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External collaborations & professional conduct

Some CACoM projects involve clinicians, researchers or industry partners, who can give you access to real data and expert mentoring. In every exchange with them, you represent TUM and the course.

Contacting collaborators​

CC support@cacom.dev on every email you exchange with collaborators, including the first one. We want to see all of these conversations.

  • To work with an established CACoM partner, tell us you are interested, either through support@cacom.dev or in class. Prof. Daumer will then introduce you.
  • To approach a new partner, we recommend talking to us first. We check that the collaboration fits the course and doesn't conflict with our existing partnerships, and we agree with you on who makes the first contact. You may also contact them on your own; the CC rule applies from your first email.

Working with collaborators​

How you work with collaborators counts under criterion 6 (Independence, initiative & professionalism) and can raise or lower that score. If a collaborator withdraws because of unprofessional behavior, your project may have to be restructured and could be graded as incomplete.

Treat a collaborator the way you would treat a temporary supervisor of your team:

  • Don't leave messages unanswered for days.
  • Confirm meetings and be on time, or cancel early if you can't make it.
  • Plan meetings around the collaborator's availability, and coordinate so that at least one or two of you can attend whenever they are free.
  • After each meeting, send a short recap of three or four bullet points.
  • Keep written records (emails, notes) of important exchanges.
  • When you get feedback, thank them, note what you will change and follow up once it's done. If you disagree, say so constructively.
  • Keep to agreed schedules and deliverables, and don't commit to more than you can deliver or to unrealistic deadlines. If you are going to be late, tell them early and propose a new timeline.

Project ownership and grading​

Partners may contribute ideas or data, but the project stays academically independent. You define the computational work and are responsible for its scientific rigor and reproducibility. If a partner proposes something outside CACoM's scope, such as purely product-oriented development, check with us before you commit.

Some partners prepare topics together with Prof. Daumer, while others take part more independently. Either way, the course team grades your work. We consider the collaborator's feedback, but you still have to meet every course requirement:

  • Your topic needs approval from the course team (see the Proposal guide).
  • You can't work incognito all semester and then turn up with a finished app or prototype. Groups working with a partner follow the class participation rule like everyone else.
  • If you work with proprietary components, we can grade only the parts you can show and share with us.
  • If all of your work stays proprietary, we can't evaluate it, however useful it is, and you risk failing the course.

Confidentiality and IP​

  • Treat everything a partner shares with you as confidential, even if no NDA has been signed, and keep it within your group.
  • Keep proprietary details out of public repositories, posters and videos.
  • Publish or present results that involve a partner only with their explicit consent. For posters and videos, which are public at the symposium, get it before the poster and video deadline.
  • Follow the partner's rules on data sharing, authorship and acknowledgment.
  • If your project includes restricted components, say so in your report (see Data privacy).
  • If you are not sure whether something can be shared, ask us before you post or present it.

If things go wrong​

If communication with a collaborator breaks down or the collaboration takes an unexpected turn, tell us right away via support@cacom.dev, and don't try to sort out a major misunderstanding on your own. Be honest about what happened: we would rather help early than repair things later.