Course talk:CPSC522/Variational Inference

The main motivation behind the idea of variational inference and the challenge that it tries to address were explained fairly well. The page introduces some key concepts that are rather underexplored and, therefore, influence the overall comprehension. In that regard, providing more context and background, as well as further elaboration on the objective functions, would definitely enhance the intelligibility of the page. In general, this was a great and well-structured page with a high-level explanation of the topic.

There were also a few minor typos that need to be fixed. (though it is not a big deal)

The topic is relevant for the course. (5) The writing is clear and the English is good. (5) The page is written at an appropriate level for CPSC 522 students (where the students have diverse backgrounds). (4) The formalism (definitions, mathematics) was well chosen to make the page easier to understand. (4) The abstract is a concise and clear summary. (5) There were appropriate (original) examples that helped make the topic clear. (4) There was appropriate use of (pseudo-) code. (4) It had a good coverage of representations, semantics, inference and learning (as appropriate for the topic). (5) It is correct. (5) It was too short for the topic (i.e., 1 means too long, 3 means about right) (5) It was an appropriate unit for a page (it shouldn't be split into different topics or merged with another page). (5) It links to appropriate other pages in the wiki. (4) The references and links to external pages are well chosen. (4) I would recommend this page to someone who wanted to find out about the topic. (4) This page should be highlighted as an exemplary page for others to emulate. (4)

If I was grading it out of 20, I would give it: 18.5

I really liked reading this page as it was concise and complete. There are some typos and the abstract/introduction is slightly unclear in the second line. Nonetheless, the paper is excellent.

The topic is relevant for the course. (5) The writing is clear and the English is good. (4) The page is written at an appropriate level for CPSC 522 students (where the students have diverse backgrounds). (5) The formalism (definitions, mathematics) was well chosen to make the page easier to understand. (5) The abstract is a concise and clear summary. (5) There were appropriate (original) examples that helped make the topic clear. (4) There was appropriate use of (pseudo-) code. (4) It had a good coverage of representations, semantics, inference and learning (as appropriate for the topic). (5) It is correct. (5) It was too short for the topic (i.e., 1 means too long, 3 means about right) (3) It was an appropriate unit for a page (it shouldn't be split into different topics or merged with another page). (5) It links to appropriate other pages in the wiki. (5) The references and links to external pages are well chosen. (5) I would recommend this page to someone who wanted to find out about the topic. (4) This page should be highlighted as an exemplary page for others to emulate. (4)

If I was grading it out of 20, I would give it: 19.5