CMPE 491/691 Collaboration Policy

Courtesy of Professor Bevan Baas There is a fine line between working together and copying. Working with others, asking questions, and explaining concepts are important steps in the learning process and are strongly encouraged. Copying someone else's work or allowing your work to be copied does not promote learning, is unfair to others, and is not allowed in this course. The remainder of this document attempts to make the separation between encouraged collaboration and unpermitted collaboration as clear as possible.

If in doubt, play it safe and ask the instructor first!

Encouraged collaboration

These things are encouraged and are allowed at all times.

Discussing material covered in lecture, or the readings.
Discussing the requirements of an assignment.
Discussing features of the languages, tools, and libraries used in the class.
Discussing general concepts of designing, coding, or debugging. Encouraged example statements/exchanges include,
- "It worked well to test each module independently before assembling the whole system"
- "When something doesn't work right, first look at all input signals in the waveform viewer."
- "What should I do when I get a '(UID-4)' error?" "Check if your module is located in a file of the same name."
- "Why doesn't matlab let me use an index of 0 in an array?"
Any discussion between you and the instructor. You are welcome to discuss any and all ideas, design, code, debugging, and details with the instructor.

Permitted collaboration, but only if documented

When you engage in more detailed discussions of assignments, you must include the name of the person(s) who assisted you and properly credit their contribution to your work. This is akin to acknowledging a reference in a research paper. These cases include:

Discussing more detailed concepts of designing, coding, or debugging.
Some example exchanges requiring citation are:
- "I can't get test cases with a negative input to work." "Did you check the sign extension of the subtracted input?"
- "My design for the viterbi block is enormous!" "Did you take advantage of the timing requirements and time-multiplex your ACS processor?"

Unpermitted collaboration

The overall guideline for unpermitted collaboration is that you must submit work which represents your original, independent effort. It should not be based on, influenced by, or copied from anyone else's work--including people not enrolled in the course.

Copying code. This is the most blatant violation. You should not be writing down anyone else's work, or allowing anyone else to write down your work.
Using work from past quarters. Using someone's work or solutions from a previous quarter is an obvious violation.
Looking at someone else's work. You should never read anyone else's work before yours is submitted, whether it is on the screen or written out by hand.
Debugging with another person. Working at the same computer as someone and trying to fix a bug is not allowed. It makes it too easy to look over someone else's code, and allows (sometimes unintended) code-copying. Describing to someone your problem and asking for advice on how to fix it is okay, but you should do the actual debugging yourself.
Copying someone else's high-level design. Discussing high-level design with someone else and sharing ideas and critiquing each other's design is okay if attributed. However, just taking someone else's design is not allowed. It is akin to taking someone else's outline for a research paper and basing your paper on that.
Discussing assignments in such detail that you duplicate a portion of someone else's work in your own design.

This policy is based on the collaboration policy for CS 106X at Stanford.

Last update: March 7, 2005