The lab and quiz schedule is on the web page. The assignments for the labs will also be made available on the web page. Read and study the lab assignment before the pre-quiz. You should start working on it (or even complete it) if you wish, but you do not have to. There will be no written preliminary work. Prepare questions related to any difficulties you have, so you can discuss them with your friends or get help from the assistants during the lab session. If you have difficulties, you can also get help from the assistants during their office hours or by making an appointment.
There will be a pre-quiz before the lab session. This could be on the same day or on a previous day as announced on the schedule. Although we try to follow a regular pattern, this is not always possible due to exams, holidays etc so always check the schedule carefully. After the lab session, you will finish the report and upload it by the deadline stated on our web page. Following the report deadline, there will be a post-quiz on a separate day announced on the schedule.
All quizzes will be closed book/notes/device. Quizzes will in general have 3 components: HW quiz problems, Pre-quiz problems, Post-quiz problems. Every quiz will have problems that are similar to the HW problems on our web page. Out of the 7 the lowest 2 scores will be dropped and the remaining 5 will make up your "HW Quiz" score.
In addition to the HW Quiz component, the quizzes will incorporate the pre-quizzes and post-quizzes as follows: Quiz 1 will have the Pre-Quiz for Lab 1. Quizzes 2-6 will have the Pre-Quiz for the following lab and the Post-Quiz for the previous lab. Quiz 7 will have the Post-Quiz for Lab 6.
Pre-quizzes test whether you have studied the assignment before the lab. They may include conceptual, analytical, and Matlab-based questions, as well as questions about the assignment, what you are expected to do in this lab, etc. Post-Quizzes test how well you understood what you were doing while doing the lab and will be given after completion of the report.
The Pre-Quiz is 20% of your lab grade, the Report is 40%, and the Post-Quiz is 40%. If you are late for a quiz, you will not be given extra time. If you arrive after the quiz is over, you cannot take the quiz.
Bilkent students can obtain Matlab from https://www.bilkent.edu.tr/matlab/
What must be included in the report is explained in the assignment. Your report should be prepared in your own handwriting and signed. You can use a pencil if you prefer and you can erase or cross out mistakes. Use of a tablet/stylus to handwrite is also acceptable as long as it is still you own handwriting. Please scan legibly and upload as a single pdf file. Your report must be clear and legible, but it does not have to be formally formatted. You do not have to re-draw MATLAB plots by hand; you can append or insert printed or screenshot versions of plots to your handwritten report. Please clearly indicate question number and/or letter of each plot. Normally, you should write MATLAB commands by hand in the report. However, if any part of any question requires the writing of a MATLAB code longer than 5 lines, then you can attach a printout or screenshot of the code, instead of handwriting it.
Please make sure that you upload your report to the Moodle page of the corresponding Lab. Do not leave it in the mail box or office desk of the assistants, or email it, as it can get lost.
Delayed report scores will be multiplied by 1/(1+(t/2)^2) where the delay time t is measured in days as a continuous-time variable, and then rounded down to the nearest integer. For example, if you are 4 hours late it will be multiplied by 0.993. If you are 40 hours late it will be multiplied by 0.590. HW will not be accepted after 144 hours delay. This policy will hold for all assignments throughout the semester.
Attendance will be taken during the labs sessions. Show your ID to the assistant and they will record your presence. If you do not show up you get 0 as an overall score for that lab. We will view the lab session for both sections as a continuous whole between 13:30 and 17:20. You can stay the full 4 hours and work there, interacting with other students and asking questions to the assistants as they arise, or you can stay as little as you like. You can have your attendance recorded any time between 13:30 and 17:20. Technically, you can just come for attendance and leave, but our intention is that you make the most of the possibility to interact with others and the assistants. In the unlikely event that the room is crowded, you may choose to work in nearby study spaces in the building with your own computer.
Most of the lab assignment will be completed outside of the lab sessions and you will prepare a report. You are free to discuss concepts and ideas and ask questions both inside the lab and outside, While we encourage discussion, you must not look at other student's written work or code or share any written work or code in any way. You may use any resource you want while doing the lab and writing the report, including books, papers, the Internet, and any offline or online machines or software but you are NOT allowed to: (i) Have someone or a machine or software do all or part of the work (analysis, coding, writing, graphing etc) for you. Of course you can use Matlab to make plots by executing commands or code you wrote yourself. (ii) Looking at or using someones or a machines or softwares written work (analysis, coding, writing, graphing etc) or getting direct help in doing the work beyond discussion with other students and assistants. (iii) Work as a team. (iv) Use AI tools to modify someone else's work and present it as your own.
In the above, "machine or software" includes Generative AI or any other kind of computer or machine or software. For example, you can "discuss" the assignment with a chatbot, ask them how to approach the problem or task, and even ask them to check your answers or the code you wrote yourself. However you cannot give them all or part of the assignment and ask them to produce the answers for you or write your code. Please include in your report brief but complete explanations of how you used AI or other machines or software. Also include the name of the software, chatbot etc. and whether you used the free/premium/pro version etc. What you used will not affect grading and is meant for transparency. These rules are designed with the intention of allowing you to achieve three goals at the same time: (i) maximize learning and skill development since you do the work yourself (ii) be fair to others and have a clean conscience (iii) maximize your grade since you are allowed to check your work with AI. By deviating from these guidelines, you might be able to save some time and still achieve (iii), but in that case you will not achieve (i) and (ii).
Your two lowest lab grades will be discarded before computing your average. This means you can miss two of the labs and get zero from them, and still have the chance to get a high lab score. This is to cover illness, conflicting exams and other similar situations. Documented excuses such as medical reports and conflicting exams will be considered only if they cover three or more sessions. Documentation covering only one or two sessions will not be considered. Of course, if you miss fewer than two labs, that may help increase your average score.