Logistics

Post-Class Discussion

We will be using Ed Discussion for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TA, and instructor. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, we encourage you to post your questions on Ed Discussion.

Grading Policy

Student presentation (20%)
Paper Quizzes (25%)
Course project (40%)
In-class attendance and participation (debates) (15%)

Student Presentations

An integral component of this course is to present a Robot Manipulation and Learning research topic to the class. This requires conducting a systematic literature review on the topic and guide an in-class discussion. Each student should present and moderate discussions on one paper. Presentations will be 20 min + 5 min Q&A. To ensure the quality and clarity of the presentations, we expect the students to
  • read the assigned paper and the related work thoroughly and gain a good understanding before making the presentation slides.
    Template for Tutorials: [Powerpoint] [Google Slides], Template for Papers: [Powerpoint] [Google Slides]
  • the templates are just suggested structures for your presentation but you are not forced to follow them. Use the structure that helps you best convey the topic!
  • Submit the presentation slides to gradescope seven days (EOD) prior to the presentation date for feedback and revision.
    Deadline: 9:59pm Tue for talks next Tue and 9:59pm Thu for talks next Thu
  • Discuss with the other presenter on the debate topic and post this to EdDiscussions seven days (EOD) prior to the presentation date. (See below for more information on the debate.)
Failures to submit the slides to gradescope or post the questions to Ed on time would incur a 20% deduction on the presentation score. The presentations will be graded in the following aspects:
  • Clarity of presentation (problem formulation, proposed method, key results);
  • Presentation of the background material (basic concepts to understand the research improvement. this is critical for foundational sessions);
  • Review of prior work and the challenges addressed by this work;
  • Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the research;
  • Discussion of potential research extensions and applications;
  • Response to student questions (in-class and on Ed Discussions).
After each presentation, we will do a 5 min Q&A about the presentation. After that, we will have a debate on the topic (see below for information about the debate). The presentation will be worth 20% of the total grade. (NOTE: time limits on presentation subject to final number of students in class.) For students who present more than once (based on availability), the final presentation grade will be the highest score of their presentations.

Useful Resources

Paper Quizzes

At the beginning of the class, we will run a quiz on all of the three papers to be presented and discussed. The quizzes will contain a variable (but short!) number of multiple choice questions, around 6-8 questions per topic. The answers will be given by the presenter of each paper after the quiz is over. Each quiz will be each worth 1% of the total grade. We have ~35 presenters for ~35 papers, and each quiz will have 1-2 parts, depending on whether one or both papers will be presented during that class. Among these ~35 quiz parts, your 25 best quiz scores will be counted, summing up to 25% of the final grade.

Course Project

The course project aims to help the students gain in-depth, hands-on experiences applying AI-based techniques to practical robot perception and decision making problems. It consists of four key components: a project proposal (5% of final grade), a milestone report (5% of final grade), a final report (20% of final grade), and a spotlight talk with interactive poster session (10% of final grade). For more details, please see the Project page.

Useful Resources

In-Class Attendance, Participation and Debating

Attendance and participation are multiplied to obtain the final grade for this component: grade = attendance * participation. This will be 15% of the final grade.
All students are required to attend and participate in the discussions of the papers (Q&A) and as debater in one class debate. This will deepen your understanding of the papers and the field.
Attendance: Up to three sessions can be missed, no questions asked. After that, each missed session will reduce the weight of this component of your final grade by 20% (after 5 sessions missed, you will have a 0 in this component of your grade).
Participation and Debating: We will use these guidelines to grade the participation. For each session, we will have two people debating in favor of the topic and two people debating against the topic of the session. The exact debate topic will be agreed upon and posted by the two presenters of the session 7 days prior to the session, on EdDiscussions.
Both presenters will be debaters. The other 1-2 will be picked based on a sign-up sheet. All debaters will discuss amongst themselves to choose their pro/con side as responses on the initial EdDiscussions debate topic post.
Right before the debate in class, we will first query the opinion of the class with PollEverywhere. Then, the pro and con team will have 3 mins each for opening statements (we recommend preparing these statements before class). Then, each team will have 3 mins for rebuttals. At the end, we will poll the final opinion of the class. The debating students will be graded based on the quality of their arguments and rebuttals, and on their ability to convince the class.
We also encourage all students to provide anonymous feedback to the presenters. This will allow participants to improve their presentation skills, a critical soft-skill in industry and academia.

Useful Resources

Classroom Safety and COVID-19

To help preserve our in person learning environment, the university recommends the following.

Academic Integrity

You are encouraged to discuss assignments with classmates, but all collected data, analysis, images and graphs, and other written work must be your own. All programming assignments must be entirely your own except for teamwork on the final project. You may NOT look online for existing implementations of algorithms related to the programming assignments, even as a reference. Your code will be analyzed by automatic tools that detect plagiarism to ensure that it is original. For the final project, you have full access to the web, but all ideas, quotes, and code fragments that originate from elsewhere must be cited according to standard academic practice. Students caught cheating will automatically fail the course and will be reported to the university. If in doubt about the ethics of any particular action, look at the departmental guidelines and/or ask — ignorance of the rules will not shield you from potential consequences.

Notice about students with disabilities

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement — Services for Students with Disabilities at 512-471-6529; 512-471-4641 TTY.

Notice about missed work due to religious holy days

A student who misses an examination, work assignment, or other projects due to the observance of a religious holy day will be given an opportunity to complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence, provided that he or she has properly notified the instructor. It is the policy of the University of Texas at Austin that the student must notify the instructor at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates he or she will be absent to observe a religious holy day. For religious holy days that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, the notice should be given on the first day of the semester. The student will not be penalized for these excused absences, but the instructor may appropriately respond if the student fails to satisfactorily complete the missed assignment or examination within a reasonable time after the excused absence.