1. Mary Lou Soffa Professor and Chair
CS 6190 Fall 2009
Mary Lou Soffa
Professor and Chair

2. Goals of Course Introduce you to research of faculty
Help you find a research adviser
Help you with skills and strategies for doing well in graduate school and in your career
Guide you in writing a proposal

3. Requirements
Attend class – if miss more than 2, get a failing grade - retake
Participate in class
Find a research topic and adviser
Write a small research proposal from talks and/or meeting with faculty
Present your proposal

4. Research talks Schedule – see http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~soffa/cs6190
Every faculty member give talk
Might not be looking for new students

5. Proposal Under direction of faculty member
May or may not turn out to be research adviser

6. Proposal -Format 1. Motivation
What is the problem and what is current state
Why important
What are your goals - short
What approach - short

7. Proposal - format 2. Background and related work
What does a reader have to know
What is the related research that has been done
3. Goals and approaches
What are your goals and subgoals
What are the requirements/assumptions
What is your approach
What steps/tasks will you take

8. Proposal - 4. Preliminary work Merit of work
Problem that you have solved
Come up with metrics to evaluate
Come up with graphs
Merit of work
Assuming you can do what you propose
What good is it?

9. Proposal At most 5 double spaced, 11 point font, pages Aim for
Introduction: 1 page
Background and related work: 1 page
Goals and approaches: 1.5 – 2.0 pages
Preliminary work: 0.5 to 1 page
Merit – .5 page

10. Evaluation Have a faculty member look at it I will evaluate it
First Draft
Due November 1
Final Proposal
Due November 30