Don't cheat

This policy statement is unfortunately necessary, thanks to the actions of a tiny minority of students. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask in lecture, in lab, during office hours, on Piazza, or by email.

tl;dr Links to an external site.: Be honest. Cite your sources. We mean it. If you need help, please ask. Don’t be stupid!

Our expectations

Each student (or homework group) must write their own solutions, in their own words, and must properly credit all sources.

For more information and examples, see any of the following:

• The ECE department policy
• The Provost Office’s Students’ Quick Reference Guide to Academic Integrity
• Article 1, Part 4 of the Student Code.

If you have any doubts about whether something constitutes plagiarism, talk to instructor(s) or the TAs, and err on the side of caution.

No generative AI

• Textbooks and online documentation are allowed to be used with the homeworks.
• You are not allowed to use generative AIs for the homeworks. I totally get that lots of people find generative AI to be a useful rubber duck when coding, but I do not believe that is the way most people are using it. I totally understand the philosophical argument, but I’ve been doing this a while now and I firmly believe eliminating all struggle from learning harms students from becoming more intelligent the same way eliminating struggle from exercise eliminates any strength gains. And there’s more research coming out that supports this point of view.

Penalties

• The default penalty for cheating on a homework problem is a full letter grade off your final course grade.
• The default penalty for cheating on an exam is two full letter grades off your final course grade
• The default penalty for cheating on an attendance sheet (should we choose to collect attendance) is a full letter grade off your final course grade.
• The default penalty for cheating on multiple assignments in an F in the course. Doesn’t matter if this is your first violation or your third. A consistent pattern of cheating in the course if grounds for immediate failure.
• We reserve the right to register FAIR violations at any point in the semester (even once the semester is over). FAIR violations are time-consuming for the staff so multiple cheating offenses could be included in a single violation.

Don’t be an idiot. Just do the work.