By the end of this course, you will have
developed the following knowledge and skills:
Above all, the goal of this course is to instill a deep understanding
of how to think
CS41 covers material that is similar to what you saw in CS35 or
CS21. However, the perspective is much different, and what you
will be learning is different too. This course is much more
about learning how to solve computational problems and analyze
your solution(s), and less about implementing algorithms that
we've gone over in class. To succeed in this course, you should
consistently do the following:
Partner Etiquette
The expectation is that you and your partner are working together
on your partnered homework assignments. You should work together
on planning, discussing, and writing up the problems. There may be
short periods where you each go off and independently work on the
problems, but you should frequently come together to talk about
your progress as a team. The final submission has everyone's
names on it and should represent work done as a team. You should
not submit your name on work which is not your own.
Partnerships where partners work mostly independently tend to
result in incomplete and buggy submissions, and do not help you
learn the material thoroughly. Partnerships where partners work
together for most of the time are much more productive and helpful
in learning the material and successfully solving the problems.
If you have any issues with your partnership, please contact me as
soon as issues arrive.
Academic Integrity
Academic honesty is required in all
your work. Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with or by
someone else under your own name. Discussing ideas and approaches to
problems with others on a general level is encouraged, but you should
never share your solutions with anyone else nor allow others to
share solutions with you. You may not examine solutions belonging to
someone else, nor may you let anyone else look at or make a copy of
your solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, obtaining
solutions from students who previously took the course or solutions
that can be found online. The use of generative AI (e.g., chatGPT or
GitHub CoPilot) without proper citation is also considered to be
unauthorized collaboration with an outside source and is a violation
of our academic integrity policy.
You may not share information about your solution in such a manner
that a student could reconstruct your solution in a meaningful way
(such as by dictation, providing a detailed outline, or discussing
specific aspects of the solution). You may not share your solutions
even after the due date of the assignment.
In your solutions, you are permitted to include material which was
distributed in class, material which is found in the course textbook,
and material developed by or with an assigned partner. In these cases,
you should always include detailed comments indicating on which parts
of the assignment you received help and what your sources were.
When working on tests, exams, or similar assessments, you are not
permitted to communicate with anyone about the exam during the entire
examination period (even if you have already submitted your work). You
are not permitted to use any resources to complete the exam other than
those explicitly permitted by course policy. (For instance, you may
not look at the course website during the exam unless explicitly
permitted by the instructor when the exam is distributed.)
Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and
will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee. According
to the Faculty Handbook: "Because plagiarism is considered to be so
serious a transgression, it is the opinion of the faculty that for the
first offense, failure in the course and, as appropriate, suspension
for a semester or deprivation of the degree in that year is suitable;
for a second offense, the penalty should normally be expulsion."
This policy applies to all course work, including but not limited to
code, written solutions (e.g. proofs, analyses, reports, etc.), exams,
and so on. This is not meant to be an enumeration of all possible
violations; students are responsible for seeking clarification if
there is any doubt about the level of permissible communication.
The general ethos of this policy is that actions which shortcut the
learning process are forbidden while actions which promote learning
are encouraged. Studying lecture materials together, for example,
provides an additional avenue for learning and is encouraged. Using a
classmate’s solution, however, is prohibited because it avoids the
learning process entirely. If you have any questions about what is or
is not permissible, please contact your instructor.
Policy on use of Generative AI. In this course,
students may use generative AI for homework assignments as
long as it does not circumvent the learning process of the
course. In any circumstance, if/when you use generative AI
you must explicitly state that in your pollster poll (a) that you
did so and (b) in what context you used generative AI, even if you
used it only to generate ideas rather than usable text or
illustrations.
You may be asked to come into my office to discuss your
solutions. I reserve the right to not award you credit for
problems that you cannot explain in these discussions.
Overall, AI tools should be used
wisely and reflectively with an aim to deepen understanding of
subject matter.
Please contact me if you have any questions about what is
permissible in this course.