4005-893: Assignments and other materials


Week 1

• Create your MS project/thesis website where you will keep posting weekly updates on your work (until you defend your project/thesis!).


• On the website create a header titled 'Week of March 15-21 progress' (or something similar). You will do this for every week.


• Read Chapters 1 and 2. Write down the ten most important points (most important to you - likely something that does not feel natural to you but, if following the advice, it would improve your writing style). Create a sub-header titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 2: Good Style'. Include the ten points in this subsection of the website.


• Read Chapter 10 on Doing Research, pages 157-169. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on the website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 10: Doing Research, part 1'


• Identify three topics that you would like to work on for your MS Project/Thesis. These might be topics that a faculty member is working as part of their research, or maybe you came across them while you browsed the web (e.g., studying papers in recent conference proceedings). Describe each topic in a paragraph and identify a concrete problem of interest. Include the problem statement. Post the information on the website, under subsection titled 'Topics of interest'. Include also names of potential commitee chair(s) (CS faculty).


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 1. The dropbox closes at 4pm on March 22.


• Each of you will discuss your possible research topics next class, in roughly 3 minutes per person.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on March 29.


• Create a header titled 'Week of March 22-28 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Read Chapter 3. Write down your ten most important points. Create a sub-header titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 3: Style Specifics'. Include the ten points in this subsection.


• Finish reading Chapter 10, pages 169-183. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 10: Doing Research, part 2'.


• Revise or expand your possible MS Project/Thesis topics, based on the feedback from class in Week 2. Once you decide to go with a specific topic, describe it in more details (content similar to describing three different topics in less detail, i.e., about 3 paragraphs). Include answers to 'what', 'why', and 'how' mentioned at the course website. Post this information on your website, under subsection titled 'Topics of interest'. Include any changes to potential commitee chair(s) (CS faculty).


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 2. The dropbox closes at 4pm on March 29.


• Each of you will discuss your updates to your research topics next class, in roughly 3 minutes per person.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on April 5.


• Create a header titled 'Week of March 29-April 4 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Read Chapter 5. Write down your ten most important points. Create a sub-header titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 5: Mathematics'. Include the ten points in this subsection.


• Start reading Chapter 11, pages 185-197. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 11: Experimentation, part 1'.


• Finalize your MS Project/Thesis advisor and, based on their feedback, update your MS Project/Thesis topic. Include answers to 'what', 'why', and 'how' mentioned at the course website. Post this information on your website, under subsection titled '(Almost) finalized topic of interest'.


• Find at least 3 relevant references and summarize each in a paragraph on your website, under a subsection titled 'References'.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 3. The dropbox closes at 4pm on April 5.


• Start writing a draft of your pre-proposal. Include current MS Project/Thesis title, your name, your advisor's name, and your three references. A LaTeX template and sample pre-proposals can be found at Prof. Zanibbi's MS Seminar Pre-Proposals page.


• We will continue doing the updates on your progress in class, in roughly 3 minutes per person.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on April 12.


• Create a header titled 'Week of April 5-11 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Finish reading Chapter 11. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 11: Experimentation, part 2'.


• Write an update on your MS pre-proposal progress, under header 'Latest pre-proposal progress'.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 4. The dropbox closes at 4pm on April 12.


• Update the draft of your pre-proposal. Include answers to the what, how, why questions. You should have about 1/2-page of material.


• Next class, we will critique each other's pre-proposal drafts.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on April 19.


• Create a header titled 'Week of April 12-18 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Read Chapter 7. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 7: Algorithms'.


• Write an update on your MS pre-proposal progress, under header 'Latest pre-proposal progress'. Link to your current pre-proposal draft.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 5. The dropbox closes at 4pm on April 19.


• Update the draft of your pre-proposal, based on comments from class and your latest progress. Upload the pdf to MyCourses.


• Prepare a list of "roadblocks" that you ran into while working on your preproposal. Each of you will be given 3 minutes to discuss the roadblocks and we will all brainstorm for possible solutions. The roadblocks could be, for example, technical issues you ran into, or difficulties with narrowing down your chosen area to a MS thesis/project topic. To help you with your 3-minute presentation, you may opt to include the roadblocks under your latest pre-proposal progress section on your website.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on April 26.


• Create a header titled 'Week of April 19-25 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Read Chapter 9. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 9: Writing up'.


• Write an update on your MS pre-proposal progress, under header 'Latest pre-proposal progress'. Link to your current pre-proposal draft.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 6. The dropbox closes at 4pm on April 26.


• Update the draft of your pre-proposal, based on comments from class, your advisor, and your latest progress. Your draft should not exceed two pages. The draft should include (1) the description of the problem and the motivation behind it, (2) what you propose to do, (3) the description of related works, and (4) related references. Make sure that your pre-proposal and references are formatted appropriately. Upload the pdf to MyCourses.


• We will critique the pre-proposals in class in week 7.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on May 3.


• Create a header titled 'Week of April 26-May 2 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.


• Read Chapter 6. Summarize its ten most important points in a subsection on your website, titled 'Lessons learned from Chapter 6: Graphs, figures, and tables'.


• Write an update on your MS pre-proposal progress, under header 'Latest pre-proposal progress'. Link to your current pre-proposal draft.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with all the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 7. The dropbox closes at 4pm on May 3.


• Update the draft of your pre-proposal, based on comments from class, your advisor, and your latest progress. Upload the pdf to MyCourses.


• Be prepared to discuss your latest progress in class in week 8. This includes sharing any comments and suggestions from your advisor.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on May 10.


• Create a header titled 'Week of May 3-9 progress' (or something similar) on your project website.



• Write an update on your MS pre-proposal progress, under header 'Latest pre-proposal progress'. Link to your current pre-proposal draft.


• Create a text (or pdf) file with the above information and upload it to the MyCourses dropbox for Week 8. The dropbox closes at 4pm on May 10.


• Update your pre-proposal, incorporate your advisor's feedback. Upload the pdf to MyCourses.


• We will do the last round of pre-proposal peer-reviewing in class in week 9. The final pre-proposals are due in week 10.

• Clipboard survey for today's presentations: here. The survey closes at 4pm on May 17.
• Finalize your pre-proposals and upload them to the Week 9 dropbox on MyCourses. Once your pre-proposal is approved by your advisor, upload it (as a pdf) to the Final Preproposal dropbox.
• We will have pre-proposal presentations in class in Week 10.
• Grading:
  • Pre-proposal approved by week 10 and website up to date: A.
  • For pre-proposals approved later than week 10:
    • Need to present the preproposal in another MS seminar section.
    • Grade will be based on participation in the seminar class (as spelled out in the course syllabus) and on homework submissions. In particular: A: missed class no more than three times (unless there is an emergency - a proper documentation is required), received A-range grade on at least seven homework assignments; B: missed class four or five times, received B or better range grade on at least five homework assignments, C: missed class six or seven times, received C or better range grade on at least three homework assignments.

• Alex Lange
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• Anup Ahire
• Bharath Rangamannar
• Ian Wittenberg
• Max Bogue
• Nipun Sud
• Pooja Desai
• Russell Harmon
• Ryan Massicci
• Shashank Srivastava
• Sreeprasad Govindankutty
• Sudipan Mishra
• Sunay Vaishnav
• Troy Hawley
• Varun Goyal
• Vivek Narang
• Yasser Hernandez