Course Policies

These policies apply to CPEN 455, 2026 Winter Term 1.

Use Piazza for general course questions and Canvas for submissions. Contact the instructor privately by email or Canvas message about illness, accommodations, personal circumstances, or grading concerns.

Individual Work and Academic Integrity

All homework, programming assignments, and projects must be completed individually. You may discuss general concepts with others, but must develop your own solutions and code within the assistance permitted by the GenAI policy and assessment instructions. Acknowledge sources and assistance, and do not share or copy assessed solutions from other students or solution repositories. Students are responsible for following UBC’s Academic Misconduct policy.

Submissions and Late Work

• Submit homework, programming assignments, and projects through Canvas by 11:59 p.m., Vancouver time, on the listed due date unless the assessment instructions specify another time.
• Work submitted late but within 3 days (up to and including 72 hours) receives a 10% reduction of the earned mark for that individual assessment (multiply by 0.9). For example, 80/100 becomes 72/100.
• Work submitted more than 3 days and within 5 days (over 72 hours, up to and including 120 hours) receives a 20% reduction of the earned mark for that individual assessment (multiply by 0.8). For example, 80/100 becomes 64/100. Only the applicable reduction is applied; the penalties are not cumulative. The adjusted assessment mark is then weighted toward the course grade.
• Work submitted more than 5 days (120 hours) late receives zero, unless an academic concession has been approved. Approved concessions take precedence over these ordinary deadlines and penalties.
• You may replace a submission before the cutoff. The timestamp of the version submitted for grading determines whether it is late; check that the uploaded files are correct and readable.

Academic Concessions

If illness, compassionate circumstances, or conflicting responsibilities affect your work or attendance, contact the instructor privately as soon as reasonably possible and follow the Engineering academic concession process. Requests are considered under UBC’s Academic Concession policy.

An approved in-term concession may provide an extension, a makeup quiz, or an equivalent assessment. A makeup or equivalent assessment retains the original assessment’s weight. A missed quiz without an approved concession receives zero. Contact the instructor early about approved accessibility accommodations or religious and cultural observances.

Generative AI

Use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and AI coding assistants, is optional. The following rules protect the mathematical reasoning, implementation, and experimental skills assessed in this course.

Assessment	Permitted use and limits
Homework	You may use GenAI to explain general concepts and edit your own writing. Do not use it to generate solutions or derivations for the assigned questions.
Programming assignments	You may use GenAI to explain syntax or error messages and suggest debugging hints for code you have written. Implement the assessed algorithms yourself; generated solutions or replacement implementations are not permitted unless the assignment explicitly allows them.
Project	You may use GenAI for brainstorming, editing your own writing, and debugging. Any broader code-generation permissions will be stated in the project brief. You must conduct the reported experiments and develop your own interpretation of the results.
Quizzes	GenAI use is not permitted during quizzes.

• Disclose your use. Each homework, programming assignment, and project submission must include a short GenAI declaration naming the tool, its purpose, and the affected parts of the work. If you did not use GenAI for the submission, state that. Disclosure does not authorize a prohibited use.
• Keep relevant records. Retain the prompts and outputs relevant to your submitted work so you can provide them if clarification is needed. You do not need to submit entire chat histories; exclude unrelated personal information.
• Take responsibility. Verify the accuracy of your submission and be able to explain its reasoning, code, and results. If concerns arise during grading, we may ask follow-up questions about your submitted materials, approach, or use of GenAI, and request relevant records to clarify those concerns.

Example declaration: “I used ChatGPT to understand a tensor-shape error and edit the discussion. I verified the changes and ran the experiments myself.”

Ask the instructor before using GenAI if the permitted scope is unclear. Suspected unauthorized use will be handled through UBC’s academic misconduct process.

Student Support and Accommodations

UBC supports student learning and wellbeing, respectful discussion, academic freedom, and academic integrity. Harassment and discrimination are unacceptable. Support is available for disability accommodations, religious and cultural observances, personal crises, and experiences of sexual violence. The UBC values and policies statement applies to this course; see UBC policies and student support resources for services and access information.