Course format

In each class we will discuss 2-3 research papers. Students are expected to read the assigned papers and write a short review before each class (more on paper reviews below). One student will do a short presentation about each paper for the day, which will be the starting point for our discussions.

In parallel, students will work on a semester-long project on an open research problem related to the topics covered in the course. There is a lot of flexibility in the specific topic and problem chosen, and ideally it should come from the student's own research interest.

Required reading

There are no textbooks for this course. We will read the papers in the schedule, which are available electronically.

Grading

  • 10% Participation: Class attendance and in-class discussions
  • 40% Paper reviews, discussion lead
    • 20% Paper reviews
    • 20% Discussion lead
  • 50% Project
    • 10% Initial proposal
    • 10% Midterm progress report
    • 10% Presentation: poster session
    • 20% Final report

Papers

Paper reviews

Paper reviews shall be posted to the class discussion group no later than 11:59pm on the day before the corresponding class. Please post reviews in plain text, no html, and no attachments (doc, pdf, etc). You are excused of 4 reviews with no questions asked.

Use this template when writing your reviews. Remember, you are not simply summarizing the paper, but providing an assessment. Here are tips for becoming a more efficient reader.

Paper discussions

Each student will lead the discussion on a few of the papers during the semester. The exact allocation will depend on the number of students and student interest.

You must consult with me before the class in which you will lead a discussion. You don't have to post a review before class when you present, but should post a summary of the discussion after the class. These can be your notes or presentation, plus any additional interesting insight we got at the class. For guidelines on how to prepare your discussion, check prof. Randy Katz' notes [pdf]. You don't have to have slides, as long as you have some notes to guide you.

Project

The other major component of the class is a research project on a subject of the student's choosing. Ideally the project should be carried out in groups of 2, but exceptions (1 or 3 students) are possible. Please consult with me.

The projects should aim high, such that it should be possible to submit the best projects to a conference or workshop with some additional work after the semester. (I'd be happy to help with that.)

Project proposals are the first milestone, and should be short and to the point. This document has a good description of the questions your proposal should answer. The proposal should be from 1 to 4 pages, in pdf, and sent by email to the instructor.

Before that, on Friday 10/2, you should post a draft of your proposal to the newsgroup. See the message in the newsgroup for details.

Milestones

  1. 10/2, Fri, 11:59pm. Project proposal draft due, posted to newsgroup.
  2. 10/6, Tue. Proposal discussion: In-class discussion of project proposals.
  3. 10/7, Wed, 11:59pm. Project proposal due. 1 to 4 pages
  4. 11/12, Thu. Progress report: In-class presentations of progress in the project.
  5. 12/10, Thu. Poster session: Open poster session with refreshments. Counts towards the presentation grade.
    12/15, Tu (in CIT 368) Final presentations: open presentation session with refreshments. Counts towards the presentation grade.
  6. 12/15, Tu, 11:59pm. Final report: Written project reports due. See below.

Final Presentation

The class voted on having a presentation rather than a poster session. We will have an open presentation session on Tuesday, December 15th, from 1pm to 2:30pm, in room 368 of the CIT Building. Each group will have 8 minutes to present, at most. We have to make sure that transitions are quick.

Some hints:

  • Not more than 8 slides!
    • Brief intro to the problem
    • What you did, questions asked
    • Experiments
    • Conclusion: what you learned
  • Practice at least once

Final Project Report

The final report is due on Tuesday, December 15th, at 11:59pm. It MUST be a PDF file, sent by email to me. It should have between 8 and 12 single-spaced pages with font not larger than 11pt. I suggest you use LaTeX, but that's up to you.

Contents should be similar to a research paper:

  • Introduction and motivation
  • What you did
  • Experiments/Evaluation
  • Related work and how you extend or are different
  • Conclusion: what you learned
  • Proper references (BibTeX makes you life easy)
  • Graphs should be legible! (hint: use vector - .eps, .pdf, .svg - rather than bitmap - .png, jpg - whenever possible)

I have created a sample LaTeX file that you can use to write your report if you want.

If you have any questions before submitting, don't hesitate to ask!