CS543/ECE549 Course Policies

Independent work on assignments and quizzes: You are encouraged to discuss assignments with each other, but coding and writing of reports must be done individually. Feel free to search the Web for tips or useful code snippets, provided the external information does not make the assignment trivial and all sources are explicitly acknowledged in the report. At the first instance of cheating (copying from other students, excessive copying from Web sources, and/or copying from unacknowledged sources), a grade of zero will be given for the respective assignment. At the second instance, you will automatically receive an F for the entire course. Likewise, quizzes must be completed individually.

To minimize future instances of cheating, we ask that you do not post solution code for the class assignments online, e.g., on your personal webpage or on github.

See the student code for more information on what consitutes an academic integrity violation.

Piazza discussion: You are highly encouraged to ask and answer questions about assignments on the Piazza discussion board. However, the general principle is to avoid directly giving away key elements of solutions. Thus, you should refrain from publicly posting key solution code or parameter values, either to get help with debugging or demonstrate a possible solution to your classmates. Posting sample code for utility functions or publicly debugging system/platform errors is acceptable. If you need help with code, the preferred route is to attend TA office hours. However, if this is impossible and you wish to make a Piazza post with your code, be sure to make it private.

Late submission policy:

• Free late days for homework assignments: Each student gets a total of five free late days that apply to homework assignments throughout the whole semester. As long as you stay within your total late days budget, there is no need to request an extension and no late penalty will be assessed.
  
  
• Free late days for projects: You get a separate budget of three free late days that apply to the three project deliverables (proposal, progress report, final report). Late days will be subtracted from all members of the project team.
  
  
• Late penalty: If you are out of late days, for every day that your assignment is late, your score is multiplied by 0.6. Submissions that are more than five days late (beyond any free days) will not be accepted. You are not allowed to submit different parts of the assignment at different times to receive a late penalty on only part of the assignment.
  
  
• Extension requests: Extension requests will be considered only after free late days are used up. Extensions beyond the free late days will be granted only in case of extraordinary circumstances. If you think that your circumstances qualify, email the instructor.

Incomplete requests: Requests for an incomplete in the course will only be accepted through the last day of class and must be accompanied by documentation of your special circumstances.