CS Honors Undergraduate Research Program Faculty Coordinator: Prof. Amit Sahai TA (Winter): Gunes Ercal Winter/Spring 2007 U.C.L.A

CS Honors Undergraduate

Research Program

Faculty Coordinator: Prof. Amit Sahai

TA (Winter): Gunes ErcalWinter/Spring 2007

U.C.L.A.

Honors Program

First of its kind at any University of California campus CS department

Chance for you to shine in a creative way

Outline

What is honors research? Schedule and course work Tips for effective communication Summary

Outline


What is the Honors Research Program?

Exposure to creative research Opportunity to work with faculty and graduate

students Independent Original Work So, what is research ?

Formally: advance state of art Informally: tell people something new

What is Research and What is Not?

Non-research My advisor gave me this mpeg decoding

algorithm I implemented it And it worked


Research I took two existing mpeg decoders I took some sample movies I studied the decoders qualitatively I measured them quantitatively I concluded why one is better

Why research: analysis + comparison = something new


Research My advisor gave me this mpeg decoding

algorithm I implemented it I measured it I analyzed it and found a bottleneck I instrumented the code to prove the hypothesis I recommend and conclude…


Research I was given an mpeg decoding implementation I identified its bottleneck as above I proposed an improvement I implemented the improvement I measured it again to prove/disprove I’m right I generalize and conclude…


Research My advisor asked me to implement an mpeg

decoder I came up with 2 alternative designs I analyzed qualitatively why one might be better (I experimented to directly or indirectly deduce I

was right) I implemented the best design I summarize and conclude…

What is Research and what is not ? Building a web site How do you distinguish yourself from a high school kid writing a

bunch of code ? A must: make it novel. Something new or better than previous

such websites How? Make it:

general: can be created and configured from parameters and scripts

automatically testable and demo-able a comparison between competing implementation technologies

(different languages, databases, OS environments) a software engineering exercise in portability, robustness,

performance, interface design, … Use the stuff you learn in your CS classes !


Research Many other possibilities

So, what is research ? Formally: advance state of art Informally: tell people something new Not necessarily much much more work Just need to “go the extra mile”:

explore, analyze, generalize…

Other traits of a Good Project

Interesting/important problem Non-trivial challenge(s) Exploration of new technology Can be finished in allotted time (2 quarters) Effective communication (talks, reports)

Outline


Honors Program Schedule

By 1/19: Project plan + Advisor’s approval Find an advisor and a project Write brief description of project with advisor’s email

confirmation 1/23 – 1/24: Project proposal talks

10 minute presentations to students and profs. Online signup

During the project Work 10-15 hours per week Meet regularly with your advisor Every Monday: Progress email

Honors Program Schedule

3/14: Project checkpoint submission 4-5 slides report progress and remaining plan Get feedback

4/10-11: Project checkpoint talk 10 minute presentation to students and profs.

5/15: 1st draft of thesis Get feedback!

6/5-6: Project results talk 15 minute presentation to students and profs.

6/8: Thesis due

Find an Advisor and a Project Get info about profs’ research

Honors program page, home pages, research papers, word of mouth, …

Schedule meetings with several professors email, office hours, appointments If having trouble, try to catch prof just after their class Warning: some profs are not around. Have backups!

Choose a professor Should be from CS dept

Can work with someone outside CS, If you’d like to do this, consult with me

Can be jointly advised by multiple profs

Find an Advisor and a Project

Decide on a project Profs suggest choices Students come up with their own A combination Mutual agreement, interest, enthusiasm

Write brief description of project and get Advisor’s email commitment to advise you

Submit online (TA Gunes will have details)

Find an Advisor and a Project

Topics/areas that may not be obvious research areas of profs: Games and game playing Education aids Language recognition/translation Wireless Cross-discipline (econ, history, math, psych,

politics, sociology, etc.) See: http://honors-program.wikispaces.com/

Project Proposal Talk

Problem description What am I going to do? Why is it important? Why is it hard?

