COM495/6: Research Seminar

Introduction

The CS faculty at Connecticut College believe that undergraduate research is essential for CS majors. The ability to conduct independent research is probably the main characteristic of interest to universities when considering graduate school applicants and it is also of interest to employers who want innovative employees. Not only is undergraduate student research the wave of the future, it is one of the major strengths of the Connecticut College Computer Science Program. In addition, since CS tends to be strongly interdisciplinary there are many opportunities for crossdisciplinary work with these research projects. Some likely areas of collaboration are with art, music, biology, physics, economics, chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

Required for Computer Science Majors

COM495 (offered every fall) and COM496 (offered every spring) are required courses for computer science majors. Students who would normally take independent studies to do research will sign up for these courses. The instructor assigned to the course will be the course coordinator. Students will be doing the research directly with faculty in their area of interest. Please see the CS Research Page for available areas of research. It is desirable, but not required, that students contact the faculty member they will be working with before enrolling in the course.

Course Description

Practicum in computer science research. An introduction to research methods and implementation of a major project. Students will read, present, and discuss technical papers; write a research proposal; make weekly reports; raise issues for class discussion; complete their research; write a technical paper; and do a public presentation. May be repeated unlimited times for credit.
Prerequisite: 300 level course in the area of computer science research.

Student Learning Objectives

Conduct research - Students will be expected to produce a research work that is at least at a level appropriate for an undergraduate senior. The goal will be that they produce significant research that is either presentable / publishable in a peer reviewed conference or a step in that direction. This learning objective includes the following elements:
1. Frame the problem.
2. Investigate alternate methods for solving it.
3. Determine an approach.
4. Implement the approach.
5. Evaluate the approach.
Literature search - As part of framing the problem and investigating alternate approaches, students will search for pertinent previous works and present a list to the instructor.
Read and understand technical papers - Students will read and discuss previous works with their advisor and the class, and write summaries, which will be part of the final paper Introduction.
Effective written communication - Students will be expected to write a technical paper outlining their research. Strong papers will be submitted to technical conferences at the discretion of their advisor. Those projects that lack the significance for publication will be published internally as technical reports.
Effective oral communication - Students will present their work at departmental events and possibly technical conferences.
Collaboration - Students will have the opportunity to work with other students and/or faculty on their projects. They will be expected to work together as a research group and will be graded on their participation in helping other students with their issues that they present during class meetings.

Discussion

The course will meet weekly with a 2.5 hour session. In the first few class periods, research essentials will be covered by the instructor and there will be a field trip to the library to learn how to use it to do literature searches. After that, the weekly meeting will be for students to discuss their research projects (all the students in the class will present their progress and raise issues for discussion) and for presentations of research papers pertinent to the topic they are studying. The students will be required to develop a schedule, write a research proposal, complete their body of research, write a technical paper, and do a presentation at the end of the course.

Grading

Research Quality (as indicated on Research Log, Progress Sheet, and Meetings)

70%

Final Presentation

10%

Final Paper

10%

Class Participation

10%

Research Quality: The objective of this class is to complete a body of research, which may or may not extend over two semesters. The amount and level of research completed will be determined by your advisor. It is important that you develop a research plan with weekly goals and that you keep track of your progress. A Google Docs spreadsheet will be provided for you to keep this information. Copy it from here, rename it to "you name COM496 Time Log / Goals" and share it with your advisor and the instructor of the course. It is expected that each student in this class will work 12 to 15 hours per week (including class time and meetings with their advisor) on the project. In order to help you keep up with this weekly workload, you will be required to log any hours spent on the project in another Google Docs spreadsheet. These spreadsheets will be available to your advisor and the course instructor.

Final Presentation: At the end of the semester there will be a session where all students enrolled in the Research Seminar will present their work to the CS Dept and others who wish to attend.

Final Paper: A final paper of the quality needed for submission to a conference is to be completed.

Class Participation: Attendance and participation at every class is an important part of this seminar. The grade here will include how well you present your research updates to the class and the quantity and quality of your discussion of the research presented by others. You are expected to connect to the Zoom session on time and keep video on throughout the class. You should select mute on audio except when you speak. The best way to get the maximum benefit/points is to come to every class ready to present whatever has been assigned and have questions/comments for others during the class. Good ways to reduce your participation grade include skipping class, consistently coming late, causing distractions, not paying attention, and turning off your video.

Homework: Homework will be assigned to assist you in the completion of your research and/or paper. Although not listed with a specific percentage of the overall grade, the quality of the homework will help the advisor and instructor in assigning grades to the components of the course listed above.

Note on Credit Hour Definition

A semester course is normally equivalent to four credit hours. Connecticut College complies with federal regulations defining the credit hour. For each credit hour awarded, a course will provide an average of at least one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction (class meetings, labs, review sessions, field trips, office hours, film screenings, tutorials, training, rehearsals, etc.) and at least two hours of out-of-class work (homework, preparatory work, practice, rehearsals, etc.) per week. Since this course is a four credit course, it requires a total of 12 hours of work (in and out of the classroom) per week.

Research Quality (as indicated on Research Log, Progress Sheet, and Meetings)	70%
Final Presentation	10%
Final Paper	10%
Class Participation	10%