Policies for CSC 2/454

Programming Projects

Tentative plans call for four programming assignments, in a variety of languages (probably some subset of Ada, C, C++, C#, Java, OCaml, Prolog, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Scheme).  Expect the workload to be heavy.  You will probably write at least as much code in this class as you did in 173, and what you write will be much more subtle.  Don’t procrastinate!  Also be sure to read all on-line documentation carefully. 

For most assignments you will have the option of working in pairs.  You can also work alone if you prefer.  In most cases the partners in a pair will receive the same grade, but I reserve the right to assign different grades if I have reason to believe that partners did significantly different amounts of work.  Team membership will be self-selected, and can vary from assignment to assignment. 

Grading standards are documented on a separate web page.

Grades will be uploaded periodically to Blackboard, the University’s on-line course management system.  Please check your grades after they are posted to make sure that everything has been entered correctly.  Note that grade calculations are made on a private spreadsheet, not in Blackboard itself; if you try to calculate your running total for the course using the numbers found in Blackboard, you’re likely to get it wrong. 

Extra Credit

There will be opportunities for extra credit on many of the assignments and exams.  Extra credit will be considered after making the first cut at letter grades for the course.  If you’re near the top of your grade bracket, or the amount of extra work you’ve done is particularly large, you can expect it to push you up a grade.  Three students (out of 52) benefitted from this last spring; five (out of 70) did in the fall of 2023. 

Attendance and Class Participation

Lecture attendance is mandatory. Workshop attendance is mandatory for students in CSC 254 and recommended for students in CSC 454.  Both will count heavily toward your end-of-semester grade.  (Students in 454 who want to opt out of workshops must email the instructor before the add/drop deadline).  Please arrive for all sessions on time. 

Assigned reading in the text is also mandatory, and should be done before the associated lecture.  Toward this end there will be per-chapter quizzes based on the “Check Your Understanding” questions in the book.  Each quiz must be completed by the beginning of the final lecture for its chapter; see the course schedule for details. 

As a general rule, if there is lecture material that you don’t understand, make me stop and explain it.  There are probably a dozen people sitting around you who don’t understand it either, but aren’t brave enough to say so.  Likewise, if I’m belaboring something that everyone understands, prod me to move on. 

My lecture notes are available on-line, but please note that they come with no guarantee.  In particular, I reserve the right on exams to ask about anything I’ve covered in class, even if it isn’t in the book or lecture notes. 

Workshops

We will be running workshops in CSC 254, much as in 171-2-3—small, team learning sessions hosted by the TAs.  Experience suggests that workshop participation makes a huge difference in what students get out of the course—and, correspondingly, in the grades that they receive. 

No Late Assignments

It is my strict policy not to accept late assignments.  Exceptions will be made only under the most dire of circumstances.  Note, however, that I am extremely generous with partial credit, so turn in what you have.

Every semester I have students who let a due date pass.  When I ask them what happened they say “Oh, I didn’t finish, so I didn’t turn anything in.”  Then I have to give them a zero.  If they had turned in even some reasonable preliminary thoughts on how they might have done the assignment—without a single line of code—they often could have received as much as 30% of the total points.  This can easily make the difference between letter grades at the end of the semester. 

So if it looks like you aren’t going to make a due date, don’t keep debugging down to the wire.  Stop an hour early and take the time to organize what you have and put together a write-up that presents it in the best possible light.  Your transcript will love you for it. 

Academic Honesty

Student conduct in CSC 2/454 is governed by the College Academic Honesty Policy, the Undergraduate Laboratory Policies of the Computer Science Department, and the University’s Acceptable Use Policy for Information Technology.  I helped to write all three of these policies personally.  I believe in them strongly and will enforce them aggressively. 

The following are details specific to CSC 2/454. 

Exams and quizzes in CSC 2/454 must be strictly individual work. 

Collaboration on programming assignments among team members is of course expected.  Collaboration on assignments across teams is encouraged at the level of ideas.  Feel free to ask each other questions, brainstorm on algorithms, or work together at a whiteboard.  You may not claim work as your own, however, unless you (and your partner, if you have one) transform the ideas into substance by yourself.  Among other things, this means that you must leave any cross-team brainstorming sessions with no written or electronic notes—only what you carry in your head. 

If you use the work of others (e.g., you download a function from the web at the last minute so that you can get the rest of your project working), then (1) either you must have the author’s explicit permission or the material must be open source, and (2) you must label what you copied, clearly and prominently, when you hand it in.  You will of course get points only for the parts of your assignment that you wrote yourself. 

To minimize the temptation to steal code, all students are expected to protect any directories or on-line repositories in which they do their work. 

For purposes of this class, academic dishonesty is defined as

Note that grades in CSC 2/454 are assigned on the basis of individual merit rather than relative standing, so there is no benefit—not even a dishonest one—to be gained by sabotaging the work of others.

I work under the assumption that students are honest.  I will not go looking for exceptions.  If I discover one, however, I will come down on it very hard.  In 2021, I had the misfortune of needing to report more than 20 students to the College Board on Academic Honesty.  All but one received major penalties—often failing the course.  Please don’t be on the list this year. 

A Special Note on Generative AI

Generative AI tools can create or modify source code in useful ways in response to narrative prompts.  Using these tools is an essential part of the skill set of any professional programmer.  At the same time, just as children need to learn to add and multiply despite having calculators on their phones, programmers need to be able to write their own code. 

The projects in this course are designed to help you learn.  If an AI tool writes your code, you won’t learn what you need to from the course.  I therefore strongly discourage the use of AI tools in this particular course.  That said, if you believe that one of these tools will actually help you learn, then you are permitted to use it—but only if you very clearly explain exactly how you did so in the README file you turn in with your assignment Be sure to identify the parts of the code that should be considered your work (as opposed to that of the AI tool).  As noted above, you will receive credit only for your own work. 

Failure to disclose the use of AI tools will be considered academic dishonesty.  I reserve the right, whether I suspect undisclosed use or not, to ask you detailed questions about your code and to reduce your grade if you don’t understand what you turned in. 

Disabilities, Equal Access, Diversity and Inclusion

In accordance with University policy, the law, and simple fairness, the instructor and TAs are committed to respecting and welcoming students of all backgrounds and abilities.  More broadly, they are committed to the University’s Vision and Values

Any student requiring accommodation or encountering any barrier to full participation in this course due to a disability should contact the Office of Disability Resources.  Email disability@rochester.edu, call 585-276-5075, or visit the office in Taylor Hall. 

For more information about the full range of University policies, services, and resources around diversity and inclusion, or to report an incident of harassment, discrimination, or sexual misconduct, visit the website of the Office of University Engagement and Enrichment


Last Change:  05 August 2025 / Michael Scott's email address