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Independent Work and ThesesAcademic Year 2007-2008 |
Note: Recent Change to Thesis January Report requirement. (Dec 17, 2007)
Google Calendar with independent work presentation schedule is here.
This web page is one of your major resources for information about the requirements of your thesis or independent research work. The coordinator for independent research is professor David Walker. Many logistical questions can also be answered by Donna O'Leary, undergraduate program coordinator.
If you are doing independent research this semester, the first thing you need to make sure you do is go to the Welcome Meeting to find out all about it.
The second thing you should do is sign up for the IW mailing list here. To do that go here and follow the instructions:
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/iw
One other thing you should do as soon as humanly possible is to find an advisor and a topic you will enjoy working on. Picking your advisor and topic as early as possible and getting started on work cannot be emphasized strongly enough. During the course of the semester, you should be meeting regularly with your advisor and updating him/her on your progress. Failure to do so will be evident at the checkpoints and during the presentations. If you do not make regular progress during the semester, your grades on your presentations and checkpoints will definitely suffer. As a rule of thumb, try to allocate 6-10 hours per week of time for progress on your independent work project.
To help you find an advisor, almost all computer science faculty will be in their offices on Friday September 21st (the day after the welcome meeting) between 1 and 2PM. We encourage you to stop by any faculty office you want to discuss the possibility of an independent research project and to make further appointments.
It is possible to do intradisciplinary work involving CS and another field. Any interdisciplinary project must have a significant computer science component, but if it does, you may want an advisor from a department other than computer science. For example, the following non-CS faculty are looking to do interdisciplinary projects with computer science undergrads:
Hilary Coller (Computational Biology) -- Lewis Thomas Lab Room 140
Adam Maloof (Geosciences) -- 213/215 Guyot Hall (website)
You should also read all the information on this page and be thoroughly familiar with it. Do not miss sign-ups for your presentations or talks! Do not hand in checkpoints late! See the list of important dates.
Other topics covered on this page include:
Important Dates
Welcome Meeting
Proposals Presentations
Checkpoints
January Thesis Midpoint
Paper
Final Report
Final Presentation
Single-semester IW Grading
Thesis Grading
Giving Good Research Talks
BSE Thesis Information
Note: All deadlines are firm. If you miss any deadlines (including deadlines to sign up for presentation slots) you will be penalized by 10% per day on that component.
Sep 20 (4:30PM)- Welcome meeting in CS 105 (slides are here)
Sep 21 (1-2PM) - Stop by Faculty Offices for Info on specific IW project possibilities
Oct 1-4 - sign up for proposal presentation and final presentation slots (Donna's office, CS 410)
Oct 4 (By 4:30PM) - forms due for non-thesis work (Donna's office, CS 410)
Oct 11 (By 4:30PM) - forms due for thesis work (Donna's office, CS 410)
Oct 9-12 - proposal presentations for non-thesis work (slides must be submitted to moodle prior to the talk -- submission must not delay beginning of your talk or there will be a 10% penalty). Presentations will be given 1-5PM Tuesday, 12-3PM Wednesday, 12-3PM Thursday, and 12-3PM Friday. Students are expected to attend for an entire 1-hour block (starting and ending on the hour) and give feedback to other students in that time period using the feedback forms (doc, txt).
Oct 16,17 - proposal presentations for thesis work (slides must be submitted to moodle prior to the talk -- submission must not delay beginning of your talk or there will be a 10% penalty). Presentations will be given 1-4PM on the 16th; 12-1PM on the 17th. Students are expected to attend for an entire 1-hour block (starting and ending on the hour) and give feedback to other students in that time period using the feedback forms (doc, txt).
Nov 13 - checkpoint due
Dec 11-14 - final presentations for all non-thesis projects (slides must be submitted to moodle prior to the talk -- submission must not delay beginning of your talk or there will be a 10% penalty). Presentations will be given 1-5 on Tuesday and 12-3PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Students are expected to attend for a 1-hour block and give feedback to other students in that time period using the feedback forms (doc, txt).
Jan 7 - final report for all non-thesis work
Feb 8th - (Friday of First week of Spring Semester) Deadline for returning the midpoint form for all thesis work and for having your midpoint paper uploaded to moodle. You may return the form, signed by your advisor, earlier if you want to -- any time in January is fine. DON'T WAIT UNTIL FEB 7TH TO WRITE THE PAPER -- if you do, you will not have time to arrange a meeting with your advisor and get them to read the paper, sign the form and return it by February 8th.
The welcome meeting will be happening in CS 105 on Thursday, September 20th at 4:30PM. Come, eat pizza, and find out how to do a successful independent work project. The slides from the organizational meeting are available here. After the meeting there will be slides that explain the key requirements, reinforce the dates and deadlines for the semester, and give some resources for how to find projects, advisors, and research areas in the department.
Proposal presentations will take place on Oct 9-12 for non-thesis work. Presentations will be given 1-5PM Tuesday, 12-3PM Wednesday, 12-3PM Thursday, and 12-3PM Friday. Rooms will be announced (see Donna O'Leary for information).
