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Student Disabilities Accommodations
Duke University is committed to providing equal access to students with documented disabilities. Students with disabilities may contact the Student Disability Access Office (SDAO) to ensure your access to this course and to the program. There you can engage in a confidential conversation about the process for requesting reasonable accommodations both in the classroom and in clinical settings. Students are encouraged to register with the SDAO as soon as they begin the program. Please note that accommodations are not provided retroactively.
More information can be found online at access.duke.edu or by contacting SDAO at 919-668-1267, SDAO@duke.edu.
Religious Accommodations
University policy permits students to be absent from class to observe a religious holiday. Accordingly, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Pratt School of Engineering have established procedures for students to notify their instructors of an absence necessitated by the observance of a religious holiday. Please submit requests for religious accommodations at the beginning of the semester so we can work to make suitable arrangements well ahead of time. You can find the policy and relevant notification form here:
- Trinity College: Religious Observance & Holidays
- Pratt School: Religious Observance & Holidays
Attendance, Absence, Illness, and Emergencies
For regular classes (not exam or project workshop days) in-person attendance is expected but absence is not penalized. We trust you to make your own best determination about your ability to attend class. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to view the class recording at your earliest opportunity and to keep up with all other course materials (such as readings, assignments, etc.) There is no hybrid or zoom option.
On the project workshop and exam days, in-person attendance is required. Absence will be excused at the discretion of the instructor and in coordination with the student’s academic dean, generally for one of the following reasons.
- Academic and professional necessity (such as presenting work at a conference)
- Duke varsity athletic competition (in which case you must complete the procedures documented here proactively, well in advance)
- Illness or medical necessity (such as a contracting a communicable disease or a panic attack)
- Bereavement or personal emergency (such as a death in the family)
Please see more details on university policy regarding short- and long-term medical issues, instances of personal distress or emergency, university sick leave policies, and academic support here:
The following (non-exhaustive) are not reasons for an excused absence and will generally not be approved by the instructor: (a) interviews that can be scheduled at different times, (b) informational or networking sessions, (c) personal travel, (d) need to study or complete work for other classes, and (d) elective participation in Duke club activities other than representing Duke in varsity athletic competitions.
Duke Testing Center
This class will use the Testing Center (testingcenter.duke.edu/) to provide testing accommodations to undergraduates registered with and approved by the Student Disability Access Office (SDAO) and to administer make-up tests for students with excused absences. The center operates by appointment only, and appointments must be made at least four (4) consecutive days in advance. However, please schedule your appointments as far in advance as possible.
For those taking make-up tests for excused absences
First make sure to communicate with the instructor to request an excused absence. Depending on the circumstances, you may be asked to secure a dean’s excuse (from your academic dean).
You can book a makeup test with the Duke Testing center using the center’s website or by calling at (919)-684-1601 (calling is required if you need to complete a make-up test in less than four (4) days).
Makeup tests should be completed within one week of the original test date.
For those with SDAO testing accommodations
You will not be able to make an appointment until you have submitted a Semester Request with the SDAO and your accommodations have been approved. If you have not already done so, promptly submit a Semester Request to the SDAO to ensure you can make your appointment on time. For instructions on how to register with SDAO, visit their website at https://access.duke.edu/students/ .
You can book accommodations testing sessions with the Duke Testing Center using the center’s website. Barring excused absence, Accommodations testing sessions must be scheduled at the normal test date and time (possibly extended depending on the accommodations).
Recordings and Captions
This class will be recorded using the Panopto capture software. Recordings will be made available to current students through the course Canvas. Automatically generated captions are available in the recording.
The recording of lectures is permitted for private study only. You cannot distribute lecture recordings to anyone else and unauthorized distribution of course recordings is a cause for disciplinary action.
Late Work and Extensions
Late submissions will be accepted for up to 72 hours (3 days) from the original due date at a cumulative penalty of 3% per day. Submissions will not be accepted more than 72 hours after the deadline.
You can request an extension in cases of incapacitation or a dean’s excuse for emergencies or extenuating circumstances. If you need to request an extension, please do so with a private post on Ed discussion — this will be visible only to the teaching team. Please do not disclose sensitive private details — for example, if you are ill, simply note that you are ill and have submitted a STINF, you don’t need to go into details.
