Senior Thesis I

CSC 489.01 — Fall 2014
Class: Friday 2–3:25pm, LSB 212
Instructor: Henry Feild, Ph.D.

Office Hours: Wed. 10am–12pm, 1–2pm in LSB 113; Other times by appointment.

Schedule

Date	Topic	Assignments due
Sep. 5	Course overview; brainstorming
Sep. 12	Library resources; Lit. review Meet in the Wax Auditorium at 1:50pm	HW 1
Sep. 19	What is achievable in Thesis II; Presentations	HW 2
Sep. 26	Brainstorming in your area; Summary presentations	HW 3
Oct. 3	Informal presentations of Topic Summaries; How to start your thesis	HW 4
Oct. 10	Formal presentations of Topic Summaries	HW 5
Oct. 17	Formal presentations continued
Oct. 24	What is a research proposal?	HW 6
Oct. 31	Draft presentations	HW 7
Nov. 7	Draft presentations continued	HW 8
Nov. 14	Presentations of modified Proposed Solution section	HW 9
Nov. 21	Discussion: drafts of lit. reviews and research proposals	HW 10
Nov. 28	No class—Thanksgiving break
Dec. 5	Practice presentations	HW 11
Dec. 12	Practice presentations continued	Final document
Dec. 19	Final presentations (1–3pm in LSB 212)	Final presentation

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Assignments

All assignments are due before the start of class the due date (by 1:59pm) unless otherwise noted.

Homeworks

HW 1 (10pts; due Sep. 12)
Investigate an area of interest. Take notes about what's cool and what interests you. Share it with the class.
HW 2 (10pts; due Sep. 19)
Share and explain to the class a scholarly paper in the area from HW 1 from an ACM or IEEE affiliated conference or technical white paper from a school. Random web posts/blog entries/magazine articles/etc. will not be accepted. These will be presented to the class.
HW 3 (20pts; due Sep. 26)
Find lots of articles in your selected area and write up one-paragraph summaries. Write what you find interesting and what you find boring. Turn in three of these summaries and a rough idea of what you plan to do.
HW 4 (30pts; due Oct. 3)
Write and submit a 2-4 page summary of your chosen project. Initial references should be included. Should demonstrate a clear knowledge of topic question. Give a rough presentation to the group on your topic summary (no PPT).
HW 5 (10pts; due Oct. 10)
Formal presentation of your topic summary. Present an overview of the topic in a historical context leading up to your interest in the topic. Discuss techniques and skills involved in the field of interest. Presentations should be 5-10 minutes and use PowerPoint or whatever devices you'd like.
HW 6 (15pts; due Oct. 24)
First draft of lit. review and sketchy proposed solution. You should be near the completion of your literature research by this point, but may not have the synthesis completed. This should be about 10-20 pages. The draft should reflect depth of research and some sense of how the review demonstrates the importance of the topic. The proposed solution section should ultimately be 7-15 pages long and cover what it is that you will actually do. This part is expected to be rough and maybe short at this time.
HW 7 (20pts; due Oct. 31)
First draft presentation (with PPT) of draft document. Should be about 10 minutes. This is in preparation for the public final presentations at the end of the semester.
HW 8 (20pts; due Nov. 7)
Modifications to the Proposed Solution section.
HW 9 (30pts; due Nov. 14)
Updated presentation of just the Proposed Solution section, with modifications rolled in. Should be short (less than 5 min.).
HW 10 (60pts; due Nov. 21)
Second draft of Lit. Review and Proposed Solution (draft of the completed doc).
HW 11 (50pts; due Dec. 5)
Second draft of full presentation (12 min.)

Thesis materials

Final document (100pts; due Dec. 12 @ 11:59pm)
Final, completed document (Lit. Review + Proposed Solution). Electronic submission on Canvas; the printed and bound version can be turned in any time up until the final presentation (Dec. 19 @ 1pm).
Final presentation (100pts; due Dec. 19 @ 11:59pm)
Final presentation (12 min.)

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Resources

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