Our regular class meetings on MWF 12-12:50 will be held in person in MacMillan Hall 117. Class meetings will be recorded for those who are not able to attend or would like to review the recorded class material later.
To support your learning, we will provide the following:
Handwritten lectures notes for each class;
Brief video reviews and other reference materials posted on Canvas;
Office hours: we will offer multiple open office hours throughout the week; some of these will be held remotely via Zoom;
Q&A through Ed Discussions;
Problem-solving sessions: go in small groups or individually through practice problems with support from the teaching team;
Optional textbooks (available as free PDFs through Brown's library: see below).
No textbook is required. Books that are available for free through the Brown Library and that cover similar material include
If your Brown undergraduate financial aid package includes the Book/Course Material Support Pilot Program (BCMS), concerns or questions about the cost of books and course materials for this or any other Brown course (including RISD courses via cross-registration) can be addressed to bcms@brown.edu. For all other concerns related to non-tuition course-related expenses, whether or not your Brown undergraduate financial aid package includes BCMS, please visit the Academic Emergency Fund in E-GAP (within the umbrella of "E-Gap Funds" in UFunds) to determine options for financing these costs, while ensuring your privacy.
Your overall course grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown:
30% regular homework assignments (8 total) – submitted through Gradescope
10% reflections/check-ins (11 total) – submitted through Canvas
20% capstone problem sets (2 total) – submitted through Gradescope
10% midterm exam (1 exam) – conducted in class
30% final group project – submitted through Gradescope
We will drop the lowest score of the regular homework assignments when calculating the 30% homework grade contribution.
The reflections/check-ins are graded for completion.
I will use the following minimum cut-offs:
90-100% or higher is guaranteed an A
80-89% or higher is guaranteed a B
65% or higher is guaranteed a C.
For students taking this course S/NC, a minimum grade of 65% is required to guarantee a grade of S.
Although specific out-of-class time investments may vary for individual students, I estimate that students will spend
36 hours on lectures (approximately 3 hours per week)
96 hours on review of material, homework assignments, and reflections (approximately 8 hours per week)
15 hours on the capstone projects and preparation for midterm exam
35 hours on the final project
during the semester for a total of approximately 180 hours.
I plan to record class meetings because some students may participate in this course remotely and so that everyone can use the recordings to review lectures at their own pace. The recordings can be accessed by all students enrolled in this course at any time. If you have questions or concerns about this protocol, please contact me so that we can talk through those to also ensure your full participation in this course.
Lectures and other course materials are copyrighted. Students are prohibited from reproducing, making copies, publicly displaying, selling, or otherwise distributing the recordings or transcripts of the materials. The only exception is that students with disabilities may have the right to record for their private use if that method is determined to be a reasonable accommodation by Student Accessibility Services. Disregard of the University's copyright policy and federal copyright law is a Student Code of Conduct violation.
This course will use the following technological platforms:
I am committed to ensuring access to online course resources by students. If you have any concerns or questions about access or the privacy of any of these platforms, please reach out to me.
The IT Service Center provides many services including remote assistance, phones, tickets, and chat. Please also see the Online and Hybrid Learning Student Guide.