SIG-NEWGRAD (Fall 2004)

Welcome to the main information source for SIG-NEW GRAD in the Department of Computer Science at UD!

Goals and Scope - The goal of this weekly seminar is to orient new graduate students in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences to graduate study in the department. The focus will be on the transition from student to researcher, and on providing an overview of research currently being conducted by faculty and their students in the department. Topics include how to choose a research area, selecting advisors, identifying a thesis topic, setting research goals, the difference between an MS and PhD, networking skills, academic careers, industrial and government careers. Format will include presentations, shared experiences, group activities, and panel discussions.

At the end of the semester, a student completing the seminar should have:


Meeting Times and Place - Wednesdays: 11:15 PM - 12:15 PM. 102 Colburn Lab.
Instructor - Lori Pollock, Professor, CIS
Restrictions - The fall 2004 seminar is open to graduate students in CIS who entered the department in January 2004 through September 2004.
Required Textbook - Robert L. Peters, "Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or Ph.D.", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1997.
Requirements and Grading - Students are assigned a pass/fail grade at the end of the semester. The grade will be based on:

Fall 2004 Schedule

Date

Topic

Readings

Research
Speaker

Research Area

9/1 Introduction, Overview John Case Computational learning
9/8 What is grad school all about? Chapters 1,2,10,11 Sandra Carberry Discourse understanding/generation
9/15 Strategies for the PhD Prelims CIS Prelims Docs
Chapter 14
Kathy McCoy Natural Language Processing
9/22 All About Research Chapters 5,9,13,15, Keith Decker Multi-agent Systems
9/29 Managing yourself Chapter 12 Li Liao Bioinformatics
10/6 Choosing a PhD Topic
UD Library Presentation
(Speaker: William Simpson)
Chapter 16,17 Errol Lloyd Algorithm design
and analysis
10/13 Presenting your research: Publishing Reviewing Article
Writing Advice
Jelena Mirkovic Network Security
10/20 Presenting your research: Posters, orals Chapter 20
Poster advice
Chien-chung Shen Mobile ad hoc
and sensor networks
10/27 Teaching tips and strategies Vijay Shanker NLP, Text Mining
11/3 Academic career paths David Saunders Integer Linear Algebra
11/10 Training beyond research in grad school Christopher
Rasmussen
Computer Vision/Robotics
11/17 Nonacademic career paths
life balance
Martin Swany High-performance
distributed computing
11/24 Peer, cohort, and emotional support Survival Tips Chandra Khambhamettu Computer Vision/Graphics
12/1 Networking skills Paul Amer Network Protocols
12/8 Research presentations only Dan Chester/
Lori Pollock
Knowledge Representation/
Software Testing, Integrity, Optimization

Links to Useful Resources

Maintained by Lori Pollock.