Policies: CPSC 314, Computer Graphics, Jan 2013

Prerequisites | Content | Grading | Grace Days | Severe Illness or Other Problems

Prerequisites

Content

Topics to be covered include most or all of the following: the basics of 2D and 3D rendering; the rendering pipeline; scan conversion; colour models; geometry data structures; geometric transformations; perspective projection; hidden surface removal; lighting and illumination; texture mapping; texture filtering; complex shading algorithms; ray-tracing; animation.

Grading

Evaluation criteria The course grading scheme may be modified at the discretion of the instructor. Midterm and final exam scores may be scaled at the discretion of the instructor.

Project Grading: There will be face-to-face grading for each project, where the student will sign up for a slot to demo the project to the grader in the lab. You may be asked to explain the algorithms used in your project to the grader. If you cannot explain an algorithm, you will not receive credit for completing that part of the assignment.

Regrading: If you would like to request an assignment or exam from the professor, you must submit along with the paper a detailed written explanation of why you think the grader was incorrect for the particular problem that you are disputing. The professor may regrade the entire assignment or exam, not just the particular problem in question, so your total grade may end up higher or lower.

Attendance: Attendance in all lectures and your registered lab section is expected. You are responsible for all material presented there. Most material for both the lectures and the labs will be made available online. However, there is no guarantee that everything covered in lecture and labs will be in the posted material.

Grading Percentages:

Percentage (%) Letter Grade
90-100 A+
85-89 A
80-84 A-
76-79 B+
72-75 B
68-71 B-
64-67 C+
60-63 C
55-59 C-
50-54 D
0-49 F

Grace Days

Late policy: It is important that assigned work be completed on time, because subsequent assignments depend on your comprehension of earlier work. To allow for unforeseeable circumstances, you will be allowed three days of grace during the quarter, which can be used on any assignment or project with no explanation required. Use these as you wish to help manage your time, but use them wisely. It is strongly recommended that you do not use all your grace days early in the term. You can use all three on one assignment, or spread the days across multiple assignments. One grace day is used for every 24-hour period after the deadline, whether it is a weekday, a weekend, or a holiday.

Beyond your three grace days, late assignments will cause you to be penalized by 50% of the possible mark for that assignment if it is up to 24 hours late. After that, no credit will be given. Late demos will be subject to the availability of the grader. No late work will be accepted after solutions have been handed out. Exceptions to this late policy will be made only with advance approval from the instructor; or medical, emotional, or other problems documented in writing as below.

Severe Illness or Other Problems

 See the UBC Policy on Academic Concession.

Documentation of Severe Illness or Other Problems: It is the responsibility of the student to provide adequate documentation of the situation and to inform the instructor in a timely manner so that the necessary appropriate action can be taken. Often written assignments and programming projects will be granted no-penalty extensions, but all cases are subject to the instructor's discretion. Usually it is expected that the student will provide a written explantion of the situation to the instructor within three days of returning to the University after any absence or period of illness or other problem. In no case will documents be considered more than seven days after a student has returned to the University. The form for illness (or other problems) must be submitted along with supporting documentation (i.e. a doctor's note in cases of illness); talking to or emailing the instructor is not an acceptable substitute for submitting the required form and supporting documentation. One of the following courses of action will be taken after receipt of appropriate documentation of the situation.

  1. At the discretion of the instructor (for example, when solutions have not yet been distributed), the student will be allowed to turn in an assignment or project late without the late penalty.
  2. At the discretion of the instructor (for example, after solutions have been distributed), the student will be excused from completing that assignment and graded only on the completed work.
  3. If the missed work is a significant portion of the term mark, then a standing of AEGROTAT may be awarded, as provided for by the University's policies. A student will always be able to elect this option if the missed work is a final exam.
  4. In rare cases, where there is clear justification, a deferred examination may be given to the student if the missed work is a final examination, subject to approval by the Office of the Dean of Science.
Students will be consulted before a course of action is chosen, but the final decision will be that of the instructor except as noted above.

Missing the Final Exam: See the Academic Concession FAQ for the UBC Faculty of Science for the examination deferral request policy. See also the advice from the UBC International Student Handbook listing legitimate vs. inadequate reasons for missing a final.

Religious Holidays: Students who are scheduled to attend classes or write examinations on the holy days of their religion must notify the instructor in writing two weeks in advance of the religious holiday they wish to observe. The instructor will provide opportunity for students to make up the missed work or examination without penalty. See the Calendar entry on Religious Holidays

Tamara Munzner
Last modified: Sun Jan 6 15:30:13 PST 2013