Communication

The best way to ask questions is through the Moodle Questions and Discussions forum.
Alternatively, you can send an email to this address. 

Textbook

The 7th international edition of Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, Kurose &  Ross. The textbook is not strictly necessary, in the sense that we will not examine any material that is not explicitly taught in class or through the homework and labs. However, it does provide a lot of context and interesting details that could deepen one's understanding  of the material.

Lectures

In previous years, Katerina gave a classic ex-cathedra lecture every Friday, 15h15-17h00. This year, these lectures will be replaced by pre-recorded videos that will be made available on the course Moodle every Monday morning. The lecture time slot will be used instead for discussion and Q&A. 
So: Every Friday, 15h15-17h00, Katerina will host a Zoom session and also be physically present at SG1138. You will be able to discuss and ask questions either by joining the Zoom session or in person (the latter only if you belong to the group that can come to the campus on that particular Friday).

Labs + homework reviews

Each lecture will be accompanied by a lab-or-homework session, every Wednesday, 15h15-17h00. 
During these sessions, the teaching team will host a Zoom session and also be physically present in INF2/INF3. Hence, you have 4 options for doing the labs:
  • Remotely (optionally participating in the Zoom session), on your own computer
  • Remotely (optionally participating in the Zoom session), on an INF3 server (you ssh into it) 
  • Physically present in INF2, on your own laptop
  • Physically present in INF3, on an INF3 server
Labs and homework will not be graded, but will help you prepare for the exams.

Exams

  • There will be two written exams: a midterm and a final.
  • Both exams will cover material that was taught in the lectures and through the homework and labs. 
  • All questions will be stated in English, but you will be free to answer in English or in French. 
  • The midterm exam will be open-book and will be conducted online (via Moodle).
  • The final exam will be closed-book and will be conducted in person during the winter exam session. 
  • During the final exam, each of you will be welcome to bring your own "aide-mémoire". This is a document of at most 4 two-sided A4 sheets (=8 one-sided A4 pages). It can be hand- or typewritten. It can be a photocopy. It can contain colors and drawings. The font can be as small as you wish, but you should be able to read it without auxiliary tools (e.g., a magnifying glass).
  • The midterm grade will count toward your overall grade only if you do well
    (see grade computation below).
Quizzes
  • You will have the option of taking up to 4 online quizzes (via Moodle).
  • Each quiz will cover material from two specific lectures.
  • Quiz grades will count toward your final grade only if you do well (see  grade computation below). 
Grade computation
    We will first compute an "exam grade" for each student using the following formula:
            exam grade = max { 0.3 * midterm-exam grade + 0.7 * final-exam grade, final-exam grade }.

    In other words: If you do well at the midterm exam, that will count toward 30% of your exam grade. Otherwise, 100% of your exam grade will come from the final exam.

    The rational is that some students have not had the time to adjust to the course's style by the midterm exam. These students may do significantly better at the final exam than the midterm exam, in which case we count only their final exam.

    Next, we will compute an "overall grade" for each student using the following formula:
            overall grade = max { 0.9 * exam grade + 0.1 * quiz grade, exam grade }.

    In other words: If you do well at the quizzes, that will count toward 10% of your overall grade. Otherwise, 100% of your overall grade will come from your exams.

    Last modified: Wednesday, 16 September 2020, 18:33