[NJ Krish]

Was thinking too much and since I am on this forum most of the days browsing, thought I would post something that happened today.

Currently a College student about to Graduate this month with Computer Science B.S. I was working on an assignment for a class (Programming) this assignment had 3 parts in it and in the first part it took me several weeks to finalize but had few issues. The codes get uploaded and downloaded through github private and/or amazon cloud since I move to different Computers time to time (They are never public)
Today I found out in an email that someone copied my code and I as well as the other person received a 0 as well as chance to be sent to the dean which may ruin my graduation or have me kicked out of school. The other person submitted the code word for word from mine and several weeks after mines was submitted. Some how the code was leaked in a way someone can search for it on google at the time.

They copied the first part and I am pretty sure they will have no idea how to even complete the code for part 2 and 3 (which I have done already).

I have no idea how they obtained my code.

TL:: DR Worked very hard on a project to have codes stolen by a classmate and be blamed for cheating.

Any feed back will be great I'm just so furious.

Any programmers here ever had something like that happen? :/

[PINeely]

So they are sending both of you to the dean, or neither of you is allowed to see the dean? If you are able to speak with him/her and show them what you told us I'm pretty sure that they'll see what is going on and you'll be fine.

[NJ Krish]

Originally Posted by PINeely

So they are sending both of you to the dean, or neither of you is allowed to see the dean? If you are able to speak with him/her and show them what you told us I'm pretty sure that they'll see what is going on and you'll be fine.

At this point I don't know what will happen. The TA talked to the professor to allow me to make my case but from what he was saying is I may have just copied from some other source or I provided that person my code. They even copied the WRONG code as in the one non modified one.

[bmw-nj]

I would state the facts in an email and cc the dean and head of the department. Ask for an appointment to meet and say that you are unhappy that you have not received a response from the professor. Trust me you will get a response fast.

[ShocknAwe]

Look into your schools staffers and faculty, most institutions have an ombudsman on staff. They are there to help you. Go make an appointment immediately after following the advice directly above my post, and make your case to them. In my experience when dealing with university/college administration, NEVER simply follow one route, and always be ready to go to the next level at a seconds notice without hesitation. Definitely CC the dean and head of department on any emails you send, and never talk to anyone over the phone, email only, that will guarantee a paper trail in the horrible event that you need one.

[NJ Krish]

At this point the TA advised me to speak to the professor tomorrow morning and make my case. I will be making my case and show everything I have. If it becomes more of an issue and the professor does not see my side I will escalate it to the chairman. Thank you everyone for the advice, all will be taken into consideration if this goes south with the professor.

It's just very frustrating someone can take my hard work and then make me go through this. Also I don't understand how that person even made it this far in the degree when they have to copy and paste.

[PINeely]

The worst part of these things is the wait between now and talking to the prof tomorrow. Go get a beer somewhere and try reassure yourself You know exactly what you are doing and he clearly doesn't. It'll be evident to the fac/staff

[NJ Krish]

Originally Posted by PINeely

The worst part of these things is the wait between now and talking to the prof tomorrow. Go get a beer somewhere and try reassure yourself You know exactly what you are doing and he clearly doesn't.

Yes! oh dear god the wait and anticipation on what will happen next is making me go crazy.

[Joekerr]

Yeah, I got accused of cheating in economics at uni once because I didn't show all the steps (which I thought were fairly obvious so I didn't need to and some guy copied my answer word for word, must have looked over my shoulder).

The prof called me in to the office and asked me to do a similar type question which I did without showing my steps again and got it right, so he knew the other guy was the party to blame.

Still, I was pretty pissed off because he outright accused me of cheating instead of approaching it from the angle of "Hey, you didn't show your steps, why didn't you - do this to show you know the answer" or even, you didn't show your steps, the question required it, so you get a zero. I wouldn't even care if I got a zero compared to being accused of cheating without any real inquiry.

