Project Assignment Details
===========================

    As you know there are two "hand-ins" each of you have to do for
your project:

    - On 12/6 you must hand-in a one page abstract for your
    project. This is an individual assignment, so we should get 2
    abstracts per project.

    - On 12/16 there will be public (open to the whole department)
    talks of your projects, with 7 minutes joint talks for each group,
    with 3 minutes for questions. Final versions of your abstracts
    should be handed in this same day.

    On Tuesday 11/29, Shiyin will be in class to schedule the last 2
meetings of the semester:

    - The first meeting should take place on or before Sunday 12/4. At
    that meeting each of you, individually, must hand-in a written
    list of contributions and ideas that you need to express in your
    final written and oral presentations. Shiyin will work with each of
    you to organize your written abstract and with both of you to
    prepare your presentations.

     - The second meeting should take place between 12/6 and 12/14. At
     this meeting Shiyin will review your individual abstracts. You
     should take those comments and use them to prepare your
     individual final abstracts. You will also do a full joint
     presentation of your project for Shiyin to critique.

     
Notes on how to write an abstract for your project:
===================================================

Imagine you are on an elevator at the CIT and you need to explain your
project to someone in the time it takes from the 1st floor to the
5th. That, but on paper and with some images, is what you should write
on your abstract. Maybe it'll take more floors than four, but you get
the idea. This abstract is what introduces your project to people, so
it needs to catch their attention and make them ask for more
details. I'll list some useful points to keep in mind:

- It should be one page, double column, with references and
  images. All in just one side of the page! Font 11 and 'normal
  spacing'... don't cramp the lines together! 
  For examples, look at:
  + http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs237/2000/proc.pdf
  + http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs237/2000/1999/isvw.html

- There are two templates (example.tex and example.doc) you can use in
  /pro/web/web/courses/cs237/examples

- A possible organization would be:
  + Say what you did.
  + Indicate the results you've got and what your goals were.
  + Describe the pieces of the project.
  + Describe the applications of your project.
  + Introduce the evaluation procedure.
  + Conclude again with the results and how relevant they are.

- The idea of the abstract is to catch the readers' attention to make
  them read more and go to the presentation, not to compress the
  possible paper in one page. It should still explain the important
  ideas in enough detail so the abstract itself stands alone.

- The abstract should stand alone.

- Make sure the title and the abstract work together. Don't leave
  readers wondering about things you mention in one but not in the other.

- Although sometimes it feels better to leave the good stuff for the
  end, after getting the full idea of the project, not here. Try to give
  enough information to support how you've got your results, but don't
  overwhelm with details.

- Readers want to know if it's worth going into the details based on
  your best results. Present those EARLY!

- Work with the rhetoric fellow early and often!


     Send questions to cs237ta@cs