You should be working in groups of size 3 to 5 (depends on the project, the class strength, etc.). You should attempt to form the groups by noon of 8/27/04. In the afternoon of 8/27/04, you should come to the digital systems laboratory (DSL) at 1.00pm and checkout a kit, after going through a brief orientation. For those who cannot make it, (a very limited number of) slots will be available on the afternoon of 8/30 at 3.00 pm to come to the DSL and checkout kits. Please plan on spending a few hours in the DSL on whichever day you come. You should send teach-cs3710@cs an email including your project group name (tentative is okay), member names, the title of the project (tentative title is okay), and a few lines on what the project goals are (say `don't know' if you don't know yet; you will be required to provide this information in another week's time).
By the class lecture time of 8/31/04, you should have created a brief webpage containing the above information. The TA and myself will periodically be going through your project web-page. All your accomplishments, milestones, and recent updates must be clearly posted on the webpage, as this will be the basis for our grading. You may also post information on questions you are working on; this way, I may be able to provide hints on where to find answers. In this course, there will always be some flexibility given to those who are putting in effort. Thus, it is not critical that you find answers to certain questions by a certain inflexible deadline; rather, the idea is to allow you the freedom to explore and find out good, reliable answers even if it takes a few extra days. However, the onus is on you to record briefly and concisely that effort is being made to seek these answers. For specific assignments given during the first month, there will be hard deadlines, as these assignments will not explore unchartered territory.
I shall also instruct the TA to record the lab checkoff information on a webpage specific to each project. On Friday afternoon every week, I intend to browse everyone's webpage and determine your weekly progress, make comments on your work, and answer questions or issues you may have posted on your webpage. If you miss posting your updates by Friday noon, you will not earn the points for those accomplishments. Make sure I can read the webpage (i.e. the requisite read-access permissions are in place).