Assignments
Descriptions and Objectives of Course Assignments
Note: All the assignments (except for the one concerning voting for readers) are contained in the GitHub repository, Devising-Research.
Assignment 1
Assessing Your Interests
Finding your interests can sometimes feel like finding stars in the mix of others, as shown in Figure 1; you know that they are out-there but sometimes, they are hard to find when you first start looking. The goal of this assignment is to help you identify where your interests lie in the area of computer science and then to get you started thinking about how you can combine those interests into a senior project proposal that will be exciting and rewarding.
Assignment 2
Topic Exploration For a Senior Thesis Proposal
To learn how to use public online searches to locate and read peer-reviewed articles in the literature to the benefit of a research interest and software tools to help facilitate your research.
Assignment 3
Using Hugo and Netlify to Design an Online Research Notebook
To learn how to set up a Hugo and Netlify to create a website which will play the part of a research notebook. In this assignment, we will be setting up an online research notebook in which you are to record the progress in your research. For this task, we will use Hugo and Netlify. For many of your assignments, you will use your website to add your progressive thinking, article summaries, a bibliography, implementations and other aspects of your work.
Assignment 4
Bridging the Gap Between the Known and Unknown
To contemplate the deliverable of your research project by identifying the knowledge gap motivated by relevant literature. This assignment will invite the student to consider the end-product so as to begin to set goals for a senior thesis research project.
Assignment 5
Feasibility: How do-able is my project?
To determine some of the parameters which are necessary to complete a technical project. To explore the available resources at hand (i.e., tools, skills, literature, data, and etc.) which will be applied to the completing of the project. To inquire whether a project can be completed in a given time frame (2-3 months) with the application of the available tools.
Assignment 6
Prototype: A Foundational Deliverable
To design and implement a prototype tool that can run experiments, collect data, and analyze results. To write clear documentation, which allows others to use the tool, and to demonstrate the implemented prototype.
Assignment 7
Voting for your First and Second reader
No Repository necessary.
For your senior thesis work, you will have a first and second reader to assist in your work. Although you are invited to select your readers based on their research area(s) and its alignment with your idea area, this may not be the only criteria that you could apply to your voting. You are not necessarily guaranteed to get the readers that you select but your selection will help in the reader assignment decision making process. We will be voting using an online form.
Assignment 8
Experiment: Answering a Research Question using a Prototype
To design and conduct an experiment using developed prototype to collect preliminary data with a goal of answering at least one research question connected to the research project idea.
Assignment 9
Final Deliverable
To connect the work from the semester to introduce, motivate, and explain a research idea in terms of its scope, feasibility, developed prototype, and preliminary results from run experiments.