Pennsylvania State University

Grading Policy

• Problem Sets: 20%
• Exam I: 20
• Project(s): 40%
• Exam II: 20%

Students are guaranteed to receive the letter grade based on the scales shown below. However, the instructor reserves the right to modify the grading scale so as to improve the letter grade if warranted by the circumstances (e.g., unusually high level of difficulty of problem sets).

• 95% - 100% A
• 90% - 94% A-
• 85% - 90% B+
• 80% - 84% B
• 75% - 79% B-
• 70% - 74% C+
• 65% - 69% C

Policy on Late Submission of Assignments

Problem Sets There is a late penalty of 5% of the grade per day up to a maximum of 4 days from the specified due date. Problem sets that are turned in later than 4 days after the due date will be assigned zero credit. Rare exceptions to this policy might be made, at the discretion of the course staff, under demonstrably extenuating circumstances.

Projects

Term projects (including code, data, and written report) are to be turned in on the specified due date(s)). Rare exceptions to this policy might be made, at the discretion of the course staff, under demonstrably extenuating circumstances.

Take Home Exams

Take home examinations are to be turned in on or before the specified due date. Rare exceptions to this policy might be made, at the discretion of the course staff, under demonstrably extenuating circumstances.

Students enrolled in courses at Pennsylvania State University are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. Cases of cheating that go undetected and hence unpunished skew the grading curve in a class, thereby lowering the grades for students who do not cheat. Students who cheat rob themselves not only of knowledge and skills that they should have acquired in a course, but also of the experience of learning how to learn, arguably the most valuable benefit of a university education. The reputation of the department, the university, and the value of the degree suffer if employers find the graduates of a program lacking in abilities that successful completion specific courses should guarantee. Most professions, including Computer Science, have codes of ethics or standards to which individuals are expected to abide by. At the University you practice the integrity that you must demonstrate later.

Suspected cases of academic misconduct will be pursued fully in accordance with the university policies. Any student found responsible for academic misconduct will receive a failing grade (F) in the course (even if the student chooses to drop the course). The dean of students may impose additional sactions (ranging from a disciplinary repremand to expulsion from the university). You are strongly urged to consult the university's policy on academic integrity.

Problem Sets

When discussing problems from assigned problem sets with other students, you may:

• discuss the material presented in class or included in the assigned readings needed for solving the problem(s)
• assist another student in understanding the statement of the problem (e.g., you may assist a non-native speaker by translating some English phrases unfamilar to that student)

It is expected that you have independently arrived at solutions that you turn in for problem sets. The following are examples of activities that are PROHIBITED:

• sharing solutions or fragments of solutions (via email, discussion groups, social media, whiteboard, handwritten or printed copies, etc.)
• posting solutions or fragments of solutions in a location that is accessible to others
• using solutions or fragments of solutions provided by other students (including students who had taken the course in the past)
• using solutions or solution fragments obtained on the Internet or from solution manuals for text books

Projects

Projects are, in essence, mini research exercises. You may make use of all the resources available at your disposal, including the published work of others, publicly available code, publicly available data sets, as well as consultation with others (fellow students, faculty, or other experts on the topic of your project). Note however, that your conduct of the project should be guided by the best practices of academic research and writing.

In particular, you should exercise utmost care to avoid plagiarism: the deliberate use of someone else's language, ideas, data, code, or other original material that is not common knowledge without properly acknowledging the source. You should also familiarize yourself with appropriate ways to acknowledge the contributions of others and to cite all your sources (See for example, ISU library's index of resources for avoiding plagiarism).

Students may choose to work in teams of 2 or 3 members on the term project. Collaboration within a team is expected and encouraged. Each team member is expected to contribute to all aspects of the project: including conception of the initial idea, planning, implementation (including design and analysis of algorithms, design, implementation, and testing of code, experimental evaluation) and reporting (including organization and writing of the report). However, because each individual brings unique abilities to a team, and one of the goals of working in a team is to take advantage of the unique abilities of the team members, it is not unusual for the contributions of individual team members to vary across tasks. To ensure that each team member gets credit for his or her contributions, the final report should include a statement of contributions that explicitly identifies the contributions of each team member and a statement that every team member concurs with the contents of the report. If there are irreconcilable differences among members your team, you should notify the course staff as early as possible (but after having made a good faith effort to resolve the differences among yourselves) so we can help resolve the differences or suggest alternatives.

Submitting a single term project or paper for credit in two different classes (in the same semester or in different semesters) is not allowed unless explicit permission to do so is obtained in advance from each of the professors involved.

Exams

Copying someone else's solutions, using notes or reference materials (unless instructed otherwise), altering an exam for re-grading, getting an advance copy of the examination, or having someone else write the exam amount to cheating on an exam.

You need to exercise special care with take-home exams. You should NEVER

• share solutions or fragments of solutions (via email, whiteboard, handwritten or printed copies, etc.)
• post solutions or fragments of solutions in a location that is accessible to others
• use solutions or fragments of solutions provided by other students (including students who had taken the course in the past)
• use solutions or solution fragments obtained on the Internet or from solution manuals for text books
• use material from text books, reference books, or research articles without properly acknowledging and citing the source

Policy on Accomodation for Disabilities

If you have a disability that may require accommodation, please consult with the Office of Disability Services.

¹Acknowledgements

The academic honesty policy has been compiled using material adapted from the past offerings of this course by the instructor at Penn State University and at Iowa State University, as well as several other sources, including similar policies in place at the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.