CPS824/CP8319: Reinforcement Learning
Course Management Form

Instructor: Mikhail Soutchanski
Email: mes (at) cs (dot) torontomu (dot) ca   (write RL in Subject of your email)
Web page: www.cs.torontomu.ca/~mes/courses/cps824
Office: The Centre for Computing and Engineering, ENG275
Office Hours: Monday, 3-4pm (by appointment only)    
Tuesday, 11am-11:30 (every 2nd week starting from Jan 24th)    
TA: Raiyan Rahman (email: raiyan.rahman (at) torontomu.ca)    
Lectures:
Section Status Day Start Time End Time Room
All Available Monday 13:10 15:00 KHE129
Tuesday 10:10 11:00 KHE125

Course Description

Course Policies

Policy on collaboration in homework assignments
Limited collaboration in discussing general approaches to problems is allowed (only with one other student); no collaboration is allowed between teams. You may discuss assignments only with one another student currently taking the course. However, you should never put your name on anything you do not understand. If challenged, you must be able to reproduce and explain all solutions by yourself. If you cannot explain a solution that you handed in, or if you cannot solve an exercise similar to questions in your home work, this will negatively affect your grade. In particular, you might be asked to solve exercises during the office hours, or in class (as a quiz). These unscheduled tests or evaluations can be given at any time without prior notice. Remember that if you work with partners, you are still expected to know solutions of all exercises from the home work. Grades are earned for the demonstration of knowledge. In cases when a student fails to demonstrate knowledge about a home work, the grade for the home work can be decreased to 0. The first page of your homework should include: the name of all students with whom you discussed any homework problems (even briefly). Otherwise, it is assumed that you didn't discuss with anyone except the instructor. Copied work (both original and copies) will be graded as 0. Involvement with plagiarism will be penalized in accordance with Academic Policy 60. Additional penalty for copied work may be assigned as deterrence against plagiarism. More specifically, additional penalty for a copied assignment (in part or in whole) can be up to -10% of the final course grade.

Contract Cheating Statement
In regard to any and all assessments in this course, the use of Chegg or any other similar help site/service will be pursued as "contract cheating".

In regard to any and all assessments in this course, the use of any third party (e.g., family member, freelancer, roommate, friend, tutor) to complete work on your behalf will be pursued as "contract cheating" under Policy 60 "Academic Integrity".

Policy 60 Penalty Guidelines for contract cheating (e.g., viewing a solution on Chegg or Discord) that only impacts you: F in course.

Policy 60 Penalty Guidelines for contract cheating that facilitates cheating for others (e.g., posting a question to Chegg): Disciplinary Suspension.


ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT
Committing academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and cheating, will trigger academic penalties including failing grades, suspension and possibly expulsion from the University. As a TMU student, you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the Student Code of Academic Conduct.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT
The students are expected to pay attention to a lecture and volunteer to answer instructor's questions during the class-time. In the case of in-person classes, in order to create an environment conducive to learning and respectful of others rights, phones and pagers must be silenced during lectures, and evaluations. Students should refrain from disrupting the lectures by arriving late and/or leaving before the lecture is finished.

Policy on Non-Academic Conduct No disruption of instructional activities is allowed. Among many other infractions, the Code specifically refers to the following as a violation: ``Disruption of Learning and Teaching - Students shall not behave in disruptive ways that obstruct the learning and teaching environment." In particular, the students can use the laptops (and similar electronic devices) in class only for taking notes. In difficult cases, penalties can be imposed by the Student Conduct Officer. You can read the TMU Senate Policy 61 for details.

Remarking Policy

  1. Grades are earned for the demonstration of knowledge.
  2. Read carefully the marking guide for the assignment or test you'd like to be remarked. Your grade may go up, down, or remain the same.
  3. Fill in this remarking form (available online).
  4. Email the form and your assignment/test to TA who marked your homework.
  5. If you are not satisfied with the TA's remarking, you can appeal to the instructor.
  6. You may not submit a remarking request later than ONE WEEK from the date on which the assignments/tests were returned in class. It's your responsibility to pick up your work ASAP.
  7. Your mark can decrease if TA sees something that was incorrectly awarded too high a mark.

Tentative Course Calendar (all changes of dates will be announced)