Master's Project/Thesis Seminar (4005-893-01)
Department of Computer Science, RIT |
The goals for this course are for students to develop research skills for Computer Science, and to create a plan for completing their own MS project or thesis. Over the course of the quarter, students will work with their faculty advisor, the course instructor, and other students in the course to develop a preliminary research project or thesis proposal, known as a pre-proposal. Each week students will discuss an assigned reading out of the course text, along with making a brief presentation and/or submit a pre-proposal draft. Students will also create an annotated bibliography for their project/thesis.
The course is complete when the student's advisor emails the instructor to indicate that a student's pre-proposal is acceptable, and that they are willing to advise the student's project or thesis.
Students that complete the course will receive their current grade for all assigned items due up to the date that an advisor's approval is received by the instructor. Students who do not have a pre-proposal accepted by a faculty advisor by the end of Week 10 will receive a grade of Incomplete (I).
Once a student completes the seminar, they should register for the appropriate 0-credit project (4005-891-02) or thesis (4005-890-02) proposal course. Once a student has completed a proposal and had it accepted by their MS Committee (comprised of three faculty members, the Chair (advisor), Reader, and an Observer), the student may then register for the MS Project (4005-891-01) or Thesis (4005-890-01).
Please Note: students who complete their pre-proposals before the end of quarter are encouarged to continue attending the seminar in order to obtain feedback on their proposal drafts, and to participate in the discussions on research in Computer Science.
Most weeks we will be discussing sections of the course textbook, on topics related to carrying out and writing about research in Computer Science:
Zobel, Justin. Writing for Computer Science, 2nd edition. London: Springer-Verlag, 2004 (available online through booksellers, and in the RIT bookstore).
| Week | Topics | Pages | Assignments |
| 1 | Overview; Pre-proposals | ||
| 2 | Research Literature, Planning | 157-169 | Topic/Advisor Pres. (group I) |
| 3 | Hypotheses, Research Areas | 169-182 | Topic/Advisor Pres. (group II) |
| 4 | Experimentation | 185-197 | Annotated Bibliography I (4 refs) Peer Review I |
| 5 | Experimentation Part II | (remainder Ch. 11) | Pre-proposal Pres. I (group I) |
| 6 | Defining and Describing Algorithms | Ch. 7 | Pre-proposal Pres. I (group II) |
| 7 | Writing research papers/documents | Ch. 9 (137-155) | Annotated Bibliography II (8 refs) Peer Review II |
| 8 | Graphs and Figures | Ch. 6 | Submit Pre-proposal Pre-proposal Pres. II (group I) |
| 9 | Mathematical Notation | Ch. 5 | Pre-proposal Pres. II (group II) |
| 10 | Final Pre-Proposal Presentations | (no reading) | Submit Pre-Proposal Presentation (all incomplete students) |
| Pre-proposal (Wk 8 Draft (15%), Wk 10 (20%)) | 35% |
| Presentations (4; Wk 2 or 3, 5 or 6, 8 & 10) | 35% |
| Annotated Bibliographies (2: Weeks 4, 7) | 20% |
| Leading Discussion (for Assigned Reading) | 10% |
All items are graded using a 4-point scale: M (missing - 0%), Does Not Meet Expectations (77%), Meets Expectations (88%) and Exceeds Expectations (100%). All presentations and written materials will be graded based on technical content, clarity, and style.
Students will give 5 presentations; 4 individual and 1 team presentation. The individual presentations will be of pre-proposal drafts. For team presentations, students will summarize and lead discussion of the assigned reading for the week.
Individual presentations are 5 minutes long. Team presentations/discussion leading are 30 minutes long; students may prepare a discussion of 10 minutes length to be given prior to class discussion, or alternatively provide slides containing roughly 10 minutes of content to be displayed during class discussion.
During the quarter, we will be completing two peer review exercises in weeks 4 and 7. Students will exchange their pre-proposals and provide feedback using a reviewing form and through discussion. There is no grade associated with the peer reviews - however, many students find them very helpful.