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    Introductory Seminar on Research, Fall 2013

    COURSE SYLLABUS

Prerequisites:

You should be a graduate student.

Class Schedule:

Activity Day Time Location
Lecture T R 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM LOV 101

Contact Information:

Instructor: Mike Burmester
Office hours: T,R: 10:50 am - 12:20am. I am also usually available in my office, and you can feel free to meet me in the afternoons. Alternatively, you may schedule an appointment, either by email or by phone.
Office: 268, Love Building
Phone: 644-6410
Email: burmeste AT cs DOT fsu DOT edu
Co-Instructor: Piyush Kumar
Office hours: T,R: 1:45 pm - 2:45pm. I am also usually available in my office, and you can feel free to meet me in the afternoons. Alternatively, you may schedule an appointment, either by email or by phone.
Office: 161, Love Building
Phone: 270-1642
Email: piyush AT cs DOT fsu DOT edu

Course Material:

Required Text

Course Rationale:

This course introduces you to the research done by the Computer Science faculty, which will help you in choosing an adviser and a topic for your PhD dissertation, MS thesis, or MS project.

Course Description:

You will primarily listen to faculty talk about their research. You will submit written summaries for four of these talks, and also write more detailed reports on the research of two faculty members.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this course, you should be able to accomplish the objectives given below.

Your Responsibilities:

Deadlines and Instructions

Following the same professional guidelines that you will encounter at work, there are strict deadlines, and instructions that must be followed. Please read instructions carefully, and schedule your activities so that you submit assignments on time. You should check the class web page regularly, and note other announcements, on-line and in class.

Class Participation

You should be in class on time, and leave only after it is over. Otherwise, you will be marked absent. The maximum allowable number of absences is three, unless there are certifiable excuses. You should also pay attention to the talks presented by faculty, and instructions given by me. You should not disturb the class in any manner, such as by talking to others while the class is going on.

Assignments

You will have two types of assignments in this course. Formatting instructions are available at www.cs.fsu.edu/~burmeste/CIS5935/format.html.

  1. Summaries: You should write a one-page summary of the talk given by at least four faculty members. You may supplement the material presented at the talk with on-line material from that faculty member's web page, if you wish to. Your written report will be judged both on content and on presentation. In particular, you should have no typographical errors. If I mark four of your summary reports as good (graded two points each), then you need not write any more summaries, for this category of assignments (a minimum of eight points is necessary). Hardcopies of the summaries are due at the beginning of the next lecture. If no talk is scheduled for the next lecture, then please place your homework under my office door.

  2. Detailed reports: You should look at the web pages of all faculty and choose two on whose research you want to write a more detailed five-page report. This report should also include information on one or two recent or current research grants obtained by the faculty, its source, and amount. You should also give two of the most cited journal articles of the faculty member (using the ISI Science Citation Index data) and two of the most cited conference articles (using data from Scholar Google). If I mark two of your detailed reports as good (graded four points each), then you need not write any more reports for this category of assignments (a minimum of eight points is necessary). A hardcopy of each report is due on the date mentioned in the course calendar. You should hand it over to me at the begining of class on the due date. This report too will be judged both on content and on presentation. If a report is not satisfactory, then you will need to write reports on additional faculty members, until you produce a good one.

  3. Responsible conduct of Research: The National Science Foundation (NSF) requires each institution to certify that a plan is in place to provide Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training for postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students. There is an online quiz organized by CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) and supported by FSU for RCR. You should complete the Responsible Conduct of Research CITI training test outlined in Option 2 below.

    Instructions: Go to the CITI website. Be sure to select only the free training option, and do not agree to pay anything. When you have completed the test, print out the page showing that you have completed the course and give it to me for the files. It is important that we have a copy in case you need it later. The instructions on Blackboard may not completely match CITI, however, you should be able to work your way through it. If you have questions, please let me know. Option 2 is for graduate and undergraduate (and postdoctoral) students, offered by CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative). The CITI online training test requires approximately three to five hours for completion. Instructions for registering and taking the CITI test can be found at the following link: http://www.gradstudies.fsu.edu/Professional-Development/Research-and-Scholarly -Integrity/FSU-s-CITI-Courses

    The names of students who complete the CITI test will be posted on the Blackboard site of the Office of Research. First log into Blackboard, choose FSU Office of Research under "My Organizations" and then click on RCR Course Completion Information.

