Term Papers
- Advice:
- Our focus is in computer science, not in marketing or management.
You should include a short motivation in terms of the potential uses
of whatever technology you describe but spend the bulk of your space
on technical contributions.
- Avoid redundancy.
- Value add: I am not looking for long lists of features or
alternatives, so much as the ideas that underlie them. Evaluate
approaches and claims by others. Highlight trade-offs and scenarios
where one approach may be better than another. You may not be
accustomed to thinking in this fashion; in that case, the exercise is
even more valuable.
- Schedule:
- Please identify your topic based on your interests and knowledge.
You can ask the TA and me about what we think of potential topics, but
we won't review your ideas until you submit your proposal. The
proposal should be about 600 words and describe the problem area you
wish to study; your motivation; and (mostly) what you propose to
do.
- If necessary, we will request a revised proposal.
- The interim paper is important because this is the document on
which we give you the most comments.
- The final paper has the highest weight of these submissions.
- Originality: even though the material may be well-known,
your description of it should not be lifted from another party.
Credit your sources: not doing so is considered plagiarism, a failing
offense.
- Length: About 5,000 words, including references and figures
(where a page of figures counts as about 1,000 words).
- Style: Use the IEEE conference proceedings style. Your
paper should be five to six pages.
- Grading: The TA and I will assign grades in consultation
with each other.
| Section | Category | Points |
| I | Introduction | 15 |
| Motivation and relevance | 8 |
| Problem description | 7 |
| T | Technology | 50 |
| Correctness | 25 |
| Organization | 15 |
| Explanations | 10 |
| E | Evaluation | 20 |
| Strengths, limitations | 8 |
| Competing approaches | 8 |
| Possible directions | 4 |
| D | Delivery | 15 |
| Clarity of text | 8 |
| Clarity of figures | 7 |
| G | Grand total | 100 |