COMP 401
Course Syllabus
Overview
Welcome to COMP 401 – the undergraduate research component of the CS&Bio joint major!
This class will be utterly unlike most other classes you've taken. During this course, you will conduct a
research project under the guidance of a professor (typically from either
Computer Science or Biology).
Instructor
My name is Yue Li – I'm a professor of Computer Science and, more
importantly, I am the designated instructor for COMP 401 this semester. In this course, my job is to (1) ensure that
each student is well situated to complete a solid research project and (2) participate
in evaluating your research at the end of the semester (which culminates in
your final grade).
You're welcome to come see me throughout the semester. I don't have official office hours for this
class, so please send me an email if you'd like to meet and we'll find a time
that works for both of us.
Email: yueli [at] cs [dot] mcgill
[dot] ca
Office: Trottier 3105
Course Structure
Your COMP 401 experience will primarily stem
from the research that you do. As a
result, the structure of this course is built around making that time as
focused and productive as possible. With
this in mind, the course will proceed through the three stages described below.
Stage 1: Finalize project
proposal
Weeks 1 – 3: identify a supervisor and a project. You will do this on your own. Once you've
found a supervisor and narrowed in on a project, you'll write up a 1-page
project proposal. You'll submit this to
me and I'll use it to evaluate whether your research project satisfies the
(relatively flexible) guidelines of the course.
I'll be checking projects for three criteria:
1.
Scope: is this
project something that can be plausibly completed in a semester?
2.
Merit: is this
project sufficiently interesting/open that it counts as research?
3.
Topicality: is this
project within the range of topics that would fit a CS&Bio
major focus?
In your proposal, please make sure that you provide enough information
for me to evaluate this. It is possible
that I’ll ask you to clarify or revise certain aspects of the proposal. This is why I have two deadlines (see below)
for the project proposal. The first
deadline is the time by which you must submit a proposal. The second deadline is the time by which we
must have finalized the proposal (i.e., you’ve addressed any concerns or
comments I have about the project).
In general, if you find a supervisor in the CS&Bio
area, you shouldn't have a problem at all with this phase. Most often, your supervisor will provide you
with a project idea that you'll work on.
So you don't have to come to COMP 401 with any particular project ideas
of your own.
Typically, you'll
submit your project proposal and I'll immediately approve it – at which point
you move onto the next stage. If I don't
approve it, then we'll discuss my concerns and iterate on it until it's
something we're both comfortable with.
Stage 2: Research
Weeks 3 – end of semester: conduct your research. I'm not involved in this at all.
Stage 3: Final Report
On the last day of class, you must submit your final project
report. Project reports should be at
least 5 pages (not including figures and bibliography). A report should be written in the style of a
journal publication – meaning that it should include the following sections:
Introduction, Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. A bibliography is essential and must be
included. Your project report will be
lightly graded on presentation and with most emphasis placed on content. It's expected that you write your report with
feedback from your advisor prior to submitting it to me (this will help with
presentation and content). Note that I
don't expect this to be a perfect, publication-worthy manuscript – but I expect
it to be written well enough for me to understand what you did, why it was
important, and so forth.
Key Deadlines
1.
Jan. 25th: Project proposal due. This is an informal
document in which you provide a detailed description
2.
Feb. 2nd: Final project proposal due. If I respond to your initial
project proposal with questions or concerns, you have until this date to revise
and address them – ultimately submitting a revised version that will be
considered the final proposal.
3.
April 14: Final Project Report due. As described above, the 5+ page project report must be submitted by the
end of classes. Crucially, this is what I
will use to assign you a grade – so you may well have additional work to do for
your advisor. So don’t think that you
need to have finished your project in order for you to write your final
report. Note that, except for personal
emergencies and the like, I will not give
extensions.
Grading
Your grade will be determined as follows:
60% grade given by
supervisor
40% grade on final
report