The first meeting will be informational. We will assign paper topics to student groups.
The next 14 meetings will be paper reviews. Generally, 3-4 papers on a related topic will be covered at each class meeting, and each topic will be assigned to groups of 2-3 students. The format of each of these review sessions will be a 15 min introduction by one of the instructors, a 30-min student-led discussion, followed by a 30-min group discussion lead by the instructors and presenting students. You are not specifically graded on the paper topics that you present (though it will be considered in the class participation component). Each student is required to turn in a one-page (<700 words total) review of the all the papers discussed on a given day at the beginning of class (later evaluations will not be accepted). At a minimum, the evaluations should discuss the following:
After drop date students will present a short overview of the project that they are proposing. The discussion will be limited to 20 minutes, 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 for questions. This will allow for 4 presentations per day for the remaining 6 classes. Thus, if more than 24 students remain enrolled we will have to schedule extra class meetings. The proposal overviews should include the motivation, previous work, and potential contributions of the proposed work. You can expect critical comments during presentation that might effect the final direction of your project, thus there is an advantage to presenting early. The order of the presentations will be decided by the instructors and made public in class on November 8.
Each student must arrange to present their final project during the last week of classes (11/29-12/3). The presentation must accommodate both instructors and must not exceed 1 hour in length.