CS Honors
Undergraduate
Research Program
Faculty Coordinator: Prof. Amit Sahai
TA (Winter): Gunes Ercal
Winter/Spring 2007
U.C.L.A.
Honors Program
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First of its kind at any University of California
campus CS department
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Chance for you to shine in a creative way
Outline
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What is honors research?
Schedule and course work
Tips for effective communication
Summary
Outline
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What is honors research?
Schedule and course work
Tips for effective communication
Summary
What is the Honors Research
Program?
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Exposure to creative research
Opportunity to work with faculty and graduate
students
Independent Original Work
So, what is research ?
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Formally: advance state of art
Informally: tell people something new
What is Research and What is Not?
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Non-research
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My advisor gave me this mpeg decoding
algorithm
I implemented it
And it worked
What is Research and What is
Not?
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Research
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I took two existing mpeg decoders
I took some sample movies
I studied the decoders qualitatively
I measured them quantitatively
I concluded why one is better
Why research:
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analysis + comparison = something new
What is Research and What is
Not?
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Research
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My advisor gave me this mpeg decoding
algorithm
I implemented it
I measured it
I analyzed it and found a bottleneck
I instrumented the code to prove the hypothesis
I recommend and conclude…
What is Research and What is
Not?
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Research
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I was given an mpeg decoding implementation
I identified its bottleneck as above
I proposed an improvement
I implemented the improvement
I measured it again to prove/disprove I’m right
I generalize and conclude…
What is Research and What is
Not?
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Research
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My advisor asked me to implement an mpeg
decoder
I came up with 2 alternative designs
I analyzed qualitatively why one might be better
(I experimented to directly or indirectly deduce I
was right)
I implemented the best design
I summarize and conclude…
What is Research and what is
not ?
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Building a web site
How do you distinguish yourself from a high school kid writing
a bunch of code ?
A must: make it novel. Something new or better than previous
such websites
How? Make it:
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general: can be created and configured from parameters and
scripts
automatically testable and demo-able
a comparison between competing implementation technologies
(different languages, databases, OS environments)
a software engineering exercise in portability, robustness,
performance, interface design, …
Use the stuff you learn in your CS classes !
What is Research and What is
Not?
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Research
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Many other possibilities
So, what is research ?
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Formally: advance state of art
Informally: tell people something new
Not necessarily much much more work
Just need to “go the extra mile”:
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explore, analyze, generalize…
Other traits of a Good Project
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Interesting/important problem
Non-trivial challenge(s)
Exploration of new technology
Can be finished in allotted time (2 quarters)
Effective communication (talks, reports)
Outline
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What is honors research?
Schedule and course work
Tips for effective communication
Summary
Honors Program Schedule
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By 1/19: Project plan + Advisor’s approval
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1/23 – 1/24: Project proposal talks
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Find an advisor and a project
Write brief description of project with advisor’s email
confirmation
10 minute presentations to students and profs.
Online signup
During the project
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Work 10-15 hours per week
Meet regularly with your advisor
Every Monday: Progress email
Honors Program Schedule
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3/14: Project checkpoint submission
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4/10-11: Project checkpoint talk
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Get feedback!
6/5-6: Project results talk
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10 minute presentation to students and profs.
5/15: 1st draft of thesis
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4-5 slides report progress and remaining plan
Get feedback
15 minute presentation to students and profs.
6/8: Thesis due
Find an Advisor and a Project
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Get info about profs’ research
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Schedule meetings with several professors
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Honors program page, home pages, research papers,
word of mouth, …
email, office hours, appointments
If having trouble, try to catch prof just after their class
Warning: some profs are not around. Have backups!
Choose a professor
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Should be from CS dept
 Can work with someone outside CS,
If you’d like to do this, consult with me
Can be jointly advised by multiple profs
Find an Advisor and a Project
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Decide on a project
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Profs suggest choices
Students come up with their own
A combination
Mutual agreement, interest, enthusiasm
Write brief description of project and get
Advisor’s email commitment to advise you
Submit online (TA Gunes will have details)
Find an Advisor and a Project
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Topics/areas that may not be obvious
research areas of profs:
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Games and game playing
Education aids
Language recognition/translation
Wireless
Cross-discipline (econ, history, math, psych,
politics, sociology, etc.)
