Time and Location: Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 am to 11:35 am (Forsyth 130 and Zoom (Link available through NU Canvas) ). The class will follow NUFlex Auto with me remotely dialing into the classroom.
Piazza: All course related assignment submissions and interactions will take place over Piazza. Enroll here!
Office hours: TBD
Teaching Assistants: TBD
Provides students with an introduction to research in the fields of computer science, information science, data science, and cybersecurity. Explores how the scientific method is applied to these fields, covers the breadth of sub-areas of specialty that exist, and gives students practice on how to locate and read scientific literature in different sub-areas. Also provides students with an overview of graduate education in these fields.
By the end of this course, I expect you to:
As this course is closest to a seminar course, the structure will consist of three components:
Lectures on the Basics of Research The first few weeks will consist of lectures and discussions on the basics of computer science, research, and graduate studies. There will weekly assignments consisting of homework and background reading.
Reading and Discussing Papers The middle few weeks of the course will consist of reading and discussing papers from different areas of computer science. The focus will be on different styles of research, and how the results are presented.
Paper presentations The final few weeks of the class will consist of student presentations of research papers in groups. Each group will be expected to give 15-minute presentations on papers of their choice (subject to constraints discussed in class), followed by leading a 10–15 minute discussion of the paper.
The official prerequisite for this course is CS 2500, or permission of the instructor. You will only need a basic knowledge of programming to take this course. This course will be largely discussion-based, and you will be expected to actively participate in class.
There won’t be any single text book for this course.
| Participation | 40% |
| Homeworks | 30% |
| Presentation | 30% |
The homeworks and presentations can be executed in small teams of 2.
Note: The schedule is tentative and can change due to weather, travel, syllabus coverage speed etc. In short, it is all in the hands of COVID-19.
| Date | Topic | Readings | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09 Sep | Introduction / Logistics | ||
| 14/16 Sep | Science in Computer Science / Overview of CS Research Areas | ||
| 21/23 Sep | How to read (and write) a (good) research paper | ||
| 28/30 Sep | Research Area talk | ||
| 05/07 Oct | Research Area talk | ||
| 12 Oct | Columbus day (no class) | ||
| 14 Oct | Research Area talk | ||
| 19/21 Oct | Research Area talk | ||
| 26/28 Oct | Research Area talk | ||
| 02/04 Nov | Research Area talk | ||
| 09 Nov | PhD student panel | ||
| 11 Nov | Veteran’s day (no class) | ||
| 16/18 Nov | Ethics in Research | ||
| 23 Nov | Presentations | ||
| 25 Nov | Thanksgiving recess (no class) | ||
| 30 Nov/02 Dec | Presentations | ||
| 07 Dec/09 Dec | Presentations |
This course is largely adopted from its first edition taught by Prof. David Choffnes.