Mid-Semester Fall 2007

This is a summary of questions and comments made on anonymous mid-semester Fall 2007 feedback sheets along with our published responses.

Q: Can we get more detailed feedback on code quality/efficiency?
A: We don't have TA resources to give detailed comments on this for every assignment. But, if you stop by office hours, especially with Prof. Koopman, we'll be glad to go over any code you've submitted and give suggestions for improvement without it affecting your assignment grade.

Q: Can we get better hardware that works?
A: As we discussed in class, the vast majority of boards turned in as "broken" for the serial port lab worked fine after we corrected mis-placed jumpers. These boards aren't perfect, but they are better than most alternatives in a great many ways. If you think you have a defective board, first make sure the jumpers are set properly. Second, run the test programs we've provided. Third, send us e-mail if those don't work and we'll get a replacement board to you as soon as we reasonably can; you'll get it immediately if you come to a scheduled office hour or lab session. By the end of the semester we had less than a 10% CPU module failure rate, which is good considering the wear and tear experienced by lab equipment.

Q: We want more time to talk to the TA in lab before the demo time.
A: We have specific lab demo times because we need to avoid a rush of students trying to demo at 9:15 PM. We're using an arrangement that was the best tradeoff last year, but can change. If you want your weekly demo time moved to be later in the evening please let us know and we'll work something out.

Q: Can we have looser requirements for hand-in and writing?
A: Sorry, but we think that's not a good idea. There are two reasons. One is that there are a lot more students than TAs. Each rule is there to keep the TA workload within reason (we have learned the hard way that looser rules make it impossible to do electronic hand-ins, and in-person hand-ins are a pain for students). The second is that this sort of structured procedure is representative of industry processes for project work, and thus gives you a taste of what life is like in a reasonably good development team (not just in embedded software, but in many engineering environments). In fact, in most industry settings hand-in and writing requirements are dramatically more strict.

Q: Can we have more TA office hours?
A: Two hours per staff member per week is all we can staff. But, in response to this request we found out that KC's Friday office hours were very sparsely attended and Tuesdays were busy, so KC changed from Friday to Tuesday for one of his office hours. The recitation TA will still be available immediately after Friday recitation for anyone needing individual attention.

Q: Can we get feedback on pre-labs before labs?
A: It's tough to turn around fully graded pre-labs submitted Friday night by Monday, since the TAs are students and also have plans for the weekends. What I've done is asked TAs to send e-mail to any lab team that is on the wrong track in a major way immediately without waiting for the grading process to complete. Additionally, if you are unsure about your prelab, you should ask during/after recitation or at Monday office hours.

Q: Can we have more "technical" questions/essay questions on the tests?
A: This is a difficult issue that we grapple with, and we've reached the current situation through trial and error. Embedded systems are definitely about breadth as well as depth. There is a lot of "non-technical" stuff you have to know to be effective (by "non-technical" students usually mean things other than writing code, so we assume that is what was meant). You'll find out that the back half of the course has meatier technical issues and less engineering process content than the front half. But ultimately you need both. We avoid technical essay questions on the tests because they put too much emphasis on a small part of the material, and are very difficult to grade uniformly across the class. (We've done them, but the results of the carefully crafted multiple choice format end up with just as effective an evaluation of technical knowledge in our experience. And, you get graded on essay-type assignments in the pre-lab and lab already.)

Q: Can we have more concept discussion in recitation?
A: Starting this week I'm providing the recitation TA with a copy of the lecture slides. Come prepared with questions. As we get into more complex technical content it will probably be easier for you to identify particular slides you want more discussion of. Also, please feel free to send an e-mail to the course staff saying "on Friday recitation could you please cover topic xyz" so we come prepared.

Q: I don't like lab Tuesday followed by test Wednesday
A: For the last exam of the semester (Dec 5) we'll move demos to after the test for Tuesday lab students.

Q: The lab room temperature is too hot or too cold
A: This is the first I've heard of this. I'll check with facilities and see if we can do something or if it is just something we have to live with. If you have a complaint about the lab room please e-mail it to the course staff so we can investigate.

Q: We want more cool toys for labs
A: We tried that, and it is really difficult to pull off. Cool toys break. Frequently. Most likely they will break just before your scheduled demo. This is only the second time the course has been offered, so we're keeping it a bit simple and trying to get well polished reliable labs. If you want to do a senior project designing a lab project with more interesting toys please let me know. (It's a lot of work, but something that everyone would appreciate.)

Q: Can we have more/fewer multiple choice questions; more/less hardware in the labs; more/less weight on x or y; recitation is great/boring; etc.
A: There were several change requests that are balanced out by like-it-the-way-it-is comments. Thanks for the suggestions. Many of our policies got this way by looking at the proportion of such suggestions in previous semesters. Because we are receiving about as many "more" vs. "fewer" comments from the class as a whole, probably the balance is about right.