Course Grading

Grade Computation

Course Grading Policy : Your grade will be determined using the following scheme:

 Prelabs and Homework  15%
Three postlab quizes 20%
Three Projects /TD> 30%
Final Project (Navigation trial / Final Design) 10% / 20%
Class Participation 5%

Due Date Policy: Assignments are due at the start of class. Late assignments will not be accepted and will receive a zero for the assignment. This sounds draconian, but during previous semesters the acceptance of late assignments led to significant delays in the start of class as the semester progressed. This class has an informal style during the lectures, and arriving late during lectures is disruptive to the other students.

Post-lab quizzes are typically 30-45 minutes and administered during class. Post-lab quizzes are at the start of the class the day after a lab. The post-lab quizzes assess what you individually learned from the laboratory experience and from recent lectures. Active participation in the labs is important for learning this material.

< Pre-labs are homework to be submitted at the start of a lab - they are quantitative and should not be put off until the night before. They are intended to prepare you for the key concepts to know before the lab starts.

Lab Groups: Lab groups will be groups of 3, assigned by the course staff based on your responses to the survey questionnaires.

Parts Checkout: Each group will be provided a Mindstorms NXT kit and associated parts for the semester. Your group is responsible for this kit! At the end of the semester, your kit will be inventoried. If any pieces are missing, you will be required to pay retail cost for missing sensors, motors, cables, battery pack, charger, transformer, and the NXT brick, and 20 cents/piece for all other missing parts. Payment must be received prior to being assigned a final grade. Non-payment will result in a grade of Incomplete; non-payment by the end of the following semester will turn that grade into an F.

Lab Access: You will be granted access to the lab via Buzzcard anytime you are allowed access to the Klaus building. In general, this means 24 hour access.

LabVIEW: We will be using the LabVIEW programming environment to program our robots.