TAM 2020, Fall 2010

Old news

* 12/13 Final grades are posted at your Student Center and (corrupted, maybe fixed now) on Blackboard. On Blackboard you will also find a customized 4-letter code. Use that to find all of your final grade data here. There is a random code for each student, your code is at the top left your data block (two students could have the same code, so check above and below to make sure you are at the right block of data). Codes are in alphabetical order attached to students in random order. Here is some info about the data. More information about the final grading will be posted in the coming few days. Please wait for that before making enquiries.

* 12/11 Final grades. We're working on them. As soon as we know anything about your final exam and course grades we'll post here (and perhaps on blackboard). Please study all that will be posted here before asking your TA questions about your grade.

* 12/ 8 Formula sheet typo. Corrected on version now posted. The I for an annular shaft was off by a factor of 2.
(You should be able to calculate this yourself quickly, it should be half of J..)

* 12/8 Extra time on Final exam? Only for people with official notes that say so. If you are one of those please bring a copy of the note with you. Please also email your TA ahead of time that you will be doing this. You'll take the exam with everyone else. Then when the others are done we will quaranteen you for 15 minutes or so and then walk you back to Thurston to finish up. For you and for everyone else, the intention is to give an exam that shows what you can do, not how fast you can do it.

* 12/7 HW solutions are even more up to date. These old ones have been corrected: 5.1.21, 5.2.7, 5.2.14, 9.34, 9.44

* 12/6 Study tips, extended. (12/8 Extra tip: internalize the directions on the cover of Prelim 2.)

* 12/4 Makeup and solutions and the homework exam and solutions are posted.

* 12/4 Finals week office hours (check daily for possible changes)

* 12/2 Singularity functions. Some notes from office hours.

* 11/10 Missing grades. If you have a hard copy of a homework that is not on Blackboard, bring it to section or office hours and we will add it to Blackboard.

* 11/29 HW assigned today and on Wed Dec 1 is due Wed Dec 8. Hand it in to your desk drawer. Learn it well, of course.

* 11/19 Thanksgiving HW postponed. HW previously due Wed Nov 24 is now due Monday Nov 29 at 10 PM. Office hours scheduled for Wed Nov 24 are moved to Monday Nov 29 (with Chao substituting for Andy). Office hours on Wed Dec1, as usual.

* 11/18 Makeup labs. If you need to make up a lab, please email Chao Fang cf265@cornell.edu by Monday Nov 22. Pease include your name, net ID and the name of the lab you need to make up.

* 11/14 Summary of the whole course on one page. Know this and you know something. Please suggest additions, clarifications or changes. Study tips: a) explain the use of every term, fact and formula on the sheet; b) makeup and solve problems that use them.

* 11/14 Prelim 2 redo policy: Redo any of the problems perfectly and your score for the course will be ((your orig score) + 20)/2 for those problems. Why not 25? So people who basically got it right don't feel pressure to spend their precious time on it.. Due Sat Nov 20 at 10 PM. Print out the exam. Do your solution on that printed-out exam. Put staples on the left edge (grading randomly formatted things was hard on the TAs last time). Write "REDO" in big letters near your name. Advice: you will make better use of your time if you do not base your new solutions on the posted solutions. You need not send in your old prelim with your new.

* 11/14 Prelim 2 stats: problems (4, 5, 6) had means of (19, 17, 18) out of 25.

* 11/10 Missing grades. If you have a hard copy of a homework that is not on Blackboard, bring it to section or office hours and we will add it to Blackboard.

* 11/4 Prelim 2 and prelim 2 solutions.

* 10/29 Do you have HW grades not recorded? If so contact your TA.

* 11/3 Homework solutions corrected. Some HW solutions have been corrected and updated:
5.4.5, 5.4.9, 8.1.3, 8.31, 8.50 (most significant is 8.50).

* 11/1 i-clicker grades are now posted on blackboard. As recorded now, you get one point for every day in which you recorded a vote. Max is 22. If your i-clicker grade is not recorded correctly come to Office hours on Wed from 1-3 with your correct i-clicker number.

