You are encouraged to work with other students in the class on the
assignments. Useful forms of collaboration include discussing
design alternatives, details of algorithms and data structures, possible
sources of reusable code, and help with debugging, compiling, makefiles,
etc.
You are also encouraged to practice code reuse, with the
stipulation that any reused code submitted as part of your assignment
must be clearly and explicitly attributed. Code that can be
reused includes that found in the textbooks, code from previous work
you have done (in this class or others), and code from other
books or internet sites.
You may NOT reuse code written by another
student in this class.
The easiest way to attribute any code that you reuse is with a
comment. You must give enough information so that the TAs can
find the code themselves. Examples:
/* the following code is from p. 317 of the Lewis textbook */
class Advice extends ...
/* the following code is from my CS I project, October 1997. */
/* The following code was downloaded from ftp://ftp.cs.rpi.edu/pub/... */
Collaboration and discussion does not mean that the assignments
may be done jointly; each assignment you submit must be 100 percent
your work. You must be especially careful when discussing another
student's code (perhaps to help with finding a bug).
At no time should you copy any part of another student's work (either
on paper or electronically), or permit someone else to copy any part
of your work. For example, work done on campus or other computers
should not be made available so that another student could unknowingly
copy any part of your work.
DO NOT write
any code for the other student, even just to fix a typographical
error. DO NOT look at another student's code and write nearly
identical code yourself. DO NOT "paraphrase" code from another
source and fail to attribute it in a comment.
If at any time you are not sure what constitutes appropriate
collaboration or code reuse, it is your responsibility to
clarify it with the instructor.
Academic Integrity
Student-teacher relationships are
built on trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have
made appropriate decisions about the structure and contents of courses
they teach. Teachers must trust that the assignments which students
turn in are their own. Acts which violate this trust undermine the
educational process.
The Rensselaer Handbook defines various forms of Academic
Dishonesty and procedures for responding to them. All forms are
violations of the trust between students and teachers. Students
should familiarize themselves with this portion of the Rensselaer
Handbook and should note that the penalties for plagiarism and
other forms of cheating can be quite harsh.
Students will not be given credit for
any code which the TAs find to be too similar to that of another
student's code, or any code which is similar to code from
a book or another source which has not been properly attributed.
More specifically, credit will not be
received in any case of Academic Dishonesty and may result in
failure of the course along with disciplinary action.