CS 793 is a research seminar in which graduate students attend research group meetings for specific research areas within the Department of Computer Science, and work one-on-one with a faculty member to conduct research in a specific area of computer science. The topic is chosen in consultation with the instructing faculty member (who may or may not be the student’s thesis advisor), learning research methods and producing (i) a report to be submitted to the instructing faculty member, (ii) a very short presentation in the department BMAC seminar (all students taking CS793 present in the same 50-minute slot) at the end of the semester and (iii) a poster to be presented at the Graduate Student Research Symposium, also at the end of the semester.

CS793 is also intended to help Ph.D. students prepare for the research exam, whose goal is to test students on the ability to synthesize prior research results, to identify limitations, connections, and open problems, and possibly suggest solutions. In this case, the paper/poster would include such a synthesis/open-questions component.

Overview

CS793 is the Research Seminar in Computer Science. It is open to graduate students in computer science with the permission of any faculty member who is supervising CS793 that semester (not necessarily their advisor). In many cases, CS793 meetings also serve as research group meetings for faculty members and their students. As a result, many student may "attend" CS793 without registering for it as a course. The information below only applies to students who are taking CS793 for credit.

The goal of CS793 is to impart research skills within particular sub-areas of computer science using one-on-one tutoring. As a result, different faculty members may run their seminars differently from each other. Students should check with their instructor in regard to the details of how any particular section of CS793 will be run.

Objectives

The goals of this course are that students should learn to:

• Understand the big problems and current literature in their chosen research area.
• Recognize important unsolved research problems (in their area)
• Propose and conduct research in their area of study
• Produce a report of their work
• Present research results in public as a short presentation at the department BMAC, and a poster at the Graduate Student Research Symposium.

Requirements

As part of CS793, The students participate in the weekly meeting(s) and follow the procedures (e.g., reading and reviewing papers, conducting a research project, and writing up a report) as specified by their supervisor.

Students must also make a poster and give a presentation at the department BMAC symposium at the end of the semester. (The date of the symposium is TBD.) Posters and presentations will be judged by members of the graduate program committee for a possible award. However, it is the supervising faculty member who will assign the final grade for the course.

To satisfy requirements toward the Ph.D. or M.S. degrees, students must earn a letter grade of 'B' or higher in CS793. Note that CS793 cannot be counted toward an M.C.S. degree.