Proposal presentations will take place in CS 401 on October 16 between 1-4PM and 12-1PM on the 17th for thesis work.
Sign-up sheets will be on the door of CS 410. You must sign up for your proposal presentation and final presentation slot October 1-4. You are expected to sign up for one slot and attend all of the talks in that 1-hour time block (starting and ending on the hour). While attending you will fill out feedback forms (doc, txt) to help other students improve their speaking abilities. Participation in these activities is an important fraction of your grade.
You will be given 10 minutes for the talk, with 3 minutes expected for questions. Points will be deducted for talks that are too long. You will be expected to submit your slides and other materials for the talk to moodle prior to the talk. Please make your presentation in either PowerPoint or PDF formats. Part of (not the entire presentation) may involve giving a demo of some software you have created or are using. If you have your own laptop, you may use it. Please read the section on giving a good talk. Also, be sure to practice in advance, by yourself and if possible to your friends, and to go over your talk with your advisor. Your advisor will be able to give you good feedback on both the content and the style of presentation. You will be graded on both the proposal content and the clarity and effectiveness of your presentation.
In general, a reasonable format for this talk would be something along the following lines:
Note that each of these bullets may require more than one slide. Please do not feel constrained by the number of slides, but make sure you stay within the time limits. Your slides should be reasonably attractive, visually -- use graphics where appropriate to explain the problem, etc. Most presentation programs have some pre-packaged slide backgrounds, etc., that have reasonable color/font schemes for text, bullets, etc. You may use them but Do not use an overly-gaudy background that distracts from the content of your slides. Remember that the content of your slides is the most important part of this talk. The presentation is meant to enhance it, not mask any weakness in content.
For the mid-semester checkpoint you must upload a 2-4 page document that contains:
You will be graded on the progress you have made so far, the quality of your ideas, the clarity and organization of your writing and the amount of thought you have put into the structure your thesis and plans for the rest of the semester.
Students doing a 2-semester thesis must write a midpoint paper. This paper should be 3-4 pages long (single-spaced). This is not expected to be an onerous task, but it should give you some practice with technical writing.
To get credit for your midpoint paper you must do two things by February 8 (the Friday at the end of first week of classes of the spring semester):
1. you must upload your report to moodle so we have a record of it.
2. you must have a meeting with your advisor in which they fill out & sign your thesis midpoint form (doc, txt). You must return the form to Donna (prior to February 8).
You may write your paper and return the form, signed by your advisor, earlier if you want to -- any time in January is fine, for instance. DON'T WAIT UNTIL FEB 7TH TO WRITE THE PAPER -- if you do, you will not have time to arrange a meeting with your advisor, get them to read the paper, sign the form and return it by February 8th. Neither Donna nor the independent work coordinator will have any pity on you if you tell them you were unable to schedule an appointment with your advisor just before the deadline. Plan in advance and schedule the appointment well in advance, not at the deadline.
You should discuss the exact requirements for the paper with your advisor. The paper could contain (one or more of) the following components:
You will be given a grade for the paper based on both your progress so far and the quality of the write-up.
For non-thesis work, the final report is due on January 7, 2008, during reading period. This report is expected to be from 20-25 pages, and to look like a professional document -- 10pt Times-Roman font, 1-inch margins, double-spaced. It should contain a proper bibliography, and all non-original text should be properly attributed. Failing to cite appropriate sources for ideas, tables, text or diagrams is a serious violation of Princeton's code of ethics. Your report will be graded on the basis of its technical content, organization, novelty or creativity of ideas, and quality of writing.
Relevant charts, tables, diagrams, etc., should be included, with accompanying captions. Be sure to refer to each such chart in the main body of the text, clearly explaining its nature and purpose. The technique of "padding" papers using multiple, overly-large figures is well-known, and should be avoided. If you have lengthy code or auxiliary examples or detailed algorithms or long proofs or supplementary data of other kinds, it may not be appropriate to include this in its entirety in the main body of your report. However, you are encouraged to include such auxiliary data (if you feel it is appropriate) in a final portion of your report clearly labeled "Appendix." The Appendix may be as long as is necessary -- it may extend beyond 25 pages. The main body of the report, including bibliography, should not be longer than 25 pages (otherwise your grade will be penalized).
A printed copy of the final report should be submitted to Donna O'Leary. Ask your advisor if he/she would like a printed copy and/or an electronic copy. You will also upload an electronic copy in PDF format to moodle so that the coordinator has a copy of it.
Here are some slides on how to write a good research paper.
Here is a research paper I have written recently to give you a bit of a sense of what a research paper can look like (keep in mind I worked with three other people for over a year on this project so I don't expect an individual project to contain so much dense information -- also, do not format it like this paper is formatted).
Final presentations will be given on the days December 11-14. Presentations will be given 1-5 on Tuesday and 12-3PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Students are expected to attend for a 1-hour block and give feedback to other students in that time period using the feedback forms (doc, txt).
