Syllabus for EECS 598

Instructor: Xinyu Wang
Time: T/TH 3:00pm - 4:30pm eastern time
Mode: Hybrid due to COVID
Location: 1014 DOW (in person) and zoom (remote)
Office Hours: TBD

Prerequisites

  • EECS 201 (Discrete Mathematics), EECS 281 (Data Structures and Algorithms), or equivalent on discrete math, data structures, and algorithms
  • Familiarity with one programming language (for final projects)
  • Additional prior exposure to programming languages (e.g., EECS 490/590), compilers (e.g., EECS 483/583), and constraint solving but not required

    • Lectures

    Lectures are 3:00-4:30pm Tuesday and Thursday eastern time, with two modes: in person (1014 DOW) and online (link). Notifications on which mode will be taken for each class will be made available online at least one week prior to the class.

    Presentations

    A majority of this class will be student presentations of research papers. Here is how this will work.
    The first step is paper assignment. That is, each student will choose a paper to present as well as a date for the presentation. Here is a list of papers that you can choose from. There is also certain flexibility in choosing papers that are not in this list.
    Once paper assignemnt is done, you will be the "student lead" of the discussion for your assigned paper. This means, you will read the paper in detail, prepare the presentation (e.g., slides, demo, questions), deliver the presentation, and lead the discussion. The presentation needs to be understandable to general audience as well as be thorough (typically >40 minutes). You may take questions during the presentation if any, but be sure to also leave enough time for discussions following the presentation. It is completely okay that you, as the student lead, may have questions, too, but be sure to bring these questions up during the discussion. Also note that the discussion is open-ended: everyone is encouraged to bring up new ideas and share your thoughts. We should have enough time to discuss them (>30 minutes).

    Assignments

    The only assignment of this class is paper reviews. That is, before each paper presentation, every student (except the student lead) is required to write a review, and send it to the instructor via email by midnight eastern time the day before the class. Please use "[598 review] YourName: PaperTitle" as the title of your email. Here is a LaTeX template that you may use for your reviews. Please include your review as an attachment in your email.

    Exams

    This class does not have exams.

    Final Project

    The main deliverable of this class is a final project. The project is research-oriented, which means you will need to propose a new problem, work towards solving it, evaluate your solution, and finally write it up and present your results to others.
    You are encouraged to collaborate with one student for the final project. You can also choose to work on your own. However, if you plan to form a group with greater than three students in total, please talk to the instructor in advance.
    Each team will submit one final project report, which must describe how the work was divided among team members and acknowledge external help if any. Each team will also give a short presentation of your work at the end of the semester.

    Collaboration Policy

    For paper reviews, you are free to discuss papers with other students, however, the reviews must be written on your own and in your own words.
    For paper presentations, you are also free to discuss with other students, however, the slides must be made by you. You can reuse a few slides from others and/or adapt them, however, you must acknowledge it and you should not directly take existing slides for your presentation. Furthermore, the presentation must be delivered by you.
    For final projects, you are free to work with your team members. It is okay that you seek external help but be sure to acknowledge that in your final project report. You are free to reuse existing libraries in your implementation, however, you should acknowledge that and should not claim that as your contributions in the final project report. As a general rule, follow the College of Engineering Honor Code and, when in doubt, talk to the instructor. Any violation of academic honesty may result in a failing grade.

    Grading

    Your final grade will be calculated based on the total points earned across your presentation(s), discussion participation, paper reviews, and final project.
    • Paper presentation - 20 pts
    • Paper reviews - 30 pts (2 pts per review and we will take the sum of 15 reviews with max scores)
    • Discussion participation - 5 pts (students are expected to attend classes regularly and engage in class discussion)
    • Final project - 45 pts
      • Project proposal - 5 pts
      • Checkpoints - 16 pts (8pts for each checkpoint)
      • Final project presentation - 12 pts
      • Final project report - 12 pts