COMP400

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COMP-400 Introduction and Orientation Winter
2006 January 19, 2006 School of Computer
Science McGill University
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Overview
1. What is the course about and for? 2.
Eligibility 3. Course Structure 4.
Evaluation 5. Contacts 6. (Previous Projects)
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What is the Course For and About

• A course for you to do a small project
• Computer science related
• Typically a programming project, but can be
  theoretical, or something in between
• Emphasis is on showing the ability to take a
  project from idea to completion
• Design (creativity required!)
• Implementation, or execution
• Research

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What is the Course For and About

• Should demonstrate your abilities
• Organization
• Independence
• Problem solving
• Technical competence
• Programming
• Theory

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What is the Course For and About

• Why bother?
• Give some experience in doing research
• Good preparation for grad studies
• Investigate a topic of interest in detail
• Meet and get to know a professor
• Opportunity to demonstrate what you can do
• End products show your skills to potential
  employers

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Eligibility

• Undergraduate students in the cs honours program
• Computer science, or joint cs-math honours
• At least 15 credits in cs courses
• If not you need special permission
• Chair of the Undergraduate Committee
• Doina Precup
• 400-Instructor
• Clark Verbrugge
• Must have
• A very good academic record
• A defined project, found a supervisor

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Course Structure

• Finding a project
• Finding a supervisor
• Course requirements
• Meetings
• Proposal
• Report
• Presentation

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Finding a Project Supervisor

• Should have some idea of what you want to do
• Doesn't have to be fully worked out
• Some professors may have suggestions
• Aim at a specific problem or issue
• Keep it feasible
• Core project definitely possible
• Develop increased complexity in stages the onion
  model

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Finding a Project Supervisor

• Any computer science faculty member can supervise
  COMP-400 projects
• But may not have time, or resources, or be
  appropriate for the topic
• You need someone appropriate, willing, and with
  whom you can get along
• Once you found a supervisor, let the
  400-instructor know (email ok)
• If you can't find an agreeable supervisor by the
  end of the 3rd full week of courses (before Jan.
  27), you must withdraw from the course

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Meetings

• There are no regular classes instead progress is
  monitored through regular meetings with your
  supervisor
• Typically individual meetings
• Minimally once every two weeks
• May be more often (once a week)
• Actual scheduling is agreed by you and your
  supervisor

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Meetings

• Purpose
• Supervisor can see progress
• You can get advice
• How to proceed
• Pitfalls
• Explain requirements

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Proposal

• First step to a good project sort out exactly
  what you intend to do.
• A 2-5 page written proposal
• Coherent, properly formatted, spell-checked
• To your advantage to do it soon!
• Hand in to your supervisor
• Supervisor must accept it, or ask for revisions
• If not accepted by Feb 12, you must withdraw from
  the course.

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Proposal

• Proposal should
• Give a high level view of the project goal or
  problem being addresssed
• Give some description of the basic tasks to be
  done in order to complete the project
• Break up your project into discrete steps
• List any resources you will require
• What hardware, software, research tools, etc you
  will need (and their availability)
• Include a schedule
• Doesn't need to be precise, but should show
  ordering, dependencies, expected time
• Be realistic!

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Proposal

• A common flaw is to try and do too much, all at
  once.
• design the project to be built in stages
• Get basic project done, add features or other
  stages incrementally
• If you cannot finish, at least you will have
  something useful.
• Your supervisor may have other requirements

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Report

• A written report is due the last day of classes
  (April 10)
• Handed in to your supervisor
• Formal style, coherent, properly formatted,
  spell-checked
• Length content will vary, but normally 10-20
  pages (not including code)

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Introduction Explain what the problem/issue is,
  and how you intend to examine it.

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Overview What are all the pieces, and how do
  they go together.

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Details Sections or subsections on specific
  details of your project.

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Related Work Others will have looked at the same
  or similar problems---what did they do, and how
  does their approach/solution relate to what you
  did? Show you are aware of the area.

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Future Work Conclusions What remains to be
  done how the project could be improved or
  expanded. What worked and what did not.

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Report

• Your supervisor may have specific report
  requirements
• A good report typically includes
• Appendices Any program code or supplementary
  material should be provided in a form suitable
  for testing and inspection. Code must be
  well-commented, structured, and generally in a
  professional style.

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Presentation

• A short presentation to the other COMP-400
  students, the COMP-400 instructor, and interested
  professors
• A block of time scheduled during exam period for
  all presentations
• Approximately 15-20 minutes per student
• 3-4 hrs depending on number of students,
  available time, etc.
• You must attend the presentations of everyone
  else!
• Peer-review of presentations
• Assessed by the COMP-400 instructor, considering
  audience/peer comments

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Presentation

• Your supervisor may have advice on presentation
  format and skills
• Structure your presentation
• Report organization may work out well
• Consider your audience
• Upper year CS-students assume general cs
  knowledge, but may not know your problem domain
• Practice your talk out loud!
• Check timing

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Presentation

• Note the presentation counts as an exam
• If you don't do it, you get a J
• Apply to SAO to try again (supplementary exam) at
  the end of the next term, with the next group
• note this may affect graduation!
• It is hard to do a good presentation if you
  haven't finished the project

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Evaluation

• 75 of your mark is given by your supervisor
• Based on your report, and a general assessment of
  how well you did on the project
• 25 of your mark is given by the COMP-400
  instructor
• 20 Project presentation
• Considers input from peer-review, and other
  audience members
• 5 Participation in presentations

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Miscellaneous

• No group projects
• Each student to go through all aspects of project
  development
• Research involvement is great
• But keep in mind that the point is for you to see
  a project through, not simply implement or
  develop someone else's projectyou need to have
  significant design and/or creative input.
• No literature surveys

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Contacts

• COMP-400 TA 2005-2006
• Perouz Taslakian
• perouz_at_cs.mcgill.ca
• COMP-400 Instructor 2005-2006
• Clark Verbrugge
• clump_at_cs.mcgill.ca
• Chair of the Undergraduate Committee, 2005-2006
• Doina Precup
• dprecup_at_cs.mcgill.ca
• Undergraduate Program Coordinator
• Liette Chin
• liette_at_cs.mcgill.ca