4003-410: Introduction to CS Research
20122: Fridays 10-12, 70-3560?, Zack Butler (zjb-AT-cs-DOT-rit-DOT-edu)
This course is a highly interactive introduction to general
aspects of research in Computer Science, with the goal of
preparing Honors students for their capstone project and
any student for effective research. We will talk about
how to find and read scholarly articles, how to develop and
execute a research plan, and how to write up the results of
scholarly research. Along the way, we will read and discuss
a number of papers across the sub-disciplines of CS.
What are students expected to do?
And, not inconsequentially, be graded on:
- Read the assigned papers each week, and
show up to class prepared to discuss them intelligently.
- Submit a semi-formal
half-to-one-page written review for each of
the papers in the week(s) where you lead discussion.
- Do independent background research (i.e. not breaking new ground)
in a chosen narrow domain. This assignment is detailed here.
Things we'll be reading about
In not any particular order yet, we will pick a few related papers
on a specific topic or two from these areas:
- Robotics (of course)
- Computer vision
- Programming languages (features of, theory of, compilers of)
- Theory
- Networking
- Parallel / distributed computing
- Data management
- Scientific computing (bioinformatics, computational physics, ...)
- CS education
- Computer graphics
Things we will be thinking about
- Searching the literature
- How to read research papers
- Format and organization of research papers
- Synthesizing previous results
- Developing research questions
- Experimental design
- Presentation of data
Academic Honesty
I sincerely hope and expect that this will be a non-issue, but for
clarity, all work produced in this course will be your own. When
writing your survey paper, it is important to phrase things in your
own words, rather than simply cutting and pasting chunks of the papers
you have surveyed (even if fully cited, this will negatively impact
your grade!). Of course, you must also cite all papers as relevant.
If necessary, the standard department honesty policy as stated
here will be in effect.
Questions? Suggestions? Fire away!