CSE 473 Projects

AI Use

The icon for the Allen School ‘AI as a Reference Tool’ policy. The letters AI in the center of a microchip-like image on a page that is being viewed by a magnifying glass.

This course is using the Allen School’s AI as a Reference Tool policy. Roughly this means you may use AI for general course questions and ungraded work, but not for graded assignments, quizzes, exams, or any deliverable that counts toward your grade. The linked full policy contains a lot of helpful information about what this means and how you may responsibly use AI for this course.

We choose this policy because working through the homework problems enables detailed understanding of materials and provides retrieval practice to promote learning. Practicing code implementation not only provides practice with the Python programming language but also requires that you think through the choices required to turn theory into practice.

Make sure to complete the AI usage reflection in reflection.py, even if you didn’t use AI on this project (just say you didn’t use AI).

AI Usage Reflection

Each project submission (starting with Project 1) must be accompanied with a completed AI Usage Reflection in the form of the reflection.py file. In the case that you didn’t use AI while working on the project, just complete part 1 below (answer “NO”) and you’re done! Make sure to submit reflection.py to Gradescope along with the required project files.

The AI Usage Reflection contains the following parts in reflection.py:

  1. @AI-USE: Replace line 17 in reflection.py with YES if you used any form of AI while working on the project, or NO if you didn’t.
  2. @AI-CITATION: If you did use AI, replace the text in square brackets with a short ‘citation’ for the AI tools you used. A ‘citation’ is just the name of the AI model and/or tool (e.g. “Claude Sonnet 4.6 via Claude Code”)
  3. @AI-REFLECTION: If you used AI, replace the text in square brackets with a short (2-3 sentence) response to the following questions:
    • How did you use the AI tool(s) you cited?
    • Did using AI help your understanding and progress on the project? Did it pose any limitations for your understanding and progress?

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