CSC 590: Thesis Seminar

1. CSC 590: Thesis Seminar Instructor: Alex Dekhtyar

2. Meet and Greet • Your name. • Undergraduate background. • Point you are in your studies. • Do you have thesis area? • Do you have specific thesis topic? • Have you started you thesis • Any other interesting info.

3. Disclaimer: I usually do not use PowerPoint slides in class. However this course is different. Disclaimer: Slides heavily borrow from Gene Fisher’s CSC 590 slides (with Gene’s permission)

4. Objectives • Learn what is involved in writing a thesis • Learn how to do research • Learn how to present research in oral and written forms

5. Objectives • How to do research • Pick a research topic • Discover/survey literature • Validate your work • How to «sell» your research • on paper • In presentation (twice)

6. On the Internets Course page (for my stuff) http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~dekhtyar/590-Fall2009 Wiki (for your stuff) http://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/590 Mailing List csc-590-02-2098@calpoly.edu

7. Schedule 1. September 25 Syllabus and Introductions 2. October 2 M.S. research and thesis 3. October 9 Thesis document structure 4. October 16 Thesis document: Introduction, Background, Related work 5. October 23FURLOUGH Guest lecture 6. October 30 Short Presentations, Halloween party 7. November 6 Thesis Presentation 8. November 13 Long Presentations 9. November 20 Long Presentations 10. December 4 Long Presentations

8. Alternative Schedule 1. September 25 Syllabus and Introductions 2. October 2 M.S. research and thesis 3. October 9 Thesis document structure 4. October 16 Thesis document: Introduction, Background, Related work 5. October 23FURLOUGH Guest lecture 6. October 30 Short Presentations, Halloween party 7. November 6 Thesis Presentation 8. November 13Catch-up discussions 9. November 20 Catch-up discussions 10. December 4 Long Presentations 11. December 7 Long Presentations

9. Assignments Duration 1. Thesis reading and critique15% 2. Research blurb/Thesis Intro 15% 3. Experimental design 10% 4. Related work20% 5. Short presentation 5% 6. Long presentation 30% 7. Class participation 5% Today – Oct 16 Today – Oct 23 (Part 1)

10. Research in a nutshell • Come up with interesting, novel idea. • See what else is out there like it. • If it’s really new, «bring it to fruition» • whatever it means.

11. M.S. Thesis in a nutshell • The Fisher definition: • a "potentially publishable" piece of work. • "by the book" definition: «a culminating experience ...» One good idea worked on for six months to ayear by a smart person, under the supervisionof a smart advisor.

12. Thesis BuZzwords • "systematic study of significant problem" • "identifies problem, states assumptions" • "evidences originality,critical and independent thinking"

13. Types of M.S. Thesis • Theoretical • define stuff, prove theorems • Experimental (Empirical) • state hypothesis, design experiment, run it analyze results • Project-oriented • identify need, design and implement system, validate it. • Survey • study the work of others, summarize, analyze, draw conclusions

14. Starting your work • Figure out what general area(s) interest you. • Take grad class(es) in areas, do well in them. • Find advisor.

15. Quantitative Stuff • Thesis Length • as long as is needed • 50 – 150 pages (depending on material) • Thesis research length • the longer the better • 1 ac. Year now is CSC requirement (three quarters of thesis research) • 1.5 – 2 years typically yields better results

16. Quantitative Stuff • How much to put in a thesis? • pretty much, one good idea. • Whose idea? • yours (more fun, more risk, less advisor time) • Advisor’s (less risk, more advisor time, may be harder to get excited)

17. Quantitative Stuff • How big a bibliography? • Fisher says: «Approximately equal to number of pages.» • The more the merrier