Editing and running are switched off at the tool layer. Reflux can read a student's case and teach it. It cannot change it.
Academic pilot
You set the level, not the student.
An instructor picks one of three levels for a course. The level is configuration, so a student rewording the request cannot raise it.
Watch the controls
Three levels, set per course.
A natural-language layer makes it far too easy for the tool to do the part the student is supposed to learn. Where that line sits is the instructor's call, not our default.
A failure gets one hint at the most useful place to look, and then it stops. It applies a fix only when the student asks for one.
The way industry runs it. For the workshop where the point is to get somewhere complicated fast, not to be assessed on the mechanics.
The limit worth stating. None of this stops a student pasting their assignment into a general purpose chatbot, and we will not pretend otherwise. What it does is make the tool that actually touches the simulator answer to you rather than to them.
Enforced at every level.
- Convergence failures stay failures A design that does not converge is telling the student why it does not work. Reflux is not allowed to quietly make that go away.
- External research can be switched off entirely On, ask first, or off. Set to off, the tool never leaves the machine, and you can say so to a department.
- It cannot delete a student's work Destructive operations may only touch objects the student named in their own words, or objects Reflux itself created in that session.
- Every assumption is logged as it is made Anything Reflux decided that the student did not specify goes into the record at the moment of the decision, so the student has to account for it.
- The submitted file stays the submitted file Work saves to a new file. The original a student hands in is never written over.
A practical starting shape.
Start with one course module, lab section, capstone team, or research group. Pick the Aspen Plus work students already have to finish, set the level that suits each assignment, and keep the group small enough that the feedback is real.
A module, a lab section, a capstone team, or a research group. Not a department rollout.
A setup call, a midterm feedback pass, and an end-of-term synthesis.
Windows 10 or 11 and Aspen Plus V14 installed and licensed. Your university's academic licence is fine. Reflux does not include Aspen Plus.
The exchange stays explicit.
Which course, how many students, which level each assignment runs at, and how it gets onto their machines. Terms are set on that call.
Students do the work at the level you set. You can change it per assignment.
Students and instructors send raw notes on what worked, what confused them, and where the tool broke down. This is the part we actually want.
A co-authored write-up is optional. It can be anonymised, scoped, delayed, or declined, and none of that changes the pilot.
Where the line sits on academic integrity.
Reflux enforces the level you set. It does not set course expectations, grading policy, or what counts as permitted assistance at your institution.
Plans, assumptions, and outputs stay visible, so a student can be asked to explain their reasoning and a marker can check whether they can.
Industrial or sponsor data enters a pilot only with explicit permission and the constraints that come with it.
Bring one Aspen Plus assignment your students already have to finish.
A pilot starts with a short call: which course, which level each assignment should run at, and what the term needs to prove.
Start the faculty conversation ↓