AFS
If your files were AFS based (/afs/ece.cmu.edu), the OldFiles directory at the top of AFS volumes contains a copy of the last backup of that volume. You can simply browse the directories trees and copy files back to your working directory.
Unfortunately, the OldFiles directory only contains the most recent backup (usually this means last night’s backup), so if you had a need for files from further back than last night, you would need to create a help ticket to have them restored.
Example:
I deleted my simulation code from my ~/ece18-100/ folder, it was named due-tomorrow.c
The path to get it is: ~/OldFiles/ece18-100/due-tomorrow.c
Simply copy it back out: cp ~/OldFiles/ece18-100/due-tomorrow.c ~/ece18-100/due-tomorrow.c
