SIG-NEWGRAD (Fall 2006)

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:

• general knowledge of the research being conducted by UD CIS faculty and their research groups
• strategies for succeeding in CIS graduate school
• acquaintance with a number of more senior graduate students and faculty
• skills in using digital libraries and latex tools for text processing

• classroom attendance
• classroom participation in discussions
• successful completion of a short paper summarizing the faculty research (instructions for summaries) DUE DATE: Monday, December 11, noon, under door of 436 Smith

Tentative Fall 2006 Schedule

Date	Topic	Readings	Research Speaker	Research Area
9/11	What is grad school all about?	Chapters 1,2,10,11	SIGGROUPS
9/18			Sandra Carberry Jingyi Yu	Discourse understanding/generation Computer Graphics for Movies and Games
9/25	Strategies for the PhD Prelims	CIS Prelims Docs Chapter 14	Errol Lloyd	Algorithm design and analysis
10/2	All About Research	Chapters 5,9,13,15,16,17	Lori Pollock	Software Testing, Integrity, Optimization
10/9			Li Liao ? Dan Chester	Bioinformatics Image Understanding
10/16			Stephen Seigel Kathy McCoy	Verifying Parallel Programs Natural Language Processing
10/23	Presenting your research: Publishing and Posters	Reviewing Article Writing Advice Chapter 20 Poster advice Dr. McCoy's Communication Skills Talk	Keith Decker	Multi-agent Systems
10/25	Special Session 3:30-4:00		Paul Amer	Distiguished Lecturer Network Protocols
10/30			Chien-chung Shen Adarsh Sethi	Network Management Mobile ad hoc and sensor networks
11/6	Career paths
11/13			David Saunders (Cancelled) CISC Lab Opening (no signewgrad)	Integer Linear Algebra
11/20	Life Balance Peer, cohort, and emotional support	Survival Tips	John Case William Simpson	Computational Learning Library Orientation
11/27	Networking skills		Vijay Shanker Martin Swany	NLP, Text Mining High-performance distributed computing
12/4	Managing yourself	Chapter 12	Chandra Khambhamettu Jelena Mirkovic	Computer Vision/Graphics Network Security
12/11	Summaries Due by NOON		Under door of 436 Smith

Links to Useful Resources

• My Local Latex Examples - There are sample latex templates, bib files, and a readme in /usa/pollock/public/latex.templates on stimpy.eecis.udel.edu for use in this course. Copy and start from these files as your examples.
• Mostly Document Preparation Resources
• Counseling and Student Development on the UD Campus