Assignments

Please include CS 88/188 in the subject line of all your emails about the class and/or assignments

Paper Presentation
You will be required to present a few of the papers that are being discussed during the course. I recommend that you choose papers that match most with your interests and with your final project. Presentations should clearly address the paper's motivation, the research contribution - specifically addressing the strengths and weaknesses, and the results.

Depending on the depth and difficulty of the paper, make your presentation about 20-30 minutes long. I encourage you to take a more investigate approach - what makes this paper interesting? How could you do better? Think about the pros and cons from different angle - usability, computational efficiency, complexity, accuracy, and richness of the system or algorithm. The presentations should be done using powerpoint or some other presentation software of your choice - I will request you to give me either a .ppt or .pdf version of your slides.

Written Critique
Each student is required to submit a short written critique (approximately 1 page) for each paper. It is due at 6pm the day before the class. The critique should (i) identify and list the technical challenges the researchers are trying to solve (ii) describe the new ideas (iii) discuss the strength and limiations of the propsed approach and (iv) suggest potential improvements.

You can send me your critique either in plain text or pdf attachment.  if your are presenting a paper in class you do not need to send me a written critique for that paper. I expect you to incorporate the answers to the questions into your presentation. Given the size of the class, I will not be able to read every single written critique which I deeply regret. I will randomly sample  (uniformly across all students) a subset for which I will provide feedback. 

Due: The day before class by 8pm EDT.

Project Proposal
Each student or group is required to submit a 1-2 page proposal for the final project. The proposal should answer the following questions: (i) what problem are you trying to solve? (ii) why is it important or useful? (iii) what are the hard problems and how will solve them? (iv) how will you evaluate/measure success?

For a multi-person project, please include how you will divide the tasks amongst yourselves.
Due: October 15, 2008 by 12:00pm EDT (note new due date)

Mid-term Presentation
Each student or group is required to do a mid-term project presentation and submit a written update on their progress on the final project goals.
Presentations will be on November 4 and 6, 2008

Project Presentation and Report
Each student or group is required to do a final project presentation and submit a written report (10 pages). Presentations will be in class on December 2 and 3, 2008
Project report due December 3, 2008 by 11:59pm EDT