Overview

Important dates

• Proposal due Thu, Nov 20th
• Draft product + peer review due Thu, Dec 4th
• Final report + product due on Thu, Dec 18th at noon

Important

The details will be updated as the project date approaches.

Introduction

TL;DR: Create something using LLMs.

This is intentionally vague – part of the challenge is to design a project that best showcases your interests and strengths.

You will work in teams to conceive, design, and implement a project that substantially leverages LLMs to achieve an objective. The project should be ambitious but feasible, and demonstrate your ability to apply the concepts and techniques learned throughout the course. The key requirement is that LLMs must play a substantial role in the project beyond using LLMs to help you write code. Think about what we have learned in class, and how you can leverage LLMs to create something new and interesting. This could include things like:

• Create LLM powered tools such as Shiny Assistant or altR: R Plot Alternative Text Generator
• Build an interactive dashboard to explore the National Risk Index using LLMs for a natural language interface
• Explore the Epstein files using LLMs to help analyze and summarize the documents

The project is very open ended. Ambition is encouraged, but you will need to finish the project in time.

Deliverables

The three primary deliverables for the final project are

1. A project proposal.
2. A reproducible product in a format based upon the type of project you propose (e.g. interactive web application, analytical report), with one required draft along the way.
3. A final report that explains the process and results.

There will also be a round of draft submissions and peer review to help you improve your final product.

LLM access and budgeting

All students have been provided with access to the OpenAI and Anthropic platforms via API. You may use these platforms for your project. If you wish to use other LLM platforms, you may do so but you are responsible for all costs.

Warning

While we do not have a formal budget for LLM usage, please be mindful of your usage and seek to minimize costs where possible (using a lower-cost model when you do not need higher capabilities, pilot testing on small portions of the data, batch processing, etc.). All API activity must be conducted using either your personal API key or a key generated for your project team. We will track usage via API keys; if you have abnormally high usage, we may reach out to discuss your usage and/or deactivate your API key.

Teams

Projects will be completed in teams of 3-4 students. Every team member should be involved in all aspects of planning and executing the project. Each team member should make an equal contribution to all parts of the project. The scope of your project is based on the number of contributing team members on your project. If you have 4 contributing team members, we will expect a larger project than a team of 3 contributing team members.

The course staff will assign students to teams. To facilitate this process, we will provide a short survey identifying study and communication habits. Once teams are assigned, they cannot be changed.

Team conflicts

Conflict is a healthy part of any team relationship. If your team doesn’t have conflict, then your team members are likely not communicating their issues with each other. Use your team contract (written at the beginning of the project) to help keep your team dynamic healthy.

When you have conflict, you should follow this procedure:

1. Refer to the team contract and follow it to address the conflict.

2. If you resolve the conflict without issue, great! Otherwise, update the team contract and try to resolve the conflict yourselves.

3. If your team is unable to resolve your conflict, please contact soltoffbc@cornell.edu and explain your situation.

   We’ll ask to meet with all the group members and figure out how we can work together to move forward.

4. Please do not avoid confrontation if you have conflict. If there’s a conflict, the best way to handle it is to bring it into the open and address it.

Project grade adjustments

Remember, do not do the work for a slacking team member. This only rewards their bad behavior. Simply leave their work unfinished. (We will not increase your grade during adjustments for doing more than your fair share.)

Your team will initially receive a final grade assuming that all team members contributed to your project. If you have a 5-person team, but only 3 persons contributed, your team will likely receive a lower grade initially because only 3 persons worth of effort exists for a 5-person project. About a week after the initial project grades are released, adjustments will be made to each individual team member’s group project grade.

We use your project’s Git history (to view the contributions of each team member) and the peer evaluations to adjust each team members’ grades. Both adjustments to increase or decrease your grade are possible based on each individual’s contributions.

For example, if you have a 4-person team, but only 3 contributing members, the 3 contributing members may have their grades increased to reflect the effort of only 3 contributing members. The non-contributing member will likely have their grade decreased significantly.

WarningPenalties for failing to contribute

I am serious about every member of the team equitably contributing to the project. Students who fail to contribute equitably may receive up to a 100% deduction on their project grade.

Please be patient for the grade adjustments. The adjustments take time to do them fairly. Please know that the instructor handles this entire process himself, and I take it very seriously. If you think your initial group project grade is unfair, please wait for your grade adjustment before you contact us.

The slacking team member

Please do not cover for a slacking/freeloading team member. Please do not do their work for them! This only rewards their bad behavior. Simply leave their work unfinished. (We will not increase your grade during adjustments for doing more than your fair share.)

Remember, we have your Git history. We can see who contributes to the project and who doesn’t. If a team member rarely commits to Git and only makes very small commits, we can see that they did not contribute their fair share.

All students should make their project contributions through their own GitHub account. Do not commit changes to the repository from another team member’s GitHub account. Your Git history should reflect your individual contributions to the project.

Overall grading

The grade breakdown is as follows:

Total	105 pts
Project proposal	10 pts
Draft	20 pts
Peer review	5 pts
Report	30 pts
Final product	40 pts

Late work policy

There is no late work accepted on this project. Be sure to turn in your work early to avoid any technological mishaps.