Class structure

Meetings

Lecture is optional but strongly encouraged.

I will attempt to record all lectures.

I do not schedule review sessions or the like outside of usual class time.

Tasks

The course will contain several programming and/or written homeworks as well as quizzes most weeks. In addition, we anticipate having a written final.

Weekly quizzes will generally be released by Thursday morning and due before lecture on Monday.

We tentatively anticipate assigning course grades as follows:

• 25% weekly quizzes — with one dropped
• 40% normal homeworks — none dropped
• 15% final “challenge” homework
• 20% written final exam

Overall raw scores will be translated to final grades in a way to be determined (depending on the actual difficulty of coursework), but overall scores above 90.0% will be at least an A-, above an 80.0% at least a B-, above a 70.0% at least a C-, and above a 60.0% at least a D-. Other than adjustments to the grading scale made on the basis of difficulty of coursework, there will be no `rounding’ of grades.

Lecture attendence

Attendence at lectures is not required, but strongly recommended.

If you cannot attend lectures live, I recommend:

• having some way to take notes when watching the lecture recording
• writing down your answers to any in-class exercises we do in those notes
• writing down any questions you have during the lecture recording and asking them after you watch it either via Piazza or office hours

Late Policies

Late quizzes are not accepted as we may release and/or discuss quiz answers immediately after they are due. Contact the instructor for alternate arrangements if you have a conflict with a quiz.

We will accept late homework assignments as follows:

• up to 72 hours late: 10% deduction
• 72 or more hours late: 100% deduction

We may waive or reduce these late penalties on a case-by-case basis; please contact the course staff if something that might warrant this comes up. (Things that might warrant this include illness, unexpected family or life events, etc.)

Honor Policy

We expect all homeworks and quizzes to be completed individually. You may not share code or consult assignment solutions from previous semesters or other institutions. You are encouraged, however, to discuss the assignments in general and provide advice to other students that does not amount to sharing code, pseudocode, or instructions that otherwise essentially solve the assignment. We may use automated tools to look for similarities between homework submissions that suggest excessive collaboration.

Your submissions for homeworks should not make extensive use of code found online. Incidental use (very brief utility code that is clearly unrelated to any major objective of the assignment, like looking up code for splitting a string into an array) is okay, but must be clearly cited. If you are unsure whether something would qualify as “incidental”, please consult the course staff first.

Quizzes are open book, open notes, and open to other references. However, you may not ask anyone else for help on a particular quiz question. This includes, for example, asking about the question on any online discussion fora before the quiz is due. You may not share your quiz answers or reasoning with other students before the deadline for each quiz.

If we believe you have acted dishonestly (such as by submitting code that are not yours as if they were yours or helping someone else do the same), we will communicate this fact to you and propose a penalty. A typical penalty would include a grade deduction more severe than just receiving an “F” on the assignment, up to and potentially including assigning “F” in the course. If you have information we lack, please share that with us; we may thereafter change our belief and/or proposed penalty.

Use of generative AI tools

Generally, you may only obtain assistance from generative AI tools that would be acceptable for you to obtain from a fellow student in the class. So you can ask conceptual questions, etc. but not for code or specific quiz answers. (However, I [Reiss] am skeptical that using generative AI in this way is a good idea since you may have trouble checking when the answers are accurate in the context of the course.)

Accomodations

If you need any kind of special accommodations, including but not limited to disability, learning needs, or personal circumstances, please contact us as soon as you are aware of these needs. We aim to be as accommodating and fair as possible.

If you are not sure if your situation warrants special attention, ask us.