Course Policies

Exams

The final will be in class on June 25. The midterm will be in class during normal lecture time.

If you have a valid conflict with a test date, you must tell us as soon as you are aware, and with a minimum of one week notice (unless there are extenuating circumstances) so we can arrange a make-up test.

If you need accommodations for exams, schedule them with the Testing Center as soon as exam dates are firm. See below for more about accommodations.

Deadlines and late work

Assignments will be due on the date specified in Gradescope.

If your work is up to 48-hours late, you can still qualify for up to 80% credit for the assignment. After 48 hours, late work will not be accepted unless you have made prior arrangements due to extraordinary circumstances.

Collaboration

Mini projects are individual work.

You are free to discuss problems and approaches with other students, but must do your own coding. If a significant portion of your solution is derived from someone else’s work (your classmate, a website, a book, etc), you must cite that source in your writeup.

You must also understand your solution well enough to be able to explain it during code review. You will not be penalized for using outside sources as long as you cite them appropriately and meet the code review expectations.

Academic honesty

You must adhere to BU’s Academic Conduct Code at all times. Please be sure to read it here.

In particular: cheating on an exam, passing off another student’s work as your own, or plagiarism of writing or code are grounds for a grade reduction in the course and referral to BU’s Academic Conduct Committee.

If you have any questions about the policy, please send us a private Piazza note immediately, before taking an action that might be a violation.

AI use policy

You are allowed to use GenAI (e.g., ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, etc) to help you understand concepts or lecture notes.

For mini projects, you are only allowed to use AI in limited, piece-meal fashion, e.g., to search for a particular API, or explain a very specific error you are encountering. You should understand that this may help or significantly impede your learning depending on how you use it.

If you use GenAI for an assignment, you must cite what you used and how you used it (for brainstorming, autocomplete, generating comments, fixing specific bugs, etc.). You must understand the solution well enough to explain it during code review.

If you fail to honestly report your use of GenAI for an assignment and we confirm this via code review, you will receive a 0 on that assignment and your final grade in the course will be capped at a B. A repeat violation will result in an automatic F. We may refer egregious cases to the appropriate CDS and BU committees.

Your instructor is happy to help you write and debug your own code during office hours, but will not help you understand or debug code generated by AI.

For more information see the CDS policy on GenAI.

Attendance and participation

Since a large component of your learning will come from in-class activities and discussions, attendance and participation are essential and account for 20% of your grade.

Attendance will be taken in lecture through polls which will open at various points during the lecture. If you miss such a poll (e.g., due to being significantly late to class), that will count as an absence. The polls use a custom made website that confirms your location. Attempting to submit such a poll from a different location (e.g., your home) will be detected and may constitute an instance of academic dishonesty/cheating.

Understanding that illness and conflicts arise, students may miss up to 2 lectures and 1 discussion section without having to provide an excuse.

In most lectures, there will be time for small-group exercises, either on paper, GitHub, or Gradescope. To receive participation credit on these occasions, you must identify yourself on paper or in the repo/Gradescope submission. These submissions will not be graded for accuracy, just for good-faith effort.

Occasionally, we may ask for volunteers, or may cold call students randomly to answer questions or present problems during class. You will be credited for participation/in-class activities for such contributions.

Absences

This course follows BU’s policy on religious observance. Otherwise, it is generally expected that students attend lectures and discussion sections. If you cannot attend classes for a while, please let us know as soon as possible. If you miss a lecture, please review the lecture notes on this website before the next class.

Accommodations

If you need accommodations, let us know as soon as possible. You have the right to have your needs met, and the sooner you let us know, the sooner we can make arrangements to support you.

This course follows all BU policies regarding accommodations for students with documented disabilities. If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS) at (617) 353-3658 or access@bu.edu to coordinate accommodation requests.

If you require accommodations for exams, please schedule that at the BU testing center as soon as the exam date is set.

Re-grading

You have the right to request a re-grade of any assignment or test. All regrade requests must be submitted using the Gradescope interface. If you request a re-grade for a portion of an assignment, then we may review the entire assignment, not just the part in question. This may potentially result in a lower grade.