See: http://honors-program.wikispaces.com/
Project Proposal Talk
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Problem description
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What am I going to do?
Why is it important?
Why is it hard?
Approach
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Previous approaches
My approach
Why is mine better?
Project Proposal Talk
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Methodology, milestones, “deliverables”
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Plan of attack
Specific steps
What steps/deliverables will be done by
checkpoint (end of Winter quarter)
What other steps/deliverables will be done by end
of projecct (end of Spring quarter)
What might be hard and what’s the fall-back plan
Summary
Project Proposal Talk
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Don’t have to talk about everything
But include everything (in “notes” section or
other places) in the slides
Be specific, give details of plan
Tell me what’s the new/clever/cool nugget
Proposal talk is not your starting point: some
preliminary work should have gone into the
project by then (i.e. in the next 2 weeks!)
Project Proposal Talk and
Beyond
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Scope of Project
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Not too little
Not too much (carve out a piece, limit
functionality, reduce measurements)
If you’re ambitious, have a longer term plan but
the short term plan should still be doable
Don’t be afraid of getting negative results
Have intermediate results
Project Proposal Talk and
Beyond
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Be conscientious
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Start early
Define small milestones for yourself
Work continuously to meet milestones
Meet with your advisor regularly
Don’t hesitate to get help
Weekly Email
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Due every Monday after proposal talks
Send to Advisor + submit online
Just 2 paragraphs:
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“What I did over the past week”
“One new idea I thought of”
Every email doesn’t need to be a
breakthrough...
Project Checkpoint and Talk
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4-5 slides
What you proposed to have done by checkpoint
What you have actually accomplished by checkpoint
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Steps
Deliverables
Difficulties/surprises/deviations ?
What more do you expect to do
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Steps
Deliverables
Project Results Talk
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Review the problem description and
proposed approach – give “the theme”
Give details (e.g., of implementation) to
support “the theme”
Give key results to support “the theme”
Summarize “the theme”
Thesis
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Introduction
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Approach
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Background
Problem description: include goal
Previous approach(es)
My approach
Why is mine better
Detailed description of methodology or
implementation
Thesis (cont.)
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Experimental results
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Analyze/interpret data, don’t just give numbers
What does this have to do with your theme?
Conclusion
Acknowledgements and bibliography
Grading
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Winter:
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Spring:
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Project form/registration: 1%
Proposal Talk and slides: 20%
Weekly Emails: 40%
Checkpoint slides and results: 39%
Checkpoint Talk: 15%
Weekly Emails and 1st draft of thesis: 30%
Project Results Talk results: 20%
Thesis and results: 35%
All steps count, and include Advisor’s evaluations of
the underlying work
Outline
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What is honors research?
Schedule and course work
Tips for effective communication
Summary
Effective Writing
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Concepts
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Focus on key ideas
Expose, weave it in the body, conclude
Why, not what
Don’t get trapped by details and artifacts: Focus
on what is most important
Flow: be a good story teller
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Pay attention to order, and clear transitions
Effective Writing
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Simplicity
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Simple exposition, simple styles
Make it intuitive rather than formal
Be specific, use examples
Pitfalls
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Too vague: for example, no examples
Your contributions not clear
Too much “what”, not enough “why”
Talk Tips
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Focus on key ideas
Choose carefully a sub-story out of a full
story
Understand the nature of oral communication
(no pause, no rewind)
KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Repetition is useful
Give outline: some amount of predictability is
comforting
Talk Tips
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Explain, interpret, justify, not just describe
Write large
Use color, but sparingly, consistently
Use pictures (and even animations)
No unnecessary words
Make the story coherent and self-contained
One corollary: no standalone graphs
Talk Tips - Preparation
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Practice, Practice, Practice
Dry run followed by slide-by-slide analysis
Pay attention to time and practice for time
Practice for varying audience backgrounds
Talk Tips – Presentation
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Speak clearly, make eye contact
Elaborate on your slides, don’t just read them
Pay attention to posture, what your arms &
legs are doing
Look at your audience
Plan on skipping slides if needed
Admit shortcomings, don’t wait for questions
Analogies and jokes help
Outline
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What is independent work/research ?
Schedule and course work
Tips for effective communication
Summary
Summary
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What is research ?
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Course work
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Teaches people something new
Be conscientious and stick to a plan
Effective communication
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Stick to a theme and tell a good story