CS 561 - Student Presentation and Literature Study

General Guidelines

This course includes a literature study component. For this, students will work individually. Each student will be assigned one topic for in-depth study based on your preferences and coverage of topics in the course. The student is expected to more deeply master "her topic" by reading advanced material in that area, and then sharing this knowledge with the rest of the class.

First, you need to collect background papers from the literature in your chosen area, roughly say 5 closely related papers. Topics are assigned first-come first-served. If you are selecting a specific extra paper, you should again consult with the instructor on the appropriateness of the material. You will need to get the topic and the specific papers approved by the instructor well before giving the talk. And, we'll need to select one key paper among the chosen papers and make it available to the class at least 10 days before your presentation, so that the paper can be copied and distributed to the students one week before the paper will be discussed in the class.

The student will then prepare a presentation (tutorial style overheads) and present the work in class. The student will be responsible for leading the discussion on their topic. Be ready to have some example that you can walk through with the students; and to have some questions you will raise with the audience. Your presentation should be based on having read several related papers, even if the talk itself can focus primarily on explaining the key ideas in that area.

You are expected to prepare professional quality transparencies for your presentation to help the others to understand your presentation. You need to make this material available to the students in the class. Ideally, they should be available when you give your talk. Hence email them to the instructor, so that they can be linked into the course webpage.

Besides presenting, you need to submit to the instructor your presentation slides (in hardcopy), as well as a short report (roughly 5 pages) including an annotated bibliography of the papers you have read and discussing their content and interrelationships. The presentation, the overheads, the brief report, and the preparedness of the student team with the material will be graded.

Grading

For the presentation, you can get a maximum of 100pts. The grade of this assignment will be given using the following as guideline:

• the scope and depth of your literature study, and the amount of work you have put into your preparation. This includes for you to search the literature, to find relevant papers, and to make careful selections. Have you tried out some software related to the selected topic, if appropriate. Most importantly, do you have a good grasp of that chosen topic? This will mean that you have read and understood more papers about the topic beyond the one and two papers that you are presenting. [20pts].

• quality of overhead slides you use to give your oral project presentation (are they well-organized, clear, and professional quality?) [30 pts.]

• the oral project presentation itself (is it clear, well-structured, understandable and informative?) Are you able to address questions the students are raising in class, and do you have discussion points prepared for the class. [30pts.]

• The quality of the written report and bibliography. the depth of understanding you have gained about your chosen topic. do you understand the issues involved and the pros and cons of the solutions you describe? [20pts].

NOTE: The prepared material should make clear which papers you have read, and how they relate to your presentation. You may have read several papers, but you may have found that several of them are just small extensions to one of them, and you hence focus in your presentation mainly on one paper. In that case, list the other papers in one overhead and have a brief statement how they relate to the presented concepts.