MEBI 531: Grading and other policies

Course format

The course meets for two lecture/classroom sessions per week, each one hour and 20 minutes. Approximately 6 hours of outside time are expected to devote to homework, reading and study. There will be several homework assignments, and either a final examination or final project report.

Textbooks

Some of the course material is covered in "Principles of Biomedical Informatics", by Ira Kalet (Academic Press, October 2008).
"ANSI Common Lisp", by Paul Graham, is also assigned, to provide a text for learning Common Lisp.
Other course material will be covered in assigned readings and course handouts.

Other resources

The Informatics computing lab (room T-277, Health Sciences Building) of the Biomedical and Health Informatics Graduate Program provides a Linux system with a Common Lisp programming environment. To obtain an account and learn about access, after registering for the course, contact the Informatics Lab Manager in the Lab.

Assignments

Each student is expected to complete each assignment by the indicated due date. Homework assignments should be the individual work of each student, although you are allowed to discuss the assignments with each other.

There will be either a Final Exam or a Final Project. The decision about which will be required will be made, for each quarter in which the course is offered, at the beginning of that quarter. The exam, when given, consists of problems or programming exercises similar to the homework. The project (when assigned) is a programming project that involves solving a biomedical problem in one of the areas studied in the course. A written report and an oral presentation of the final project will be required.

Final projects may be done individually or in groups. If a group does a final project, the report must delineate which parts of the work were done by each participant.

All students are expected to abide by the University of Washington's Statement on Academic Honesty

Grading

The course is graded; the grade is based on the homework assignments and a final exam or final project.

The homework assignments collectively will comprise 50% of your grade, and the exam or project will be 30%. The remaining 20% will be based on class participation.

Class participation

This class is small, with a lot of opportunity for participation. You are expected to observe common courtesy, listen carefully to whomever is speaking, avoid potentially hurtful or insulting comments, show respect to everyone in the room. Although computing may seem to be a dry topic on which little can be discussed, it is my experience that there is a lot to talk about, and I am open to a wide range of questions and ideas.