CMSC 691B: Basic Research Skills

Spring 2005
Instructor: Charles Nicholas

Subject to revision through the semester.
 
Date Topic(s)

Reading(s)/
Assignments Made

Handouts/Links Assignments Due
1/31 Overview.
Introduction to LaTeX.		   Survey
Grading policies
LaTeX sample input file, postscript output file, and pdf output file
LaTeX tutorial input file, postscript output file, and pdf output file
Newman paper
  
2/2

Reading and summarizing of papers.
Plagarism.

  • Smith, The Task of the Referee
  • Parberry, A Guide for New Referees in Theoretical Computer Science (Citeseer)
    pdf
  • Assignment: prepare summaries of Newman and one of {Smith or Parberry} papers (1-2 pages each)
    		•  Paper summary guidelines
    Example: Summary of Newman paper
    Paraphrasing guidelines
    Plagiarism exercise
    ICML-03 reviewing form
    		 
    2/7 Library field trip. Meet in Library 259, with Eric Rector.
    		Assignment: Library exercise   Summaries of Newman and one of {Smith or Parberry} papers (1-2 pages each)
    2/9 The reviewing process. Discussion of Parberry Classification/Analysis.In-depth paper analysis and critique.
  • Zobel Ch. 10
  • Peters Ch. 1,2
  • Purdue Online Writing Lab's APA citation guidelines
    		•

    Annotated bibliography guidelines(ps, pdf) LaTeX source, and BibTeX file
    Oren Patashnik, "BibTeXing"
    Plain (sorted) and unsorted annotated bibliography BibTeX style files 
    The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
    Justin Zobel's writing page
    Levin and Rendell, How to Write a Good Systems Paper Local copies(ps,pdf)
    Chinneck, How to Organize Your Thesis
    Google Scholar

    		  
    2/14  Writing I: Organization, bibliographies.  BibTeX.
    In-depth survey analysis and critique.
  • Dijkstra's Three Golden Rules for Scientific Research
  • Zobel Ch. 1 and pp. 20-25
  • Elvins, A Survey of Algorithms for Volume Visualization (pdf)
    		• Sample topics
    Topic guidelines
    Literature survey tips
    Editing symbols

    Library exercise is due
    2/16 Discuss desJardins and Elvins papers
    Writing II: Style, common errors.
  • Zobel Ch. 2-3
  • Peters Ch. 18
    		•  Slides

    Kajiya, How to Get Your SIGGARPH Paper Rejected    		 Reminder: Evelyn Hammonds' talk on Feb 17 at 4pm in Library Gallery!
    2/21

    How to give a good presentation.

    Generic dissertation outline.

  • Peters Ch. 20
  • Zobel Ch. 11
    		•  Paper presentation feedback form
    Slides
    Mark Hill, Oral Presentation Advice
    Peyton-Jones et al., How to Give a Good Research Talk
    Winston, Some Lecturing Heuristics
    Patterson, How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia"     		Topic paragraph is due
    2/23 Research I: Finding a topic and advisor.
  • Peters Ch. 5, 6, 16
    		•  Slides
    desJardins, How to Succeed in Graduate School (ps ,pdf )
    2/28 Research II: Research topics cont.
  • TBA
    		•    UMBC closes because of snow!
    3/2

    More on research topics

    Also talked about new comps, and what is supposed to be accomplished

  •  Zobel Ch. 4
    		•  Transcript of Hamming, "You and Your Research" (html,pdf)
    CRA-W Career Mentoring Workshops Booklet (includes Berman's "Building a Research Career")
    Science's Next Wave
    Outside reader agreement     		 
    3/7

    Writing III: Tools.

    More on public speaking

  • Zobel Ch. 5, 6, 7
    		•  Literature survey review form Outside reader form
    Annotated bibliography
    Literature survey outline
    3/9 Criteria for listening to a CS talk  

    Advice to a Beginning Graduate Student by Manuel Blum
    Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter

    		 
    3/14 Research III: Empirical methodology.
  • Zobel Ch. 8
    		•  Slides on experiment design
    Rob Holte's slides on experimental methodologies     		 
    3/16  
  • Zobel Ch. 9
    		•  Research statement guidelines Literature survey draft
    (Paper summaries)
    3/21-3/25 SPRING BREAK
    3/28  Time management, success strategies.   Slides Literature survey review
    3/30 Drucker article, "Managing Oneself" and other time management advice
  • Peters Ch. 12, 18, 21, 22, 23
    		•  Research paper guidelines
    H. T. Kung, Useful Things to Know About Ph.D. Thesis Research
    Janice Cuny, Time Management and Family Issues
    Yong Rao's thesis proposal
    Srikanth Kallurkar's thesis proposal
    Eleanor Chlan's thesis proposal     		 
    4/4 Research IV: Proposals, grant writing / Statistical methods. Set presentation schedule Slides on proposals
    More slides on proposals     		 
    4/6 More on proposals Research portfolio guidelines Research problem statement
    4/11 Focus group Dr. Jack Prostko    
    4/13 Charles is on travel      
    4/18 Student project presentations Mike Wiacek Replacing SMTP Sweety Chauhan GMPLS  
    4/20 Student project presentations. Dean Wright Language ID Wiktor Macura Compiler-compilers  
    4/25 Student project presentations. Peggy Meng QA Jesse English Spelling  
    4/27 Student project presentations. Rick Carback QA Ben Kerman LSA  
    5/2 Student project presentations
    		 Charles Njau Mobile Computer Monitors Frances Roth Switch-Based Memory  
    5/4 Student project presentations. Balaji Viswanathan MAS Teams Yang Yu Ontology Mapping Research paper draft
    5/9 Student project presentations. Abhishek Gujar MANETs Bryan Pass Collision Detection  
    5/11 Student project presentations. Dana Wortman Haptic Language Adam Raby Ubiquitous Computing Paper reviews
    5/16 Student project presentations Marcella Wilson Tracking Seniors Sheetal Agarwal Sensor Networks 5/17 is last day of class
    5/25 Student project presentations if needed! Exam Week 6-8pm Final papers due


    Stuff I removed from the schedule but don't want to loose:
    Cohen, Schapire, and Singer, Learning to Order Things
    Kamishima and Akaho, Learning from Order Examples
    Discussion questions
    Doyle and Thomas, Background to Qualitative Decision Theory
    This semester I didn't have students practice presenting papers. It would have been good, but
    I didn't see it on the schedule in time. Also, the class is a little too big to do this and squeeze in
    everything else. But knowing how to present papers is very important in research groups, and
    if I had it to do over I might do it differently.