BU/CS-697 Home Page

Computer Science Department
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

GRS CS 697
Computer Science Graduate Initiation

Spring 2011

Instructors

Name:

Email:

Office:

Hours:

Assaf Kfoury

kfoury at cs.bu.edu

MCS-176 (617-353-8911)

TBD

Rich West

richwest at cs.bu.edu

MCS-289 (617-353-2065)

Wed 5:00-6:30pm

Thu 3:30-5:00pm

Class Meetings:

Place: MCS-135
Time: Fri 10am-11am

Overview

This required two-credit course is designed to help guide entering Ph.D. students through the challenging transition into the graduate program in Computer Science. The course may also be taken by advanced undergraduate or masters students, and postdoctoral fellows. Topics we will address range broadly across issues of research and scholarship, including:

Balancing competing demands of coursework, research, and teaching
How to go about identifying and working with a dissertation advisor
Working within a research group
Resolving conflicts with advisor and collaborators
Becoming a proficient reader, writer, and reviewer of technical papers
Making use of online and library research resources
Becoming proficient with technical tools of the trade for writing and performing research
Presenting good talks
Networking and becoming visible in the research community
Understanding the research funding landscape
Understanding and applying scientific ethics
Applying for fellowships and internships
Writing a thesis proposal and a dissertation
Finding a job after graduate school

Several case studies are used throughout the semester. For example, anonymized technical peer reviews are shown to students and the quality and fairness of these reviews are discussed. Another case study invites additional faculty members to act a collaboration conflict and discuss issues of ownership of ideas and co-authorship. Also, a number of graduates (around 2-3) are invited back to talk about their post-PhD careers in the industry or academia.

The course will not cover details of program requirements and milestones, nor will the class provide academic advice specific to individual students in the class. For these please consult the Graduate Student Handbook and your academic advisor, respectively.

Grading Policy

You will receive a letter grade for this course. The meanings of the letter grades are as follows:

A: excellent attendance, active participation, outstanding work on assignments
B: good attendance, limited participation, adequate work on assignments
C: absent from class, poor participation, missing work

Course Syllabus and Readings

The following are the required readings for each class meeting. Please note that the listing of a particular text doesn't mean that we agree with all, or even most, of what is in it. Our goal (and hope) is that these specific texts will stimulate discussion. Additional recommended references and readings are available below.

Week 1 (January 21): Introduction, On Being a Graduate Student in Computer Science
Expectations, research methods, and types of scientific contribution are discussed.
- Course Syllabus
- So Long, and Thanks for the Ph.D.! (a.k.a. "Everything I wanted to know about CS graduate school at the beginning but didn't learn until later.") by Ronald Azuma
- Useful Things to Know About Ph. D. Thesis Research by H.T. Kung
- For anyone considering a Ph.D. in Computer Science by Doug Comer
- (My) View of a PhD Journey by Abraham Matta
Week 2 (January 28): Choosing (and Managing the Relationship with) your Advisor
Responsibilities of mentor and trainee, ethics of mentoring, conflicts of interest and commitment are discussed.
- The Grad Student-Advisor Relationship: Choosing an Advisor, Caltech
- Choosing your advisor, from Lance Fortnow's Computational Complexity blog, 2005
- Take your advisor's perspective, by Tara Kuther's Guide to Grad School
- Graduate Student Survival Guide by Wanda Pratt
Week 3 (February 4): Reading Research Papers
Assessing the quality of a research paper, critical thinking, and keeping a bibliography are discussed.
- How to Read a CS Research Paper? by Philip Fong
- Thoughts on Reading Research Papers by Jeff Offutt
Week 4 (February 11): Reviewing Research Papers (Guest: Abraham Matta)
Your role as reviewer in maintaining the quality of the scientific record, fairness, evaluating systems v. theorerical papers, time commitment, and anonymized peer reviews are discussed.
Week 5 (February 18): Experimental Design and Data Analysis
Experimental techniques, the treatment of data, conflict of interest, data sharing, misconduct, reporting ethical violations, and case studies are discussed.
- On Being A Scientist: Responsible Conduct In Research, by the National Academy of Sciences
Week 6 (February 25): Human Subjects Research & Ethics
Privacy in cyberspace research, legal and ethical issues, and case studies (open source software, recruiting students as research subjects, mining network data) are discussed.
- Ethical and Legal Aspects of Human Subjects Research in Cyberspace, AAAS Workshop Report, June 1999
- Research Ethics and Computer Science: An Unconsummated Marriage by David R. Wright
Week 7 (March 4): Presenting Research Work
Presenting your work in an engaging way, and presenting systems v. theoretical results are discussed.
- How to give a good research talk, by Simon Peyton Jones (video)
Week 8 (March 11): Writing Research Papers (Guest: Margrit Betke)
Writing CS papers, grant proposals, grammar and style, and examples are discussed.
- On Writing CS Papers (Quiz) by Margrit Betke
- Book: (Online) Strunk, W., Elements of Style Strunk
Week 9 (March 18): No Class - Spring Recess
Week 10 (March 25): Tools of the Trade
The most common tools to edit papers, search the literature, manage a collaboration, etc. are discussed.
- Latex, CVS, RCS, Citeseer, GoogleScholar, etc.
Week 11 (April 1): On Academic Conduct
Case studies on conducting and refereeing research work, rules of conduct for mentor and relationship with trainee, recognizing and reporting unethical behavior, co-authorship in different cultures (systems v. theoretical), research involving human subjects or data, conflicts of interest, and misconduct in data analysis and reporting, are discussed.
- Academic Conduct Survey by Gove Allen and Nicholas Ball
- Ethics and Etiquette in Scientific Research by David Touretzky
Week 12 (April 8): Whose Idea Is It? (Guests: John Byers, Mark Crovella, and Azer Bestavros)
Case studies on collaboration, source of invention / idea and co-authorship are discussed.
- Whose Ideas Was It, by Caroyln Y. Johnson, The Boston Globe, March 1, 2005
- "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Week 13 (April 15): Leveraging BU Library Resources (Guest: Paula Wasson)
Locating and using research resources at BU are discussed.
- BU Library Resources
Week 14 (April 22): Expressing Yourself Despite PowerPoint (Guests: Wayne Snyder and Leo Reyzin)
Falling into the trap of ready-made templates and how to present your work without reducing quality is discussed.
- Giving a Technical Talk by Michael Ernst
- How to Give a Quals Practice Talk by Tessa Lau
- The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward Tufte (Handout)
- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Week 15 (April 29): Post-Ph.D. Careers (Guests: Alumni)
Life after graduate school, interviewing for positions in academia v. industry, and career choice are discussed.

Resources and References

The following is a comprehensive list of materials and references that have been collected over the many iterations of this class over the years. Feel free to suggest others to the instructors! The required readings for each class meeting are subsets of the references below.

On Being a Graduate Student