CSC 600: MS/MCS Students
Graduate Orientation

F 12:50-1:40  1025 EB-II

Contact Information

• TA: Angela Zhang
  azhang25@ncsu.edu
  
• Instructor: Christopher G. Healey
  healey@ncsu.edu
  https://healey.csc.ncsu.edu

Introduction

CSC 600 is a required course designed to introduce new graduate students to three important topic areas:

1. Information about the graduate program, the department, and the university that is relevant to all incoming graduate students.
2. A description of research projects being conducted by faculty in the Computer Science department.
3. Topics like Ethics in AI and Professional Communication presented by faculty experts in the area who are external to the department.

During the first five CSC 600 lectures students will learn useful information about the graduate program in Computer Science, the department, and the university as a whole. Students will also meet the people responsible for managing these resources.

Following these introductory topics, the remaining lectures will be split into one of two types, depending on volunteer presenters' availability.

1. Reseach lectures, made up of presentations by department faculty. Each faculty member will introduce themselves, discuss their research interests, and describe one or more research projects they are conducting. This is an excellent opportunity for students to learn about ongoing research in the department in preparation for choosing thesis topics, supervisors, and graduate courses.
2. External Topic lectures, made up of presentations by faculty from external departments. Each faculty member will introduce themselves, then discuss a topic of expertise that is relevant to students in the MS/MCS program. Examples include Ethics in AI and Technical Presentation skills. This is an excellent opportunity for students to learn about who the department collaborates with in preparation for choosing courses, committee members, or academic contacts related to their thesis or areas of study.

Attendance

Although there will be no assignments or tests, a specific level of attendance in CSC 600 is MANDATORY. Any student who does not meet this minimum level of attendance will not receive credit for the course, and will be required to re-register during the next fall semester. You cannot graduate without successfully completing CSC 600.

MS/MCS students are required to attend the first five introductory information lectures of the semester. The first and third lectures on Aug. 22 and Sep. 5 are in-person lectures (see the explanation below for in-person and virtual lectures). You must be in your assigned classroom during the lecture to watch it in-person. The remaining three lectures can be attended either in-person or virtually using the Panopto recordings of each lecture.

MS/MCS students cannot miss more than one required lecture total during the semester. This absence is provided to allow students to manage other responsibilities while still maintaining appropriate attendance in CSC 600. Here are some examples of situations where students might need an allowed absence from CSC 600:

• attending a course-related group meeting during a CSC 600 lecture
• attending a conference or workshop during a CSC 600 lecture
• attending a work-related or research-related meeting during a CSC 600 lecture
• attending a personal function during a CSC 600 lecture

Note:  In none of these cases would we provide an exception to the attendance rule. Therefore, if you anticipate these types of situations arising during the semester, DO NOT "use up" your allowed absence and expect us to provide additional absences because you "have to do X" but you don't have any allowed absences left. Your only recourse in this situation will be to drop CSC 600, and re-enroll the following academic year.

Attendance will be taken through an online summary sheet available on the Moodle course web page, where students are asked to fill in short, simple answers to questions about each week's presentation. For in-person lectures, summary sheets must be submitted by 3pm on the day of the lecture. For virtual lectures, summary sheets are available from 3pm on the day of the lecture until 12:45pm on the day of next week's lecture. Receipt of a summary sheet with acceptable answers will be used to confirm a student's attendance for the given class. Note that one common example of unacceptable answers is an answer sheet where some questions are left blank, or include a single word answer that has no relationship to the lecture that was given. We don't expect (or want) long answers, but we will not mark you as having attended for summary sheets that are answered in an incomplete or irrelevant manner.

Virtual Versus In-Person Attendance

Every student will be responsible for attending two lectures in-person.

1. The August 22nd lecture that welcomes students to the graduate program is a mandatory in-person lecture for all students.
2. The September 5th lecture that discusses the graduate program is a mandatory in-person lecture for all students.
3. Students can attend the remaining three lectures on Aug. 29, Sep. 12, and Sep. 19 either virtually or in-person, depending on their preference.

