You will be required to choose a research theme by late February. You will need to find a set of three to five papers that introduce and evolve the idea; you will need to read and digest those papers; you will need to turn the central ideas of all the papers into a coherent lecture; and you will need to take notes for the discussion after the presentation.
Reading: You will need to read a fair amount. Reading means working through a text, figuring out the key innovation in the paper, and making up and working through examples that help you understand the innovations.
Writing: You will write an annotated bibliography entry for each paper covered as part of your research themes. A complete entry consists of the bibtex information plus two paragraphs: one that summarizes the paper and one that explains its novelty. Email me your annotated bibliography a week before the presentation. Also, send me a final version at least one day before your presentation.
Presentation: You will need to give a presentation on your research theme. The presentation should take approximately 80 minutes, leaving 20 minutes for discussion (both during and after your presentation). Start the presentation by handing out copies of the annotated bibliography for the theme. Make sure the presentation includes a background/problem description (where did the authors start from?) and an explanation of the essential contributions (what did this paper improve over the previous one? how do they differ?) of each paper.
Partners and Peer Evaluation: To help you prepare the presentation, you will work in pairs. Proof-read each others' annotated bibliographies and practice your presentations with each other. Your peers will anonymously evaluate your presentation with the help of this evaluation sheet.
When you research the literature for your themes, keep in mind that you should find reasonably small steps and that the theme doesn't need an "end" paper. To turn the papers into a presentation, make sure that you bring across the necessary background; doing so may take upto a third of your presentation time if the theme concerns sophisticated concepts that we haven't covered in class.
Theme Selection: Email me your proposed theme by Feb 24th. A title or a sentence is sufficient. I will synchronize if there is a conflict.
Theme Citations: Email me bibtex entries (including urls) and abstracts for your proposed readings by Mar 2nd. Send me five to ten. I will prune to the best of my knowledge and I may ask you to search some more.
Paper Copies: Drop off paper copies of the papers that we agreed on by Mar 8th.
Presentation Date: Commit to a date for your presentation by Mar 8th.
Work with your partner.
Check in: Email me your write-up (PDF) at least one week before your presentation. At this point, also make an appointment to meet me several days before your presentation to check in with me.