Pages

The final workbook will require you to submit a video. This posting will give you some ideas on the mechanics of how to do so: how to record it, upload it, and submit it.

Note: This page was originally written by Professor Michael Gleicher. The discussion and opinions are presented from his perspective.

I am trying to make this class “text-book free”. There is no required textbook. The “lectures”, workbooks, and online should be enough for you to learn the material.

However, sometimes a textbook is useful. So, I’ll make a recommendation (the textbooks we’ve used in the past), explain how to access them through the library, and give you some thoughts on how to use them.

Basic Class Information

Instructor: Young Wu

Teaching Assistants: Alex Peseckis and Jingyi Gao. Contact via CS559 Piazza.

Lectures: The class is in person with traditional lectures. The class is scheduled for 4:00 to 5:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There will be in-class activities that must be completed during the lecture time.

Grading: Grades are primarily based on the workbooks and in-class activities. Grades will be adjusted based on exams. See Parts of Class and Grading.

For this class, there are multiple mechanisms (Canvas, Piazza, Web, GitLab, Zoom, Email). Students should understand how the class uses all of these mechanisms. These mechanisms are especially important when you need help. Information about course staff can be found Course Staff.

Overview

This semester, CS559 will be taught in an in-person manner.

The class is divided into 2-week modules. We will have 7 (there are 14 weeks in the semester). The pattern for the class is based around these 2-week modules.

The core of the class will be a set of Workbooks - collections of web pages that serve as reading material, demonstrations, and assignments. There is one workbook per module.

Note: This page was originally written by Professor Michael Gleicher. The discussion and opinions are presented from his perspective.

This page discusses the use of AI tools (e.g., Generative AI) in CS559 this semester. It is more than just stating the policy (Short version: treat it as you would treat a friend who has taken the class). I want to explain how I am thinking about AI tools (as of January 2026) and how you might think about this for class. I have been thinking about this a lot - as a user of AI, as a computer scientist, and as an educator.

This is a Syllabus in the form of the official University Template. It details the course policies.

More information is on the course web page: https://pages.graphics.cs.wisc.edu/559-f26/ which provides the complete course documentation.

TBA

This class has many different parts. While the Workbooks are the main thing, we will have In-class Activities and Exams. This page tries to explain them all, how we will assess them, and how we will put them together to form final grades.

Note: This page was originally written by Professor Michael Gleicher. The discussion and opinions are presented from his perspective.

Can’t AI just do it?

It turns out that the assignments for the class are in the “sweet spot” for current AI models. The programs are small and simple and well-specified enough that AI tools might just give you “right answers.” If nothing else, AI can cheat - enough old solutions are in the training set that it certainly knows how to do the assignments. In fact, I find that AI models tend to make the same mistakes that students make. I don’t know whether it is copying student code or making the same reasoning flaws.