COMP1730/6730 S1 2020 - Project Assignment

Important#

• The assignment is due 11:55 PM Sunday in week 11, May 31.
• This assignment needs to be completed by yourself (i.e, not in a group). You can share ideas (with proper attribution) but your code and report must be your own.
• Include your university ID in every file you submit.
• This assignment is worth 15% of your grade for COMP1730/COMP6730.

Updates#

Update 21 May 2020, 11:55pm

• Replaced assignment materials. The ‘assignment_helpers.py’ file contains an updated version of the ‘volume_to_area’ function.

• A marking rubric has been added. It can be downloaded separately here.

Overview#

In this assignment you will be doing a short data analysis and modelling task using some real-world geographical data. It is different to the homework assignments you have done up until this point in that for almost all of the questions, there is no single “right” answer. You are also not given any tests against which to check your answers (although you are encouraged to write your own to help you test the correctness of your functions). Because there is no single “right” answer, it will be important to justify the decisions and choices that you make while completing the assignment. This is important since it allows anyone relying on your results and conclusions to understand how they were obtained and whether they are suitable for a particular purpose.

Lake George, or Weereewa (in Ngunnawal), is an intermittent lake to the north-east of Canberra. It is well-known for having dramatic changes in water level. When full, it’s around 145 km²—20 times bigger than Lake Burley Griffin! But most of the time in contemporary history, it’s been fairly empty. This unusual behaviour has given Lake George quite the reputation and even some persistent myths and legends, including everything from a secret underground link between Lake George and Mount Gambier, to bunyip and alien sightings. Of course, these legends are (probably) not true, and the fluctuating water levels of Lake George are explained by its unusually shallow geology, evaporation, and rainfall. In this assignment you will investigate the water level of Lake George and develop two models of how it fills and ebbs over time.

Assignment Materials#

The materials for the major assignment are available here:

• All assignment materials
• Assignment specification only

Submission#

You must submit the assignment through the submission link on wattle. You must submit a zip folder containing assignment.py (the code) and answers.pdf (the written report) and optionally assignment_tests.py (any testing functions you used to test your code).

You can upload new versions of your submission up to the deadline. However, remember that we can only see your latest submission, and that is what we will mark.

You must write your ANU ID in your report and in the comment at the beginning of the code file(s).

The assignment is due May 31, 2020, at 11:55 pm. This deadline is hard. Late submissions will not be accepted, unless you have received an approved extension before the deadline.

Extensions can only be given in extenuating circumstances as defined by ANU policy; this means accident, illness, or other things that you could not reasonably have anticipated or avoided. Failure to plan in advance to spend sufficient time working on the assignment is neither unforseeable nor unavoidable. If you think you have grounds for an extension, you should contact the course conveners as soon as possible and provide written evidence in support of your case (such as a medical certificate). The course convener will then decide whether to grant an extension and inform you as soon as practical.

Please note that although there has been significant disruption this semester, the assignment scope and deadlines have already been adjusted to reflect the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, unless you have been particularly severely impacted, a general statement about difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic will not be considered.

Plagiarism and collusion#

You cannot work together to develop your solution to this assignment. You can of course seek help from others to learn and improve your understanding, but not to obtain solutions to the specific assignment problems.

Your assignment must be entirely your own work. Both the report and code will be considered under the usual individual plagiarism rules. If you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, please read through the ANU Academic Honesty Policy.

If you do include ideas or material from other sources (in your code or your report), then you clearly have to make attribution by providing a reference to the material or source in your report. We do not require a specific referencing format, as long as you are consistent and your references allow us to find the source, should we need to while we are marking your assignment. Marking will be based on original content; if you have borrowed extensively from other sources, we may consider that in determining your mark.

If you are found to have have engaged in plagiarism you will usually receive a mark of 0 for the entire assignment. If you assist another student in engaging in plagiarism, for example by giving them your code or instructing them on how to solve the problem, you will also normally receive a mark of 0 for the entire assignment. In either case, you may also receive additional penalties as appropriate under the ANU Academic Honesty Policy.