NPRG042 Programming in Parallel Environment

Grading

The grading criteria for this course are summarized below. Please read them carefully and post any inquiries in the Mattermost channel.

TLDR: you must complete all 5 assignments and pass the final test.

Home assignments

There will be 5 home assignments that are designed to explore several technologies and parallel platforms. The main criterion for grading is the speedup of your solution computed by measuring the wall-time of your solution and reference serial solution.

The assignments will appear in ReCodEx, where you should submit your solutions. The tests in ReCodEx perform only verification of correctness and a very limited assessment of speedup. The actual speedup will be determined later (after the deadline) by our measurements on the HPC cluster, and the results will be presented on this website.

You may receive up to 4 points for (almost) each assignment. Note that the baseline for good solutions is set at 3 points, and 4 points are awarded only to solutions that perform well above expectations. All assignments are mandatory, and you need to get at least 1 point from each assignment to pass the course.

Each assignment has a strict deadline. Once the deadline is reached, all assignments are collected and graded (the speedup is evaluated). You may submit your solution (or a correction) after the deadline and ask for re-evaluation (explicitly via Mattermost), but you will receive reduced points. Submissions that would get 2 or more points when submitted on time will get only 1 point if submitted late. Late submissions that would not be worth 2 points according to the prescribed scoring will receive no points when delivered late.

Final test

The final test will be held during the exam period of the semester in the PC labs (terms will be duly announced in SIS). You may get up to 8 points for the test, so it is worth two home assignments. There will be regular 3 attempts for the test; however, you may retake the test only if you failed it (your solution is not worth any points), or your total sum of points is still in the range of mark 4 (failed).

Only students who received at least 1 point from each home assignment are eligible to take the test, and during the test, students will have access to the evaluated solutions of the home assignments.

Technical details concerning the tests will be announced during the semester, but the main goal is to assess students' parallelization skills on the premises without the benefit of AI, external help, or undesired internet sources. Students may be required to explain (personally) their solutions (with particular focus on the parallelization and the parallel technologies used).

Mark criteria

Your final mark will be determined by the sum of points from home assignments and the final test by the following rules: