We have four compulsory laborations that give you hands-on experience with key concepts from the course. These laborations are programming-based Java projects, but also include textual reasoning parts. The laborations do not have a grade, but you have to pass all of them:

The first lab is a short individual coding exercise to introduce you to the lab system.
Labs 2–4 are longer projects done in groups of three. For these, you must also pass a live supervision checkpoint.

You can discuss the lab problems with students outside your lab group. You can discuss strategies on a high level. But you are not allowed to give away any solutions! We take plagiarism seriously (see Lab 3).

Schedule

	Published	First deadline	Final deadline
Lab 1: Binary search	Week 1, Mon, Jan 16	Week 1, Fri, Jan 20	Week 2, Fri, Jan 27
Lab 2: Text indexing	Week 2, Fri, Jan 27	Week 3, Thu, Feb 9	Week 5, Mon, Feb 20
Lab 3: Plagiarism detection	Week 4, Mon, Feb 6	Week 6, Fri, Feb 24	Week 8, Wed, Mar 8
Lab 4: Path finder	Week 6, Mon, Feb 20	Week 8, Mon, Mar 6	Exam week, Fri, Mar 17

You must submit something before the first deadline, even if it is not fully complete. You must have a passing submission before the final deadline.

Rolling grading

You can get three gradings per lab, and you can choose when.

We grade your submissions as they come in (independently of the deadlines), so you should receive feedback quickly (based on availability of graders).
If your submission hasn't been graded yet, you can override it by making a new submission.

Lab system

The lab projects are shared, submitted, and graded on Chalmers GitLab. This is a collaborative platform for software development similar to GitHub and Bitbucket, but hosted privately by Chalmers.

The full process is described in the heading link. Briefly:

We add you to a lab project on Chalmers GitLab.
You submit by creating a tag named submission<Something>. Watch for spelling mistakes!
A merge request will be opened for your submission. Graders give feedback by performing a code review there.
You discuss with your grader by participating in the merge request discussion.
Robograder can test your code before you submit if you create a tag named test<Something>.

For help with getting the labs running on your computer, see: Running Java labs.

Joining a group

Labs 2–4 are done in groups of three. Find other students to team up with.

We recommend to form a diverse team and decide on set working times.
Work together, never alone. The member with the least coding experience should be writing the code, coached by the others.
You can ask for partners on Slack (channel #lab-partners-wanted) or ask to be assigned by me (the course-responsible teacher).

Once you have formed a group, assign yourselves to a free lab group in Canvas. You will be added to the lab project on Chalmers GitLab as soon as it is published.

Note: All group members need to actively contribute to the whole submission and be able to explain all your work. If you have trouble with a slacking member, contact me and I will reassign them.

Note: If you want to switch to a different group for the next lab, move yourself to that group in Canvas.

Supervision

We offer three lab supervision sessions each week where you can (and should!) get help from course assistants. You can choose which and how many you want to attend. Because of our wonky schedule, you must consult TimeEdit for their them. We use two locations:

For the sessions in Alfons you need to bring your own laptop. You can also use the surrounding discussion areas on the same floor. Just be sure the course assistants know where to find you.
For the sessions in Jupiter, we have booked both Windows and Linux computer rooms. All necessary Java software should be preinstalled. Of course, you can also bring your own laptop.

During each session, we maintain a queue of supervision requests in these Slack channels:

#supervision for in-person requests,
#supervision-zoom for online requests.

To get a live supervision meeting, simply post your name (Lab 1) or group number (Labs 2–4) and where we can find you (for online requests, this should be a Zoom link). A course assistant will join you as soon as possible.

The course assistants mark handled requests using emojis. From this, you can see how far in the queue you are.
When it is not busy, you can also just talk to the assistants. The online equivalent is the Slack channel #labs.

Note: You can always use Slack channel #labs to get help. Outside the lab sessions, it may take longer to get an answer.

Supervision checkpoint

For Labs 2–4, you must pass a live supervision checkpoint. This is to demonstrate that all group members contributed to and understand the whole submission.

Ask for a supervision checkpoint like you would for an ordinary supervision meeting. This can also be online.
You need to finish at least half of a lab to be eligible for the supervision checkpoint. If you are stuck before, please reach out during the lab sessions.
Consider doing the supervision checkpoint before your first submission. It might help you catch mistakes.
All group members must be present in the meeting and able to answer individually. Expect questions about parts other group members have written.

Of course, you can ask for regular supervision as many times as you like, independent of the checkpoint.