Syllabus
CS 69191 Masters Seminar
CS 89191 Doctoral Seminar

Term: Spring 2006
Instructor: Dr. Jonathan I. Maletic
Credit hours: 1-2, repeat enrollment allowed
Prerequisites: Admission to graduate program.
Meeting Time: MWF 3:45-5:00pm
(see schedule) in 228 MSB

Description
This is a Seminar for Master’s and Doctoral students to present and discuss computer science related research and academics.  Master’s students are required to take at least two credit hours for completion of degree and make at least one presentation of project work or research. 
Doctoral students are required to take at least three credit hours for completion of degree and make at least two presentations of project work or research.   The presentation(s) must take place at least one term before graduation.  A student's Thesis/Dissertation defense can NOT be counted to fulfill this degree requirement.

The course will consist of a number of lectures on conducting research and pursuing a graduate degree will be made along with a number of invited research talks and colloquium.   Additionally, the student will give a presentation regarding their current work.

This course may be taken multiple times but only three credit hours count toward the Doctoral degree and two credits for the Masters degree.

Grading
There are two grading options for this course

Attendance
Students MUST attend all scheduled lectures and events.  Attendance will be taken at every meeting (make sure you sign-in).  The schedule is posted on this web page (schedule) and will be regularly updated.  It is the student's responsibility to keep track of the event schedule.  
Lectures will include topics such as: writing CS research papers, publishing venues, library skills, teaching skills, along with regular research presentations and invited speakers (colloquium).

Students who miss more than two of the scheduled events will have their grade severely penalized.  The instructor must be notified of absences before the scheduled event.  Students with more than two excused absences will receive a one grade penalty.  Four or more absences will result in an F or U grade.


Presentation
Both Masters and Doctoral programs have a degree requirement to complete a presentation(s) at least one term before the term you graduate.   A thesis defense, prospectus/candidacy presentation, or dissertation defense can NOT be counted as one of the presentations.  These presentation must take place during the Masters/Doctoral Seminar. 

As such students must make at least one presentation during the term.  A proposal of the presentation must be submitted to the instructor at least one week before the date of the talk.  Also, all students must submit a proposal on or before April 3rd.

The presentation should be on your current research.  This includes 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 are to be 30 minutes including questions.  You will be graded on the 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.

Paper
Students must submit a short paper (4-6 pages in IEEE proceedings format) by Monday May 1st, 2005.  This paper 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.  You MUST use proper formats for citations and references.  A lecture on the organization of research papers and one on developing proper bibliographies will be given early in the term.

Instructions for the IEEE 2 column format are found here in pdf and a template in Word.

Last Updated: January 13th, 2006