Standard extensions (e.g., for short term illness or incapacitation) will simply waive the late penalty, meaning that you still need to submit within the same 72 hour late period, but the grade will not be penalized. Longer extensions will be considered only in special cases in consultation with the academic dean and instructor. Extensions will not, in general, be given for other personal circumstances including travel or extracurricular activities. Extensions are not guaranteed, and you should never wait to receive a response to an extension request before continuing work or submitting what you have so far.
Generative AI/LLM Usage
You may use generative AI (such as DukeGPT or dedicated programming tools like Cursor) to help you complete homework assignments but should conform to the following guidelines of responsible usage to support learning:
- Approved: Asking for conceptual clarification, help debugging and editing, suggesting strategies for implementation, giving examples of API usage, line-level autocomplete features such as are available with Cursor’s tab or Github Copilot.
- Not approved: Uploading entire assignment parts/tasks for AI completion, submitting blocks of code written by AI (more than line-level autocomplete), submitting any AI generated text to short answer questions. In general, agentic modes of programming tools such as Cursor, Github Copilot, or Claude Code are NOT approved, as these are used to generate entire blocks of code with minimal or no human input. These agentic tools may be used for help debugging, but not generating code.
You are also welcome to use generative AI for assistance understanding lecture content and reference reading, and for studying / reviewing content for exams.
You may use generative AI (such as DukeGPT, Cursor, Github Copilot, etc.) to help develop your final project, even including the use of agentic modes for generating blocks of code (unlike for homework assignments).
However, you must attribute any AI-generated code and you are fully responsible for the work you submit (that is, “but that’s what the AI said” would not be a valid defense if one were to lose credit due to errors or inconsistencies in the code). Attribution is provided in both of the following two places:
- ATTRIBUTION.md, described in the project directions.
- Code comments provided at the function/method docstring, the whole class, or the whole file level, depending on the amount of AI-generated code.
Collaboration
Collaboration is an encouraged part of the course, but only within boundaries that will ensure your learning and maintain academic integrity. The homework assignments and the final project can be completed in groups of size 2 (that is, you can work with a partner).
This is optional: you can by yourself if you like, and we do not assign mandatory partners. If you work with a partner, both partners will receive the same grade based on the submitted work. You can switch partners between assignments, but once you begin working with a partner for a particular assignment you may not change for that same assignment.
Electronic Device Use in Class
Class time has been reserved for our coming together and provides an opportunity to focus. More than attend, you are expected to be attentive and engaged during class. You are welcome to use electronic devices to take notes, consider code, or otherwise engage in materials related to the course. You should not use electronic devices for other purposes during class that are distracting to yourself and your peers, including but not limited to social media, instant messaging, or video streaming.
Regrade Requests
If you believe any of your work has been graded incorrectly or unfairly, you may submit a regrade request. Such requests will only be accepted through the Gradescope regrade request feature and usually only within a 72 hour window after grades are returned and an announcement is made. Such requests should politely and concisely explain why you believe your answer is substantially correct or was mis-evaluated according to the given rubric. Requests may only reference what is included in the original submission and may not contribute new or additional material.
If you submit a regrade request, a different grader than the original, either a graduate teaching assistant or the instructor, will review the request and regrade the submitted work. The new grade could be higher, the same, or lower than the original (while we are not looking for reasons to lower grades, it does happen at times that a regrade request identifies submissions that were incorrectly graded too highly originally). You should only submit a request if you sincerely believe a mistake was made in the original grading.
Academic integrity
The Duke Community Standard always applies as a guiding principle of integrity for the class.
Duke University is a community dedicated to scholarship, leadership, and service and to the principles of honesty, fairness, respect, and accountability. Citizens of this community commit to reflect upon and uphold these principles in all academic and non-academic endeavors, and to protect and promote a culture of integrity.
To uphold the Duke Community Standard:
- I will not lie, cheat, or steal in my academic endeavors
- I will conduct myself honorably in all my endeavors
- I will act if the Standard is compromised
