Getting Started with 6.470
The 6.470 course/competition officially begins Monday, 1/7/13 at 11 a.m. in 10-250 with the kickoff and challenge unveiling. The entire schedule can be found here. Be sure to note the room changes on different days.
Here are some useful things to know before 6.470 starts. Hopefully this will answer most of your questions; if you have any other questions, email us at 6.470-staff@mit.edu.
Registration
- The official course number for 6.470 is 6.S188. The class is officially worth 6 credits on P/D/F grading. Pre-registering for 6.470, which will automatically give you access to the Stellar site, and we will add you to the Piazza site as well.
- We strongly encourage that you register for the course, even if you are just listening in on the lectures, so we have a count on the number of students for logistics.
- You are not required to officially register for the course to compete, as long as you are eligible. Thus, you may compete in 6.470 even if you are taking another 12 unit class during IAP, by not registering officially for 6.470.
- You can also opt not to compete and just take the class for credit.
- If you are taking the class for credit, you must register. To pass the course, your team must complete our milestones and submit a website that meets the technical requirements.
- If you do not register, please email us, so that we can add you to the Stellar and Piazza sites and make sure you receive updates on 6.470.
- Anyone is permitted to listen in on our lectures and workshops (although priority will be given to those enrolled in our course).
- You do not have to be on site to compete or receive academic credit, except during the last week if youare announced as a Semifinalist. You may submit your milestones and final product online at Stellar.
Classes
- This year, we are experimenting with workshop-style learning for the core technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP, etc.). Instead of a traditional lecture format, we will have exercises for you to work on during each workshop. Recommended readings, which provide a quick overview of each topic and a curated list of online resources, will be posted for each topic prior to the date of their workshop. To get the most of these workshops, we encourage everyone to look ahead and do the readings before coming into the workshops, so that you already have some familiarity with the topic. You should use workshop time to work on the exercises and ask specific questions about areas that you don't understand.
- We will also have the usual lecture-style sessions for some more advanced or interesting non-essential topics. In addition, we have a very nice set of guest lectures by our sponsors that connect the material in 6.470 with the real world. We encourage everyone to attend all of these as well.
- All of the workshop materials will be posted (with solutions to the exercises after the workshops). You can use Piazza for any specific questions that you have, and submit milestones via Stellar.
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