[NJ Krish]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

Yeah, I got accused of cheating in economics at uni once because I didn't show all the steps (which I thought were fairly obvious so I didn't need to and some guy copied my answer word for word, must have looked over my shoulder).

The prof called me in to the office and asked me to do a similar type question which I did without showing my steps again and got it right, so he knew the other guy was the party to blame.

Still, I was pretty pissed off because he outright accused me of cheating instead of approaching it from the angle of "Hey, you didn't show your steps, why didn't you - do this to show you know the answer" or even, you didn't show your steps, the question required it, so you get a zero. I wouldn't even care if I got a zero compared to being accused of cheating without any real inquiry.

In my case I explained what each line of code was doing, in the other persons case they just copied it all no comments. For any programmers here should know what comments mean when it comes to coding and someone having to read your code.

[ddk632]

I can't help with the college part ... Never went... But for the programming part, since this person has only "part 1", offer to finish the project with parts 2 and 3 on your local machine, without uploading to AWS or github. And don't any code you've already written for those parts as you can assume it's been compromised.

[Sidebar: Why didn't their code have comments? Did you add them later, or did the guy take them out? I find that odd unless you added comments after this whole thing took place.]

In fact, submit it to the professor in case the other guy turns in what looks like a finished (by someone else) version of what you had started.

Essentially show that you can finish the code and the other guy can't.

Further, you cannot prove that you didn't give the guy the code. You can only plead that you didn't. Sucks that they automatically accuse you of this but hey, it's school, not court, and they don't really have to deal with pesky things like rules of civil procedure or due process.

As for accusations of plagiarism from the internet, there are a couple things you can do. First, show the file attributes on your code and project files that have created dates and was created by your PC username which matches your PC username. Sure, this can all be faked, but doesn't hurt your case at least, and might help.

Also there are tools out there that will take a document and verify it against databases of online documents. I forget the name of the one I used but see if you can find something along the lines of a plagiarism detector website/tool and run your files through it. This is probably a long shot because it's more traditionally used for essays and stuff, but maybe it's worth a shot.

Finally, if you log in to public WiFi on campus, make sure your security on your machine is sound, you have a password, file sharing disabled, etc., which goes without saying. And double check your cloud (AWS/git/etc) settings to make sure they're private. It's odd how this guy got a hold of your code.

Sorry you're having to deal with this mess and hopefully the truth will prevail and you will be off the hook. If it's a big enough assignment, I would offer to redo it on a different topic off the cloud to prove to the professor that you're capable of producing original work.

By the way, be grateful that you aren't that other guy who has clearly wasted 4 years in school and still doesn't know shit. As someone who's been in positions of interviewing and hiring programmers, I can tell you guys like him, even if they miraculously pass an interview, will not be able to keep a job very long.

Good luck, and protect your shit. No pun intended.

[NJ Krish]

Originally Posted by ddk632

I can't help with the college part ... Never went... But for the programming part, since this person has only "part 1", offer to finish the project with parts 2 and 3 on your local machine, without uploading to AWS or github. And don't any code you've already written for those parts as you can assume it's been compromised.

[Sidebar: Why didn't their code have comments? Did you add them later, or did the guy take them out? I find that odd unless you added comments after this whole thing took place.]

In fact, submit it to the professor in case the other guy turns in what looks like a finished (by someone else) version of what you had started.

Essentially show that you can finish the code and the other guy can't.

Further, you cannot prove that you didn't give the guy the code. You can only plead that you didn't. Sucks that they automatically accuse you of this but hey, it's school, not court, and they don't really have to deal with pesky things like rules of civil procedure or due process.

As for accusations of plagiarism from the internet, there are a couple things you can do. First, show the file attributes on your code and project files that have created dates and was created by your PC username which matches your PC username. Sure, this can all be faked, but doesn't hurt your case at least, and might help.

Also there are tools out there that will take a document and verify it against databases of online documents. I forget the name of the one I used but see if you can find something along the lines of a plagiarism detector website/tool and run your files through it. This is probably a long shot because it's more traditionally used for essays and stuff, but maybe it's worth a shot.

