Some of the homework assignments include parts that are only required from students in the 6000-level course. Look at the assignments linked from the course page to see examples. We also expect more from the final projects at the 6000 level.
No.
You can work with a partner, but you cannot work in groups of more than two. If you work with a partner, each student will write a separate report describing his or her contribution. You will not necessarily receive the same grade.
Matlab.
You can use whatever language(s) you like. In November you will submit a project description, which should say what language(s) you will use.
There are no exams in this class. Your grade will be based on the homeworks and your final project, as described on course page.
Over the course of the semester, you may turn in one assignment (not the final project!) late, without penalty. The assignment must be turned in by 5pm on the next class date after the date the assignment was due. So if the assignment was due on Tuesday, you can turn it in by Thursday; if it was due on Thursday you can turn it in by the next Tuesday. If you turn in an assignment later than this, or turn in more than one late assignment, this will have an effect on your final course grade.
At the beginning of the semester, the assignment links on the course page will point to last year's assignments. (Over the course of the semester, these will be updated to point to this year's assignments.) Take a look at last year's assignments to see if this class is at a suitable level for you.
There is some overlap, but we focus on biometrics in particular, rather than general classification and regression. Also, this is more definitely an applied learning class, so we always use real data, and deal with the problems real data presents.