Policies and Grading

Grading

• 80%: class participation
• 20%: an opinion

Class participation

• We expect students to read the assigned paper before class.
• We expect student each student to participate in each class, in a quality way.
• By “quality”, we mean that you’re contributing meaningfully to the discussion (e.g., highlighting genuine confusions, expanding idea to other contexts, answering leader’s questions, providing new angles of seeing the paper), instead of distracting the discussion (e.g., ask irrelevant questions, add superficial comments, echo other people).
• You will be evaluated based on the quality of your participation and in part on attendance.

Opinion: your personal viewpoint

An Opinion is a short, editorial-style article where an author presents a personal viewpoint, argument, or commentary about an issue relevant to LLM Systems. It is not a research paper or technical report; rather, it serves to:

• offer a perspective on technical or societal issues in LLM systems.
• provoke discussion or reflection among the broader community.
• advocate for a particular viewpoint, technique, or approach.

Examples are CACM Opinion.

Students may submit their opinion at any time during the semester, but no later than Week 14.

Labs

In this seminar, labs are optional and serve as an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with LLM systems.