| Website | Course materials and deadlines will be made available on the class website, which can be accessed at https://ceres.cs.umd.edu/424. |
| Piazza | Class help and details will also be posted on Piazza. This provides a forum for you to post questions (and answer those from others), as well as share insights and engage on all things security. Keep in mind, however, that even though this is a class-specific forum, cheating or facilitating cheating is not allowed there (or anywhere): do not post project code or pseudocode. The class Piazza page is available at https://piazza.com/umd/fall2024/cmsc424/home. |
| Gradescope | Gradescope is used to take weekly homeworks, to submit programming assignments, and to review exam grading. |
| grades.cs | grades.cs.umd.edu is the sole home of your grades throughout the semester. It is your responsibility to ensure, in a timely fashion, that the grades recorded here are correct and complete. |
All of your projects and other coursework will be accomplished on your own machine, a laptop should be fine. In extreme circumstances I can provide a VM on which you can work. This is not preferred, as is difficult to use and our resources are limited.
Submission instructions will be provided with the projects.
Instead, email keleher@umd.edu, with "424" in the subject.
Grades will be maintained on grades.cs.umd.edu for this class. You can always see your current grade there.
You are responsible for all material discussed in lecture and discussion section and posted on the class web page, including announcements, deadlines, policies, etc.
Your final course grade will be determined by the assignment percentages given on the class's home page (https://ceres.cs.umd.edu/424).
Final course grades will be curved as necessary (roughly the avg/median is a B-, w/ A- and C- one stdev up and down. The curve is based on all coursework at the end of the semester.
Important
Completing the programming assignments is an essential part of the course. We do not require a good faith attempt as such, but students are expected to substantially complete all class material.
There are two timed in-class exams (see schedule).
If these dates need to change for some reason, we will let you know as soon as possible.
All regrade requests must be made through Gradescope. Any coursework submitted for reconsideration may be regraded in its entirety, which could result in a lower score if warranted.
All projects will be due 11:59:59pm EST of the day given in the project description for full credit.
Late work policy:
Project extensions will not be granted due to system problems, network problems, power outages, etc., so do not wait to submit a project until the night it is due. You may submit multiple times up to the deadline, and only your last on-time submission is graded. Similarly, if you submit late, only your last submission before the deadline will be graded. No consideration in grading will be made for errors made in transferring files or submitting the wrong version of your project. Having a working, unsubmitted version will not count; only submitted code will be be counted.
Finally, any "hard coding" in a project assignment may result in a score of zero for that project, and is considered a bad-faith effort. Hard coding refers to attempting to make a program appear as if it works correctly, when in fact it does not. One example of hard coding would be printing the desired output instead of computing it. This is only one example, and if you have any questions as to what constitutes hard coding, be sure to ask ahead of time.
You are not required to come to class :-). That said, there will be a lot of material taught in class, and this is your best chance to slow me down and ask for mor explanation. It is your best interest to attend and stay engaged during lectures.
You are required to complete scheduled exams during the given timeframe. There are several possible excused absences from an exam: illness, religious observation, participation in required university activities, or a family or personal emergency. We will work with you to make sure that you have a fair amount of time to make up for excused absences. Pursuant to university policy, however, you are still required to turn in assignments on time unless appropriate documentation is provided.
Please note that, because exams are considered "Major Scheduled Grading Events," a self-signed note may not be sufficient: For medical absences, you must furnish documentation from the health care professional who treated you, which must verify the timeframe that the student was unable to meet academic responsibilities. In addition, it must contain the name and phone number of the medical service provider to be used if verification is needed. No diagnostic information will ever be requested.
It is the University's policy to provide accommodations for students with religious observances conflicting with exams. You must inform the instructor prior to the end of the first two weeks of the class if you have a religious observation that conflicts with an exam,
For missed exams due to excused absences, the instructor will arrange a makeup exam. If you might miss an exam for any other reason other than those above, you must contact the instructor in advance to discuss the circumstances. We are not obligated to offer a substitute assignment or to provide a makeup exam unless the failure to perform was due to an excused absence.
The policies for excused absences do not apply to project assignments. Projects will be assigned with sufficient time to be completed by students who have a reasonable understanding of the necessary material and begin promptly. In cases of extremely serious documented illness of lengthy duration or other protracted, severe emergency situations, the instructor may consider extensions on project assignments, depending upon the specific circumstances.
Besides the policies in this syllabus, the University's policies apply during the semester. Various policies that may be relevant appear in the Undergraduate Catalog.
The Campus Senate has adopted a policy asking students to include the following statement on each examination or assignment in every course: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment)." Consequently, you will be requested to include this pledge on each exam and project. Please also carefully read the Office of Information Technology's policy regarding acceptable use of computer accounts.
Programming projects are to be written individually, therefore cooperation or use of unauthorized materials on projects is a violation of the University's Code of Academic Integrity. Any evidence of this, or of unacceptable use of computer accounts, use of unauthorized materials or cooperation on exams or homeworks, or other possible violations of the Honor Code, will be submitted to the Student Honor Council, which could result in an XF for the course, suspension, or expulsion.
For learning the course concepts, students are welcome to study together or to receive help from anyone else. You may discuss with others the project requirements, the natures of the attacks covered, what was discussed in class and in the class web forum, and general syntax errors.
When it comes to actually writing a project assignment, other than help from the instructional staff a project must solely and entirely be your own work. Working with another student or individual, or using anyone else's work in any way except as noted in this paragraph, is a violation of the code of academic integrity and will be reported to the Honor Council. You may not discuss design of any part of a project with anyone except the instructor or teaching assistants.
Examples of questions that would be allowed are "Does a Java class definition end in a semicolon?" or "What does a 'class not found' error indicate?", because they convey no information about the contents of a project.
Examples of questions you may not ask others might be "How did you implement this part of the project?" or "Please look at my code and help me find my stupid syntax error!".
You may not use any disallowed source of information in creating either their project design or code. When writing projects you are free to use ideas or short fragments of code from published textbooks or publicly available information, but the specific source must be cited in a comment in the relevant section of the program.
Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity may include, but are not limited to:
If you have any question about a particular situation or source then consult with the instructors in advance. Should you have difficulty with a programming assignment you should see the instructional staff in office hours, and not solicit help from anyone else in violation of these rules.
Every semester the department has discovered a number of students attempting to cheat on project assignments, in violation of academic integrity requirements. Students' academic careers have been significantly affected by a decision to cheat. Think about whether you want to join them before contemplating cheating, or before helping a friend to cheat.
Students are welcome and encouraged to study and compare or discuss their implementations of the programming projects with any others after they are graded, provided that all of the students in question have received nonzero scores for that project assignment, and if that project will not be extended upon in a later project assignment.
Making your code publicly available during the semester is considered a violation of Academic Integrity.
Students with disabilities who have been certified by Disability Support Services as needing any type of special accommodations should see the instructor as soon as possible during the schedule adjustment period (the first two weeks of class). Please provide DSS's letter of accommodation to the instructor at that time.
All arrangements for exam accommodations as a result of disability must be made and arranged with the instructor at least three business days prior to the exam date; later requests (including retroactive ones) will be refused.
Although every effort has been made to be complete and accurate, unforeseen circumstances arising during the semester could require the adjustment of any material given here. Consequently, given due notice to students, the instructor reserves the right to change any information on this syllabus or in other course materials.