Activities

The following are the activities related to the course.

• Problem Sets (6x8 = 48%) There will be one problem set roughly once every 15 days. Problem Set will be released in an incremental manner. That is, a problem will be available at the link from moodle (which is in the lecture notes) on the same day the relevant material is taught in class. The last problem is a problem set will be added at least 5 days before the deadline. The Following gives the deadline for the problem sets. All deadlines are at 10 pm on the respective dates.
  • Problem Set 1 : Feb 23 (submit here.)
  • Problem Set 2 : Mar 08
  • Problem Set 3 : Mar 22
  • Problem Set 4 : Apr 05
  • Problem Set 5 : Apr 19
  • Problem Set 6 : May 03
  All submissions must be by latex based pdfs at the moodle page. The above deadline are hard, except for pandemic related difficulties, if any, for students. In case there is any difficulty in submitting the assignments, please contact the instructor or the TAs.
• Exams (30%)
  • Exam 1 (15%) : Mar 27, 8am - 11:59pm (take home).
  • Exam 2 (15%) : May 08, 8am - 11:59pm (take home).
• Course Project (22%) The course project is designed to encourage you to (1) read and explore on your own a material that is closely related to the ideas done in class (2) use the expertise that you have gained in the area of pseudorandomness.s in order to explore a specific set of research papers and associated research questions. The expected outcome of this process is a survey of the research paper(s) assigned in the topic and a presentation of the same. It is not expected (and hence not a part of the grading of the course) that you should find/prove something new. But of course, new results are always welcome and, you will always be encouraged to pursue the research thread independently after the course later (and this should be independent of any other course project and your own thesis projects). We will send out a set of topics, in the lectures section of the course page. Here are the ground rules.
  • Topics : Each of you should select one topic each (we will consider group projects too if there is sufficient reason for it based on the amount of material to be covered). The schedule for presentation of the topics is fixed along with the topic. They are chosen based on the dates of the lectures covering the required pre-requisites. The list of topics proposed will be released by Apr 1, 2021. After the round of choices by the students, the full listing of project topics and presenters list will be announced by Apr 10, 2021. The interim meetings will be scheduled during the third week of Apr 2021. The final presentations and evaluations will be scheduled by the first week of May 2021. Here is some advice on reading research papers. Pay attention to the three-pass approach. By the time you are done with 1.5 passes, you are ready for the interim meeting.
  • Interim Discussion/Evaluated Meeting (4%):
  There will be an interim individual discussion at about 1/3rd way mark (based on the duration). By that time you are expected to have an overview of the work and the different technical components clarified, although may not be to the full technical details. This might also be a good time to seek any help from the instructor if needed. This interaction will also be evaluated although with low weightage.
  • Work & Presentations (6%+12%):
  Each participant will present the project work in a one hour slot. The whole class is expected to attend all the presentations and the slides(if any) and report will be made available to the class.