Course Calendar:

Week Lecture Speaker Assignment
1 27 Aug Introduction to the course by both instructors. Piyush Kumar: Research Talk
Summary due Sept 3
29 Aug Mike Burmester
2 3 Sep Piyush Kumar Summary due Sep 5
Summary due Sept 10
5 Sep Xiuwen Liu -- Vision and its applications
3 10 Sep TBA Summary due Sep 12
Summary due Sep 17
12 Sep Mike Burmester
4 17 Sep TBA Summary due Sep 19
Summary due Sep 24
19 Sep Gary Tyson
5 24 Sep Peixiang Zhao Summary due Sep 26
Summary due Oct 1
26 Sep Ashok Srinivasan
6 1 Oct Zhenghao Zhang Summary due Oct 3
Summary due Oct 8
3 Oct Nancy Kellett (for students whose name starts with "A" to "L" inclusive) @ Dirac Library, Room #208
7 8 Oct Xin Yuan 1st Detailed Report due Oct 17
No Summary
10 Oct Nancy Kellett (for students whose name starts with "M" to "Z" inclusive) @ Dirac Library, Room #208
8 15 Oct Camilo Ordonez -- CISCOR Introduction Summary due Oct 17
17 Oct TBA Summary due Oct 22
9 22 Oct Sonia Haiduc Summary due Oct 24
Summary due Oct 29
24 Oct TBA
10 29 Oct Piyush Kumar Summary due Oct 31
No Summary
31 Oct Sudhir Aggarwal
11 5 Nov Robert VanEngelen Summary due Nov 7
2nd Detailed Report due Nov 12 for presentations before 11/12
7 Nov Zhi Wang
12 12 Nov Debdeep Pati (Bayesian model based shape clustering)
Summary due Nov 19
14 Nov Gary Tyson
13 19 Nov No Class No Summary
Summary due Nov 26
21 Nov David Whalley
14 26 Nov D. Schwartz Summary due Dec 3
Summary due Dec 5
28 Nov No Class. Thanksgiving.
15 3 Dec Andy Wang 3rd Detailed Report due Dec 5
END
5 Dec END

Grading Criteria:

The grade will be S/U only. You will need to perform satisfactorily in each of the following criteria in order to pass the course.

Record of completed assignments.

Course Policies:

Attendance Policy

The university requires attendance in all classes, and it is also important to your learning. Your attendance record may be provided to deans who request it. You may have at most three unexcused absences, if you wish to get a passing grade. In rare cases, such as medical needs or jury duty, absences may be excused with appropriate documentation. You should let me know in advance, when possible, and submit the documentation I seek.

Late Assignment Policy

We have the following policy regarding submission of late assignments, in order to encourage you to submit them on time. Note that if you submit an assignment multiple times, the last submission alone will be considered for grading. Therefore, if the last submission is late, then a late submission penalty will apply, even if your earlier submissions had been on time.

Professional Ethics

You may not copy material from any source. Furthermore, you should take steps to ensure that others cannot copy work. For example, you should have all permissions on assignment files and directories set off for others.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is "representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as ones own. For example, plagiarism includes failure to use quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any source" (Florida State University General Bulletin 1998-1999, p. 69). Failure to document material properly, that is, to indicate that the material came from another source, is also considered a form of plagiarism. Copying someone else's program, and turning it in as if it were your own work, is also considered plagiarism.

Academic Honor Policy

The Florida State University Academic Honor Policy outlines the University's expectations for the integrity of students' academic work, the procedures forresolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process. Students are responsible for reading the Academic Honor Policy and for living up to their pledge to ''. . . be honest and truthful and . . . [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity at Florida State University.'' (Florida State University Academic Honor Policy, found at http://fda.fsu.edu/Academics/Academic-Honor-Policy).

SYLLABUS CHANGE POLICY:

This syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change with advanced notice.

Last modified: 22 August 2013