Faouzi Alaya Cheikh faouzi@hig.no

1. Opponent:What? Why? How? Faouzi Alaya Cheikh faouzi@hig.no www.hig.no/~faouzi

2. Outline • What? • Why? • How? • Report • Presentation • Summary www.hig.no/~faouzi

3. What? • What it is not: • Not an opportuinity for revenge! • Not an opportuinity to expose all the dirty laundary of the others! (not an errata) • Not about you: so don’t show-off! www.hig.no/~faouzi

4. What? Not good enough! • Merriam-Webster: • one that takes an opposite position (as in a debate, contest, or conflict). • a muscle that opposes or counteracts and limits the action of another. • Wiktionary (open content dictionay) • One who attempts to stop the progression of. • One who objects to. • Someone who plays in the same match, or is standing or running in the same election, but is not on the same team. www.hig.no/~faouzi

5. What? So what is it finally? Responsible for finding the strengths and weeknesses of the report/presentaiton, and calling attention to them. www.hig.no/~faouzi

6. Why? Japanese Proverb: “The opponents and I are really one. My strength and skills are only half of the equation. The other half is theirs. An opponent is someone whose strength joined to yours creates a certain result.” www.hig.no/~faouzi

7. Why? • Because it improves the report/presentation quality. • Its part of the learning process: • How to read and critisize a large scientific work, • Exposes you to an other topic, • Gives you hints on how to improve your own work. • Because it is a requirement for getting your diploma! www.hig.no/~faouzi

8. Why? Opponent review main goal: Give you feedback on the quality and coherence of your ideas: • Are your arguments clear and logical? • Did you communicate what you had hoped to communicate? www.hig.no/~faouzi

9. How? www.hig.no/~faouzi

10. The outside to the inside iteratively: Title: Informative? Representative? Exciting? Structure: Logical? Coherent? Complete? Each section: Coherence ? Size is balanced or not? The general ideas to the details of the: Claims, Algorithms, Experiments, Analysis, Conclusions Report Work your way from: www.hig.no/~faouzi

11. Report • Focus on: • How well the problem is defined? • How was it related to theory or existing litterature? • The choice of method. • The arguments: • their nature, presentation, and applicability to the issue at hand. • Were you convinced by the argument? Did it make sense? • If the writer lost you, where did his argument break down? • Conclusions: credible? • Novelty? • Consistency? • Opponent Report and comments on the thesis report. www.hig.no/~faouzi

12. Presentation • Ask questions to: • insite the presenter to give better explanationsation of important ideas, • initiate intresting discussion to emphasize important aspects of the work that the author overlooked or is not aware of, • open new horisons. • Report on the presentation quality. www.hig.no/~faouzi

13. Summary • Be sure to note positive as well as negative aspects. • BE KIND: • Constructive criticisms are not laundry lists of every minor problem, • They are best if phrased gently and specifically (e.g. ”it was difficult to follow your argument here”, rather than : “this makes no sense!”). • They are targeted at a specific problem (e.g. lack of logical flow) • If possible suggest a specific solution (e.g., 'rearrange paragraphs 2 and 3 on page 4'; or 'explain this idea more'). www.hig.no/~faouzi

14. www.hig.no/~faouzi