Finally, if you log in to public WiFi on campus, make sure your security on your machine is sound, you have a password, file sharing disabled, etc., which goes without saying. And double check your cloud (AWS/git/etc) settings to make sure they're private. It's odd how this guy got a hold of your code.

Sorry you're having to deal with this mess and hopefully the truth will prevail and you will be off the hook. If it's a big enough assignment, I would offer to redo it on a different topic off the cloud to prove to the professor that you're capable of producing original work.

Finally, be grateful that you aren't that other guy who has clearly wasted 4 years in school and still doesn't know shit. As someone who's been in positions of interviewing and hiring programmers, I can tell you guys like him, even if they miraculously pass an interview, will not be able to keep a job very long.

Good luck, and protect your shit. No pun intended.

Thanks for that. But looking at the pictures provided by the TA in comparison he stole my step 1 project during modification. Not sure how he got it. At that time I skipped comments as the code did not fully work (outputs were not correct). Soon after I debugged and added comments and submitted mines. It's a bit difficult when you get accused right away and this is not something you would be preparing for.

[NemesisX]

Why don't you confront this guy and ask him to man up and explain that you did nothing wrong and he stole your code?

I mean he's just dragging both of you down. If he's a decent human being, why wouldn't he say "Oh, I don't even know who NJ Krish is I just googled some code and magically found his code on the internet and that's how I obtained it."

I mean obviously you don't know this guy and you have no idea how he obtained your code. Why don't you just ask him to explain the situation so at least one of you doesn't get in trouble?

[ddk632]

Originally Posted by NJ Krish

Thanks for that. But looking at the pictures provided by the TA in comparison he stole my step 1 project during modification. Not sure how he got it. At that time I skipped comments as the code did not fully work (outputs were not correct). Soon after I debugged and added comments and submitted mines. It's a bit difficult when you get accused right away and this is not something you would be preparing for.

Dude I just thought of something.

If you're supposed to be using github, why not offer the professor to review both of your github accounts and look at all of the checkins.

Yours will have a natural source history of a project underway, and his will just have whatever the hell he started with, followed by your code checked in probably all at one time, assuming he even checked it in. He will then have to explain that himself.

I think this will be very telling.

It will also prove that you didn't plagiarize the code from google.

If the professor doesn't want to hear it, then he is an idiot. Remember, those who can't do, teach.

[grimlock]

There are two possibilities:

1.You did not collaborate with the other guy and he/she must have stole it in some way
- just make it clear to the prof/TA that it is an accusation of cheating which is very serious and has nothing to do with you. you might just need to prove you are capable of giving this type of answer, and the other guy will clearily not be able to
2. you did collaborate - in which case listen to my story below:

So back in the day, I took a CS course, at which I totally suck so needless to say any help was greately appreciated. I teamed up with two other Hong Kong-er, a guy and a gal both a year below me.
None of us are dumb (ok, maybe at CS) but only the girl knew the answer, so me and the other guy just used her answer. I do not remember if the instructor encouraged or allowed group work - I think it was ambigious.
So he calls over and asks us which of us got the answer .. me and the guy were like "Er.." not really expecting this - we did not feel as if we had cheated or done anything wrong. The girl (now BITCH) immediately owns up and says it was her answer .. me and guy are a bit surprised she hung us out to dry so quickly. Because 1. we thought it was a 'collaboration' and 2. the intructor was too ambigious whether he wanted us to work together or not.
Nothing bad happened to us, but it felt bad - me and the other guy are probably the more honest of people you could meet.. we felt as if we had been set up by a entraping intructor (he was FOB Indian and incomprehsible btw not that it mattered) and a BITCH 'friend' who OFFERED to work together and then switched tail as soon as the japanese appeared over the horizon.

What I learnt: be careful who you accept 'help' from because some people will screw you over to save themselves

[Whostheboss]

A programmer here.

