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ACS Project Briefing

ACS Project Briefing. 25th October 2010 Steven Hand. What’s an ACS Research Project?. An independent * piece of work in some area of computer science Can be based on one of the many project suggestions, or initiated by the student Needs to have a willing academic supervisor

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ACS Project Briefing

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  1. ACS Project Briefing 25th October 2010 Steven Hand

  2. What’s an ACS Research Project? • An independent* piece of work in some area of computer science • Can be based on one of the many project suggestions, or initiated by the student • Needs to have a willing academic supervisor • Official member of staff who signs off on proposal, and provides 50% of final assessment • Optionally can have additional ‘day to day’ supervisor who helps with the actual doing of the work! (* you can work in collaboration with others… but need to be very careful about attribution; best avoid other ACS students)

  3. A “Research” Project? • The word ‘Research’ describes an aspiration… • A successful project should be something that could lead to a paper submission to a decent venue… • … but novelty is not strictly required • Perfectly acceptable to do a measurement study; to reproduce (or not!) results; or just build a <foo> • Aim is to show that you can • Find a problem/area (perhaps with some help); • Get up to speed with the state of the art • Produce a research proposal; • Effectively carry out a decent amount of work; and • Write it all up coherently

  4. Timetable • Now: think about possible projects • See ACS project web page for ideas, or browse research group or individual pages to understand interests • Next: acquire a supervisor • Get agreement in principle as soon as you can • Do background reading, and iterate on proposal • Mon 22nd November 2010: submit research proposal • Can start work immediately, despite official start of 1st Dec • End of Lent Term: progress review • May 9th–11th 2011: project presentations (assessed) • Fri 17th June 2011 (noon): submit dissertation • HARD deadline! (fail if miss this… so don’t ;-)

  5. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  6. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Formally registered with BoGS in January • Must notify us if you want to change it! • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  7. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Aim for an ‘elevator pitch’, i.e. 1. What’s the problem? 2. Why is it important / interesting / non-trivial? 3. What’s your approach? • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  8. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Motivation, background and context • Should interleave some related work here • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  9. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • What’s the basic idea? • What will you aim to produce / achieve? • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  10. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan(~2 pages) • Total duration is approx 28 weeks – aim for 14x2 week ‘chunks’ • Write down planned work and milestones • Suggest leave 2-4 weeks for write up, and 2 weeks for ‘catch up’. • Appendix (max 2 pages)

  11. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix(max 2 pages) • Academic references • Required resources – also need to fill out additional form • Anything other supporting material

  12. The Research Proposal • 4+2 page document which includes: • Your name, college, CRSid and academic supervisor • Project title • Abstract (1-3 paragraphs) • Introduction (~1 page) • Approach & Outcomes (~1 page) • Detailed Workplan (~2 pages) • Appendix (max 2 pages) • LaTeX template available on ACS project page…

  13. Risk Management (1) • Intellectual Risks • Due to hard deadline, must ensure that with very high probability a project produces something • If possible structure project in ‘phases’, e.g minimum acceptable outcome followed by optional extensions • Practical Risks • Avoid relying on someone else’s speculative work, or untested hardware, or flaky software • Ensure everything you do is backed up

  14. Risk Management (2) • Legal Risks • If incorporating any external IP, be sure you have clear permission to publish • Unacceptable if a dissertation requires an NDA to read! • (In general I’d strongly advise you avoid any encumbrance from external IP if possible …) • Ethical Risks • If your project involves human subjects, you must read the official procedures [see web page] • (and, if necessary, get approval)

  15. The Dissertation • A dissertation of no more than 15,000 words • Including footnotes, appendices and bibliography • Relatively ‘free’ format apart from proforma (declarations, etc – see web page) • Writing this much text (well) is hard • Suggest you try to write as you go • Generic structure will work as a starting point • Refine as/when the project results become clearer • LaTeX strongly recommended (tho not required)

  16. Attribution & Reproducibility • Declaration of originality states everything is your own work except where explicitly stated • Be sure to explicitly state it! • Your supervisor can help in if you’re in doubt • Your results/work should be reproducible • We require you to upload a tarball or equivalent of any source code, proofs, data sets, etc • Examiners reserve the right to call a student for a vice voce examination for any reason

  17. Summary • Choose Project (Area) and Supervisor • Prepare Research Proposal • Start background reading & preparation ASAP • Build plan incorporating risk management • Submit by Mon 22nd November 2010 • Do Work and || • Write Dissertation • Submit Dissertation: Fri 17th June 2010 (noon) • Party!

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