* 10/29 HW extension. HW assigned from MWF Oct 25-29 is due Sat Nov 9 at 10 PM.
   That material will not be on prelim 2.

* 10/29 HW solutions are now posted for all HW on Prelim 2 (with the exception of the computer problems of which only one is posted).

* 10/13 A more clear version of the figure for 6.3.14, due Friday 10/15, is here.

* 10/9 HW after break due on Friday Oct 15 at 10 PM. That's a 2 day extension. Office hours are unchanged.

*10/7 The 6 hour policy, what is it about? Its for people who are just trying to get through the course and want credit for the homework. All tough courses will have some fraction of students working much more than 6 hours/week on homework, because they are interested or because they are trying to do much more than just get by. If you are not one of these eager beavers and are having trouble doing all the problems in the 6 hours you should start by writing up and handing in some or all of the practice problems, of course its best to start by mastery of the more elementary material. Time spent on practice problems counts as part of your 6 hours. If you want to catch up on earlier material, time spent on practice problems from earlier weaks also counts as part of your 6 hours. Then you should budget your time on the harder problems. Use your time in the manner that you think is most educational.

* 10/8 (updated 10/13) Don't like your prelim 1 grade? Redo any problem perfectly (25), it must be really excellent to count, and we will average your first score and your new score. Say you got 15 on probelm 1. Your score for the course will be raised to 20. You can do up to 3 problems. Redone prelim due Saturday Oct 16 at 10 PM in the Thurston 102. Your new solution cannot be a copy of posted solutions and should not be a copy of any body else's solution. That is, it should be your solution. You can get help, but it should be help with following your preferred route through the problem. Best is if its the same method you started on the prelim, if that is workable. All help has to be acknowledged as per the HW rules. Download the prelim from this page. If your original was almost perfect, attach your original prelim and only do anew the work that was imperfect the first time.

* 10/2 Blackboard is misbehaving. Don't panic if your recorded grades are "!". Or, if you choose to panic, know that you are not the only one and we are trying to find the problem.

* 9/28 Prelim 1 and solutions are posted.

* 9/16 Beer and Johnston (textbook II) is at the Campus Store. Kraftees (College Ave) is cheaper but you have to prepay 2 weeks ahead. If the bookstore sells out you have to wait 2 weeks for restocking. Best to buy a copy, if ever (see text info below), now.

* 9/30 Special extra office hours on Saturday Oct 2:
            Andy  2 - 4 PM
            Betsy 8 - 10 PM

* 9/24 HW from this week (MWF) due Sat Oct 2 at 10 PM instead of Wed Sept 29.
Some clarification of  "What do we want on this HW?" also on the HW page.

* 9/28 Reduced office hours on Wed 9/29:    
           1 - 3 Andy   (all others were held earlier in week)

* 9/28 TI 83+ calculator left at the back of Ives 305 at the prelim. Andy has it.
(reclaimed)

* 9/27 The exam is being written with consideration that solutions to HW 4 have not been posted. Questions about that material will be straightforward or based directly on lecture or text material.

* 9/27 Prelim rooms and seating. Ives Hall 105, Ives Hall 305. If one room is full go to the other. If in doubt go to 305, the bigger room. Sit in columns, every other seat (there should be a line of people in front of you and behind you but not next to you nor diagonally in front or behind you). All books, coats and notes under the seat next to you. You may have out food and writing tools.

* 9/25 The Prelim 1 cover page and directions will look alot like this.

* 9/24 Office hours/help for the coming days:
Matlab help session
. Thurston 2nd floor. Saturday Sept 25, 2-3 PM (and beyond if need be).
Q&A on anything in the course Sat Sept 25, 4-5 PM Thurston 2nd floor.
Betsy office hours: Sunday 2-4 (Betsy Wed 8-10 office hours cancelled)
Scott office hours: Monday 4 - 6 (Scott Wed 4-6 office hours cancelled)
Kirk office hours: Monday 6 - 8 ( Kirk   Wed 6-8 office hours cancelled)

*9/20 Advertisement: "Ace That Prelim! An Exam Prep Study Skills Workshop, Wednesday, September 22nd 4:30–5:30pm - Rm 3330, Carol Tatkon Center. For more information please contact Michael Chen atmsc7@cornell.edu"

* 9/14 Miss your lab? You can attend another lab section only if there is space (fewer than 12 people) and you get permission of the TA. There may be makeup labs at the end of the semester, to be posted. As an alternative makeup, please talk to Andy Ruina in his office hours about a personal lab that you could design and perform on your own.

