Jump to Instructions and Tips (Below)
Presentations: Student-led presentations start 2/16/21.
All students must sign up for a presenter or a scriber slot. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Once you have signed up for a slot, you have to do fulfill your responsibilities, even if you decide to drop the class.
By February 4, 5.30 pm, sign up for a presentation slot (from below, on the dates starting 2/16): Each slot needs three students: 2 presenters and 1 scriber. When you sign up, make sure you sign up for the role you wanted. Responsibilities below. If there is no scriber signed up for your slot, the 2 presenters are responsible for fulfilling all scriber responsibilities (you will get a discount later when you can skip some reviews).
Presenters present one paper each from the ''Main Papers'' (Decide among yourselves how to partition the papers. Do a coordinated presentation please!). If you have time you can also cover a few of the ''Additional Readings''.
Scriber must summarize Piazza questions, add their own questions/discussion points, lead
discussion on both papers, and write 1 page summary of discussion on
Piazza and in class. (Needless to say, scribe needs to read both papers ahead of class).
To sign up for a presentation slot, please use the Google form to specify your preferred sessions (you don't need to specify presenter or scribe). We will assign the roles in a FIFO way (you will get your most preferable session that is still available). Please note that papers for each session were selected carefully, and thus the selections are non-negotiable!
Reviews:
Reviews are due starting 2/16 only. Reviews are due at 5 PM the day BEFORE the class session (so Mon night or Tue night). This will give sufficient time to the session scriber to summarize discussion questions, and be prepared for it. Unless you are a presenter/scriber for a session, you MUST submit reviews for BOTH ''Main Papers''
papers in class.
DO NOT skip reviews for a session unless you are already signed up for a presentation or scribe for that session. Each session (lecture) review must be comprised of reviews for the two Main Papers.
O Tips for Presentations and Reviews
Tips for Preparing a Presentation (Do improvise!): Typically, 15 slides per paper. 2-3 slides on motivation and background. 5-7 slides on core ideas of the paper. 3-5 slides on experimental data. 2-3 slides on your thoughts/criticisms/questions/discussion points about the paper.
DO NOT REUSE slides from authors' or others' presentations. You can reproduce at most one image from original slides -- if you do, please acknowledge this on your slides.
You can reuse material from the paper (e.g., plots) but please annotate them, and be judicious (see below).
As the presenter, you are the expert on the paper. This means you are expected to know all details in the paper, and details about any work the paper references or cites. This does not mean you need to defend everything (especially if you disagree) but when asked, you must know it. Inability to do so will be penalized as Indy asks questions during your talk, probing these.
Use examples - the more and the earlier, the better. It improves clarity.
Use pictures - the more, the better. It improves clarity. Use animation, but not too much.
Write concrete bullet points that make sense and are to the point - don't be vague or general.
Remind the audience of definitions of basic terms before you use them in your presentation. Define before use.
It is ok to reuse figures from the original paper/presentation by the authors of a paper. It is NOT ok to reproduce entire slides or slide bullets - the presentation outline and execution should be original. Do feel free to reproduce ideas and questions (e.g., from the student reviews) though, as long as these are in your own words.
When presenting experimental plots, make sure you state what the experiment was exactly, and what the parameter values were (best if on the slide itself). An experimental plot is meaningless without a description of the experiment!
Use text only where absolutely necessary - it puts folks to sleep and makes them ask more nasty questions.
Jump into the "meat" of the paper as quickly as possible - within the first 3 slides is best.
Anticipate questions that you're likely to get - better still, prepare slides that have answers (or non-answers) to these questions.
If the paper being presented is not yours, try to do justice to the authors' contribution, but also make sure you state alongside what your personal/research opinion is about each of the authors' design decisions (this can pre-empt questions, esp. if the design decision is questionable).
Keep track of time, because it is the only thing guaranteed to increase monotonically.
Please come to class at least 10 minutes ahead of your presentation time. You should start on time!
Your presentation will be evaluated equally along 2 metrics: 1) Quality of Presentation, 2) Quality of Understanding of Paper.
