diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e620d0f..bcf4d22 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file, and this project adheres to 
 [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## Unreleased
+
+* Added customizable timeout to notebook execution
+* Changed the notebook execution template to use `pybryt.tracing_on` and `pybryt.tracing_off`
+
 ## 0.1.7 - 2021-06-28
 
 * Fixed `pybryt execute` output per [#94](https://github.com/microsoft/pybryt/issues/94)
diff --git a/docs/student_implementations.rst b/docs/student_implementations.rst
index 4352852..c1a8096 100644
--- a/docs/student_implementations.rst
+++ b/docs/student_implementations.rst
@@ -34,6 +34,17 @@ written in a Python script (which PyBryt would by default not trace).
 
     stu = pybryt.StudentImplementation("harness.ipynb", addl_filenames=["subm.py"])
 
+To prevent notebooks from getting stuck in a loop or from taking up too many resources, PyBryt
+automatically sets a timeout of 1200 seconds for each notebook to execute. This cap can be changed
+using the `timeout` argument to the constructor, and can be removed by setting that value to ``None``:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    stu = pybryt.StudentImplementation("subm.ipynb", timeout=2000)
+
+    # no timeout
+    stu = pybryt.StudentImplementation("subm.ipynb", timeout=None)
+
 PyBryt also employs various custom notebook preprocessors for handling special cases that occur in 
 the code to allow different types of values to be checked. To see the exact version of the code that 
 PyBryt executes, set ``output`` to a path to a notebook that PyBryt will write with the executed 
diff --git a/pybryt/cli.py b/pybryt/cli.py
index 88981fe..2920198 100644
--- a/pybryt/cli.py
+++ b/pybryt/cli.py
@@ -101,8 +101,10 @@ def check(ref, stu, name, output_nb, output, output_type):
               help="Execute notebooks in parallel using the multiprocessing library")
 @click.option("-o", "--output", default=None, type=click.Path(), 
               help="Path at which to write the pickled student implementation")
+@click.option("--timeout", default=1200, type=click.INT, 
+              help="Timeout for notebook execution in seconds")
 @click.argument("subm", nargs=-1, type=click.Path(exists=True, dir_okay=False))
-def execute(subm, parallel, output):
+def execute(subm, parallel, output, timeout):
     """
     Execute student submissions to generate memory footprints.
 
@@ -113,7 +115,7 @@ def execute(subm, parallel, output):
     if len(subm) == 0:
         raise ValueError("You must specify at least one notebook to execute")
 
-    stus = generate_student_impls(subm, parallel=parallel)
+    stus = generate_student_impls(subm, parallel=parallel, timeout=timeout)
 
     if output is None:
             output = "./"
diff --git a/pybryt/execution/__init__.py b/pybryt/execution/__init__.py
index 4ab61aa..1dbb26d 100644
--- a/pybryt/execution/__init__.py
+++ b/pybryt/execution/__init__.py
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ NBFORMAT_VERSION = 4
 
 
 def execute_notebook(nb: nbformat.NotebookNode, nb_path: str, addl_filenames: List[str] = [], 
-        output: Optional[str] = None) -> Tuple[int, List[Tuple[Any, int]], List[Tuple[str, str]], \
-        nbformat.NotebookNode]:
+        output: Optional[str] = None, timeout: Optional[int] = 1200) -> Tuple[int, List[Tuple[Any, \
+        int]], List[Tuple[str, str]], nbformat.NotebookNode]:
     """
     Executes a submission using ``nbconvert`` and returns the memory footprint.
 
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ def execute_notebook(nb: nbformat.NotebookNode, nb_path: str, addl_filenames: Li
         nb_path (``str``): path to the notebook ``nb``
         addl_filenames (``list[str]``, optional): a list of additional files to trace inside
         output (``str``, optional): a file path at which to write the executed notebook
+        timeout (``int``, optional): number of seconds to allow for notebook execution; set to 
+            ``None`` for no time limit
 
