Weights of course components as a percentage of the final grade:

• Test 1: 25%
• Test 2: 25%
• Survey paper: 25%
• Course project: 25%

For dates, see the Course Schedule page.

Due to the technical nature of the material in this course, tests will be given to verify the students' understanding. Tests will be open book, and will have an in-class and take-home component.

Students will submit a paper surveying recent research on a topic of current interest in information theory. For example, the survey paper may be on topics that are regularly covered in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. Students are required to submit a proposal several weeks before the paper's due date, giving the desired topic and a brief outline of the paper contents. The final paper is expected to be 10-12 pages long (12 pt, 1.5 spaced), with 15-20 references.

The survey paper grade is broken down as follows:

• Technical quality: 50%
• Selection of references: 40%
• Writing quality: 10%

Students will be required to implement a contemporary channel coding system and verify its operation in computer simulation, as assigned by the instructor. Students may write their computer simulation in Java, MATLAB, C, or C++; other languages may be used with the prior approval of the instructor. Students will be required to submit their source code, plots of error performance, and a brief report outlining their method and conclusions.

The project grade is broken down as follows:

• Technical quality and correctness: 70%
• Quality of report and plots: 10%
• Quality of source code (readability, comments, etc.): 20%

The project description may be found here.