At the beginning of each term, faculty members are encouraged to make clear to the students in their classes their expectations regarding permissible academic conduct. It is important that this be done in the context of their specific subjects. (From section 10.2.1 of MIT Policies and Procedures)This document describes the collaboration policies for 16.070. Two classes of inter-student work are covered: plagiarism and collaboration.
Plagiarism describes an attempt to claim work as your own that you have copied from another person, whether that other person knows about it or not. In this class, plagiarism includes copying program code, data, documentation, etc. Plagiarism is simply not allowed.
Collaboration is defined as two or more students working together on a phase of an assignment. Working together does not mean that one student does the work and the other student just copies it! Collaboration is allowed and encouraged under certain conditions, as long as you are honest about it. You often learn best from your peers.
You are taking this class to learn fundamental concepts about computing and real-time systems, and you deserve a grade that fairly represents what you've learned. Therefore, the staff needs to know that your work is your work and so must limit collaboration somewhat. For assignments in this class, here are some guidelines as to which forms of collaboration are appropriate and which are inappropriate.
Following the five steps of the programming process:
Please carefully check each assignment for any exceptions to these guidelines. Collaboration and teamwork are important skills in engineering; however, if you are unsure of the legality of a form of collaboration, ask a staff member before engaging in it.