You can use either the computer in the classroom (put your presentation online before) or your own laptop.
After the presentation, please email me your slides (for the website).
Tips for Writing a Review (Do improvise!): 2 pages max (total). For each paper, 1 paragraph on the core idea of the paper, followed by list of pros and cons of the approach, your thoughts on how the paper can be further developed, and any questions/criticisms/thoughts/doubts/wanderings about the paper.
DO NOT comment on the English/Grammar/typos in the paper. We are interested only in criticism of the material, problem, ideas, algorithm, approach, experiments, and methodology in the paper. Please constructively criticize the work not the diction. After all, the paper has been accepted, and we're trying to understand why it was (or why it shouldn't have been) technically.
It is ok to comment on experiments the authors ought to have done.
O What to Do for Each Class (February 16 onwards)
Instructions for presentation sessions (discussed in class):
Each Group of Presenters: The two presenters are a team, so work as a team! Your presentation is an offering by both of you together (rather than one individually followed by another) Based on the "Main Papers" for your session, prepare a 45 minute presentation and a short list of topics for class discussion. The presentation should cover ALL the "Main Papers" marked for that session.
Before the Presentation: Email your slides to Indy at least 24 hours before the presentation time (i.e., by 9.30 AM on the day before)! Indy will give you feedback via email.
Preparing for and During the Presentation:
Papers in each session are related by a few common threads. One thread is evident from the topic name of the session. See if you can discover the other common threads as you read along.
Since the papers in each session are related, they will take a short time to present together. Your presentation need not cover everything in every paper, but neither should it be superficial.
Presenters need not write reviews for their session.
Please feel free to improvise on how to structure your presentation. It is suggested that you have (1) a few opening slides where you introduce the basics of the topic (perhaps even repeating basic stuff that has been discussed earlier in the course), (2) then you present the papers themselves, and (3) for each paper, have a slide or two of discussion points.
The goal of your presentation is to initiate and encourage discussion amongst the students about the topic at hand. The more intense the discussion is, the better will be your grade for the presentation.
Each of your presentations will be graded based on 2 criteria: Presentation quality (slides + speaking), Understanding of content (understanding + ability to explain + ability to answer questions).
Remember - during your presentation session, you are the lecturer and you are in charge. So, it is your responsibility to stick to time limits, keep the discussion in line, and keep the discussion positive.
Coordinate with the scriber(s) for your session on questions you would like to bring up for discussion. If there is no scriber for your session, initiate discussion.
After the Presentation: Please email your slides to Indy (both pdf and original/ppt), so that he can post them on the website. We recommend you name your files as ``CS525.SP21.MM.DD.ppt/pdf'' (MM, DD being month, date)
Others (non-presenters/non-scribers): Write a 1 to 2 page review of the TWO of the "Main Papers" for that session (unless otherwise mentioned). Your review should be at most 2 pages total, not per paper. Review should contain brief summary/findings from the "Main Papers" for the session, your comments and criticisms (try to be professional while writing the latter), and any ideas for further work. Post your review on Piazza as a reply to the TAs starter post. Please remember that course ethics rules violate you from reading/using others' reviews for your review, until after class. Reviews must be written individually and not in groups.
Although reviews will be graded, their main purpose is to start you thinking about the paper(s) critically and creatively. As you read along, it might help to write footnotes about new principles and design techniques that you are learning.
Reviews are due at 5 pm the day before the class.
Note: Some papers may be accessible from only inside the CS department.
Your work (presentations and reviews) should be original and independent. If you reuse slides from someone else's presentation, please acknowledge them. The standard university policies on original work, cheating and attribution apply to these presentations.
A final note to all: You are encouraged to read ahead of the class, especially if you find one (or more) topics that interest you enough to want to do a project and write a paper on. Read ahead not only the main papers but also the Optional papers in each session. As a tip, some of the more interesting topics occur in the second half of the course. Finally, there are many sessions which we are unable to cover due to the limited time - these topics are listed at the bottom of the Course Schedule page, typically prefixed with a "Leftover" tag - these are all great project areas!
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