Table of contents

1. A Community of Learning
   1. Attendance
   2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
   3. Rice Honor Code
   4. Policy on Web Posting of Course Materials
   5. Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
   6. Accommodation for Scheduling Conflicts
2. Materials
   1. Slack
   2. Textbook
3. Assignments and Grading
   1. Problem Sets
   2. Group Projects
   3. Grading

---

All policies are PRELIMINARY and subject to change without notice before the semester starts. Once the semester starts, the class will participate in any proposed changes.

A Community of Learning

Rice’s core values are responsibility, integrity, community, and excellence. Our goal is to create a learning community aligned with these core values.

Attendance

Class attendance and note-taking is essential in this course. Material is covered in class that is not in the handouts. Students are responsible for all material in lectures, reading assignments, and any supporting information necessary to understand the assignments.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Rice is committed to building and maintaining an equitable and inclusive campus community. Diversity can refer to multiple ways that we identify ourselves, including but not limited to race, color, national origin, language, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status, or genetic information. Each of these diverse identities, along with many others not mentioned here, shape the perspectives our students, faculty, and staff bring to our campus. We, at Rice, will work to promote diversity, equity and inclusion not only because diversity fuels excellence and innovation, but because we want to pursue justice. We acknowledge our imperfections while we also fully commit to the work, inside and outside of our classrooms, of building and sustaining a campus community that increasingly embraces these core values.

Each of us is responsible for creating a safer, more inclusive environment. Unfortunately, incidents of bias or discrimination do occur, whether intentional or unintentional. They contribute to creating an unwelcoming environment for individuals and groups at the university.

Rice Honor Code

In this course, all students will be held to the standards of the Rice Honor Code, a code that you pledged to honor when you matriculated at this institution. If you are unfamiliar with the details of this code and how it is administered, you should consult the Honor System Handbook at honor.rice.edu/honor-system-handbook/. This handbook outlines the University’s expectations for the integrity of your academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process.

Every assignment in this course will specify whether you may work in groups or consult with your classmates. Always follow the instructions for each assignment. For assignments that allow but do not require group discussion, you should write the names of anyone you worked with at the top of your assignment. Over the course of this semester, you will learn how to cite a wide range of sources in many citation styles. As a general rule, you should always err on the side of referencing facts, equations, ideas, and text that is not your original thinking. If you have any questions, always ask!

Policy on Web Posting of Course Materials

Uploading course materials to web sites is not an authorized use of the course material. Both the poster and the user are in violation of the university policy, which is actionable.

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

If you have a documented disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with the Disability Resource Center (Allen Center, Room 111 / adarice@rice.edu / x5841) to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your accommodation needs.

Accommodation for Scheduling Conflicts

If any of our class meetings conflict with your religious events, student athletics, or other non-negotiable scheduling conflict, please let me know ASAP so that we can make arrangements for you.

Materials

Slack

We will use Slack to send course announcements, to coordinate group projects, and to collaboratively discuss problem sets. If you have a private or sensitive topic to discuss, you should send me an email.

You will get link to join the Slack workspace in the early weeks of the class.

Textbook

All readings will be posted on Canvas. You will need to access digital material from Fondren Library, including journal articles.

Assignments and Grading

In this class we will (mostly) use a “flipped” classroom. That means that you will do reading and watch lecture material on your own time, and we’ll use class time to discuss challenging ideas, work through practice problems, or delve into case studies. This can work great, but only if everyone comes to class fully prepared.

All assignments must be submitted on Canvas. You are welcome to complete your assignment by hand and scan it using a free application such as Adobe Scan or Genius Scan, but please check for legibility before submitting. There are also scanners that you can use, e.g. in Fondren. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, you should submit a .pdf file.

Problem Sets

Regular homework assignments, often called “problem sets” in engineering, are integral to learning. In this class, problem sets:

1. incentivize students to come to class prepared;
2. give me a chance to use class time addressing the most confusing topics; and
3. provide students with an opportunity to apply skills from class and reading to real-world problems.

Problem sets will be assigned every class and will be due at 1:30PM on the days assigned – i.e., one hour before class starts. (I reserve the right to move this up an hour or two if needed) This gives me a chance to figure out which ideas lots of students are struggling with and review them in class. Please bring a copy of your problem set with you to class – we will discuss them together! Problem sets turned in between 1:30PM and 2:30PM will be accepted, but will lose 15 points. Problem sets will not be accepted after class starts because we will be discussing the solutions together. Your lowest 3 problem sets will be dropped, so no need to panic if life happens!

Note: Between reading and problem sets, you should be spending 2-4 hours to prepare for each class (we meet twice a week). If you find yourself regularly spending much longer than this, please come to office hours so that I can help you! You should also spend a couple hours per week on your group design projects.

Group Projects

There will be four group projects in the course. These projects will be conducted in groups of three to five team members. Groups will be assigned by the instructor and will require coordinated group effort. There will be peer evaluation after each project, and peer ratings will be used in calculating individual scores for group projects.

Grading

I reserve the right to curve the scale dependent on overall class scores at the end of the semester. I will assign grades using the following numeric to grade conversion scale: