The course has no class final exam - the grade is based on the following
components:
1. Exercises
3-4 exercise sets will be given during the course. The exercieses will consists
mostly of theoretical questions and will also include a component of practical
analysis of biological data using methods studied in the course. Solutions
should be done independently by each student and without help from
others. Use of books and articles for the solutions is allowed and will not
affect the grading, but the sources should be noted in the solutions.
Most assignments contain built-in bonus, so by completing some 90% worth of
all exercises you will be given full score.
2. Programming project
Students will be assigned a project which will require writing code
(implementing algorithms from the literature), applying it to public gene
expression datasets and reporting the results. The project can be done in
pairs.
3. Scribe
While some lectures already have good scribes, other lectures will require
revised or new lecture notes. Pairs of students will scribe (i.e., to prepare
lecture notes for) one lecture. The notes should be prepared in LaTeX, and corrected according to guidelines and marks
given by the TA and/or the instructor. Precise instructions and schedule are
given here.
Notes should contain all the material presented in class, written in clear and
accurate fashion, as well as the relevant references. Using figures and
diagrams when necessary in order to clarify things is recommended. In most
lectures, the scribes of lectures
given in a previous year in the course can be used as a basis.
Breakdown of final grade:
With Scribe:
1. Exercises: 60%
2. Programming Project: 20%
3. Scribe: 25%
Without Scribe:
1. Exercises: 70%
2. Programming Project: 30%
Tardiness:
Scribe preparation is done in two steps, each of which has its own
deadline. Scribe grade will lose one point for each late day past each of
the two deadlines. This is done in order to ensure that scribes are
completed and made available to the whole group promptly.
Deadlines for theoretical exercises are strict - no late submission is allowed
without prior authorization from the instructor /TA.
Late projects will lose one point for each late day.