Lab Policies CS 102 (Sec. 2) & ECE 206 (Secs. 1, 2) Spring 2011

WELCOME: Welcome to the EECS computer science undergraduate laboratory. In order to get maximum benefits from the laboratory experience, please observe the following departmental policy.

INSTRUCTORS: CS102/ECE206 labs are taught by Graduate Teaching Assistants. One TA will be the lead TA or grader for your lab section. This is the person to whom you will go if you have lab problems concerning attendance or grading. Learn this name; you will need it for exams. The TAs have mail boxes in Claxton 203, the Computer Science office where you can turn in lab work.

IDs: Bring your university ID to class and labs. We will check them at exams and from time to time in the lab.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance at labs is mandatory: we take roll electronically, and you must attend your own lab session.  In section 2 of CS102 and sections 1 and 2 of ECE206 we use robots in the labs, and so these sections’ labs are different from all the other sections’!  All homework labs must be completed even if you are absent. Any lab not done, or any lab in which you fail to complete most of the work, may result in a grade penalty for the semester. You may be absent from only one lab session with no penalty. If you must miss a second lab, please submit a written excuse to your TA at the next lab. Since there is active learning in lab, you will be disadvantaged if you are not there.

Tardiness and early departures count as an absence. Work on the lab during your scheduled lab time. Other class work, games, web browsing, etc. are not permitted.

MISSED LABS: It is your responsibility to notify your TA by email, in advance when possible, if you must be absent from a lab. Missing a lab does not change the homework lab due date. Failure to inform your TA in a timely fashion may result in a zero for the lab or other penalties. It is imperative that labs be completed in sequence. Please finish a missed a lab before continuing on with the next one.

DUE DATES: Labs are normally due at 10:30 A.M. the week after your scheduled lab time. Don’t wait until the last minute to do a lab since power failures, connection problems, etc. can occur. Any homework or labs not turned in by their specified due date will receive a 0. You are allowed a single, one week extension on a lab of your choice. This only extends a deadline for a single lab (the next lab and the extended lab are due the same day in most cases). Any other late work is not excepted except in extreme circumstances. 

FREE LAB TIME: Check the lab availability and plan to spend additional time in the lab. These lab sections are taught in the Crux Lab (Claxton 103) and the Hydra Lab (Claxton 105), and you may work in them during free time and when other CS102 or ECE206 labs are scheduled on a space available basis. See Lab Hours.  Keep in mind that real work has priority over games, web browsing, and the like.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Any student found cheating on the labs will be given a grade of   F   for the course. You may consult with the TAs and a willing fellow student during scheduled labs, but the work must ultimately be your own. You may seek outside help with concepts and the C++ language, but it is cheating to have someone else design most of your algorithm, write code for you, or look at another’s code.

The work you submit for grading must be your own unless instructed otherwise. In particular, reading or copying all or part of someone else’s work, including work from a previous semester, is strictly against the rules. It is also cheating to allow another student to look at your algorithm, or to give other illicit help.

REMOTE ACCESS: See EECS IT help pages.

HANDWRITING: Write clearly; if we cannot read it, it is wrong.

PERFORMANCE: Read the entire lab write-up before beginning to work. You should retain the skills learned in each lab since instructions in subsequent labs will become more cryptic. Often the answer you seek is available in the lab handouts, or with some thought you can figure it out yourself. Ask the TAs for help when you need it, but read the lab first!

GRADING: We do not consider any part of the labs optional. Therefore, we reserve the right to impose additional grade penalties for poor effort or sloppy work. We expect you to master the lab requirements. Repeated failure to complete all lab problems may result in a severe grade penalty.

REGRADING REQUESTS: Your graded lab work will be returned to you the week after you turn it in. If you think it has been graded incorrectly, give your TA a standard piece of paper with your user name and your complaint clearly and concisely stated. You may question the correctness of your answer but not the number of points deducted for a particular answer. We will re-evaluate the entire lab and return it to you within a week. Submit all requests for regrading within three days of getting your grade. Since each lab problem counts so little in the overall scheme of things, we do not encourage you to scrape and pick for a few points. Trivial appeals will only irritate those in charge.

USE OF CS 102 / ECE 206 ACCOUNT: The computer account you receive in this class is to be used for work in this class only. No other work is allowed without explicit permission from Dr. MacLennan. Use your general purpose UT account to save any CS102/ECE206 files you want to keep since your EECS account will disappear at the end of the semester.

There is sufficient storage for your CS102/ECE206 files, but any extra storage is not for whimsical files and web downloads. You may keep only those files that are required for this class and nothing else. If you want to use background images, please avoid using any that may be offensive to others. It’s only polite…

If you want to know how to change the “protections” of your files, feel free to read the man (manual) pages on chmod, but please don’t change protections in your area.

ELECTRONIC MAIL, e-mail: Read your EECS email often as it is one of the main ways you will communicate with the instructor and the TAs. We encourage you to make full use of this powerful and useful facility, and we insist that you follow these sensible guidelines:

• Always include your full name, your lab section, and your TA’s name when inquiring about a class or lab matter.
• You may send mail to individuals or groups of people you know, but do not broadcast messages to large groups or the world at large.
• Make sure you are certain you know the correct user name before you send a message (use finger).
• Never send obnoxious or offensive messages, even as a joke.
• Do not abuse the mail system by sending time-wasters to busy people.
• Be careful sending sensitive messages. Electronic mail is not secure.

CELL PHONES: Please, not in lab.

COMMON SENSE: This policy sheet, along with the class policy sheet, is not intended to cover all the bases. It is merely a guideline for what we expect from you, as well as an indication of what you can expect from us. Overall, we expect you to conduct yourself in a civilized fashion and to exercise good judgment. HAPPY COMPUTING!

 Return to CS 102 (with robots) home page

Send mail to Bruce MacLennan / MacLennan@eecs.utk.edu

This page is web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/102/lpolicy.html
Last updated:  2011-01-25.