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Course pages 2020–21

Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture

Presentations and reports

Each week three students will give presentations on the three main papers for that seminar (one presentation per paper). All other students will write an essay comparing and contrasting two of the papers. Each week the lecturer will ask for volunteers to present the following week, subject to all students doing approximately the same number of presentations. Depending on the number of students, on average, a student will present 2-3 papers in the course and will write 5-6 reports. A class list of attendance will be kept. Apologies for absence should be sent to the lecturer prior to the lecture.

Presentations

A presentation will be of 15 mins in length, excluding questions and discussion which will last approximately another 5 mins, and will happen during the classes. Presentations will be assessed for technical content, clarity, engagement, description of the broader context, accurate critique and question answering. Slides for presentation should be prepared and a PDF submitted via Moodle before the seminar. Here are some guidelines for the presentation which might be useful to some (from Advanced Topics in Mobile Systems and Mobile Data Machine Learning). Feedback will be given in the form of a letter grade and marks will be awarded at the end of the course in consultation with the examiners. See below for a description of the letter grades.

Essays

Each week students will compare and contrast two of the main papers and submit a written summary and review in advance of each seminar (except when presenting). Essays should be around 1,500 words (nothing shorter than 1,450 words, nothing longer than 1,650 words) . Essays will be assessed for technical content, clarity, accurate critique, linkage of related work and sound proposals for future development. Essays should be prepared as a PDF and submitted via Moodle before the seminar.

Marks

Marks will be awarded and penalties for late submission applied according to the ACS Assessment Guidelines. The lowest mark out of the 7 assessed exercises (essays and presentations) will be dropped, and so the remaining 6 will be combined to create the final course mark. Feedback will be given in the form of a letter grade and marks will be awarded at the end of the course in consultation with the examiners. See below for a description of the letter grades.

The University's rules on plagiarism can be read here.

Deadlines

  • Assignment 1 due 15th October 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 2 due 22nd October 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 3 due 29th October 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 4 due 5th November 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 5 due 12th November 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 6 due 19th November 2020 by 11am
  • Assignment 7 due 26th November 2020 by 11am

Grading

Letter grades for individual essays and presentations will be given, corresponding to these categories:

  • A+ excellent, consistent with final grades in range 85-100
  • A very good, consistent with final grades in range 75-85
  • B good, consistent with final grades in range 70-80
  • C acceptable, consistent with final grades in range 60-70
  • D disappointing, consistent with risk that a pass grade will not be achieved
  • E unacceptable, consistent with fail