* 9/13 i-clicker grades are now (partially) on blackboard. By Sept 15 please a) Go to blackboard. b) If you have a zero for your i-clicker score then i) don't panic, your scores are saved by i-clicker ID. ii) go to Old News and follow the iclicker registration directions. Your non-zero grade will show up in a few weeks, we'll tell you when. If you don't know your clicker #, the help person in the computer lab in the basement of Upson can help you find it.

* 9/11 Beer and Johnston (textbook II) is now available at the Campus Store (Kraftees is already sold out).
           Please buy a copy soon.

* 9/11 Andy Ruina's office hours have changed from 2-4 to 1-3 Wednesday.

* 9/11 Labs start Monday Sept 13. Do not do Lab 0.

* 9/10 HW change. HW due next week has been lightenned (postponed), see HW page.

* 9/9 Homework regrades. If you think there is a matter of interpretation it is best for you to discuss regrading at office hours with any of the graders. If you think it is not controversial, you can submit a regrade with a later homework. Remember that the graders only have about 3 minutes to grade each HW, so please make your point clear and simple.

* 9/7 How to study? An article in today's NY Times about recent psychological research that says you should "alternate study environments, mix content, space study sessions, self-test or all the above."

* 9/7 Office hours no-show. If you go to office hours and there is not the expected TA/grader please email me (Andy) and we will arrange special office hours for you.

* 9/7 The lab schedule has been updated. Please check your lab dates.

* 9/7 Problems accessing Fall 2009 Videonote have been resolved.

* 9/3 As mentioned on the HW page, homework can change for up to 14 hours after the associated lecture.
The homework for todays lecture was just reduced.

* 9/3 Matlab codes for the lectures today and 4 days ago are posted on the homework page with the associated lectures.

* 9/3 MATLAB tutorial. Basic Matlab introduction. Thurston 2nd floor. Saturday Sept 4, 10 AM - noon.
Similar primer on Matlab is in the 2nd video of ENGR 1170 from fall 2009. Start at 5:45.

*8/27 Videos of TAM 2020 lectures are available: http://www.videonote.com/cornell (see link under course resources, below).

*8/26 Gnomon Copy delivered Textbook 1 (Ruina/Pratap) to Kraftees at about 10 AM today.
Whether they have enough copies then is another question! Call Kraftees to save a futile walk: 607-269-0510.

*8/24 Please register your iclicker (once per semester per clicker):
1) Login at http://atcsupport.cit.cornell.edu/pollsrvc/
2) Click on "Click here if you wish to ... "
3) Enter your iclicker ID # (written on the back next to the bar code) and click Submit.
4) Copy the iclicker number onto a small piece of paper and stick it inside the battery compartment (the label on the back tends to wear off).
5) You do not need to register your iclicker at the iclicker.com site.

* 8/23 Please register on Blackboard (needed for course email list and for iclickers)
1) Login to blackboard
2) Go to "All Blackboard Course" and Search for "ENGRD2020" by course ID (searching by the default, course name, does not work),
3) Enroll in the course "ENGRD2020-Ruina-Fall2010".

* 8/23 Two recitations are cancelled: Section 208 (Thursday 10:10) and Section 211 (Friday 1:25). Sections 209 & 210 (also on Friday at 1:25) are not cancelled.   If you are in Section 208 or 211 please register for another section. No rush, this week just attend the section you like.

* 8/23 The course is still getting organized. Most things will not change but they are still subject to change.

* 7/24/2010 There's barely any new news. So there's definitely not any old news.


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