     Returns:
         ``tuple[int, list[tuple[object, int]], list[tuple[str, str]], nbformat.NotebookNode]``: the 
@@ -56,15 +58,16 @@ def execute_notebook(nb: nbformat.NotebookNode, nb_path: str, addl_filenames: Li
 
     first_cell = nbformat.v4.new_code_cell(dedent(f"""\
         import sys
-        from pybryt.execution import create_collector
+        from pybryt.execution import create_collector, tracing_on
         cir_results_{secret}, cir = create_collector(addl_filenames={addl_filenames})
-        sys.settrace(cir)
         {TRACING_VARNAME} = True
+        tracing_on(tracing_func=cir)
         %cd {nb_dir}
     """))
 
     last_cell = nbformat.v4.new_code_cell(dedent(f"""\
-        sys.settrace(None)
+        from pybryt.execution import tracing_off
+        tracing_off()
         import dill
         from pybryt.utils import filter_picklable_list
         filter_picklable_list(cir_results_{secret}[0])
@@ -75,7 +78,7 @@ def execute_notebook(nb: nbformat.NotebookNode, nb_path: str, addl_filenames: Li
     nb['cells'].insert(0, first_cell)
     nb['cells'].append(last_cell)
 
-    ep = ExecutePreprocessor(timeout=1200, allow_errors=True)
+    ep = ExecutePreprocessor(timeout=timeout, allow_errors=True)
 
     ep.preprocess(nb)
 
diff --git a/pybryt/student.py b/pybryt/student.py
index 456a839..4c5748d 100644
--- a/pybryt/student.py
+++ b/pybryt/student.py
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ class StudentImplementation(Serializable):
         addl_filenames (``list[str]``, optional): additional filenames to trace inside during 
             execution
         output (``str``, optional): a path at which to write executed notebook
+        timeout (``int``, optional): number of seconds to allow for notebook execution; set to 
+            ``None`` for no time limit
     """
 
     nb: Optional[nbformat.NotebookNode]
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ class StudentImplementation(Serializable):
 
     def __init__(
         self, path_or_nb: Optional[Union[str, nbformat.NotebookNode]], addl_filenames: List[str] = [],
-        output: Optional[str] = None
+        output: Optional[str] = None, timeout: Optional[int] = 1200,
     ):
         self.executed_nb = None
         if path_or_nb is None:
@@ -76,19 +78,21 @@ class StudentImplementation(Serializable):
         else:
             raise TypeError(f"path_or_nb is of unsupported type {type(path_or_nb)}")
 
-        self._execute(addl_filenames=addl_filenames, output=output)
+        self._execute(timeout, addl_filenames=addl_filenames, output=output)
 
-    def _execute(self, addl_filenames: List[str] = [], output: Optional[str] = None) -> NoReturn:
+    def _execute(self, timeout: Optional[int], addl_filenames: List[str] = [], output: Optional[str] = None) -> NoReturn:
         """
         Executes the notebook ``self.nb``.
 
         Args:
+            timeout (``int``): number of seconds to allow for notebook execution; set to 
+                ``None`` for no time limit
             addl_filenames (``list[str]``, optional): additional filenames to trace inside during 
                 execution
             output (``str``, optional): a path at which to write executed notebook
         """
         self.steps, self.values, self.calls, self.executed_nb = execute_notebook(
-            self.nb, self.nb_path, addl_filenames=addl_filenames, output=output
+            self.nb, self.nb_path, addl_filenames=addl_filenames, output=output, timeout=timeout,
         )
 
         if self.errors:

diff --git a/tests/test_cli.py b/tests/test_cli.py
index 21a4450..69528d8 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -128,15 +128,19 @@ def test_execute():
 
         result = runner.invoke(click_cli, ["execute", *fns])
         assert result.exit_code == 0
-        mocked_generate.assert_called_with(fns, parallel=False)
+        mocked_generate.assert_called_with(fns, parallel=False, timeout=1200)
 
         result = runner.invoke(click_cli, ["execute", fns[0]])
         assert result.exit_code == 0
-        mocked_generate.assert_called_with((fns[0], ), parallel=False)
+        mocked_generate.assert_called_with((fns[0], ), parallel=False, timeout=1200)
 
         result = runner.invoke(click_cli, ["execute", "-p", *fns])
         assert result.exit_code == 0
-        mocked_generate.assert_called_with(fns, parallel=True)
+        mocked_generate.assert_called_with(fns, parallel=True, timeout=1200)
+
+        result = runner.invoke(click_cli, ["execute", *fns, "--timeout", "100"])
+        assert result.exit_code == 0
+        mocked_generate.assert_called_with(fns, parallel=False, timeout=100)
 
         # check for error on nonexistance output dir
         result = runner.invoke(click_cli, ["execute", *fns, "-o", "/some/fake/path"])

Allow timeouts for submission execution
Allow instructors to specify a timeout for executing submissions, programmatically and via `pybryt execute`.
tests/test_cli.py::test_execute
tests/test_cli.py::test_check tests/test_cli.py::test_compile tests/test_cli.py::test_cli_func