CMSC 601: Research Skills for Computer Scientists

Spring 2012
Instructor: Marie desJardins

Last updated 1/13/12
 
Date Topic Reading Handouts/Links Assignments Due
1/30 Overview. Plagiarism. LaTeX.   Survey
Grading policies
LaTeX sample input file and output file
LaTeX tutorial input file and output file
Plagiarism exercise
Paraphrasing guidelines
Paper summary guidelines
ICML-03 reviewing form
Newman paper
Summary of Newman paper
Slides of presentation on Newman paper
2/1 The reviewing process. Discussion of Parberry Classification/Analysis. Writing I: Organization, bibliographies.  BibTeX.
  • Zobel Ch. 1, 2, 13
  • Peters Ch. 1, 2
  • Parberry, A Guide for New Referees in Theoretical Computer Science
    		•  Slides for today and 2/15
    Topic guidelines
    Annotated bibliography guidelines, LaTeX source, BibTeX file, and postprocessed BibTeX output
    Getting to Grips with Latex - BibTeX
    BibTeX and Bibliography Styles
    Plain (sorted) and unsorted annotated bibliography BibTeX style files 
    Levin and Rendell, How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper
    Chinneck, How to Organize Your Thesis     		Survey
    2/6 Research I: Finding a topic and advisor; LaTeX/BibTeX.
  • Zobel Ch. 10
  • Peters Ch. 5, 6, 16
  • desJardins, How to Succeed in Graduate School
    		•
  • Slides
  • Transcript of Hamming, You and Your Research
    Check-based grading handout
    Reader agreement

    • 2/8 In-depth paper analysis and critique.
  • Smith, The Task of the Referee
  • Zobel Ch. 12
  • Knox & Stone, Augmenting RL with human feedback
  • Grubb et al., Imitation learning for NL direction following

    		• Paper summaries (2)
    2/13 Library resources.
    Meet in Library 259     		Library assignment
    Library wiki page     		Topic paragraph (hardcopy, please)
    2/15 Writing II: Style, common errors.
  • Zobel Ch. 3, 4
    		•  Kajiya, How to Get Your SIGGRAPH Paper Rejected
    2/20 In-depth survey analysis and critique.
  • Jain et al., Data clustering: A review
  • Fodor, A survey of dimension reduction techniques
  • Noy, Semantic integration: A survey of ontology-based approaches
    		• Literature survey tips Library exercise
    2/22 How to give a good presentation.
  • Peters Ch. 20
  • Zobel Ch. 14
    		•  Slides
    Paper presentation feedback form
    Mark Hill, Oral Presentation Advice
    Peyton-Jones et al., How to give a good research talk

    2/27 Departmental seminar: Murat Yusel, ITE 325B   JAIR author instructions and links to style files Annotated bibliography
    2/29 Guest speakers: Karuna Pande Joshi (Ph.D. candidate); Tim Finin (Professor).
  • Zobel Ch. 8, 9
    		• Patterson, How to have a bad career in academia Outside reader form
    3/5 Research II: Research topics cont.
    Writing III: Tools.
  • Zobel Ch. 5, 6
    		• Paper Presentations
    Slides     		Literature survey outline
    3/7 Research III: Empirical methodology.
    		Slides  
    3/12 Student paper presentations

    		 
    3/14 Student paper presentations
    		  (Paper summaries)
    SPRING BREAK
    3/26 Publicity: CV, networking, website.
  • Peters Ch. 13
    		• Literature survey review form
    Slides     		Literature survey draft
    3/28 Time management; success strategies.
  • Peters Ch. 12, 21, 22, 23
    		• Slides
    4/2
    		 Guest speakers: David Trimm (Ph.D. candidate); Rob Holder (Ph.D. candidate).


    		Literature survey review (email submission)
    Dr. desJardins out of town
    4/4 Freeman Hrabowski luncheon and talk Assignment: Attend Dr. Hrabowski's talk, network with other graduate students, and send me an email telling me how it was -- I'm sorry that I will have to miss it!
    		Dr. desJardins out of town
    4/9 Research IV: Statistical methods.
  • Zobel Ch. 11
    		• Slides Final literature survey
    4/11
    		 Research V: Matlab and related tools.
    		James MacGlashan's R slides Research problem statement draft
    Guest speakers: Yasaman Haghpanah, James MacGlashan, Kevin Winner
    4/16 Ellen Zegura department colloquium, ITE 325B. Assignment: Attend Ellen Zegura's guest lecture and write a summary of her talk. You are also encouraged to attend the graduate student panel at 10:00 a.m. and the campus-wide lecture at 4:00 p.m., and to apply for the "lunch with the speaker" opportunity.
    		Final research problem statement
    Research review poster abstract due!
    4/18 Writing IV: Proposals and "Big Writing." / Research VII: Presenting your work.
  • Peters Ch. 17, 18
    		•  Slides: Proposals; Presenting
    4/23 Guest speakers: James MacGlashan (Ph.D. candidate); Kevin Winner (M.S. student).


    4/25 Guest speakers: Penny Rheingans (Professor); Niyati Chhaya (Ph.D. candidate).     Poster draft (email submission)
    4/30
    		 Guest speakers: Yasaman Haghpanah (Ph.D. candidate); Dr. Tim Oates (Associate Professor).     Poster to printing
    5/2
    		 Writing workshop.
    		Final presentation schedule
    Presentation feedback form
    Writing workshop guidelines     		Paper draft
    5/4
    		 CSEE RESEARCH DAY (date to be confirmed).

    		Poster presentation
    5/7 Student project presentations.     (Draft slides due 48 hours prior - email submission)
    5/9 Student project presentations.     Paper reviews (email submission); (draft slides due 48 hours prior - email submission)
    5/16, 1-3pm Final exam slot; student project presentations.
    		     Final paper, research portfolio (CV and research statement), professional website (email submission); (draft slides due 48 hours prior - email submission)