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.