ATLANTA (U-WIRE) - When Georgia Tech students received their final grades online over the winter break, most assumed the fall semester was over and behind them. However, for almost 200 Tech students now under investigation by the Dean of Students office, this is not the case.

On Jan. 15, the Dean of Students office reported that 187 individuals were under investigation for honor code violations.

According to Associate Dean Karen Boyd, the students have been accused of cheating on projects in two introductory computer science classes.

The issue was brought forward after programs developed by Tech CS professors to detect cheating found many similarities among the works completed by different students.

Boyd told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that this is strictly prohibited under the Tech Honor Code.

The College of Computing makes it clear that students must work individually on all programming projects or homework assignments.

Collaboration among students is taken seriously in the Computer Science department, because, according to Boyd, the professors need to be able to use homework assignments to gauge how well an individual student understands the material.

The students who are being investigated will now have to meet with members of Tech staff as well as with members of the Dean's Office to explain their side of the story. Boyd and her staff will then make the decision as to whether each individual student should be charged.

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