CMPS 7010: Research Seminar - Fall 2019

Instructor:	Zizhan Zheng (zzheng3@tulane.edu), Stanley Thomas 307B
Class Time & Place:	WF 4-5:15pm, Stanley Thomas 302

Course Descrption (Syllabus)

This is the Research Seminar course for first-year PhD students in Computer Science at Tulane. The purpose of the course is to provide early-stage PhD students some advice on how to conduct research in CS. The class will be discussion-based and project-oriented and all the students are expected to participate actively. Topics include integrity in research, how to read and present papers, problem formulation and searching for solutions, scientific/mathematical writing, where to obtain data and how to evaluate your solutions. We will discuss the advice from successful researchers in the field and expectations, as well as essential tools that can help you work more efficiently.

Paper Reading and Presentation

Each student will give two presentations for papers suggested by your PhD advisor. Each presentation should cover up to two papers (on the same topic) and should be very detailed. The presenter should comment on the problems studied, technical contributions and limitations, and presentation styles of the paper(s). Students who do not present should read the paper(s) carefully and prepare 3-5 questions before each presentation.  

Term Project

Each student will work on a small research project during the course of the semester.  The project should center on a well-defined problem in your research area. You will develop the project through close interactions with the instructor and your peers, and write a paper that has all the sections of a typical research paper including some preliminary results.

Grading

• Class participation - 30%
• Paper Reading and Presentation - 30%
• Term Project - 40%

The weighted average will determine your letter grade roughly as follows:

A >= 90%; B >= 80%; C >= 70%; D >= 60%; F < 60%

All grades will be posted on Canvas.

Reading Materials

Advice on Research and PhD Study:

• You and Your Research by Richard Hamming
• Four Golden Lessons by Steven Weinberg
• PhD Research: Elements of Excellence by Ness B. Shroff
  
• Managing Your Career as a PhD by Deepa Kundur
• Advice for early-stage Ph.D. students by Philip Guo
  
• How to read a paper by Srinivasan Keshav

Mathematical Writing:

• Mathematical Writing by Donald E. Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts
• Ten Simple Rules for Mathematical Writing by Dimitri Bertsekas
• The Science of Scientific Writing by George D. Gopen and Judith A. Swan
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
• The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX 2ε by Tobias Oetiker

Schedule

Week	Wed	Topic	Fri	Topic
1	08/28	Course Overview; Advice on PhD Research [slides]	08/30	Problem and solution [slides]
2	09/04	Paper reading and presentation	09/06	Department colloquium: "Cultivating Students' Moral Imagination in Science, Technology, and Engineering Courses", 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. in Stanley Thomas, Room 316
3	09/11	Paper reading and presentation [slides]	09/13	Henger: "Proactive Network Defense with Game Theory"
4	09/18	PhD student orientation (Prof. Ram Mettu) [slides]	09/20	Wen: " Beyond Nash Equilibrium: Mechanism Design with Thresholding Agents"
5	09/25	Milestone 1 (research topics)	09/27	Tianyi: "Online Mixed-Integer Optimization in Milliseconds"
6	10/02	Scientific writing	10/04	Akshay: " Hyperparameter optimization with approximate gradient", "Forward and Reverse Gradient-Based Hyperparameter Optimization"
7	10/09	no class	10/11	no class
8	10/16	Milestone 2 (introduction & problem formulation & related work)	10/18	Arie: " The Constrained Round Robin Algorithm for Fair and Efficient Allocation"
9	10/23	Scientific writing [slides]	10/25	Henger: "Strategic Classification"
10	10/30	Project discussion	11/1	Department colloquium: "Borda Count in Collective Decision Making: A Summary of Recent Results", Jörg Rothe, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. in Stanley Thomas Room 302
11	11/06	Milestone 3 (preliminary solutions)	11/08	Tianyi: " Learning Combinatorial Optimization Algorithms over Graphs"
12	11/13	Evaluation [slides]	11/15	Arie: "The Unreasonable Fairness of Maximum Nash Welfare"
13	11/20	Milestone 4 (evaluation plan)	11/25	Project discussion
14	11/27	no class	11/29	no class
15	12/04	Final presentations	12/06	Final presentations

Academy Integrity

This course will follow Tulane's Code of Academic Conduct. Cheating will be reported to the Associate Dean of Newcomb-Tulane College. Discussion is encouraged. However, what you turn in must be your own. You may not read another classmate’s solutions or copy a solution from the web.

Title IX

Tulane University recognizes the inherent dignity of all individuals and promotes respect for all people. As such, Tulane is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination including sexual and gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence like sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and stalking. If you (or someone you know) has experienced or is experiencing these types of behaviors, know that you are not alone. Resources and support are available: you can learn more at titleix.tulane.edu. Any and all of your communications on these matters will be treated as either “Confidential” or “Private” as explained in the chart below. Please know that if you choose to confide in me I am mandated by the university to report to the Title IX Coordinator, as Tulane and I want to be sure you are connected with all the support the university can offer. You do not need to respond to outreach from the university if you do not want. You can also make a report yourself, including an anonymous report, through the form at tulane.edu/concerns.