SFU Parallel Systems Class FAQ

Unix is the first known operating system to implement multitasking

Frequently Asked Questions

Extensions due to Medical Reasons: If the student is unable to complete an assignment or will miss an exam due to medical reasons, only the University’s Health Care Provider Statement will be accepted as proof. Please contact the instructor before the assignment is due or before missing the exam to discuss alternative arrangements.

We will be using the discussion board on Google-groups for all discussions. For homeworks, exams, or other clarification emails do not email me (the instructor) or the TA directly.
If you email the instructor or TA directly then use your SFU email address to send the email (do not use any other provider), and use cmpt431: as the prefix in your subject line.
Before you email or post to the discussion board read this FAQ.

All homeworks are due by 11:59PM on the homework due date (NO GRACE DAYS)
Programming components that fail the build process will be marked as 0 (no partial grades for missing syntax semicolon etc).
We will make every attempt to release grades for each homework the 1-2 weeks after grace days are past. However, this means that after we review the source code we might have to lower your official grade. If you cheated in some way, such as copying your submission or you have violated the ground rules for each homework, your grades will be decreased from the initial value perhaps even lowered to zero.

It is your responsibility to use a source code management system such as git or mercurial or svn for keeping track of changes to your code and for effective collaboration in your group.
It is expected that your program will compile and run using the standard runtime environment on the Linux.
You may want to refer to a quick Unix tutorial. There are several on the web. The following one covers most of what you need to use the Linux shell effectively: Quick Unix Tutorial.

Some examples of unacceptable behaviour:
- Handing in assignments that are not 100% your own work (in design, implementation, wording, etc.), without proper citation. There must be a README file in your submission with citations to any external code used.
- Using any unpermitted resources during an exam.
- Looking at, or attempting to look at, another student’s paper during an exam.
- Submitting work that has been submitted before, for any course at any institution.
If you are unclear on what academic honesty is, see Simon Fraser University’s Policy S10-01.
All instances of academic dishonesty will be dealt with very severely.
In general, minimum requested penalties will be as follows:
- For assignments: a mark of -100% on the assignment. So, academic dishonesty on an assignment worth 5% of your final mark will result in a zero on the assignment, and a penalty of 5% from your final grade.
- For exams: an F in the course.
- Please note that these are minimum penalties. At the instructor’s option, more severe penalties may be given/requested. All instances of academic dishonesty will be noted on your University record.
The instructor may use, or require students to submit assignments to, an automated service that will check for plagiarism.

Midterms may be in different rooms than the lectures. You will be notified by email.
Exams may be written in either pen or pencil. Calculators or other aids are not allowed unless explicitly stated.
Midterm exams and other tests may or may not be returned, depending on the course. If they are returned, you can get them from the instructor’s office hours. You can not dispute the marking of your exam after you have taken it out of the instructor’s office.
Final exams are not returned to students by University policy; they are kept by the instructor.
If you miss a test or exam, you must present a note from a doctor to get a mark other than zero. Arrangements to make up the lost marks will be made on a case-by-case basis by the instructor. Make-up exams may be given as an oral examination.
You must get a pass on the weighted average of the exams to pass the course.

Except for final grades, this is how you can go about getting your mark changed:

Requests for a change in your mark must come to the course instructor. Teaching Assistants will not change your mark, except for errors in addition or data entry.
Requests should come in the same form as you received your marks: if you got marks by email, forward that email to the instructor; if you had paper handed back, return that.
You should give a brief explanation of why you want your mark reevaluated.
The instructor will remark the entire assignment/test. This will be your mark, whether it is higher or lower than the original.
Appeals may be made up to two weeks after the mark is returned or until the final exam date, whichever is first. After that deadline, you must make a formal mark appeal for any changes.
For exams in particular, these are not reasons to get more marks:
- I knew what I was saying here, but didn’t write it.
- This is the correct answer for some question other than the one asked, but I didn’t get any marks for it.
- I didn’t understand the question.

If you’re concerned about your mark at the end of the course, you can see the instructor. Here are some guidelines:

You can come to the instructor’s office at designated times to review your final exam.
Like assignments, you can ask the instructor to reevaluate your final exam marking.
The following are not good reasons to get a higher final mark:
- I want it.
- I think I deserve it.
- I need it.
- I’m close to the next grade cutoff.
This is a good reason:
- There’s a marking irregularity on my final or some other piece of work.
The marking scheme is fixed. If you did badly on a midterm, you can’t weight the final more heavily.

Students can discuss the assignments with other students, but the discussions should be purely for learning purposes only.
Students should not record any information during those discussions in any form (e.g., writing, printing, audio/video/picture records, memorization, etc.).
Assignment submission must be student’s individual work.
Students must not share solutions in any form (e.g., direct sharing with other students, hosting code in “publicly accessible” repositories, etc.).

No code modifications or changes are allowed after submission. Example: I just misplaced a semicolon somewhere in line x which made several test cases to fail and I lost a lot of points, can I fix it? NO.
Submitted code must compile without error. Otherwise, we will not be able to test the code and the student gets no credit for it.
Typically, the grading of code will be done through scripts or testing programs that we develop. There will be several test cases, each carrying a number of points. If the student’s code passes a test case, he/she gets its points, otherwise, he/she gets no points for that test case. So students must test their code carefully before submission.
Students found bypassing/misusing the server system (e.g., directly running experiments instead of via slurm workload mananger) will get zero in their respective assignments.