Instructor: Prof. Ellen Riloff
TA: John Tabet

Email: teach-cs5340@list.eng.utah.edu
Mail to this list goes to both the instructor and the TA.
Please send general questions about the material, assignments, and exams to this address so that we will both see the issues being raised. This will also ensure that you will get the quickest possible response from whichever of us is most immediately available! If you prefer to contact the instructor or TA individually, then send email to riloff (at) cs.utah.edu or to john.tabet (at) gmail.com

Class mailing list: cs5340@list.eng.utah.edu
Please subscribe to the class mailing list as soon as possible via this link: https://sympa.eng.utah.edu/sympa
(Click on the "List of Lists" tab and then select cs5340 from the list.) The instructor and TA will use this list to send important announcements and information to the entire class.

Course web page: http://www.eng.utah.edu/~cs5340
The course web page will contain pointers to the syllabus, lecture slides, assignments, solution sets, and general resources for more information about natural language processing.

NOTE to cs6340 students: as you've probably noticed by now :), all resources (e.g., mailing lists, web site, etc.) associated with both CS-5340 & CS-6340 class will be indexed under the CS-5340 name, rather than have two different versions of everything.

• algorithms and methods for building computational models of natural language understanding, including syntactic analysis, semantic representations, discourse analysis, and statistical and corpus-based methods for text processing and knowledge acquisition.
• issues involved in natural language understanding, such as cognitive and linguistic phenomena.
• applications that can benefit from natural language processing, such as information extraction, question answering, machine translation, and spoken language understanding.

• Programming Assignments: 25%
• Written Assignments: 20%
• Midterm Exam: 15%
• Final Exam: 15%
• Project: 25%

Programs may use any of the following programming languages: Java, perl, python, or C++. You must get permission from the instructor if you wish to use any other programming language. All programs must compile and run on the CADE machines. You will receive ZERO credit for programs that do not compile and run on the CADE machines. This policy is necessary for the instructor and TA to be able to test and grade your programs ourselves.

Please note that we will adhere very strictly to the timestamps that show when your files were turned in! If an assignment is due by midnight and your file is stamped 12:05am, then you will be assessed the 5% late penalty. This may sound harsh, but we have to draw a clear line somewhere. To get the best grades possible, we offer the following advice:

* You can submit files as often as you like, so always make sure to submit something before the due date!

* If you discover a mistake, fix a bug, or finish solving a problem within 24 hrs after the due date, and you believe that your new solution is substantially improved over your original solution, then resubmit new files! In this case you will be assessed the 5% late penalty, but your new solution will probably earn you a much better score, so even with the late penalty you will end up with a higher grade.

* Always, always, always submit something within 24 hrs of the due date, or we will have no choice but to give you a zero. A zero will wreak havoc on your average! Even if you only receive partial credit for an assignment (say, 45/100 points), your overall average in the class will not suffer nearly as much as if you had a zero.

* Some assignments may contain both a programming and written portion, in which case the late penalty will be assessed separately for the programming and written portions. So if you turn in your answers to the written questions on time, but turn in your program 12 hrs after the due date, the late penalty will be assessed only for the programming portion.

• If you copy someone else's solution, you are cheating. If you let someone else copy your solution, you are cheating. We will not distinguish between the person who copied a solution and the person whose solution was copied. Both people will be treated as cheaters.
• If someone dictates a solution to you, you are cheating. Everything you hand in must be in your own words, and based on your own understanding of the solution.
• If someone helps you understand the problem during a high-level discussion, you are not cheating. We strongly encourage students to help one another understand the material presented in class, in the book, and general issues relevant to the assignments.
• When taking an exam, you must work independently. Any collaboration during an exam will be considered cheating.
• Any student who is caught cheating will be given an E in the course and referred to the University Student Behavior Committee. Many students think they can get away with cheating and will not be caught. But it is much easier to spot cheaters than you might think! Please don't take that chance - if you're having trouble understanding the material, please let us know and we will be more than happy to help.