Instructor:
Dr. Melanie MartinOffice: Demergasso-Bava Hall 278 and Naraghi 375
Email: mmartin@csustan.eduOffice Phone: (209) 667-3787 or (209) 667-3269
Web
Page:
www.cs.csustan.edu/~mmartin
Office Hours:
Please note that I may sometime
have to reschedule or cancel office hours. If I do I will post in
the Announcements and/or send email.
Wednesdays
2:30 - 4:30 pm
DBH 278 and zoom
Thursdays
10:00 - 11:00 am
Zoom
And
by appointment
Best way to contact Dr. Martin:
Email
mmartin@csustan.edu Please put "CS4960" in the subject line
of the email.
Prerequisite: CS 4100,
senior standing and consent of the instructor. (This course is for
senior Computer Science majors.)
Warning: I reserve the right to make changes to the
syllabus at any time during the term by announcing them in class
and on my web page.
Health and Safety
This course is designed to be an in-person.
To attend class in person, you will need to follow the University
Guidelines. If you are unable to attend class on an in-person day,
you should email me prior to class time.
Grading and Policies
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Accept a presentation date assigned by the instructor at the
beginning of the semester.
Choose a computer science magazine (ACM, AAAI, IEEE) article
to write a report on and present to an audience. The audience
will include, but not be limited to, the other members of the
class.
The topic must have significant scholarly content
and technical depth.
Your paper and presentation must have sufficient,
well-explained technical depth.
Propose the topic to the instructor via Canvas. The proposal
must include a pdf of your article and it must be from a
reliable source. Include full citations in bibliographic form:
for details about the required form for citations see "Your
List of References" and "When You Make Direct Use of a
Source" below. Your proposal must also describe
the nature of the scholarly and technical content you will
include in your paper and presentation.
To pass the course, you must turn in a satisfactory
proposal. You must get the instructor's formal approval
of the proposal by working out an agreement with the instructor.
Your paper and presentation must correspond to the
agreed-upon proposal.
Create a balanced and unbiased written report on your
paper. You may need to use additional reliable sources to
fill in details or provide a broader perspective. All sources
much be appropriately cited in the paper and listed in the
references.
Turn in your written report one week in advance of your
presentation date. Email a pdf version to your instructor and
upload it to turnitin.com. The report should be about 2500 words
and formatted to be easily readable and navigable. Your report must include a reference
page citing your sources. More
information on proper citation of sources.
On your assigned date deliver a 20-25 minute oral
presentation of the content of your written report. You must
talk for 20 minutes to pass the course.
Attend all the presentations of the other members of the
class, and react to them by asking questions and by writing a
short critique which will be collected and given to the
presenter.
GRADING:
Assuming you fulfill all the requirements listed above, I will base
your grade on three components:
your grade on your written report,
your grade on your oral presentation, and
your participation grade (based on critiques or papers and
presentation of other students).
Each of the components above will get equal weight.
I'll grade your paper and oral presentation based on the
thoroughness and depth with which you address your topic as well as
the clarity, accuracy and style of your presentation. You'll get a
grade between 0 and 100 for each.
You'll get one participation credit for each time you read a paper
and turn in an acceptable critique sheet and for each time you
attend a presentation and turn in an acceptable critique sheet. I'll
compute your number of satisfactory critiques as a percentage of the
number of possible critiques, and this percentage will be your
participation grade.
You will receive credit (a grade of "CR") for the course if
you receive a a score of 60 or above in each of the three
components, and
your average over the three components is 70% or above.
Otherwise you will receive no credit ("NC").
(The above "course requirements"
and "grading" are borrowed liberally from Dr. John Sarraille's CS
4960 course description, with permission.)
Academic Honesty: The work you do for this course will be
your own, unless otherwise specified. You are not to submit other
people's or machine's work and represent it as your own. I
consider academic honesty to be at the core of the University's
activities in education and research. Academic honesty is expected
at all times in this course.
Cell Phone Policy: During class time, your cell phone is to
be turned off and out of sight. Any use of a cell phone during class
will result in confiscation of the phone until that day's class has
ended or your removal from the class for that day. If you attempt to
use your cell phone or leave it on during an exam, you will be
considered to have finished your test, and I will collect your exam
at that time. Exceptions may be made only if you discuss your
situation with me prior to the start of that day's class, in this
case, your cell phone must be set to vibrate/silence.