Staff

Prof

W. Randolph Franklin. BSc (Toronto), AM, PhD (Harvard)

I've been at RPI since 1978, apart from several absences, including a year at Berkeley, 3 months at Genoa (Italy), and shorter times at Laval University in Quebec City, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, and the National University of Singapore. I also spent 2 years 7 months as Director of the Numeric, Symbolic, and Geometric Computation Program at the National Science Foundation, recommending how to spend about $30M of your tax dollars (thanks!).

My research interests are cartography, computer graphics, and geometry. My most recent research on representing terrain elevation, and compressing it, and siting observers and planning paths on it, was largely supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA people are crazy. My main worry was that I'm not crazy enough for them. My current research project, funded by NSF, together with Profs Cutler and Zimmie, is modeling how levees erode as water overflows them and then testing that in a 200g centrifuge.

I also like to examine terrain on foot; in summer 2008 I walked 164km, including 11km up, from Chamonix to Zermatt, in 12 days. I spent July 2009 visiting universities in Brazil, with a few days kayaking down a tributary of the Amazon, sleeping in a hammock tied to trees, and hiking for hours through the jungle.

TAs

1. Yang Hu, huy5@rpi.edu
2. An Jin, jina@rpi.edu
3. Hao Ruan (undergrad), ruanh@rpi.edu

Their specific duties will be assigned later.

Lectures

1. Time and location: Tues and Thurs, 2-3:20pm, CII (aka Low) 4050.
2. Attendance policy: Attendance is encouraged because some of the grade will depend on the iclickers used in the lectures.

Content

1. Spring 2010 will be largely identical to Fall 2009. Fall 2009 site
2. I will largely follow the text, but may add example involving current events etc.
3. There will be programming exercises in Matlab and C/C++.

Course outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate knowledge about fundamental principles of probability.
2. Students will be able to use the major discrete and continuous probability distributions.
3. Students will be able to apply the basic principles to scientific problem solving.

Textbook

Alberto Leon-Garcia, Probability and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering 3rd Edition, Addison-Wesley 2008, ISBN 978-0-13-147122-1.

1. This is the same as Fall 2009.
2. This book is used at many other universities because it is good. Those courses' lecture notes are sometimes online, if you care to look.

Calendar

The course calendar is on Google at l97fua6kgvlagtdaq45gkvaqvo@group.calendar.google.com :

(:GoogleCalendar calendar=l97fua6kgvlagtdaq45gkvaqvo@group.calendar.google.com title="ECSE-2500 Spring 2010, RPI" width=1000 height=700 :)

It will include lectures, exams and due dates for homeworks.

Each entry will start with EP, to be recognizable if you merge several calendars together.

Grades

Components

1. in-class iclicker - 5%
2. homeworks - 30%
3. 2 in-class exams, Tues Mar 2 and Tues Apr 6 - 2x20% = 40%
4. final exam - 25%

Missing or Late Work

1. We will drop the lowest homework grade. That will handle excused absences, unexcused absences, dying relatives, illnesses, team trips, and other problems.
2. Late homeworks will not be accepted.
3. If you miss an exam because of an excused absence, we will replace it with your final exam grade.
4. If you miss the final exam because of an excused absence, we will either give you an individual oral makeup exam, or use your other exam grades.
5. In case of force majeure, such as a campus blackout, an appropriate adjustment will be made.

Academic integrity

Student-teacher relationships are built on trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have made appropriate decisions about the structure and content of the courses they teach, and teachers must trust that the assignments that students turn in are their own. Acts, which violate this trust, undermine the educational process. The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities defines various forms of Academic Dishonesty and you should make yourself familiar with these. In this class, all assignments that are turned in for a grade must represent the student's own work. In cases where help was received, or teamwork was allowed, a notation on the assignment should indicate your collaboration. Submission of any assignment that is in violation of this policy will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment and a report to the Dean of Students. If you have any question concerning this policy before submitting an assignment, please ask for clarification.

Interim assessment

We will periodically give you a copy of what we think your grades are to date. Please report any errors within a week. It is not allowable to wait until May and then go back through the semester looking for more points.

For the middle of the semester, we will give you an estimate of your total grade to date.

Scheduled review days

No assignments will be due during this period at the end of the semester. If there is a demand, we will schedule a review session.

Final exam

There will be a required final exam at a time set by the registrar. Do not make travel plans that conflict with the final exam.

Grade appeals

Try in order:

1. Prof W. Randolph Franklin
2. Prof Mike Wozny, ECSE Curriculum Chair
3. Prof Kim Boyer, ECSE Head
4. Dean of Students

Good argument: you gave a clearly correct answer that showed that you understood the question.

Bad argument: you need the points because ...

Special needs students

Students with an authorizing memo will be cheerfully given the appropriate accommodation.

Student feedback

Since it's my desire to give you the best possible course in a topic I enjoy teaching, I welcome feedback during (and after) the semester. You may tell or write me or a TA.

Course survey

Near the end of the semester you will be asked to fill out an online survey. If you feel that you got value for your money, I'd appreciate that you give the course a high score. Thanks.