BioSig Assignment Guide

Setup:
1. Create a free GitHub account (or use one you currently own)
2. Create a free Google account (or use one you currently own), and make sure you can
sign into Google Colaboratory: https://colab.research.google.com/
3. Ensure that Google Colaboratory has access to your private repositories on GitHub. (By
default, your assignment repository will be accessible only to you and the course
instructor). To grant access:
a. Navigate to https://colab.research.google.com/github/
b. Make sure that the “Include private repositories” box is checked.
c. In the pop up window sign-in to your GitHub account and authorize Colab to
read private files.

If you don’t want to work with these Google services and are used to working with Git, you
can alternatively work on the assignments by cloning the GitHub repository and working on them
on your own working environment. We won’t help you with this process and we don’t
recommend it to non-experienced students because it requires some prior Git experience and
creating a python environment whose packages match the ones in our Google Colab engine.

Starting an Assignment:

1. Whenever a new assignment is released, you will be able to see the corresponding
GitHub Classroom link in the BioSig StudOn page on the “Assignments” section.
2. Clicking on that link will make it so that your GitHub account accepts the current
assignment. If it is the first assignment you are accepting, you have to select your
student identifier number to link your GitHub account to your IdM account.
3. Once the assignment has been accepted, a new individual GitHub repository will be
created for your assignment:
4. Inside your repository, click on the exercise.ipynb file and then click on the “Open in
Colab” button to open the Notebook in Google Colab:

5. Afterwards you need to create a folder with name “data” and add all the required
documents for the current assignment, which you can find in the corresponding StudOn
page:
Note: this data folder may be deleted from your Colab if you haven’t opened it in a while, so
always check if the files are still there whenever you want to continue working on the assignment.

6. You can now edit and run the corresponding cell blocks to start working on the
assignment.
7. IMPORTANT: The Notebook does not save automatically; you need to manually save it
by uploading it to your GitHub Repository (see the Saving and Submitting an
Assignment section).

Working on an Assignment:

1. Each assignment will have several different code blocks which you will have to complete
order to finish the assignment. Here is an example of a block where you have to complete
the code:

2. Each code block that you need to fill in is followed by a testing block which tests your
implementation and gives you small hints if something is not working correctly with your
code. Here is an example of how a testing block looks like:

3. You will need to complete all the required coding blocks in order to successfully complete
each assignment. Note: Do the coding blocks IN ORDER, since most of them are
 dependent on the previous code and they won’t work unless you have completed all
the previous coding blocks.

Important Do’s and Don’ts when working on an assignment.

Please follow the following guidelines for the automated grading to work properly:

1. Only write code after you see a # YOUR CODE HERE comment.
2. DO NOT remove or create new cells (this immediately results in 0 points).
3. DO NOT copy, cut or paste cells.
4. DO check that all your cells compile and run properly (otherwise you will get 0 points).
5. DO work on the original notebook created on your repository.
6. DO NOT rename the notebook.
7. DO NOT copy the notebook and then work on the copy.
Saving and Submitting an Assignment:

1. Please keep in mind that the assignment notebook in Google Colab does not have an
autosave function. In order to save your work, you need to click on the file tab on the
upper left corner, then select “save a copy to GitHub”:

Then you will have to select the corresponding repository “madlab-biosig/exercise-x-

2. You can save your notebook as many times as you like, as only the final version of your
notebook before the deadline will be the one that is automatically submitted. Just
remember to make sure that eveything is working correctly by restarting the Kernel and
selecting “Run all cells” in the Kernel Menu at the top of the notebook, before handing
in your final version of the assignment.
How does the grading process work?

All course assignments will be assigned a number of points. In order to gain those points, you
have to follow the instructions in the notebooks and complete the given code. After submission,
your code will be evaluated automatically as follows:

• You can submit and modify your assignment up until the assignment deadline.
• When the assignment deadline is reached, a series of tests (test cases) will be
automatically applied to your assignment:

➢ each test case will be associated with a specific point value.

• Aside from the visible assert statements in the testing blocks, there are also
hidden tests for grading, so hardcoding results will not get you points!
• Different assignments are worth different amounts of points, according to their
difficulty and complexity.
• If you miss the assignment deadline, you will get 0 points for this assignment.
• After the autograding process is finished you will receive a feedback html file in
your GitHub repository, which you can visualize to see how many points you scored
in your assignment (You have to download this file and open it in a browser to be
able to visualize it).

GOOD LUCK! :)