Second, this course is a graduation requirement for all Masters and Doctoral students. For that purpose, the goal is to learn the practical skills of giving a presentation and writing a research paper.
The course is organized as a series of lectures on giving presentations, writing papers, and other aspects of performing research and pursuing a graduate degree, along with a set of invited research talks and colloquia (including those in the departmental Colloquium Series). Additionally, most students in the class will be giving presentations on their current work as described below.
Masters students are required to take at least two credit hours of Seminar for the completion of their degree, and to make at least one presentation of project work or research. Doctoral students are required to take at least three credit hours of Seminar for the completion of their degree, and to make at least two presentations of project work or research.
The presentation(s) must take place in the Seminar at least one term before graduation. A student's Thesis / Dissertation Defense or other local presentation can NOT be counted to fulfill this degree requirement.
This course may be taken multiple times, but only three credit hours
count toward the Doctoral degree, and only two credits count toward the
Masters degree. Students who have already taken sufficient hours of
Seminar to meet their degree requirement can choose the S/U grading
option in subsequent semesters (see below).
The class schedule is posted on the class web
page and will be regularly updated. It is the student's
responsibility to keep track of the event schedule, to attend the
classes, and to sign in as evidence of attendance at each class.
Students with an excused absence (e.g., a documented illness) must
notify the instructor as soon as possible. Students with three or
four unexcused absences will receive one letter grade penalty. Five or more
unexcused absences will result in an F or U grade for the course. Signing
in for a student who is absent will be considered Academic Dishonesty
and is grounds for failing the course.
All students taking the course for a letter grade must make at least one presentation during the term. A brief proposal describing the content of the presentation is due to the Seminar instructor at least one week before the date of the talk. Students who have taken the Seminar for a grade in previous semesters must contact the course instructor by the end of the first week of classes; students who contact the course instructor later are unlikely to be accomodated.
The presentation should be a talk on your current research, accessible to a general audience of CS graduate students. The talk may describe work you are conducting for your thesis/dissertation, investigations with your advisor, recent publications you have been involved with, or a summary of related work with respect to your research area/topic. Talks will be schedued into a 20 minute time slot, with 15 minutes for the talk and 5 minutes for questions. Grading will be based on the presentation's content and presentation style. A lecture on how to give a good presentation will be given early in the term.
For presentations to be counted towards the degree requirement the
students must download and fill out the
Master/Doctoral Seminar Presentation Form.
This form must be submitted to the Seminar instructor at the time of
the talk, along with the abstract and a copy of the
presentation slides.
The paper should be accessible to a general audience of CS graduate
students, and should summarize the current research you are conducting
towards your thesis, address related work of your topic, or be related
to recent work you are conducting with your advisor. All papers MUST
be in the required format, including font sizes and formats for
citations and references. A lecture on the organization of research
papers will be given early in the term.
All students takign the course should read: