Proseminar Introduction to Information Theory

Dear Students,

I would like to answer some of the questions I received today (in person and via e-mail), as I believe them to be of relative interest to everyone.

• On the CMS, we expect you to upload a zip file of three PDFs: your slide deck, your report and your problem solutions. You can do so by the 10th of July.
• Regarding questions: Some of you wished to know whether it's acceptable/disruptive to ask questions during the presentations. In general, no. Please raise your hand if you would like to ask about proof steps, contents of the slide, etc.; to speakers: please make sure that all of your slides are numbered to make things easier.
• Regarding the report: We expect it to be a more theoretical summary (2-3 A4 pages, LaTeX default font) of your talk, with at least one full proof of a theorem touched upon in your slides. Slide decks should contain proof sketches, but should be focused more on practice and understanding. In process of making your talk accessible, make sure that you retain factual accuracy and don't water the subject down too much losing technical merit.
• Regarding AI use: we expect you to properly cite sources directly where applicable, this includes AI. We are not interested in the chat transcripts but we want to know for what you used AI and what model did you use. AI-generated graphics and slides usually stand out as having less effort put into them, often have factual issues and contain too much content. Regardless of AI usage, we expect you to know what is on your slides and to be able to answer questions regarding the concepts on your slide deck.
• Regarding time: Aim at 45 minutes of presentation; the figure was generously named before to give you more time to speak slowly and deliver a coherent presentation.
• Regarding drafts: We want to receive work-in-progress versions of your slide deck, problem solutions and report. While it's not mandatory, it gives you a chance to fix issues before your graded talk.

Dear students,

We would like to remind you to sign up for the topics in the spreadsheet before this Friday (1 May). Failure to do so will result in no topic being assigned to you, and thus you will not be able to participate in the seminar. We expect your presentations to be delivered in English and take at most 40-45 minutes each, with a bit over 5 minutes reserved for questions. Individual amendments and topic counselling may be done on request. For this purpose e-mail the course instructor (k [at] iczelia.net). A .zip file with your slides, problem solutions and a report should be attached on CMS by 10th of July.

In light of the 4th of June (Thursday) being a holiday, we have decided to move the sessions from 5th of June forward and cancel the seminar on that day. Enjoy your long weekend :)!