Prof. Ryan Adams (OH: Wed 3-4pm in COS 411)
TA: Boya Zeng (OH: Tues 12-1pm and 4:30-5:30pm; Thurs 4:30-5:30pm; COS 003)
Precept 01: Th 9:35 am – 10:25 am, Friend Cen 008
Precept 03: Th 12:15 pm – 1:05 pm, Friend Cen 111
Assignment 1 Out
No lecture Mon 7 Sept (Labor Day).
Assignment 1 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 9 Sept 2026
Assignment 2 Out
Quiz 1 in class Wednesday 16 Sept 2026
Assignment 2 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 23 Sept 2026
Assignment 3 Out
Quiz 2 in class Wednesday 30 Sept 2026
Assignment 3 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 7 Oct 2026
Assignment 4 Out
Midterm Exam in class Weds Oct 14
No precept Thurs/Fri.
Assignment 4 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 28 Oct 2026
Assignment 5 Out
Quiz 3 in class Wednesday 4 Nov 2026
Assignment 5 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 11 Nov 2026
Assignment 6 Out
Quiz 4 in class Wednesday 18 Nov 2026
No lecture Weds (Thanksgiving), no precept Thurs/Fri.
Assignment 6 Due 6pm ET Wednesday 2 Dec 2026
Assignment 7 Out
Quiz 5 in class Monday 7 Dec 2026
Assignment 7 Due 6pm ET Tuesday 15 Dec 2026 (Dean's Date)
The midterm exam will be during class time (10:40am-12:00pm) on Wednesday 14 October, in Commons D301 — note that this is not our usual lecture room.
Everything through the Wednesday 7 October lecture is fair game: linear systems, vector spaces and bases, linear maps, change of basis, norms and inner products, positive definite matrices, orthogonality and projections, least squares, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization and the spectral theorem, determinant and trace, and the characteristic polynomial. The SVD (Monday 12 October lecture) will not be on the midterm. The exam is generally conceptual, but may also ask a question or two about Python/NumPy in line with what you've been doing in the homework assignments.
You may bring one two-sided cheatsheet. The sheet may be typeset, but you must make it yourself; copying someone else's cheatsheet is not allowed. Otherwise the exam is closed book, with no electronic devices.
A selection of practice problems is available. These problems are reflective of the types of questions you can expect, although there are more practice questions than you will have to answer on the midterm itself. The TAs will run a review session on the evening of Monday 12 October (time and location to be announced), and solutions to the practice problems will be released after that session.