About the grades

9 setembro 2023, 16:18 • Mário Alexandre Teles de Figueiredo

Dear Students, 

The grades are now published. I apologize for the delay. 

A brief clarification about the grading criteria. First of all, I believe that grades in PhD-level courses are not very relevant, and I see these courses more as an opportunity to learn and study than to obtain a grade. It’s almost impossible to use a uniform criterion, given the very diverse backgrounds and prior knowledge about machine learning of the students taking the course. Furthermore, the high diversity of styles and types of reports makes assessing and grading them necessarily rather subjective. 

Having said that, I gave quite high grades to all the students who submitted a report. 

In grading the reports, I valued most those that showed a significant effort to do something that fits well the nature and topics of the course. I valued somewhat less those reports that are simply something that was done in another context, especially if they are far from the topics of the course. I also valued intrinsic aspects of the work, such as clarity, pedagogical value, technical level, rigor, etc…

I will be glad to discuss the grades with any student who wishes to do so.

Finally, I want to thank you all for taking this course and attending the lectures. 

Best regards, 

Mário Figueiredo.