Subsections


Grading

An assignment is worth a strictly positive number n of tokens (to be established when the assignment is handed out). You can receive any number of tokens between 0 and n. Exceptionally good solutions may also receive 10% “bonus” marks. Assignments can be programmed using C or C++ (with C constructs when required by the underlying API).

Most (if not all the) assignments can be solved in teams. Whether teams are permitted (and what is the maximum size of a team) will be stated with each assignment handout.

Students enrolled in CS 464 should expect to receive four assignments during the course, worth 2, 4, 4, and 10 tokens, respectively. Students enrolled in CS 564 will receive one extra assignment which may be more theoretical in nature and is expected to be worth 3 tokens.

Grading will be based on assignments and a take-home final examination. Exactly all the assignment tokens will contribute equally to 80% of your final grade for the course. The final examination will give you the remaining 20%. There will be no supplemental evaluations.

Academic dishonesty

I strongly recommend that you read the Academic Integrity section of the Academic Calendar. Once you have done so sit down and read it again, carefully. I have zero tolerance for academic dishonesty and I will vigorously pursue any such a case to the full extent of the university regulations.

In programming assignments academic dishonesty means the use of any kind of code that is not yours without proper credit. Code that is not yours includes code written by colleagues not part of your team as well as code written by any third party (including the use of automated tools such as generative AI). I am not forbidding the use of third party code, but (a) the main logic of the program must be yours and yours alone, and (b) you must give appropriate credit for all third party code used in your submissions. In addition, code must not be shared between teams under any circumstance.

It is very tempting to borrow code from others or to contract out your programming work for this kind of a course. It is equally tempting to talk to each other during your take home examination. You are hereby advised not to so any of that, as this kind of behaviour is relatively easy to catch, and has been regularly caught in the past. Most likely my success rate on the matter is much lower than 100%, but the consequences of being caught are quite dramatic for everyone involved with no exceptions, so I will argue that it is not worth it.

Special needs

Should you require special accommodations because of a disability, please come and discuss this with me at the begining of the term. You should also contact the Student Accessibility & Accommodation Services to obtain authorization as well as assistance for any special arrangements.