Regulations

Attendance rules

In CBL all group members are equally responsible for the project outcome. Therefore, it is required that each student attends all meetings connected to the project, i.e.: all group meetings, all project supporting lectures, training courses, building sessions, student meetings, etc. Absence is only excused when it concerns an acceptable reason, to be determined by the CBL coordinator. Requests for excused absence have to be submitted in advance to the CBL coordinator, by e-mail (see contact details) with subject 4CBLA30 - Group number - Student ID. The student will be notified whether the request has been approved as soon as possible. Attention: Arriving late to a group meeting and online attendance is also considered a no-show.

Lab work

You can work in the lab during the hours scheduled for your group. Before entering the lab, please read the safety rules. If you don't follow the safety rules, the staff will (kindly) oblige you to leave. At the end of a session, you must tidy up your own workbench and bring back the tools you borrowed. When you leave without tidying up, you'll get a warning. After 2 warnings the staff will (kindly) oblige you to leave the lab.

Every group gets a storage box and locker in PROTO/zone (Traverse) in which assembled components can be stored in between meetings. You will receive your locker key at the first meeting in PROTO/zone. At the end of the final PROTO/zone session (week 8) you must hand in your storage box and the key to the locker. For a lost key €10 will be charged.

The available components cannot be modified irreversibly. If a component malfunctions, please report this to the teachers.

Use of internet tools and referencing

Internet tools can broadly be divided in Large Language Models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.) and Information tools (search engines, online databases, etc.). Such tools may provide a wealth of information to enhance design and/or research activities, especially in exploration and comparative phases. Therefore, you are encouraged to use these internet tools to enhance your learning process. However, such tools should never be used to generate content (text, source code or images) and it should be unambiguously clear to what extent such tools aided in the conception of new ideas. Moreover, you should always be critical about the quality of your information sources and make sure to properly reference them.

To address concerns regarding potential misuse of internet tools. It is essential that you adhere to the following guidelines¹:

1. Provide precise references for the parts of your work where internet tools are used.
2. Provide an explanation for why you opted to use specific tools and evaluate their usefulness.
3. Do not use Large Language Models to generate report text, source code or images.

Examples for proper use of external source material are given below. When in doubt, always contact the responsible lecturer or project coach for consultation:

1. Compulsory when using Large Language Models
   • ChatGPT was used to optimize a Matlab script: In the main text of your report clearly indicate when and how you used ChatGPT for this purpose, for example: “The Matlab script has been optimized using ChatGPT as explained in Appendix #”. In the appendix you should then explain the prompts used to obtain the optimized code.
   • ChatGPT was used to improve the writing style of the introduction: Clearly indicate which sections were improved using ChatGPT. This may be done by adding a footnote: “The text in the introduction has been improved using ChatGPT using the prompt: “Hi ChatGPT, I have written this paragraph: [included in Appendix #], can you please make it more formal?””. This means that the original text must be included in the appendix, where also a reflection on the usefulness of the ChatGPT-based improvement should be provided.
2. Compulsory when using internet sources
   • You can use common referencing methods or footnotes for the use of internet sources and information encyclopedia tools (e.g., Wikipedia), for example through their URL. However, since these tools are volatile, always indicate the date on which you consulted them. This volatility also indicates the added value of trying to find references in books and/or academic journals instead.
3. Recommended when using information tools to explore internet databases
   • Bing was used to explore benchmarks: In the relevant part of the report, add a footnote indicating its usage: “This benchmark analysis was performed using “Bing” with keywords “keyword 1, keyword2, etc.”, after which the first 20 results were selected for further analysis.”.
   • Google scholar was used to find articles to be included in a literature survey: Indicate the usage of the tool In the report: “For this literature survey “Google scholar” was used with keywords “keyword 1, keyword 2, etc.“, after which the 15 most cited papers were selected”.

¹ These guidelines have been carefully formulated with all the necessary information. Should differences occur between these guidelines and the rules and regulations as given in the Program and Examination Regulations (PER) and/or the Examination Regulations (ER), the PER/ER are always leading.