So this this person copied your code word-for-word exactly? Using the same variable names?
The same structure and the same parsing? If so, that's crazy. Perhaps you forgot to log out from your cloud service or that person some how got your password, logged in and took your code...
... Which leads to the next topic, did they only copy part1? If this person copied part1, what are the chances they also copied parts 2 & 3?

If you truly wrote that code yourself (which i believe you did), i wouldn't be too worried, there are plenty of ways to prove you are the original author.
Just explain to your professor step by step what each line does (which you already have) and tell the school you are willing to get Police involved and possibly press charges for theft.

I don't see this as a serious case, you will win no doubt, it's just frustrating especially time of finals.

[ddk632]

I still think a review of git history is best proof.

OP keep us posted on how it goes with the professor today. Good luck.

[NJ Krish]

Hi everyone,

First of all thank you for all the support and kind words. It really helped. I finally got to see my professor and explain my side of the story and show my code/uploads etc. He already believed it was my code by then but wanted to settle this with the other student as well and get her side (Yes was a girl).

He decided to put me in his Computer lab next to his office for about 30 minutes to see if the other student shows up to his office to make her case. She did, and she tried to make her case but at the end the professor told her I was in the other room and She will have to confront me about the code.The professor initially planned to go over the code and/or modify it to show who knows the code is even doing. I was prepared to go over the code from scratch or do anything needed.

Soon after, the professor comes into the lab and told me it's done and she broke down and admitted she copied the code and lied about it. I did not have to do any more to prove my case and was even given an extension plus removal of the 0. I did not have to escalate this anymore as the professor was understanding and saw the truth. I don't know what will happen to the girl but I am sure it will go up to the dean/chairman according to the professor.

One main thing that stood out is she copied the WRONG code, the code that she was able to get was the code not debugged/modified to project specification. Also she did not even have the next 2 steps completed in which I did.

Its all done and I am stress free. I thought this would end up as a heated discussion with professor and the other student but you can't prove something belongs to you if you have no idea what it even does.


Thanks again everyone !

Originally Posted by Whostheboss

A programmer here.

So this this person copied your code word-for-word exactly? Using the same variable names?
The same structure and the same parsing? If so, that's crazy. Perhaps you forgot to log out from your cloud service or that person some how got your password, logged in and took your code...
... Which leads to the next topic, did they only copy part1? If this person copied part1, what are the chances they also copied parts 2 & 3?

If you truly wrote that code yourself (which i believe you did), i wouldn't be too worried, there are plenty of ways to prove you are the original author.
Just explain to your professor step by step what each line does (which you already have) and tell the school you are willing to get Police involved and possibly press charges for theft.

I don't see this as a serious case, you will win no doubt, it's just frustrating especially time of finals.

Yes it is very stressful and the professor saw that and gave me an extension so I can finalize the code and submit when I am ready, allowing me to study for my finals.

[PSUSMU]

[Myrder]

Similar thing happened to me where a student plagiarized my work in grad school. Met with the dean and explained the story, other student did a similar breakdown and was kept in the school but lost her assistant research position.

[Whostheboss]

COOL!

Out of curiosity, What type of project is this?

One of my college final project was to design a Peer-to-peer application (Napster, utorrent etc), It was cool, myself and my project partner wrote a pretty cool app using Windows API. You can download the app anywhere on college campus, upload files to it and anyone anywhere on campus can download the app and upload and share files... it was pretty cool considering this was way back 2007.

If only we had came up with this idea before Sean Parker... lol

[Devious21]

I didn't see this until after resolution but the first thing I thought of when I read the initial post was not to be too worried. I find when someone knows what they're talking about, it's not too hard for them to figure out who else knows what they're talking about. It's fairly obvious that someone is out of their depth, when you know what questions to ask.

If anything, I would have been more worried that the professor would have assumed she was obviously the one who copied but you knowingly helped her cheat. That's a lot harder to disprove.

Glad it all worked out for you.