Because we will not have discussed in-class how attendance is marked, the first lecture on August 22 will not be graded. The table below indicates whether a given week's lecture is in-person, virtual, or optional.

Students are encouraged to attend the research and external topic lectures that begin on the week of Sep. 26. This is not required, however, and no summary sheets will be collected from MS/MCS students for any lectures after the Sep. 19 lecture.

In-Person Lectures

If you are scheduled for an in-person lecture, you must attend in-person during the scheduled lecture time, Friday, 12:50pm–1:40pm.

• Students will attend their lectures in the classroom in EB-II where their section is scheduled to meet.
• The Moodle course page has sections for Virtual and In-Person lectures. MAKE SURE you fill out the form for the In-Person lecture section.
• You will have until 3:00pm on the day of the lecture to complete the lecture's In-Person summary sheet.

Apart from university-allowed extenuating circumstances, we will not allow you to upload a lecture's summary sheet for late submission.

Virtual Lectures

If you are not scheduled for an in-person lecture, you attend "virtually." Although students are strongly encouraged to attend the lecture in-person, the lecture will be recorded on Panopto and its summary sheet will be available on the Moodle web site until 12:45pm of the Friday following the lecture. Faculty lectures after the fourth lecture will be presented in-person by the faculty member.

Students will view lectures either in-person or online, with access to a particular lecture made available through the CSC 600 Moodle web page as follows:

• A lecture's recording and in-person summary sheet will open on Friday at 1:40pm.
• A lecture's in-person summary sheet will close on Friday at 3:00pm.
• A lecture's virtual summary sheet will open on Friday at 3:00pm.
• A lecture's virtual summary sheet will close on the following Friday at 12:45pm.
• The Moodle course page has sections for Virtual and In-Person lectures. MAKE SURE you fill out the correct form for the lecture you are required to attend for the given week: either In-Person or Virtual.
• If you choose to attend a lecture in-person, even though you are allowed to view it virtually, you should fill out a Virtual summary sheet for that lecture. Only fill out an In-Person summary sheet for a lecture that you are required to attend in-person.

This allows you two hours to view and complete your summary sheet for in-person lectures, and the week of the lecture to view and complete your summary sheet for virtual lectures. Apart from university-allowed extenuating circumstances, we will not re-open a lecture's summary sheet for late viewing or submission.

Remember, the Aug. 22 (Introduction) and Sep. 5 (Introduction to Graduate Studies) lectures of the semester will be presented in-person in your assigned classroom.

Updating Your EMail Address

For all students, your Unity email address is your official university address. You are responsible for monitoring email sent to this address. In particular, course-related email messages are automatically sent to your Unity email account.

You can view email, contact details, and other personal information on the MyPack Portal Student Homepage Personal Information tile. Personal Information available to view and update is listed on the Student Services Center webpage.

Academic Integrity

All students at the university are expected to understand and agree to the university's code of student conduct. This document explains the various types of behaviour that are not allowed, including cheating, plagiarism, aiding and abetting, disorderly conduct, and so on.

For CSC 600, common examples of academic integrity violations include (but are not limited to):

• claiming attendance for a lecture you did not fully attend
• knowingly assisting another student to claim attendance for a lecture he or she did not fully attend
• being disruptive during a lecture in a way that impacts the presenter's ability to present material, or that impacts other students' ability to follow the lecture
• willfully disregarding instructions from the presenter or professor during the lecture (e.g., being told to stop talking in class, but continuing to talk; this would also fall within the class disruption academic integrity violation above)

For confirmed cases of academic integrity violations, in addition to any university-mandated sanctions, students will receive a failing grade in CSC 600.

Tentative Schedule

Below is the tentative schedule for topics and presenters, split into the introductory lectures and the research lectures.

Introductory Lectures

Research Lectures