Computer Science 598d
Course Project Proposals
Written Proposals (due March 3):
Each student should submit a one- or two-page written project proposal.
The proposals should include enough detail to convince the reader that
you've found a good problem, you understand how hard it is, you've mapped
out a plan for how to attack it, and you have an idea about which experiments
you might run to test the success of your implementation. Please
do not be vague in your written descriptions. Following is a brief
outline you might follow ...
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Goal
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What am I going to do?
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Who would benefit?
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Problem Statement
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Why is it hard?
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How hard is it?
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Previous Work
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Approach
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What approach am I going to try?
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Why do I think it will work well?
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Methodology
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What steps (task list) are required?
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Which of these steps is particularly hard?
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What to do if the hard steps don't work out?
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Metrics
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How will I measure success?
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Summary
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What will I learn by doing this project?
Class Presentations (during class on March 10):
In addition, each student will give a short talk during class on March
10 (with overhead transparencies, slides, videos, and/or other props) to
present his/her course project proposal (business plan). In order
to make these presentations more interesting, we all will be ``given''
$1M of venture capital money to invest in any of the projects. At
the end of class, the invested $$$s will be tallied, and the student(s)
with the most funding will get a prize. To attract the most venture capital
funding, you should be sure to convince us that: 1) you are addressing
an important problem, 2) you understand various approaches to the problem,
3) you have found an interesting approach to attack the problem, 4) you
have a SPECIFIC, DETAILED plan, and 5) you will know when you are
done.
EACH TALK WILL BE LIMITED TO FIVE MINUTES. I will time them with a stop
watch. So, please come with a presentation that is concise and to-the-point.
You probably want to use between three and five slides. For instance,
...
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Problem description (30 seconds)
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What am I going to do?
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Who would benefit?
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Approach (2 minutes)
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What approaches have others tried?
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What approach am I going to take?
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Why do I think it will work well?
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Methodology (2 minutes)
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What SPECIFIC steps will I take?
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Which of these steps is particularly hard?
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What to do if the hard steps don't work out?
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How will I measure success?
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Summary (30 seconds)
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Say it all again so everybody gets it
Gimmicks, props, ... anything you can think of to attract the investors'
money is allowed. So, be creative!