mandatory office hours session. There, students may be asked to review code, concepts, or comment on the structure of the course. Those sessions are mandatory and failure to attend will result in marks being deducted.

Disabilities

Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with the Disability Resource Office (DRO) For more information on NC State’s policy on working with students with disabilities, please see the Policies, Rules and Regulations page maintained by the DRO and REG 02.20.01 Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.

Non-Discrimination Policy

North Carolina State University (NC State) is a diverse community committed to being welcoming, inclusive and supportive for all people.

NC State provides equal opportunity and affirmative action efforts, and prohibits Discrimination and Harassment based upon the following, which is considered by NC State to be a “Protected Status”:

• race
• color
• religion (including belief and non-belief)
• sex, including but not limited to
  • 1. pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition,
  • 2. parenting; and
  • 3. sexual harassment;
• sexual orientation;
• actual or perceived gender identity;
• age;
• national origin;
• disability;
• veteran status; or
• genetic information.

NC State’s policies and regulations covering discrimination, harassment, and retaliation may be accessed at https://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-04-25-05/. Any person who feels that he or she has been the subject of prohibited discrimination, harassment, or retaliation should follow the procedures at https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-04-25-02/.

• Note that, as a lecturer, I am legally required to report all such acts to the appropriate campus authority,

Respecting our learning community

The NC State Code of Student Conduct outlines expectations for behavior in the classroom (whether virtual or physical) and the consequences for students who violate these expectations. Any behavior that impacts other students’ ability to learn and succeed will be addressed, but expressing diverse viewpoints and interpretations of course content is welcome. Community guidelines for this course include: - Use a respectful tone in all forms of communication (email, messages, written, oral, visual) - Maintain professionalism (avoid slang, poor grammar, etc.) in your written communication. - Respect regional dialects and culturally embedded ways of oral communication. - Stay home or in your dorm room if you are exhibiting symptoms of a contagious illness (fever, chills, etc.). - Enter our virtual and/or physical classroom community respectfully by refraining from lewd or indecent speech or behavior, helping to maintain a safe physical environment, not using your cell phone for voice or text communication except when explicitly given leave to do so, and not attending class under the influence of any substance. - Treat each community member with respect by not recording others without their consent or engaging in any form of hazing, harassment, intimidation, or abuse. - Respect cultural differences that may influence communication styles and needs.]

Any remark you make in some on-line comment tracking system like Github is a public document. So take heed of the following cautionary tale. One year, a student was joking around with his buddy in a Github issue report. Then he was rude enough and stupid enough to add a remark about how the rest of the team was just so ■■■■ ■■■■■■■■. Needless to say, the rest of the team took great offense at this remark and invoked the University’s non-discrimination policies. As a result, everyone lost much time that semester, as well as grades.

Expected Workload

This is an advanced graduate class at R1 institution (an R1 institution is classified as a doctoral university with very high research activity).

Students must be prepared to dedicate AT LEAST 5-8 working hours a week to this class (excluding the time spent in the lecture meeting). Laboratory instruction is not included in this subject.

Academic Integrity

Students are required to comply with the university policy on academic integrity found in the i Code of Student Conduct 11.35.01 sections 8 and 9. Therefore, students are required to uphold the Pack Pledge: “I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this test or assignment.” i Violations of academic integrity will be handled in accordance with the Student Discipline Procedures.

Please refer to the Academic Integrity web page for a detailed explanation of the University’s policies on academic integrity and some of the common understandings related to those policies.

Cheating will be punished to the full extent permitted. Cheating includes plagiarism of other people’s work. All students will be working on public code repositories and informed reuse is encouraged where someone else’s product is:

• Imported and clearly acknowledged (as to where it came from);
• The imported project is understood, and
• The imported project is significantly extended.

Students are encouraged to read each others code and report uninformed reuse to the lecturer. The issue will be explored and, if uncovered, cheating will be reported to the university and marks will be deducted if the person who is doing the reuse:

• Does not acknowledge the source of the product;
• Does not exhibit comprehension of the product when asked about it;
• Does not significantly extend the product.

Privacy

Student Privacy

• In-class sessions are recorded in such a way that might also record students in this course.
• These recordings MAY be used beyond the current semester or in any other setting outside of the course.
• Contact your instructor if you have concerns.

Class Privacy

Student information in this course may be accessible to persons beyond the instructor and students in the course. This course may involve electronic sharing or posting of personally identifiable student work or other information with persons not taking or administering the course.

Policy on Incomplete Grades

Information on incomplete grades can be found at REG 02.50.03 – Grades and Grade Point Average. If you encounter a serious disruption to your work not caused by you and you would have otherwise successfully completed the course, contact your instructor as soon as you can to discuss the possibility of earning an incomplete in the course for the semester, including an agreement on when the remaining work must be done in order to change the grade to the appropriate letter grade.

If your must withdraw from a course or from the University due to hardship beyond your control, see Withdrawal Process and Timeline | Student Services Center for information and instructions.

Syllabus Modification Statement

Our syllabus represents a flexible agreement. It outlines the topics we will cover and the order in which we will cover them. Dates for assignments represent the earliest possible time they would be due. The pace of the class depends on student mastery and interests. Thus minor changes in the syllabus can occur if we need to slow down or speed up the pace of instruction.