Approach Previous approaches My approach Why is mine better?


Methodology, milestones, “deliverables” Plan of attack Specific steps What steps/deliverables will be done by

checkpoint (end of Winter quarter) What other steps/deliverables will be done by end

of projecct (end of Spring quarter) What might be hard and what’s the fall-back plan

Summary


Don’t have to talk about everything But include everything (in “notes” section or

other places) in the slides

Be specific, give details of plan Tell me what’s the new/clever/cool nugget Proposal talk is not your starting point: some

preliminary work should have gone into the project by then (i.e. in the next 2 weeks!)

Project Proposal Talk and Beyond

Scope of Project Not too little Not too much (carve out a piece, limit

functionality, reduce measurements) If you’re ambitious, have a longer term plan but

the short term plan should still be doable Don’t be afraid of getting negative results Have intermediate results

Project Proposal Talk and Beyond

Be conscientious Start early Define small milestones for yourself Work continuously to meet milestones Meet with your advisor regularly Don’t hesitate to get help

Weekly Email

Due every Monday after proposal talks Send to Advisor + submit online Just 2 paragraphs:

“What I did over the past week” “One new idea I thought of”

Every email doesn’t need to be a breakthrough...

Project Checkpoint and Talk

4-5 slides What you proposed to have done by checkpoint What you have actually accomplished by checkpoint

Steps Deliverables

Difficulties/surprises/deviations ? What more do you expect to do

Steps Deliverables

Project Results Talk

Review the problem description and proposed approach – give “the theme”

Give details (e.g., of implementation) to support “the theme”

Give key results to support “the theme” Summarize “the theme”

Thesis

Introduction Background Problem description: include goal

Approach Previous approach(es) My approach Why is mine better

Detailed description of methodology or implementation

Thesis (cont.)

Experimental results Analyze/interpret data, don’t just give numbers What does this have to do with your theme?

Conclusion Acknowledgements and bibliography

Grading Winter:

Project form/registration: 1% Proposal Talk and slides: 20% Weekly Emails: 40% Checkpoint slides and results: 39%

Spring: Checkpoint Talk: 15% Weekly Emails and 1st draft of thesis: 30% Project Results Talk results: 20% Thesis and results: 35%

All steps count, and include Advisor’s evaluations of the underlying work

Outline


Effective Writing

Concepts Focus on key ideas Expose, weave it in the body, conclude Why, not what Don’t get trapped by details and artifacts: Focus

on what is most important Flow: be a good story teller

Pay attention to order, and clear transitions

Effective Writing

Simplicity Simple exposition, simple styles Make it intuitive rather than formal Be specific, use examples

Pitfalls Too vague: for example, no examples Your contributions not clear Too much “what”, not enough “why”

Talk Tips

Focus on key ideas Choose carefully a sub-story out of a full

story Understand the nature of oral communication

(no pause, no rewind) KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Repetition is useful Give outline: some amount of predictability is

comforting

Talk Tips

Explain, interpret, justify, not just describe Write large Use color, but sparingly, consistently Use pictures (and even animations) No unnecessary words Make the story coherent and self-contained One corollary: no standalone graphs

Talk Tips - Preparation

Practice, Practice, Practice Dry run followed by slide-by-slide analysis Pay attention to time and practice for time Practice for varying audience backgrounds

Talk Tips – Presentation

Speak clearly, make eye contact Elaborate on your slides, don’t just read them Pay attention to posture, what your arms &

legs are doing Look at your audience Plan on skipping slides if needed Admit shortcomings, don’t wait for questions Analogies and jokes help

Outline

What is independent work/research ? Schedule and course work Tips for effective communication Summary

Summary

What is research ? Teaches people something new

Course work Be conscientious and stick to a plan

Effective communication Stick to a theme and tell a good story

Documents

CS Honors Undergraduate Research Program Faculty Coordinator: Prof. Amit Sahai TA (Winter): Gunes Ercal Winter/Spring 2007 U.C.L.A