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CS Independent Work and Theses |
Super Important Stuff:
Important (but not quite Super) Stuff:
This web page is one of your major resources for information about the requirements of your thesis or independent research work. Please read it very carefully. The coordinator for independent research is professor David Walker. Many logistical questions can also be answered by Donna O'Leary, undergraduate program coordinator.
Your number 1 priority at the beginning of the semester 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.
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 have done research with CS students in the past or are looking to do interdisciplinary projects with CS students in the future:
Hilary Coller (Computational Biology) (hcoller@princeton.edu) -- Lewis Thomas Lab Room 140 (website)
Ruby Lee (Electrical Engineering) (website)
Sharad Malik (Electrical Engineering) (website)
Adam Maloof (Geosciences) -- 213/215 Guyot Hall (website)
Ken Norman (Psychology) (website)
You should also plan to go to the Welcome Meeting to find out all about independent work. This is a mandatory meeting if it is your first time doing independent work.
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 web site include:
Important Dates
Welcome Meeting
Proposals Presentations
Checkpoints
January Thesis/2-semester IW Midpoint
Paper
IW Final Report
Thesis Final Report
Poster Session
Single-semester IW Grading
Thesis Grading
Giving Good Research Talks
BSE Thesis Information
Come, eat pizza, and find out how to do a successful independent work project. The meeting will 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. The slides from the organizational meeting are available here. See the important dates page for the place and time of the meeting.
Everyone must sign up and give a proposal presentation. 2-semester projects and thesis projects will give one proposal presentation at the beginning of the fall term (they will not give another one at the beginning of the spring term). Single-semester independent work projects will give a proposal at the beginning of the semester. This presentation will come in approximately the 4th week of the semester. See the important dates page for the sign-up deadline and the dates for giving presentations. Sign-up sheets will be outside CS 410. 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.
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. If you are asked for the "enrollment key" in moodle, it "typesystems."
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 and need to give a demo, you may use it. However, if you do not need to give a demo, it is preferable to use my laptop to cut down on the switch over time between talks.
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. You should not assumed that the audience has a specialized knowledge of your field. Assume your audience is a group of senior undergraduates from Princeton who have not necessarily taken the courses that are most closely related to your research area.
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 write approximately a one-page document that clearly explains what you have accomplished so far. Mention any ideas you have had, software you have built, related research you have evaluated and papers or textbooks you have read. If you are having difficulty making progress on your project due to some obstacle, explain the obstacle and a plan for overcoming the problem.
To get credit for your midpoint paper you must do two things the:
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 (pdf, doc, txt). You must return the form to Donna by the deadline (see important dates page).
Students doing 2-semester IW or 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 the deadline (the Friday at the end of first week of classes of the spring semester -- see important dates page):
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 (pdf, doc, txt). You must return the form to Donna (see important dates page).
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 THE DEADLINE 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 to Donna. 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.
Every thesis and independent work student will produce a "poster" or poster-like display for the final poster session. The poster session will be held in the Friend Center Convocation Room between 2-4pm on May 7th. Please show up by 1:45pm at the latest to set up (show up earlier if your setup/demo is more elaborate). You may show up earlier if you want -- any time after 1pm is fine.
Poster Logistics: Each student will have 1 side of a bulletin board that is 4ft by 4ft to mount their display. Most people will have conventional posters as displays. However, we encourage students to come up with new and creative ways to communicate the intellectual content of their theses to other students and faculty. Thumb tacks for mounting conventional posters will be provided for you. If you are considering something unconventional, please check with Donna O'Leary and David Walker well in advance to determine if the idea is feasible. In general, space is limited so while creative ideas are wonderful, they need to fit in the same space as a conventional poster presentation.
Poster Content: During the poster session, faculty and students will wander from poster to poster and engage you in conversations about your research. Therefore, each poster should be created in such a way that best helps you explain the intellectual content, importance, creativity, and overall "coolness" of your IW project to a faculty member or student working outside your area of research. Like a good research talk, you should start any conversation with a faculty member with a high-level explanation of the basic problem you are solving and why it is important. Once the faculty member understands the problem, you should move on to explaining the most interesting elements of your solution to the problem. After explaining the basics of the solution you can move on to discussing any experiments or proofs you have done to evaluate or validate your ideas. Do not be afraid to explain negative results in which experiments showed that your ideas did not necessarily pan out as you thought they might. Sharing negative results is a part of good science. Remember that like in a good talk, pictures, graphs, and charts are often worth 1000 words. Also remember that like a good talk, a poster presentation must be practiced in order to be effective. Give practice presentations to your advisor and your friends. Have your friends try to think of difficult questions for you to answer in the middle of your presentation so you are prepared. You should be ready to give a 2 minute presentation, a 5 minute presentation or a 15 minute presentation to a faculty member who walks by. Note, if I try to visit 50 poster presentations in 2 hours, you have a maximum of just 2 minutes with me. Give me a punchy 2minute spiel on why your work is great. Other faculty will only visit a subset of the posters and will spend more time with each presenter.
Example Poster: Here is an example of a poster. However, you do not need to emulate the style; it is just one example. This example may have too words on it and it might be even better if there were more pictures or graphs.
Demos: If you would like to do a demo on your own laptop (or other computerized devices) in addition to a "poster," we will have a couple of tables on which you can place a laptop and have access to power. Note demoing your software does not replace the need for you to create a poster -- due to space constraints, your will probably not be able to run your demo at a table for the entire poster session. Since many students may want to do demos to show off their software, in order to do a demo, you must schedule it with Donna by sending her an email before April 30th. If you do not send her email by April 30th, we will not have space in the Convocation Room for you to do your demo.
Another option for a demo may be to run your laptop off it's battery (make sure it's well charged to begin with!). Bring your own stool and set up the laptop next to your poster on your stool. If you use an elaborate laptop setup, you may want to check with David Walker and Donna O'Leary to get their opinion as to whether it will work ... Space is the main constraint during the poster session.
Printing posters. WARNING: Don't wait until May 6th to figure out how to create and print your poster -- you will be out of luck! No excuses about being unable to create a poster on time will be accepted. It is your responsible to figure how to do it and get it done on time. Here are some options for creating posters:
Awards: One additional goal of the poster session is to help the faculty identify award-caliber independent work. Awards may be given out for the best Senior Thesis and best Junior and Senior Independent Work as well as the best Demo or best Poster. The faculty also reserves the right to give other awards (or not give them) as they see fit!
See the important dates page for the deadline. 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).
See the important dates page for the deadline. This report is much like the single-semester IW report, except that it should be approximately twice as long. A report on the order of 40 pages is appropriate. Again, it should 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.
You must submit TWO UNBOUND copies of the final report/thesis to Donna O'Leary. Ask your advisor if he/she would like a printed copy (bound or unbound) 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.
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 be looked upon favourably when assigning final grades! Late sign-up for presentations or late turn-in of any component will result in a 10% penalty per day for that component.
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. Like AB senior theses, a BSE senior thesis will take 2 semesters and the final report is expected to be about twice as long as an ordinary single-semester Independent Work project. 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: