(submit using the Fire system)

This task consists of 4 parts. You are supposed to form pairs and do all these parts together.

Task 4a - Choose a final topic

You, together with a partner, are going to present a topic in depth and write a report about it. Your first task is to agree with each other and your mentor on a topic and what it will contain in detail.

Our recommendation is to take the topic of one of the papers you reviewed earlier.

Task 4b - Present the topic

Give a 30-minute presentation on the topic, together with your partner. Develop and discuss the details of your presentation with your mentor.

Make sure to take into account everything we have discussed in the group sessions, lectures, and reflections, in your presentation.

This will happen in week 20 (course week 9).

Task 4c - Write a report

Write a technical report on your topic that goes into some breadth and depth. You are supposed to cover some of the history of your topic, what are the alternatives, and where your topic is going (in the future).

The technical report is supposed to have a title, abstract, introduction, main body, related work, discussion, conclusion, and future work section. See the course material for explanations for these.

The intended length is ~8 pages, but content is more important than length.

The details of these will have to be discussed with your mentor.

The course homepage has some links on writing. Be sure to look at the Chalmers/GU guidelines for MSc thesis writing as well.

Here is some advice on how to find context around a paper or a topic.

Unfortunately, there is not yet a good high-tech system for collecting all the information that Computer Science researchers publish. We still rely mostly on the old-fashioned methods: talking to people in the field, and going to talks at conferences.

1. For the history, your starting point should be the references in your chosen paper.

2. Google Scholar (scholar.google.se) and Citeseer (citeseerx.ist.psu.edu). In both these websites, you can search for a paper, and find both a list of the papers that it cites, and a list of the papers that cite it. You can also usually find a copy of the paper if it has been made public. Start by looking at which papers have cited your chosen paper.

3. Go to the home page of the authors, and find the papers they wrote about the subject before and after your chosen paper.

4. Search for the field on Wikipedia and Google. Obvious, but still a good starting point. The most useful part of a Wikipedia page is usually the list of references at the bottom. Don't cite Wikipedia - cite the things that Wikipedia cites.

5. The n-category Laboratory (ncatlab.org) is a collaborative lab notebook, where researchers can share the notes they make about the papers they read, and their own work. The list of references on each page is usually good, if there is one. The text itself is often too high-level for an introduction to a subject, but is sometimes good.

You will end up with a large number of papers! Do not try to read them all. Use the titles and the abstracts to decide which ones are most likely relevant. Then use the introductions of those to narrow down your pile further. You will then skim the paper to try to extract the relevant information from the papers, instead of reading the whole paper from start to finish. (As you do this, reflect: how is this different from reading the whole paper? Look at the way the authors structure the paper in sections, use figures and formulas, etc.: what helps you when you read from start to finish? What helps you when you are skimming the paper?)

You may decide to do the process one more time: for the 2-3 papers you like the best, look at the papers it cites, the papers that cite it, and the authors' home pages. (You will not find as many to add this time around.) Keep going until you have enough material for your final report. Congratulations! You've just completed your first literature review.

Deadline 1: 14/5: A short description of what your final report will contain.

Deadline 2: 21/5: A first version of your final report.

Deadline 3: 1/6: The final version of your final report (after feedback).

Task 4d - Review a report

Write a short review of another pair's report. The review will be read by the other pair.

Deadline: 28/5: The review.

Submit everything through the Fire system.