Courses

  • Course 1-BIN-301 is for computer-science related programs, namely BIN, INF, mINF, mAIN, DAV (below denoted computer science)
  • Course 2-AIN-501 is for students from Faculty of Natural Sciences and physics (below denoted biology)

Grading

  • 3 homework assignments 30% (10% each)
  • Journal club 10%
  • Quizzes 10% (each week 1%)
  • For computer science: final exam 50%
  • For biology: project 50%

To pass the course, you need to satisfy both requirements below (otherwise Fx grade will be assigned):

  • overall at least 50% of points
  • computer science: at least 50% of points from the final exam
  • biology: active participation at tutorials

Final grade: A: 90+, B: 80+, C: 70+, D: 60+, E: 50+

Homeworks may have separate versions for computer science and biology students.

Quizzes

Quizzes can be found in Moodle. They appear each Thursday at 7pm and are due next Wednesday 10pm.

Journal club

Journal club is a group activity, where each group studies one scientific paper and present it to the class.

  • Each student will select from the provided list the three articles that are of highest interest to him/her.
  • According to these preferences, instructors will divide the students into groups. Each group will read a different article.
  • Each student first reads the assigned article individually.
  • Then the whole group meets, discusses the article and tries to clarify any questions or to find missing information in the literature.
  • If needed, the group meets several times or continues to communicate electronically. In case of questions about the article, the whole group or some of its members can also arrange consultations with the instructors.
  • Finally, the whole group prepare slides to present the paper in accessible terms. In the presentation, they explain in their own words the main methods and results of the article and other necessary concepts so that it is understandable to students of this course (both computer scientists and biologists). They should also describe how the article relates to the topics covered during the lectures and how it was used or extended in later work.
  • More details later.

Exam

The exam is primarily in a written form and takes 2-3 hours. The content will be specified later. You can bring a cheat sheet: 2 pages of A4 paper with arbitrary content (handwritten or printed).

In the circumstances listed below the full written exam may be replaced by a combination of a shorter written exam and an oral exam. This applies to

  • students who do not pass the exam during the first, regular date, and need the second or even the third attempt,
  • ERASMUS students who do not participate in Slovak lectures and tutorials.

On the oral part of the exam, you should be able to explain the theory behind the questions in the written part (terminology, algorithms, what they are used for etc.).

Project

  • The project is done by biology students instead of exam.
  • We recommend starting working on the project during the semester and consult any questions during tutorials for biologists.
  • There will be deadlines for proposing the project and presenting intermediate results.
  • The final report will be due during the exam period, followed by a short personal meeting with discussion of the project.
  • More details later.

Academic integrity

Cheating and plagiarism on homeworks and exams is a serious violation of academic integrity.

On homeworks, you are not allowed to copy other person’s work (eg from a classmate, from the Internet including AI chatbots, or from scientific literature) and submit it as your own. You are also not allowed to let another person to copy your solution. We allow and encourage discussion among students about individual homework tasks. However, the solutions you submit must be your own work written in your own words. To avoid unnecessary problems, do not take notes during group discussions about homework and wait at least three hours after such a discussion before writing the solution to be submitted.

AI tools should be treated in the same way as classmates, i.e. you can discuss the homework with them in general terms, then close the discussion and work on your own solution. Switch off AI helpers in your editors while working on homework. It is allowed to use AI for minor grammar improvements of the final text.

You may be asked by the instructors to explain your submitted homework. If you do not understand what you submitted, it will be regarded as cheating and points will be deducted, see below.

During exams (computer science), do not use unauthorized aids and do not communicate with persons other than the instructors.

In the presentation from the journal club, you must cite all used literature. Express the knowledge you have gained on the topic in your own words. Do not copy or mechanically translate entire sentences from the paper and other sources. Create your own images or specify the source of the downloaded images used in the presentation. Similarly for project reports (biology).

When cheating or plagiarism is detected, we will normally assign a grade of 0 for the relevant part of the work, with a minimum reduction of the final grade by one grade. Cheating on the exam will result in the FX grade for the exam. Serious violations of academic integrity will be also referred to the disciplinary committee.