CSCI 693: Research Methods in Computer Science

Registration Information

Term/Year	Class Number	Section	Act	Days	Time	Room
`Fa 2009`	`3338`	`CSCI 693-01`	`DIS`	`R`	`530-820`	`OCNL 121`
`Fa 2008`	`6650`	`CSCI 693-01`	`DIS`	`R`	`530-820`	`OCNL 254`

Description

This course represents the Culminating Experience for the Masters in Computer Science degree program. This is a 3 unit, Graded course.

Catalog description: This course interweaves three distinct themes (investigation, experimentation, and technical writing), that culminate in a comprehensive research project, presentation, and oral defense. First, the students will be immersed into the research process within Computer Science. This includes an understanding of the role, ethics, and responsibility of researchers in Computer Science. The second focus is on rigorous design of experiments for the purpose of testing research hypothesis, simulations, and models, and interpreting the results of those experiments. Finally, proficiency in communication of scientific ideas and findings will be addressed, from intensive reading, critiques, technical writing and oral presentations.

Prerequisites

If you fail to meet these requirements you will be dropped from the class:

Successful completion of Graduate Writing Exam (or GWE; see entry in the University Catalog or the Department website); and
successful completion of Graduate Core or Concurrent Enrollment (at least completed 2 core courses and will concurrently be enrolled in the remaining two).

Recommended Reference(s)

Writing for Computer Science, 2/e
Justin Zobel, 2004.
Springer, New York, NY.
ISBN 978-1-85233-802-2

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Objectives: The primary objective of this course is to provide a culminating experience for the master's student in Computer Science, that ties together the skills and knowledge acquired in their graduate coursework, with a focus on research methods. The course will ensure that our graduates are able to investigate new technologies, develop testbeds and benchmarks to evaluate new technologies, and effectively communicate the results and conclusions of their investigations.

Grade Evaluation


	`55%`		Written reports/projects, which include at least the following deliverables: proposal with time line and/or budget annotated bibliography critique/analysis of journal articles or scientific presentations technical/research paper
	`35%`		Oral presentations
	`10%`		Class participation

Note: Deliverables and requirements will be graded based on the following set of rubrics:

technical writing (refer to the textbook for additional expectations)
oral presentations (refer to the textbook for additional expectations)
working in groups

Students are responsible for acquiring their own, personal copy of the required textbook. The textbook provides good guidance for scientific writing and formal presentations.

The following areas/fields of computer sciences will determine research paper topics for approval by the instructor (this list is based on information gathered by ACM, AIS, CSAB, and IEEE, and is also available from Wikipedia):

Research Area	Sub Areas (in alphabetical order)
A: Algorithms and Data Structures	Algorithms Analysis of algorithms Data structures Parallel and distributed algorithms
B: Programming Methodology and Languages	Compilers Programming languages Software engineering
C: Numerical and Symbolic Computation	Artificial intelligence Bioinformatics Cognitive science Computational chemistry Computational neuroscience Computational physics Data mining Intelligent systems and robotics Numerical algorithms Symbolic mathematics
D: Computer Elements and Architecture	Digital logic Hardware developments and improvements Microarchitecture Multiprocessing
E: Systems and Networks	Computer networking and communication Computer security Cryptography Databases Distributed computation Operating systems
F: Graphics and Visualization	Computer graphics Computer-human interaction Scientific visualization Virtual reality
G: Mathematical Foundations	Category theory Computational geometry Graph theory Mathematical logic Number theory Type theory
H: Theory of Computing	Automata theory Computability theory Computational complexity theory Quantum computing theory

Note: A cap will be placed on the number of students that can conduct research in a particular area.

Final Grades

Final grades shall be expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score of all evaluated materials. Letter grades will be given according to the following scheme:

Real Interval	Letter Grade	University Definition
`[96.25,100.00]`	`A`	Superior Work
`[92.50, 96.25)`	`A-`	Superior Work
`[88.75, 92.50)`	`B+`	Very Good Work
`[85.00, 88.75)`	`B`
`[81.25, 85.00)`	`B-`
`[77.50, 81.25)`	`C+`	Adequate Work
`[73.75, 77.50)`	`C`
`[70.00, 73.75)`	`C-`
`[0, 70)`	`F`	Unacceptable Work

Note: The University does not recognize final grades of D or D+ to graduate students. Hence,
graduate students with a class standing less than C- (70%) earn a final grade of F.

Topical Coverage

Topics (subject to change without notice):

effective use of library & online resources, copyrights, trademarks, etc.
writing style, editing, and formatting; including graphs, figures, and tables
developing effective time lines and reasonable budgets
literary review/critique of professional article/text
research ethics and separation of good/bad science
scientific research methods, analysis, and reporting
development of ideas into a research program
design and analysis of controlled experiments/simulations
interpretation of experimental results
literature search culminating in a research paper
formal presentation of research investigation/project
oral defense of their methods and findings