Policies

Collaborations

The goal of student collaboration is to promote learning, not to impede it. Students are encouraged to study the material in groups and seek help from other students in understanding the content necessary to solve a specific coursework problem, as long as any written notes (including code) are made on an impermanent surface (e.g., whiteboard, chalkboard), and learning is facilitated rather than circumvented. Students are strictly not allowed to share or compare answers or screen share their work with each other. Each student must complete the actual solution individually.

A suitable method for collaboration is to meet with fellow students and discuss ideas at a high level, but not to copy notes from one another or a whiteboard. Any rough work during this time should be solely the student’s own. Before writing the assignment solutions, students should ensure that they work alone, put all notes away, close all computer tabs, and complete the task independently without using other resources.

Academic Integrity

The university encourages each student to thoroughly review the academic integrity policy, which details expectations regarding cheating, plagiarism, and unauthorized assistance. Every student has a responsibility to produce their own original academic work. Collaboration or assistance on graded assignments is only permitted when explicitly authorized by the course instructor. All quizzes and projects must be solely the work of the individual submitting them. As student work on the cloud is logged, submitted work will be closely monitored by automatic cheat detectors. Students may be asked to explain suspicious similarities with any code available. The following guidelines will help clarify what is considered cheating and what is not:

Cheating includes:

1. Sharing code or other electronic files by copying, retyping, looking at, or providing a copy of any file. This also includes copying code from the internet (e.g., StackOverflow or GitHub). No code should be used to “test” the auto-grader – everything submitted must be the student’s original work.
2. Copying answers to any checkpoint quiz from another individual, published or unpublished written or electronic sources.
3. Collaborating with another student or individual on checkpoint quizzes or project modules.
4. Sharing written work, looking at, copying, or providing work from another individual, published or unpublished written and electronic sources.

What is not considered cheating:

1. Seeking clarification on ambiguities or vague points in-class handouts.
2. Assisting others in using computer systems, networks, compilers, debuggers, profilers, or system facilities.
3. Helping others with high-level design issues.
4. Guiding others through code debugging but not debugging for them.
5. Collaborating with other students following the aforementioned guidelines.

Cheating on projects will also be strictly monitored and penalized. Be mindful of what constitutes cheating (and what does not) when interacting with fellow students. Sharing or using written code and other electronic files from students is not allowed. If in doubt, please reach out to consult the teaching staff.

Ensure that your work is stored in secure directories. The consequences of cheating are severe and can jeopardize your future career – cheating is not worth the risk. By cheating in this course, you are only cheating yourself, missing out on valuable learning opportunities. Furthermore, cheating can result in removal from the course with a failing grade and a permanent record on the student’s record.

To ensure academic integrity, we will rigorously use cheat detection tools and other methods to identify unauthorized code use from this term, past terms, or sources available online. Any violation will result in a formal Academic Integrity Violation (AIV) report to both the university and the program. The typical consequence for such an infraction is receiving a failing grade for the course, although lesser penalties may be applied based on the severity of the infraction. For detailed information about specific penalties, please refer to your course syllabus.

P/NP Grades

MCDS students cannot take this course P/NP. Non-MCDS students could take this course P/NP should your program permit.

To be considered a passing grade in the course, all students must be met the following two conditions:

• All projects (including the final exam) must be attempted, and at least some grades before the deadline must be non-zero.
• Each of Project 2 (Problem Representation), project 6 (Model Deployment and Comparison), and Project 7 (Evaluation Optimization) must achieve at least 80%.

These requirements are in addition to the standard grade scale evaluation criteria. Suppose you fail to fulfill these requirements by their respective deadlines. In that case, you must contact us after the deadlines to continue fulfilling them until you meet the thresholds. Only after then would you be considered to have met the threshold requirements. However, any grade you achieve after the deadlines will not be counted toward the final grade calculation.

Previously Used Assignments

It is important to note that some of the assignments (including the projects, quizzes, and the final exam) may have been utilized in previous iterations of the course. Solutions to these tasks might be accessible online or through other individuals and sources. We encourage you to embrace the challenge and complete the assignments independently. Please refrain from using external resources or consulting with individuals who have previously solved these problems. Avoid searching for these problems or their solutions on the internet. By doing so, you will truly enhance your learning experience. We will be actively supporting your journey to ensure compliance with these guidelines. Collaboration with fellow students currently enrolled in the course is permitted if it adheres to the abovementioned collaboration conditions.

You may incorporate elements of general knowledge from previous courses into your current work. This includes using pre-existing code for functions like linked lists or processing command-line arguments. However, it’s essential to provide clear attribution for any reused code, specifying the source and clearly delineating the start and end of the incorporated material.

If you have previously completed any of the previous components of the course in a prior semester, it is mandatory to discuss this with an instructor at the start of the term. Together, we will establish guidelines regarding which parts of your previous solutions are permissible for reuse. Please note that reusing any code, even your own, without explicit permission from an instructor is strictly prohibited.

Grace Days

For Projects on Sail():

Grace days provide students an extension without penalty to complete work. Each grace day extends a project deadline for 24 hours beyond the original deadline. Students can activate grace days after the original deadline and within 24 hours.

Students can use at most two (2) grace days throughout the course. Students can only use up to one (1) grace day for each project.

A tutorial on how to use the Grace Day option on Sail() can be found on Canvas.

For weekly quizzes on OLI Torus:

Weekly quizzes will be taken independently on OLI Torus during the synchronous class meetings. No grace days are available for these quizzes.

For the final exam:

Grace days are not applicable to be used for the final exam. All final exam components must be completed within the final exam period as designated in the course calendar.

AI Assistance

Seeking assistance from an artificial intelligence system (e.g., a large language model such as ChatGPT) is strictly prohibited.

“Found Code”

Students are encouraged to explore various online and offline resources, such as books and instructional materials, to deepen their understanding of the learning materials presented in class. These resources may include an example or pseudo code, which can help clarify an algorithm or implementation detail. However, when crafting a unique solution for an assignment, students must set all materials aside and develop their code entirely independently, starting “from scratch.” It is important not to use any code found or encountered in the process. If students encounter code that implements any portion of their assignment, they must disclose this in their collaboration statement. By adhering to this policy, students can ensure a rewarding and authentic learning experience.

Protect One’s Code

Students must actively protect their work from duplication and improper use by their peers. Suppose a student’s work is copied by another individual. In that case, the original author is also deemed responsible and in severe breach of course policies. This applies regardless of whether the author permitted the work to be copied or was simply careless in preventing such an act. When overlapping work is submitted by different students, both parties will face the consequences.

In the interest of supporting future students, please refrain from publicly posting your solutions, both during the course and after its completion. By taking these precautions, students contribute to maintaining a fair and inclusive learning environment for everyone.

Perpetual Compliance

The rules outlined remain applicable even after the completion of the course. Students are prohibited from sharing any code they have written for this course with future students. This includes storing your code in unsecured repositories or posting it on any web pages. Offering guidance or coaching to future students is also forbidden. Violations by students who have completed the course will still lead to AIV reports and could result in retroactive changes to their grades.