Course Policies

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Submission and Late Submission Policy:

On the day an assignment is due, you must submit an electronic copy in pdf (NOT doc or docx, etc.) along with source code on the Canvas site and pledge your submission. No late assignments will be accepted in this class, unless the student has procured special accommodations for warranted circumstances.

Illness:

We try to create a safe environment, not only for our students, but also for our faculty and our staff. To that end, please stay home or in your dorm room if you are ill with or are symptomatic for any communicable disease. I would rather you stay home and work something out with me for making up work or taking an exam than for an illness to spread through the class. If you believe you are sick, please contact Student Health for appropriate treatment or testing.

Religious Accommodations:

It is the University's long-standing policy and practice to reasonably accommodate students so that they do not experience an adverse academic consequence when sincerely held religious beliefs or observances conflict with academic requirements.

Students who wish to request academic accommodation for a religious observance should submit their request to us by private message on Piazza as far in advance as possible. Students who have questions or concerns about academic accommodations for religious observance or religious beliefs may contact the University’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR) at UVAEOCR@virginia.edu or 434-924-3200.

Accessibility Statement:

It is my goal to create a learning experience that is as accessible as possible. If you anticipate any issues related to the format, materials, or requirements of this course, please meet with me outside of class so we can explore potential options. Students with disabilities may also wish to work with the Student Disability Access Center (SDAC) to discuss a range of options to removing barriers in this course, including official accommodations. We are fortunate to have an SDAC advisor, Courtney MacMasters, physically located in Engineering. You may email her at sdac.studenthealth.virginia.edu. If you have already been approved for accommodations through SDAC, please send me your accommodation letter and meet with me so we can develop an implementation plan together.

Academic Integrity Statement:

"The School of Engineering and Applied Science relies upon and cherishes its community of trust. We firmly endorse, uphold, and embrace the University’s Honor principle that students will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor shall they tolerate those who do. We recognize that even one honor infraction can destroy an exemplary reputation that has taken years to build. Acting in a manner consistent with the principles of honor will benefit every member of the community both while enrolled in the Engineering School and in the future. Students are expected to be familiar with the university honor code, including the section on academic fraud."

In summary, if assignments are individual then no two students should submit the same source code -- any overlap in source code of sufficient similarity will be potentially flagged as failure to abide to the Honor Code. You can discuss, you can share resources, you can talk about the assignment but not share code as this would potentially incur on an honor code violation. Regardless of circumstances we will assume that any source code, text, or images submitted alongside reports or projects are of the authorship of the individual students unless otherwise explicitly stated through appropriate means. Any missing information regarding sources will be regarded potentially as a failure to abide by the academic integrity statement even if that was not the intent. Please be careful clearly stating what is your original work and what is not in all assignments.

The Use of Generative AI:

Generative artificial intelligence tools—software that creates new text, images, computer code, audio, video, and other content—have become widely available. Well-known examples include ChatGPT for text and DALL•E for images. This policy governs all such tools, including those released during our semester together. You may use generative AI tools on assignments in this course when I explicitly permit you to do so. Otherwise, you should refrain from using such tools.

If you do use generative AI tools on assignments in this class, you must properly document and credit the tools themselves. Cite the tool you used, following the pattern for computer software given in the specified style guide. Additionally, please include a brief description of how you used the tool. If you choose to use generative AI tools, please remember that they are typically trained on limited datasets that may be out of date. Additionally, generative AI datasets are trained on pre-existing material, including copyrighted material; therefore, relying on a generative AI tool may result in plagiarism or copyright violations.

Finally, keep in mind that the goal of generative AI tools is to produce content that seems to have been produced by a human, not to produce accurate or reliable content; therefore, relying on a generative AI tool may result in your submission of inaccurate content. It is your responsibility—not the tool’s—to assure the quality, integrity, and accuracy of work you submit in any college course. If you use generative AI tools to complete assignments in this course, in ways that I have not explicitly authorized, I reserve the right to apply the Honor Code to your specific case. In addition, you must be wary of unintentional plagiarism or fabrication of data. Please act with integrity, for the sake of both your personal character and your academic record.

In this course, the following policy dictates the acceptable use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and other similar technologies. This is a programming course and while I recognize that generative AI can be a tremendous learning tool, it is my expectation that these technologies do not impede you learning the programming concepts taught in class. However, these technologies can be used to enhance your learning experience much like one would use Stack Overflow on assignments with the exception of on exams and lab quizzes which must be utilized without generative AI.