INF2-IADS: Course Information, Semester 2

This page contains information relating to lectures, Q&A sessions, tutorials, labs and quizzes in Semester 2. For courseworks, see the Assessment page.

Lectures: In Semester 2, lectures will take place as follows:

To view the lectures by livestream, or to watch the recordings later, please use the Lecture Recordings link in Learn; you will need to log in using your EASE account. Slides from each lecture will appear in the Course Schedule. 

Pre-recorded video lectures (from previous years):

In the Course Schedule you will also find some pre-recorded video lectures from previous years. In contrast to Semester 1, some of the content for Semester 2 will be different from last year. In particular, several of the applications of greedy algorithms and dynamic programming will be different. Pre-recorded video lectures from earlier years will only be provided for those lectures that cover the same material. 

As a rule of thumb: If the lecturer is John, it will be the same as last year. If the lecturer is Mary, then will either be a different application altogether (of the same algorithmic techniques), or the same application but with different slides.

Tutorials: These will take place in Weeks 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 of Semester 2. The problem sheet for each tutorial will be added to the schedule below on the Thursday before the week of the tutorial, and the solutions will be added shortly after the tutorials have taken place.  The tutorials will take place in Teaching Studio LG07 and/or M2 during semester 2, and details are as follows:

  • T01: Mondays 11:10-13:00: LG07, 40 George Square Lower Teaching Hub
  • T02: Wednesdays 11:10-13:00:  M2 Teaching Studio, Appleton Tower
  • T03: Wednesdays 13:10-15:00: LG07, 40 George Square Lower Teaching Hub
  • T04: Thursdays 9:00-10:50:  M2 Teaching Studio, Appleton Tower
  • T05: Fridays 10:00-11:50: LG07, 40 George Square Lower Teaching Hub

Lab sessions: In Semester 2, these will be offered as optional drop-in sessions during Weeks 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8. All lab sessions will be in Appleton Tower 4.12, with a lab demonstrator present to offer help (the demonstrators will be Year 4 or Year 3 UG students). The times of the sessions during these weeks are as follows:

  1. Monday 15:10-16:00  (Arthur Pan demonstrating)
  2. Monday 16:10 - 17:00  (Arthur Pan demonstrating)
  3. Friday 15:10-16:00 (Guolong Tang demonstrating)
  4. Friday 16:10-17:00 (Anant Gupta demonstrating)

Python lab sheets: These are provided for you to work through at your own pace. Even if you are already fluent in Python, you should take the time to work through these, as the examples are designed to reinforce concepts from the lectures, and there is some important course content relating to data structures within Python itself. 

You may find you are able to work through these entirely by yourself, but if you would like some help with them, this will be available at the lab sessions.

Quizzes: There will be three online quizzes throughout Semester 2 (the first three were in Semester 1), to enable you to check whether you're keeping up with the course material.  These will be online multiple-choice quizzes with 20 questions, to be done in a 1-hour period of your choosing within a 5-day window.  The quizzes will be hosted on Gradescope, but we will add a link from the Learn page.

The deadlines for the three Semester 2 quizzes will be as follows:

  • Quiz 3: Monday 3 February [Sem 2 Week 4]
  • Quiz 4: Monday 3 March [Sem 2 Week 7]
  • Quiz 5: Monday 31 March[Sem 2 Week 11]

All deadlines are at 12 noon. In each case, we'll release the quiz 5 days before the date shown above. More information on how to access each quiz, and on its possible contents, will be provided when we release it.

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