Assignments -- Winter 2009
Projects
You should suggest a project based on papers and ideas listed on WebCT, but you are welcome to suggest your own. A project usually provides some implementation for a technique described in a paper, or a formalization of a paper in a proof assistant. The total length of the project is 5 weeks, and three people should form one team.
The project has four main parts:
- Project proposal(2 pages) (3%) :
A good project proposal (2 pages) has a title, gives a brief motivation of the proposed project, and clearly identifies the goal and expected outcome. Explain
clearly how you will measure success of the proejct. Your proposal should list at least 4 related papers, and briefly describe how your proposed project fits into the related work. Finally, you must clearly identify who in your team is responsible for what part, and give a time line of the project.
- Project milestones (3% each, total 6%) :
You must make
electronically available a snapshot of your project and describe in a
README file what has been accomplished by each team member. Each
team must send a link to a web-page where the this information can
be found to the TA's and the instructor.
- Project presentation (5%) : In the last week, each team is expected
to give a 15min project presentation which explains why
your project is interesting, what you have done so far,
and what you still intend to do, and discusses briefly related work. A
good presentation includes examples to motivate your project, discusses briefly the benefits and mentions related work.
You should have some slides prepared
for the presentation. Your slides should be well-structured, and
easily readible and understandable. This is much more important
than choosing powerpoint or handwritten slides.
Only one of the team members should present the
project but the other team members are also responsible of making
sure the talk is well-structured, the content is accessible, and the slides are well-done. The same grade will be given to all team members.
- Project report (6%) :
Project reports must have been prepared with ACM's standard style
files (please consult SIGPLAN Author information on WebCT) using the
11pt template. You will find also a lot of useful information
regarding how to write a research paper on the SIGPLAN website. In
your project report, you must provide a link to the produced
artefact, i.e. the formalization of a formal system in a proof
assistant, or an implementation you built. Deadline: 23 April, 2009.
What does it mean to give a good talk? What does it mean to write a good paper?
Here is some advice other computer scientists have given.
- "How to present a paper in theoretical computer science: a speaker's guide to students", Ian Parberry, (ps)
- "How to give a good research talk", Simon L Peyton Jones, John Hughes, John Launchbury, SIGPLAN Notices 28(11), Nov 1993 (ps)
- "A guide for new referees in theoretical computer science", Ian Parberry (ps)
- "What it's like to be a POPL Referee, or How to write an extended abstract so that it is more likely to be accepted", Mark N. Wegman, SIGPLAN Notices 21(5), May 1986,91-95.
More advice on how to write a paper, present a talk, get into graduate school, etc. can be found here.