Due December 5
Write a two-page paper describing a research project. The research does
not have to be yours. The goal of the assignment is for you to
communicate research clearly, argue well, and present your work in a
standard format. Following Simon Peyton-Jones' guidelines, include the following parts in your paper:
- Title: the title should be a good description of the research project, and should indicate what the contribution is
- Abstract: the abstract should summarize what
the question or problem was, why the problem is worth solving, what you
(i.e., the pretend 'you' that did the research) did about the problem,
what you found, and what it means for the overall problem area.
- Introduction:the introduction should describe the problem in more detail, and state the contributions of your work.
- The Idea:this section should describe and defend your idea, pointing to related work where necessary.
- Evaluation: the evaluation should provide
evidence that your solution is a good solution for the problem. This
section should have subsections "Methodology" and "Results".
- Conclusion: the conclusion should remind
readers of the problem and solution, and then should state what the
larger implications of the solution are, and what new research
directions lead off from the current work.
- References: all references cited in the paper should be formatted consistently here.
Other points:
- Use ACM format for your paper.
- Maximum of two pages - I will remove additional pages
- Use of diagrams and figures is welcome (but you get no extra space for them)
How you will be marked:
- Clear writing in all parts of the paper
- Effective argument
- Correct written English
- The individual parts of the paper play their roles effectively
- Figures (if used) are clear and well drawn
- Correct formatting in ACM style
- Consistent reference style
There are many good examples of two-page conference papers in the ACM Digital Library. Try to find examples that fit the type of paper you are planning to write.
A further note on plagiarism: Although you are allowed in this assignment to present someone else's research results, you are not allowed to copy sentences or figures from published work. Any instances of plagiarism will be forwarded to the Department's Academic Honesty committee.
Please have the week's assigned readings completed before the Wednesday class.
Week 1 (Sept. 3): Introduction
There will be no lectures this week, but if you want to get an early start, have a look at the following general readings (these will be applicable anytime, so come back to them later if you don't have time this week):
Week 2 (Sept. 10): Science and computer science
- What is science, and is CS a science?
- Branches of CS (where do you fit in the ACM hierarchy)?
Readings for this week:
- Section 1 (What is Science) of: Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Theory of Science,
MRTC report ISSN 1404-3041 ISRN MDH-MRTC-64/2001-1-SE, Mälardalen
Real-Time Research Centre, Mälardalen University, September, 2001
- Wikipedia entry on Science
- Peter J. Denning (2000), Computer Science: The Discipline, The Encyclopedia of Computer Science (A. Ralston and D. Hemmendinger, Eds).
- Peter J. Denning (2005) Is Computer Science Science?, Communications of the ACM, April 2005/Vol. 48, No.4.
Reference:
- Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Theory of Science,
MRTC report ISSN 1404-3041 ISRN MDH-MRTC-64/2001-1-SE, Mälardalen
Real-Time Research Centre, Mälardalen University, September, 2001
Week 3 (Sept. 17): The scientific method and research methods in CS
- the scientific method
- discuss topic/question/motivation for five CS papers (see below)
- methods in CS
Readings for this week:
- Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Scientific Methods in Computer Science, Conference for the Promotion of Research in IT at New Universities and at University Colleges in Sweden, Skövde, April, 2002
- Wikipedia on the scientific method
- Terry Halwes, The Myth of the Magical Scientific Method
- Read the title, abstract, and introduction (only) of the
following five papers. For each paper, write down the topic, the
research question, the answer or solution, and the methods. If this
information is not available from the abstract and introduction, state
that (don't go looking for the information in the rest of the paper).
Week 4 (Sept. 24): Choosing a research problem
Readings for this week:
Week 5 (Oct. 1): The literature review
Readings for this week:
Week 6 (Oct. 8): Library resources for finding literature
- Literature search methods seminar, held Wednesday 2:30-4:00,
conducted by Li Zhang from the main library.
- Several databases and
tools for finding and organizing sources will be introduced and
demonstrated: INSPEC, Web of Science, IEEE Library, ArXiv e-Print,
CiteSeer, and RefWorks.
- Location: Room 161, Murray Library, 2:30pm
Week 7 (Oct. 15): Evaluating solutions
Readings for this week:
- McGrath,
J. E. 1995. Methodology matters: doing research in the behavioral and
social sciences. In Human-Computer interaction: Toward the Year 2000,
R. M. Baecker, J. Grudin, W. A. Buxton, and S. Greenberg, Eds. Morgan
Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 152-169.
- Jona Meyer's WWW tutorial on research methods
- Validity, external validity, and measurement validity
- Reliability and types of reliability
Week 8 (Oct. 22): Research ethics
Readings for this week:
Resources:
Week 9 (Oct. 29): Reviewing
Readings for this week:
- Alan Meier, How to Review a Technical Paper
- Michael Bieber, How to Review
- Spencer Rugaber, How to Read a Research Paper
- Wager,
Godlee, and Jefferson, How to be a reviewer, in E. Wager, F. Godlee,
and T. Jefferson, How to Survive Peer Review, BMJ Books, pp. 13-19. Note: the whole document is interesting, but you only need read pp. 13-19 for this week!
- W. James, Guidelines for reviewing manuscripts
Resources:
Week 10 (Nov. 5): Experimental design
Readings for this week:
- Robson, Colin, Chapter 1: Introduction, in "Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology (3rd Edition)", Blackwell, 1994.
- Robson, Colin, Chapter 2: An Experiment, in "Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology (3rd Edition)", Blackwell, 1994.
- Robson,
Colin, Chapter 3: Statistical Inference, in "Experiment, Design and
Statistics in Psychology (3rd Edition)", Blackwell, 1994.
- Robson,
Colin, Chapter 8: Interrelationship of design and analysis, in
"Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology (3rd Edition)",
Blackwell, 1994.
Resources:
Week 11 - Wednesday (Nov. 12):
Wednesday and Friday class this week are cancelled as Carl is away at ACM CSCW.
Week 12 - Wednesday (Nov. 19): Giving presentations
Readings:
Week 12 - Friday (Nov. 21): Poster Design
Week 13 - Wednesday (Nov. 26): Student presentations
Week 13 - Friday (Nov. 28): Student presentations (cont'd)
Week 14 - Wednesday (Dec. 3): Question session for 2-page paper
(Optional session). Bring your writing questions and problems; we will look through and solve as many as we can during the class session.
Last modified: Wed Sep 5 21:25:14 CST 2007