Comp 7220 Research Methodologies
A01 (September 2010 to April 2011)
Course Outline (ROASS)

Instructor:

Helen Cameron
E2-477 EITC
Phone: 474-8466 (voicemail)
Fax: 474-7609
Email: Helen_Cameron@umanitoba.ca

Instructor's office hours:

September to December: To Be Announced (TBA)
January to April: MWF 10:30-11:30 a.m. and TTh 11:00-noon, or by appointment.

Lectures:

Our regular class time is on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in 315 Buller.
Some classes will be held 1:00-2:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in E2-461 EITC (the department's reserved time for seminars and meetings) or at other times to accommodate other speakers.

Always check the schedule to see whether a class will be held and where. Sometimes there will be no class, sometimes a class will be held in a different location, and sometimes classes will be held at a different time.

First class:

Friday September 10, 2010 at 12:30 p.m. in E2-165 EITC.

Required text:

Writing for Computer Science by Justin Zobel, Springer, 2nd edition. (ISBN 1852338024).
Please ask your supervisor if you can borrow a copy, as some faculty members own extra copies. (I may be able to find a copy to loan to you if your supervisor does not have one.) This book can also be ordered from the Springer website or amazon.ca. I have not placed a book order with the bookstore.

Outline:

I expect to cover the following topics (not necessarily in this order):

Grad Studies and departmental rules and regulations:

You are responsible for making sure that you satisfy all requirements for your degree. This part of the course will help you find out what these requirements are.

Computing facilities:

An introduction to the computing facilities available to you.

Library Skills:

Searching through the myriad of resources available to perform research is an extremely daunting task. The library provides many short courses on searching and finding materials both on campus and around the world. A suitable seminar will be organized by the library for the graduate students in the department.

Plagiarism:

What is plagiarism? What does "write in your own words" mean? What is the correct way to reference other people's work?

Writing well:

Writing a thesis proposal, project reports, and a thesis are all part of a graduate degree. This part of the course will help you remember how to write well.

Using LaTeX and BibTeX:

LaTeX is a document preparation system used by many computer scientists. BibTeX makes preparing a reference list for LaTeX easy. All assignments for this course must be prepared using LaTeX and BibTeX, unless otherwise indicated by the instructor.

Graduate research:

Find out what constitutes graduate research and what a thesis should look like.

Thesis proposal:

Every Masters student must write a thesis proposal for the departmental Graduate Studies Committee. As part of this course, you must write a thesis proposal. This part of the course will describe what your thesis proposal should contain and what form it should take.

Presentation skills:

How to prepare and give a good presentation.

Design and Analysis of Experiments:

Computer science research is not just theory and programming; most theses involve the investigation of the properties and performance of a system. Proper experimental design is crucial to reaching valid and meaningful conclusions. Elements of design, implementation, and description of experiments in computer science will be reviewed. This review may involve investigation of simulation, statistical analysis, and graphical presentation software.

Departmental research seminars:

Seminars are presented throughout the year by members of the department and external experts describing research in universities, research labs, and industry. As a computer scientist, you should attend as many as possible, even when the topic is not directly related to your thesis or course work. Please read "Requirements" below to see seminar attendance requirements for this course.

Others?

Depending on the needs and knowledge of students in the class, we may discuss other topics. For example, we may discuss filling in applications for University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowships (UMGFs), PowerPoint for constructing presentations, or spend more time on composition and language editing.

Requirements:

This courses is evaluated on a "pass"/"fail" basis. To receive a "pass" in this course, you must:

Attend the classes:

You are required to attend all classes, to be on time, and to stay until the end of class. You will be required to sign in at each class. You are responsible for finding out when and where classes are held (check the class schedule).

Attend departmental research seminars:

Some departmental research seminars will be designated as "required". You must attend these seminars (and sign in). These seminars will also be listed in the class schedule.

Write five brief research-paper summaries:

You must write and get a "pass" on each of the assigned brief summaries.

Do some small exercises:

You must get a "pass" on some small exercises to demonstrate, for example, using LaTeX to give a direct quote, acknowledging a figure taken from some other source, writing an appropriate bibTeX entry for a web site, using "et al." appropriately, writing transitions between ideas, and so on. I may also require you to do small exercises relating to some writing skills that you have more trouble with than your fellow classmates.

Write a thesis proposal:

You must write and get a "pass" on a thesis proposal. We will discuss what a thesis proposal should look like in class.
The proposal will be broken into a number of assignments (write a problem statement, write a related-work section, and so on), each of which you must pass, followed by an integration assignment in which you make the pieces into a thesis proposal.

Present your thesis proposal:

You must prepare and give a presentation of your thesis proposal. We will discuss in class how to prepare and give this talk. Other presentations may also be required of you.

Late assignment policy:

No late assignments will be accepted.

Writing in COMP 7220:

In your writing for COMP 7220, I require the following:

Content:

Display an understanding of computer science appropriate to a Masters student. Write in your own words.

Organization:

Organize your writing into appropriate sections, subsections, and paragraphs.

Clear, simple, and brief:

Use short words to write short sentences that contain one topic each. Organize those sentences into short, one-topic paragraphs. Avoid long words, complex sentence structures, and decorative language. Get to the point and say what you mean in understandable language. Write in an active voice.

Edit and improve:

Edit your own writing for good grammar and effective style. Incorporate my comments into your writing, and strive to improve your writing.

Citation:

I require you to refer to relevant research literature by citing a source in a sentence that discusses the main contribution of the research. Place the citation beside the authors' names in a sentence that uses the authors as the subject of the sentence and uses a strong verb (e.g., prove, design, simulate, hypothesize, and so on). Example: "Omercevic et al. [1] design and evaluate a nearest-neighbour approximation algorithm."
I also require you to acknowledge with a proper citation the source of anything (text, images, graphs, tables, and so on) that you did not create yourself.

Bibliography:

Construct references that are complete, correct, and useful to your readers. Use BibTeX to do so (see below).

LaTeX and BibTeX:

Use LaTeX and BibTeX to format your text and references appropriately.

All these ideas will be thoroughly discussed in class.

Important dates:

Fall Term Classes: September 10 - December 22

I expect that you will have written four or five research descriptions and a problem statement for your thesis proposal by December 22.
Due dates and detailed course requirements will be discussed in class and then listed on the class schedule.

January to April Classes:

I expect that our classes will resume in the first week of classes in January. Details will be given in the class schedule.

University Calendar

Please consult the 2010-2011 Academic Schedule section of the University of Manitoba General Calendar for information on holidays, exams, and voluntary withdrawal dates.

Plagiarism, Misuse of Computer Facilities, and Cheating:

These serious offences carry sanctions. Copying of another's work and presenting it as your own (e.g., without appropriate references), cheating on exams or misusing facilities will result in punishment ranging from course failure to criminal prosecution. Please read Section 8 of the General Calendar (on Academic Integrity). If you are unsure about these issues, do not hesitate to consult with the course instructor.

You will get an "F" in this course if you plagiarise in this course. The department's supplemental regulations state that if you get an "F" in a course, you are normally required to withdraw from the Masters program; see the department's supplemental regulations (item 43).

Ignorance of plagiarism and proper citation practices (e.g., how to properly cite sources or quote a portion of another's work) will not be accepted as an excuse. You will be given ample opportunity to learn these things, and you are required to do so.

A declaration sheet, which states that the work being submitted is completely your own is available at http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/newsite/honesty.htm. This sheet must be printed out, filled in, signed and submitted for every assignment. No assignment will be marked unless this declaration is attached.

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Last modified: Thu Jan 13 10:50:32 CST 2011