Final presentations are a more detailed version of the initial proposals. However, the background material and future plans should be compressed and the bulk of the talk can focus on the results of your work. Please still give a brief introduction and background summary, simply to provide context during the talks. These presentations will be graded primarily on the amount of work done to date. Students with few demonstrable results or clearly thought-out ideas or algorithms will not receive a good grade at this point. In other words, students who believe that they can start their independent work research over the winter break and do well are unfortunately mistaken. However, presentations will also be graded on their organization, clarity and interest.
Once again, talks will take place in fixed slots, with a 15 minute time slot per talk. The expected breakdown is a 12 minute talk, with 3 minutes for questions. When you sign up for a slot, please expect to attend all of the talks in that 1-hour session, ask questions at the other talks and fill out feedback forms. Your talk file should be submitted to moodle prior to your talk. If submission of the talk delays your presentation, you will be docked 10%. The main talk file should be in either PDF or PowerPoint format. You may submit auxiliary materials needed for a demo or other purposes.
Grades for independent work will be determined by assessing (1) the creativity and originality of student ideas, (2) the content, amount of work accomplished to date, clarity and polish of presentations, and (3) the content, eloquence, organization and clarity of writing. Students giving unpracticed, unclear, unpolished or ineffectual presentations, not demonstrating good progress at checkpoints, turning in unstructured, slapdash or error-filled writing, etc. will not receive good grades for these components. Late sign-up for presentations or late turn-in of any component will result in a 10% penalty per day for that component. The breakdown of grades for single-semester work will be as follows:
15% proposal presentation
15% checkpoint
20% final presentation
50% final report
Grades for theses and independent work will be determined by assessing the creativity and originality of student ideas; the content, amount of work accomplished to date, clarity and polish of presentations; and the content, eloquence, organization and clarity of writing. Students giving unpracticed or unclear presentations, not demonstrating good progress at checkpoints, turning in unstructured or slapdash writing, etc. will not receive good grades for these components. Late sign-up for presentations or late turn-in of any component will result in a 10% penalty per day for that component. The breakdown of grades for single-semester work will be as follows:
5% proposal presentation
5% fall checkpoint
10% january midpoint paper
5% spring checkpoint
15% final presentation
60% final report
Giving a good research talk is much harder than you might think and also probably much more important than you might think. No matter how smart you are or how hard you work you will not become a great scientist until you can communicate your ideas effectively. To improve your presentations, you should practice them, both alone and in front of others, before giving it during your allotted slot. And take feedback on your posture, eye-contact, style and energy seriously as well as the structure, organization and content of your talk. You should imagine that the audience you are attempting to communicate to is a group of senior Princeton undergraduates in computer science. Since they are Princeton seniors, they are smart and have quite a bit of knowledge about computer science in general, but will not know the specifics of your particular research problem or area. Therefore, you need to introduce the problem and the reason you are doing your research clearly. You cannot depend upon your audience knowing specific jargon, nonstandard mathematics, the nuances of particular programming languages or the specifics of certain software packages. You also need to be a bit of a salesman or saleswoman -- you need to convince your audience that your ideas are useful or intriguing or ingenious or astonishing. You want to try to leave your audience impressed by what you have accomplished and hoping to hear more about it at a later time. If your talk depends upon research or results done by other people then, as usual, you need to cite those other people or papers or software products in your talk.
Here is a talk about how to give talks. Here is a video of Simon Peyton Jones giving the talk on how to give talks (Needs RealPlayer v10). Note that this talk is about how to give a talk after you have done a bunch of research. At the proposal stage, you are not expected to have done too much research, so there will be a greater focus on explaining the nature of the problem area, why the problem is important or intellectually interesting and who else has done research on this problem in the past. Instead of saying what you have done you will say what you will do and, importantly, how you will evaluate it. However, be sure to revisit this example of "how to give a talk" before giving your final presentation talk.
Here is a talk I gave to Princeton's industrial affiliates. Notice that slides 2-7 explain that there is lots of "ad hoc data" but no standard programming tools to manipulate it easily -- that is the problem the PADS technology will address. Slides 8-14 describes what research was done -- it describes the main components of the PADS system; it gives pictures to describe the software architecture; it shows (some of) the results of using one of the PADS tools. Slide 15 explains some future research. Slides 16 and 17 recap and conclude. Once again, this talk was given after a bunch of research was done. It is probably a better guide for the final presentation talk than the proposal, but I hope it helps you see the general style of a research talk.
Here is another example talk created by Vivek Pai, one of the professors in the department who has taught this course before.
You are heavily encouraged to ask your advisor to take a look at your slides in advance and to take their suggestions for improvement seriously.
It is possible to do a senior thesis if you are a BSE. If you would like to do such a thesis you must follow the following steps:
Note that your fall transcript you will receive a "INC" for COS 497 and will be changed to your thesis grade when COS 498 is completed in the spring.
If you change your mind about wanting or not wanting to do a thesis during the fall semester, keep the following in mind: