T-106.290 Ohjelmoinnin laboratoriotyöt

Course brochure spring 2005

0. Introduction

In this course students implement a small technology evaluation or an experimental research project. At the same time students are introduced to scientific research.

The course is meant only for Computer Science students.

1. Objectives

• The course familiarizes students with experimental algorithm research and methodics and problems of technology evaluations. Most covered algorithms are mainly subject in course T-106.250 Data structures and algorithms. You may also suggest your own topics, if you wish to get know other subjects.
• In the course students practice measuring, writing scientific articles, qualitative analysis and statistical processing, graphical representation and source of error analysis of measurement results. A measuring system is programmed during the course.
• While writing the article students also get to know about scientific writing, evaluating, reviewing and making a presentation.

2 Prerequisites

• T-93.210 Ohjelmoinnin peruskurssi T1 or both courses T-93.211 Johdatus ohjelmointiin T and T-93.260 Ohjelmointikielten perusteet T
• T-106.230 Ohjelmoinnin peruskurssi T2 or T-106.231 Lausekielisen ohjelmoinnin perusteet T
• T-106.250 Tietorakenteet ja algoritmit T

It is useful to have some basic knowledge of mathematical statistics but it can be studied during the course.

3. Teaching methods

1. Lectures
   • At the moment it seems that the course will have five lectures, that will be held on Tuesdays at lecture hall T1, time is 8-10. First lecture is 18.1. Complete lecture schedule will be published later. Lectures will be given in Finnish.
   • Lectures will be mainly about:
     • Introduction to experimental algorithm research and technology evalutions. Why they are needed, what kind of methods are used and what kind of problems are found?
     • Examples of experiment setups, algorithms and results.
     • Critical examination of results.
     • Writing scientific article.
     • Free software for scientific writing: Latex, Gnuplot.
     • At least one special lecture that is about experimental research.
2. Study
   • In the study students familiarize themselves with one algorithm or computer engineering sector. This contains studying the algorithms or software, comparing them in theory (analytical results) and in practice.This means that students will implement a bunch of algorithms and perform experimental comparision with them.

4. Grading

The course is passed by doing a study that will be graded zero to five (0-5). To pass, one should have at least grade one (1). There are no exams in this course. Grade is based on theory part (weight 15%), experiment plan (15%), final report (60%) and peer review made about other groups (10%). Notice that theory part and experiment plan are 30% of the course grade.

5. Study

5.1 Objectives

The objective of the study is to teach methodics of experimental algorithm research, problems and methodics of technology evaluation. Students are also taught how process experimental data from research. The study has also other teaching aspects. Students practice information gathering, critical reviewing, programming, scientific writing and presentation of results to audience.

5.2 Implementation

• Study can be 2-5 credits depending on the subject.
• Course has available a list of subjects. It is also possible and recommended to make a study from one's own subject if some special algorithm area is in mind. If students want to make a study about their own subject, first read the other subjects and then make a similar subject suggestion that should be discussed with the course lecturer at his office hours for comments and approval.
• Study is made in groups of 2-3 persons.
• Studies are guided by course staff.
• Every group will make a www-page for the course documents. More instructions about how to return documents can be found on the course homepage. Exact deadlines are also on the course homepage.
• All study reports are written with Latex word processing system, because Latex is essential tool in scientific writing.
• Literary research and experimental plan are made in the beginning of the study.
• In literary research students familiarize themselves with the algorithms and/or software that are given in the topic. Sourcecode or pseudocode of the studied algorithms are found and software that will be studied will be installed.
• In experimental plan students show specific plans and objectives of how the studied variables affect the test results. Objectives have to be justified carefully.
• A meeting is hold with the course staff when doing the experimental plan.
• Course assistants will grade theory part and experimental plan and when needed will call the group for a meeting where possible problems of the plans are discussed.
• Study is written in final report, that contains:
• Motivation and introduction to the problem studied
• Experiment results in graphs.
• Analysis of possible source of errors.
• Conclusions of the results.
• After returning the final report students review reports of the other groups and give written feedback. Students can improve their report based on the given feedback. After that the final version is evaluated by course staff.
• Organizers of the course can possibly make a summary publication of the best reports.
• The best reports are presented to other students or interested parties in a mini conference. Abstracts and reports of the best studies are also showed in the course homepage.

6. Study material and communications

There is no course book. Some handouts will be delivered.

7. Course staff

Leader of the course is professor Lauri Malmi, who can be met on his office hours. Malmi and assistants Jan Lönnberg and Mikko Rahikainen are guiding through the study and are also grading the course work. Every group will have their own responsible assistant that will work with the group during the course.

Course news are announced at the lectures and in the front page of the course homepage. The course homepage address is http://www.cs.hut.fi/Opinnot/T-106.290/.

You may use the newsgroup opinnot.tik.labratyot for forming the group. However, the course staff do not follow the newsgroup or give announcements there.

Inquiries about course organization can be discussed with Lauri Malmi on his office hours at room B207. Malmi does not necessarily respond to email messages before the next office hour. Thus, in urgent issues it is better to visit there. With other problems (how algorithm works, programming problems, experiment plans, writing the report, ...) students should ask for a meeting with their responsible assistant.

The course will not have physical noticeboard.

8. Enrollment

More specific instructions about enrollment will be published on the course homepage.