Questions on homework format

There are two types of "assignments": lab work and homework. This web page describes what to turn in when submitting your solutions to these assignments.

Lab assignments

The lab work is meant to be informal. I want to see that you are following along during class and at least attempting to do the work in the worksheet. Therefore, at the end of lab I want you to upload the m-files and plots if the lab exercise requires them. If there are explicit questions on the worksheet, then include those answers in a word-processing document or plain text file. I don't want you to spend time formatting your lab work. That doesn't mean you should write sloppy code.

In a nutshell: for lab assignments, show me that you completed, or attempted to complete the problems on the lab worksheet by uploading the documents you created during the lab/lecture session.

Homework assignments

The homework extends the ideas and skills presented in the lab. Homework problems will be more challenging and therefore will usually require more time and thought than the lab exercises. Ideally, both lab and homework should be learning experiences. The lab exercises get you started in an environment where I can help you with basic concepts. The homework exercises are meant to deepen your understanding of the ideas and skills presented in the lab.

For the homework I expect the results to be presented clearly. That does not mean you have to write long and complex answers to every problem. Sometimes, however, more complex answers are necessary. I'll try to make my intentions clear in the assignment sheet. Send me an email, or better yet, ask during class time if you have any questions about the intent of a homework assignment.

For homework solutions, please submit a single document (MS Word or PDF) that gives answers to the questions on the homework assignment. Your single document should also include judiciously edited output from running MATLAB, along with any plots required in the assignment.

Yes, upload your m-files

In addition to the word-processing document with plots and output from your MATLAB programs, upload to the drop box the m-files used to answer questions on the assignment. Please use meaningful names (not prob1.m or function.m) that indicate the purpose of the function. Your m-files will help us understand your work, especially if there are errors.

Making a habit of complete, professional documentation

For the single word-processing document submitted as your homework solution, please follow the format of the MS Word template that you can download from the Lab 1 web page. Modest variations on that format are OK so long as the document is clearly written and provides complete information.

The document containing your homework solution should have these basic elements:

• Your name, the due date, and the class (ME 350),
• Page numbers,
• Solutions to problems with numbers corresponding to the question number on the assignment. Note: I turn off the auto-number feature in MS Word, which makes it possible to start at any number and skip numbers. This is easy with the "text problem" style in the MS Word template.
• MATLAB program listings should be in mono-spaced font. See here and elsewhere for the reason.
• Figures should almost always have captions. The exception is when small figures are included in-line with the text.

The text of the document should be written in standard English (no slang), using complete sentences. Take advantage of the spelling and grammar checker in your word processor.

The goal of giving you the MS Word template is to make it easy to meet the specifications in the preceding list. I also hope that writing clean and complete professional documents becomes a habit for you.

FYI, given the choice, I avoid MS Word. My preferred tools for writing technical documents are LaTeX, markdown, R markdown, and pandoc to convert between these formats. Those tools are open source or public domain, and all use plain text documents for input, and as such are relatively immune to arbitrary updates from software companies. Those tools also have somewhat steep learning curves so I do not recommend that you add learning those tools to your current load. And remember, tools only affect your efficiency. It's the content and quality of the final product that matters.

Judicious inclusion of MATLAB output

When including results from MATLAB commands, do not include large sections of numeric or text output. For example, do not fill a page, or even half a page, with a print-out of the elements of a vector or matrix. One of the goals of this course is to develop your skills at computational thinking. Therefore, instead of printing pages of numbers, that no one is going to read, find ways of summarizing the results that are both rigorously useful and easy to understand. For example, when presenting numerical data, summarize the results in a table, or a plot. When comparing vectors, use a vector norm. When comparing data and predictions, use a plot with symbols for the data and a solid or dashed line for the theory.

On the other hand, it is OK to show the output of a command if the output consists of a few lines. In all cases, use common sense.