Policies

[General Policies] [Grading] [Recording/Copyright]

If you have any questions on the policies below, please contact the instructor.


General Policies


Academic Honesty
Unless explicitly noted otherwise, the work in this course is to be done independently. Discussions with other students on the assignments should be limited to understanding the statement of the problems. Cheating in any way, including giving your work to someone else will result in an F for the course and a report to the appropriate University authority. Submissions that are alike in a substantive way will be considered to be cheating by ALL involved parties. Please protect yourselves by only storing your files in private directories, and by retrieving all printouts promptly.

Also, please make sure you read, understand and abide by the Academic Integrity Code for the School of Computing and Information.


Communication
Public/Shared
You should use the Piazza system (which is essentially a web-based bulletin board) for all questions and clarifications to lectures, recitations and assignments. Piazza should not be used for private/confidenential communication.

Private/Confidential
You should use email only for confidential matters. For a confidential email to the instructor and the TA, you should send email to . Note that this email address works only within the pitt.edu domain.

If you have a confidential matter for the instructor only, then please email the instructor directly, but make sure to include the keyword cs1555 in the subject line of your email message. We will make every effort to respond to all email requests within one business day at the latest.

Mailing List
Please note that you are expected to read e-mail sent to your pitt account on a regular basis. If you are forwarding your e-mail to another email address and email is lost as a result of this, you are still responsible for all communications sent to University e-mail address. For the official University Policy, please, visit: www.cfo.pitt.edu/policies/policy/09/09-10-01.html.

Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890 or 412-383-7355 (TTY) as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. More info at: www.drs.pitt.edu.

Religious Observances
In order to accommodate the observance of religious holidays, students should inform the instructor (by email, within the first two weeks of the term) of any such days which conflict with scheduled class activities.


Grading


Grades & Scaling
Homeworks: 20%
Project: 15%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 30%
Recitation & Class Participation: 5%
      The grade scaling will be computed based on the performance of the undergraduate students only. Graduate students will then be graded on this undergraduate scale.

Attendance and participation in lectures and recitations may be used to decide borderline grades.


Assignments
All written assignments must be submitted electronically. Instructions will be given together with each assignment.

Late Submissions
There are no late submissions. An assignment which is late will be accepted only under special circumstances with the instructor's permission prior to its deadline. In such a case, the instructor will determine any penalty in a fair manner.

Make-up Policy
Students are expected to take both midterm and final exams. Make-up exams will only be given in the event of a medical situation or an emergency, and only if this is documented and the instructor is informed immediately if in advance is not possible. Missing an exam will result in a zero for the exam.

Grade Appeals
Grades can be appealed up to two weeks after they have been posted; no appeals will be considered after that time.


Recording/Copyright Policies


Audio/Video Recording
To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures and recitations, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student's own private use.

Cell Phone Use
Answering a cell phone or texting is disruptive and hence any use of a cell phone is not permitted in the class or recitation. Cell phones must be switched to silent mode and if you have a phone call which cannot wait until the end of the class, you need to step out of the class and then answer it.

Copyrighted Material
All material provided through this web site is subject to copyright. This applies to class/recitation notes, slides, assignments, solutions, project descriptions, etc. You are allowed (and expected!) to use all the provided material for personal use. However, you are strictly prohibited from sharing the material with others in general and from posting the material on the Web or other file sharing venues in particular.