You may work with other students within the limitations described below. You may figure out an idea to the solution, but not the entire solution, of a problem! That is, the details of your submitted solution must be worked out by you without using or consulting any outside source. 

    The homework assignments are essentially based on the material of the lectures. In many cases, a homework problem requires you to follow the guidelines presented in the lectures in a slightly different setting. Therefore, if you do not know how to do a problem, you must be not understanding the material of the lecture. In this case, you should come to the instructor for help, rather than brainstorm the problem with your classmates.

    Let's take # 1(a) of HW 1 to illustrate the concept of allowed versus non-allowed collaboration. Suppose you don't know how to begin finding T(alpha) and ask a classmate for help. An allowed answer would be to point you to a place in the notes where a similar calculation is done. The classmate may also explain to you any of the derivations in the notes that you do not understand. A non-allowed answer would be to tell you what steps you should do to compute T(alpha).

    Of course, the above example cannot describe all possible scenarios. You should use the following "rule of thumb": your collaboration with your classmates should be "point-like". That is, if there are isolated points in a problem which you cannot do -- go ahead and ask. If, however, you (or your partner) notice that the entire exercise becomes a continuos sequence of such "points" (in other words, an obstacle course), then you must be missing something important from the material and should ask the instructor for help, rather than continuing to work with your classmates.  If you need any clarification to the above -- please ask me.  

    Violations of the above rules will be concidered academic cheating.
The first instance of it will result in a report to the Center for Student Conduct (CSC) and a score between 0 and the number that equals "negative of the weight of this particular HW" (see below) -- even if illegal collaboration was detected only on part of the assignment.
Example 1:
Suppose students A and B have been found to illegally collaborate on 1 problem on an assignment that contains 4 problems and whose total weight is 5 points. Their grade for this assignment  will then be  between 0 and -5 [minus five] points. If violation is indeed detected only in 1 problem, and all other problems clearly show the students' own work, I may (but am not under any obligation to) consider assigning the grade between 0 and -2.5 points, i.e. in the higher range.
Example 2:
Students C and D have been found to commit academic violation on 2 problems on the same assignment. Their grade for this assignment will be -5 [minus five] points.
Both the person/group who copied the other person's/group's work and the person/group whose work was copied will be given the same penalty.

   After the second instances of academic cheating, I will recommend to the CSC that the students be given the grade of XF for the course.

I reserve the right to ask any student to explain to me their solution of any problem on any of the assignments.

I may do so either one on one, or during a lecture in front of the whole class.

The decision as to how I will ask the student is entirely up to me.

If I want to ask the student one on one, I will email them and give the student

either 6 hours (if my email is sent before 2 pm) or until 10 am the following morning to respond.

If I do not receive a response within that time period, I will refer the student to the Center for Student Conduct.