Course Overview

Course Learning Objectives
This course will focus on the problems, current techniques, and remaining open research challenges in developing and applying text analysis for constructing effective software engineering tools. Text analysis extracts, analyzes and leverages information available in the text found in software artifacts. Text includes the words, phrases, and sentences in natural language text as well as identifiers and comments that programmers use in writing code.

At the end of the semester, a student completing the course should have:

In addition, a student completing this course should also be more prepared to conduct high quality research by improved

Course Format
CISC 879 is an advanced graduate level course which follows a seminar-discussion format. In particular, we will be reading and discussing papers in the most recent relevant conferences and journals, as well as foundation papers.

Meeting Times: TTh 11:00-12:15 AM (3 hours)
Meeting Place: 102A Smith Hall

Prerequisite: Algorithms and programming languages would be helpful.
Restrictions: Undergraduates must obtain instructor's permission.

Instructor: Lori Pollock
pollock cis udel edu, 101D Smith Hall (831-1953)
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:00-3:00 pm, and Thursdays, 9:30-10:30 AM, and by appointment.

Course Requirements

Readings

There is no required textbook. We will be reading research papers that can be downloaded for free from digital libraries or otherwise provided online.

Assignments and Grading

Your grade will be based on your performance in the various activities in the course. Some of the activities will be done in groups, and some will be done individually. The relative weights of the components of the grade will be approximately:
TENTATIVE UNTIL FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

How to Increase your Learning and Success in CISC 879

Course Policies

Due Dates and Lateness:

The due dates are to be taken seriously and you should not expect them to be extended. The pace of work is implicit in the due dates and necessary if you expect to finish by the end of the semester. NO late programs or homeworks will be accepted FOR FULL CREDIT without discussion with me prior to the due date. If you can not reach me, leave a message on my voicemail or send email. All other assignments not delivered by the due date are considered late.

Unless otherwise stated, late assignments will be penalized 5% off the total possible points if turned in within the first 24-hour period after the specified due date and time, and 5% per 24-hour period (or fraction of a day) (including weekends) after that time, up to a week after the due date. Late assignments will be accepted with penalty up to one week after the due date. Assignments submitted at any later time without an approved excuse will not be accepted. It is up to you to determine the version of your assignment to be graded. You must weigh the late penalty against the completeness of your assignment.

Regrading Policy:

If you are dissatisfied with a grade on a homework, programming assignment, or exam, you should consult the instructor directly within a week of the day the graded assignment was returned to you. No regrade requests will be considered after this week period.

Policy on Academic Dishonesty

You will be told specifically which assignments are to be done collaboratively in groups, and which ones should be done individually without collaboration. For individual assignments, you should be directing your questions to the instructor, not to other students, unless the question is a clarification question. Any evidence of collaboration other than this kind will be handled as stated in the Official Student Handbook of the University of Delaware. You should not be using or examining any program code used for projects for this course in any prior instantiations of this course. If you are in doubt regarding the requirements, please consult with me before you complete any requirement of this course.

Collaboration Policy:

Each assignment specification will clearly specify whether you work in groups or individually. For the purposes of the collaboration policy, students choosing to work with a partner are effectively considered as one entity, and are freely allowed to exchange, help, design, and code with one other, but the guidelines below apply outside the partnership (neither of you should be debugging, sharing code, etc. with other people or teams). There are also some specific rules that apply within the partnership.

Things that are always allowed

These things are encouraged and allowed at all times for all students.

Collaboration that is allowed if documented

Two students engaging in a more detailed discussion of the project specifics can cross into the area of collaboration that is acceptable only if documented. I require that you include the name of those whom you received specific assistance from and properly credit their contribution, as you would cite a reference in a research paper. Some examples:

Collaboration that is NOT allowed

Basically, the rule is that you should be handing in code or other work which represents your original, independent work. It should not be based on, influenced by, or copied from anyone else's.

Resource Usage Policy:

Under no circumstances should you be copying work written by others found on the internet or provided by others in other ways. There is no learning taking place in such actions.

Closing thoughts

Above all you should use your common sense. If you suspect that what you are about to do is a violation, play it safe and ask a staff member first rather than take risks with your academic career.

Cheating is taken very seriously in this course. Please do your part in maintaining a community where academic work is done with a high standard of integrity!

Some parts of this document are based on a similar collaboration policy for CS courses at Brown, Drexel, and Stanford.