Logistics
Class information
| Lecture Times | Mondays & Wednesdays 9:30–11:00am |
| Lecture Location | 4-159 |
| Class website (Canvas) | https://canvas.mit.edu/courses/22681 |
| Syllabus | https://rlevy.github.io/9.19-syllabus/ |
Instructional staff
| Office hours | ||
| Instructor | Roger Levy (rplevy@mit.edu) | Mondays 11am–12pm @ 46-3033 |
| Teaching Assistants | Thomas Clark (thclark@mit.edu) | Wednesdays 1pm–2pm @ 46-3027 |
| Adele Mortier (mortier@mit.edu) | Thursdays 12–1pm on Zoom |
Class organization
The fall 2023 edition of 9.19/9.190 operates partially a “flipped” classroom. We have pre-recorded lecture videos by the instructor available in advance of the class meeting time; part of your out-of-class work will involve watching the video for the upcoming class and preparing questions about it. In-class activities will include in-class exercises, reviewing answering questions about lecture and exercise content, and open discussion.
We also have a weekly recitation session led by TAs, which will review relevant material on programming, linguistics, probability, and machine learning.
Requirements & grading
You’ll be graded on:
| Work | Grade percentage (9.19) | Grade percentage (9.190) |
| A number of homework assignments throughout the semester | 60% | 48% |
| A midterm exam | 15% | 12% |
| A final exam | 25% | 20% |
| If you are enrolled in 9.190, a class project (guidelines here) | – | 20% |
Active participation in the class is also encouraged and taken into account in borderline grade cases!
Collaboration policy
We strongly encourage you to study, work together, and collaborate with classmates. This includes reviewing and discussing readings, pre-recorded lectures, and in-class exercises, discussing homework assignments (psets), and studying to prepare for exams. However:
- You must write up your homework assignments on your own, and you may not share your written homework assignments or code for assignments with each other until the assignment is graded and returned to the class. Additionally, please list the people you have discussed the pset with at the top of your assignment.
- For take-home exams, please do the work entirely on your own, without discussing with classmates.
Class projects are fully collaborative and write-ups should be done jointly.
Policy on use of generative AI
Generative AI refers to tools that can generate media such as text, code, images, video, and sound, generally in response to inputs such as textual prompts or queries. In our view, using generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT) as part of creative and intellectual processes is becoming an important skill in contemporary society. Therefore we encourage you in general to use generative AI tools for the work in this course in whatever ways you believe best assist your learning and growth. (We the instructors are using these tools for the same purposes!) However, we ask that for every assignment you report how you used generative AI tools, if you used them (if you don’t say anything about this, we’ll assume you didn’t use them). This will help us better understand how to develop assignments that best facilitate student learning and growth given the availability of generative AI tools.
Additionally, there may be some specific pset or exam questions for which we ask that you don’t use generative AI to answer. We’ll make this clear for those questions.
Since the generative AI landscape is changing so rapidly, this policy is subject to change mid-semester. If we change it, we’ll announce the change.
Submitting assignments
Please submit your psets and course projects via Canvas. For each pset submission, attach each submission file individually—please do not zip them together into a single bulk file as it creates additional work for the graders.
Pset late policy
Psets can be turned in up to 7 days late; 10% of your score will be deducted for each 24 hours of lateness (rounded up, so e.g. you lose 10% of your score for an assignment turned in 12 hours late). For example, if a homework assignment is worth 80 points, you turn it in 3 days late, and earn a 70 before lateness is taken into account, your score will be (1-0.3)*70=49.
We also offer 3 late days to each student. Using a late day on a pset means that you don’t receive a 10% penalty for handing in the pset a day late. (You can use multiple late days for the same assignment, e.g. if you hand an assignment in 2 days late, you can use 2 late days to offset what would ordinarily be a 20% penalty.) The late days will be automatically assigned at the end of the semester in a way that is maximally beneficial to the student.
Personal or medical circumstances impacting psets, exams, or projects
If personal or medical circumstances such as illness impact your work on a pset or project, or your ability to take an exam on the scheduled date with adequate preparation, please work with Student Support Services (S3) to verify these circumstances and be in touch with the instructor. We are happy to work with you in whatever way is most appropriate to your individual circumstances to help ensure that you are able to achieve your best performance in class while maintaining your health, happiness, and well-being.
Mapping of class score to letter grade
We use new homework and exam materials every year, and it can be hard to perfectly predict the difficulty of assignments and exams. Therefore I determine standards for end-of-semester letter grades in light of student performance throughout the class (though I do not grade on a curve). However, I guarantee minimum grades on the basis of the following thresholds:
| Threshold | Guaranteed minimum grade |
| >=90% | A- |
| >=80% | B- |
| >=70% | C- |
| >=60% | D |
So, for example, an overall score of 90.0001% of points guarantees you an A-, but you could well wind up with a higher grade depending on the ultimate grade thresholds determined at the end of the semester.
Regrade requests
In general our experience is that our grading is consistent and fair, but instructors can make mistakes like everyone else, and we want to make sure you get the points and the grade you deserve. Our statute of limitations is that all regrade requests must be made within two weeks of the instructors returning graded work to the class. This is to keep things manageable on the instructors’ end. Thank you!