CS 390: Computer Science Seminar

Time: Wednesdays 4:30 - 5:30 PM 
Place: MEC 205
Instructor: David Luebke (Olsson #219)
Office hours: Mondays 2-3 PM, Thursdays 10-11 PM
Assignments: Only two assignments, one written and one discussion-oriented:
  • Preproposal - Meet with a faculty member; write up a one-page description of a possible topic
  • 4th-year discussion - Meet with a 4th year current doing their thesis, discuss advice and lessons learned.

Both are due at the final class meeting, April 24 2000.
Format: One lecture per week, roughly 45-50 minutes including questions
Description: The primary goals of this seminar are to expose you to state-of-the-art research in computer science, and to get you actively thinking about your senior thesis research long before you actually start TCC 401.  A number of researchers from the computer science faculty and the broader University community will give talks about their research.  You are expected to participate in these talks by studying the speaker's web page ahead of time, attending the lectures on time, and asking intelligent questions.
Lectures: A tentative schedule of guest lecturers and topics follows.  I will also try to post any electronic notes or presentation source.
Number Date Topic Source
1 1/16 Introduction, administration
2 1/23 Dave Luebke:
Computer graphics research at Virginia

Kay Neeley: 
Overview of the senior thesis process

 PPT
3 1/30 Paul Reynolds:
Dancing the good fight		 PDF
3 2/6 Charlie Grisham (Chemistry):
Javalab.chem.virginia.edu		 PPT
4 2/13 Chip Levy: 
Neuroscience
5 2/20 Jim Cohoon:
Algorithms
6 2/27 Jack Davidson:
Dynamic software translation		 PPT
7 3/6 Kirk Martini:
Particle systems		 ZIP
8 3/20 Tom Horton
9 3/27 Dave Brogan
10 4/3 Tarek Abdelzaher
11 4/10 Alf Weaver
12 4/17 John Knight
13 4/24
 
Grading: You will be graded on your preproposal, attendance, and participation, roughly according to the following ratio:
  • Preproposal: 50%
  • Attendence: 25%
  • Participation: 25%
Participation means coming to class, asking questions, taking part in discussions, not falling asleep, and so on.
Honor Code: The honor code applies to work turned in for this course, namely the preproposal.  Do your own work, don't copy from another student, don't rewrite or blindly paraphrase a researcher's web page.