Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Fall 02
Special Subject

MIT 6.978: Biologically Motivated Programming Technology for Robust Systems

Calendar, Announcements and Assignments for Fall 02

CALENDAR

Week 1: Sept 10 Talk by Hal Abelson; Request for proposals sent out.
Week 2: Sept 17 Talk by Radhika Nagpal; 1-page pre-proposals due.
Week 3: Sept 24 Talk by Tom Knight; Proposal with biweekly milestones due.
Week 4: Oct 1 Talk by Jeremy Gunawardena, James McLurkin
Week 5: Oct 8 Talk by Feng Zhao; Assignment: 2 minute oral report on First Milestone.
Week 6: Oct 15 HOLIDAY; Progress report due wed by email
Week 7: Oct 22 Milestone; Oral presentations and discussions start (see schedule below)
Week 8: Oct 29 presentations
Week 9: Nov 5 presentations
Week 10: Nov 12 Talk by Gerry Sussman
Week 11: Nov 19 Assignment: report on Last Milestone, discussion of project paper
Week 12: Nov 26 Class cancelled
Week 13: Dec 3 Project work must be complete. Final draft of paper due; Final Presentations begin
Week 14: Dec 10 Final Presentations. Final Paper Due


Final Assignment

Final Presentations Dec 3rd and 10th: We will have final presentations at the next two classes. The focus of your talk should be the results and progress made on the problem you chose. You will have 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes for questions.

Current Schedule:
Dec 3rd: Lauren Clement, Yuri Brun, Justin Werfel, Manu Prakash, John Golar, Joshua Growchow.
Dec 10: Josh Lifton, Saul Griffith, Jake Beal & Ryan Newton, James McLurkin, Jonathan Bachrach, Attila Kondacs & Catie Chang & Rebecca, Jacky Mallett.

October 16: Assignment for next week

Starting next Tuesday we will have oral presentations by people in the class. You will have 15 minutes to present, and 5 minutes for questions. The goal at this stage is to give a clear idea of the problem you are trying to solve and your project goal, prior art in the area and a brief account/demonstration of your progress to date. It takes some practice to be able to fit all that into 15 minutes and we will hold you to 15 minutes.

You should aim to give a polished talk, in that the problem is clear, your approach is clear, and your goal is clear. The quality of your delivery (as well as the content) will be part of the evaluation of your work.

You will get written feedback from each person in the class; I've included the feedback form at the end of this message which should also help you structure your talk.

The schedule is :

October 8: Assignment for next week

No Class Next Week because of Columbus Day. However there is Written Assignment due via email.

October 1: Assignment for next week

Report on first Milestone.

TALK Announcement: Oct 7, 4pm, NE43-518, John Doyle from CalTech, "Robustness and the Internet: Design, Evolution, and Theoretical Foundations" (paper)

September 10: Assignment for next week

Anyone who plans to register for the class should show up next week with a brief (one- or two-page) preliminary proposal for the research you plan to do this semester. You can propose an individual project, or choose to work in a group of two or three.

September 27: Swarm robotics

The Journal of Autonomous Robots is putting together a special issue on Swarm Robotics and looking for papers in this area. Several people in the class are doing projects in this area. You should consider working up your paper for inclusion here. See the information on the special issue for details.

Return to class home page

Last modified: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 21:10:38 -0400